Region Filling

Robert Curro
CIS 467-Image Processing
Region Filling Algorithm
Binary Region Filling
„ Beginning with a point p inside of a boundary, fill
the entire region with 1’s

GrayScale Region Filling

„ Beginning with a point p inside of a boundary, fill
the entire region with the mean value of the
region
This illustration uses the Matlab command:

imfill(im, ‘holes’)
Region Filling Definition
Region filling is based on a set of dilations,
complementation, and intersections.

Xk = (Xk-1 B) ∩ Αc for k 1,2…n

Where (Xk-1 B) is a dilation

B is the structuring element
Αc is the complement of the image
Complementation
Find the Complement of a binary
image:

Original Image Image Complement

Conditional Dilation
Start From a point inside
the region
Dilate the point with the
structuring element.
Structuring Element
Keep all points that
intersect with the
complement.
Start
Step by Step
B
A Ac

Start

X0 X1 X2

X6 X7 X7∪Α
Complementation, Dilation, Intersection

1. Complement the original image

2. Start at a location inside of a
boundary
3. Dilate the pixel with the structuring
element
4. Keep all pixels that intersect with the
complement of that image
5. Repeat from 3 until entire region is
filled
Gray Scale Region Filling
•Fills in Region with
the mean value of
that region
Problems
Cannot determine
background points
from inner sphere
points.
Computer Vision
algorithms need to
be applied to find
inner sphere points
Application:Find the Area of a Rat Lung

Application provided by Reindeer Graphics

 Application: Segmentation of a Liver

Extract Largest
Threshold
Region

Extract Largest Boundary

Region Filling Region Peeling

Application by Jie Zhu, Cornell University

Application: Finding an Outer Boundary of a Cell

Find Edges

Original Image

Dilate Image Region Filling

Application Continued…

Remove Connected Component on

Boundary

Application by Mathworks, Matlab

Questions?