Optimization of the bwmorph Function in the MATLAB Image Processing Toolbox for Binary Skeleton Computation

Skeleton is an important shape property and has a variety of applications. The skeletonization implementation provided in the Matlab image processing toolbox is often used, but its execution speed is not satisfactory. The implementation is introduced and analyzed in the paper, and performance bottlenecks are pointed out. Optimizations are proposed for all these bottlenecks. As the result of the optimization, a single Matlab function is realized for skeleton computation. Results of experiments on a test image set show that the optimizations are effective, and the speed performance of the new function is considerably higher than that of the function provided in the Matlab image processing toolbox.