A representation theory for morphological image and signal processing

A unifying theory for many concepts and operations encountered in or related to morphological image and signal analysis is presented. The unification requires a set-theoretic methodology, where signals are modeled as sets, systems (signal transformations) are viewed as set mappings, and translational-invariant systems are uniquely characterized by special collections of input signals. This approach leads to a general representation theory, in which any translation-invariant, increasing, upper semicontinuous system can be presented exactly as a minimal nonlinear superposition of morphological erosions or dilations. The theory is used to analyze some special cases of image/signal analysis systems, such as morphological filters, median and order-statistic filters, linear filters, and shape recognition transforms. Although the developed theory is algebraic, its prototype operations are well suited for shape analysis; hence, the results also apply to systems that extract information about the geometrical structure of signals