2D parallel thinning algorithms based on isthmus-preservation

Skeletons are widely used shape descriptors which summarize the general form of binary objects. A technique to obtain skeletons is the thinning, that is an iterative layer-by-layer erosion in a topology-preserving way. Conventional thinning algorithms preserve line endpoints to provide important geometric information relative to the object to be represented. Bertrand and Couprie proposed an alternative strategy by accumulating isthmus points that are line interior points. In this paper we present six new 2D parallel thinning algorithms that are derived from some sufficient conditions for topology preserving reductions and based on isthmus-preservation.