Basic Relationship Between Pixels

by
Dr.R.Hemalatha, Associate Professor, ECE
SSN College of Engineering

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 Session Objectives

• To understand the basic relationship between pixels.

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 Session Outcomes

At the end of the session, you will be able,

• To understand neighborhood and adjacency between pixels.
• To explore the effect of different distance measures.

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U1-CO1 Outline

1
Neighbourhood & Adjacency

2 Path, Connectivity

3 Region & Boundary, Distance

measures

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 Neighbors of a Pixel

There are three kinds of neighbors of a pixel:

•N4(p) 4-neighbors: the set of horizontal and vertical
neighbors (x-1, y), (x+1, y), (x,y-1), and (x, y+1).
•ND(p) diagonal neighbors: the set of 4 diagonal neighbors
(x-1, y-1), (x+1, y+1), (x+1,y-1), and (x-1, y+1).
•N8(p) 8-neighbors: union of 4-neighbors and diagonal
neighbors
O O O O O O
O X O X O X O
O O O O O O
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 Neighbors of a Pixel

Given a pixel p in the center of 9 pixels:

a b c
d p e
f g h
then
• 4-neighbors of p = b, d, e, g; N4(p)
• diagonal neighbors of p = a, c, f, h; ND(p)
• 8-neighbors of p = a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h; N8(p)

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 Adjacency

• Let V be the set of gray – level values used to define adjacency.

• Binary, V={1}; Gray scale image, V={subset of intensity values 0-255}
• 4 – adjacency: Two pixels p and q with values from V are 4 –
adjacent if q is in the set N4(p).
• 8 – adjacency: Two pixels p and q with values from V are 8 –
adjacent if q is in the set N8(p).
• m – adjacency (mixed adjacency): Two pixels p and q with values
from V are m – adjacent if
(i) q is in N4(p), or
(ii) q is in ND(p) and the set N4(p)  N4(q) has no pixels
whose values are from V (i.e., no common 4-adjacent neighbors)

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 Path
• A (digital) path (or curve) from pixel p with coordinates (x0, y0)
to pixel q with coordinates (xn, yn) is a sequence of distinct pixels
with coordinates
(x0, y0), (x1, y1), …, (xn, yn)
where (xi, yi) and (xi-1, yi-1) are adjacent for 1 ≤ i ≤ n.

• N → length of the path.

• If (x0, y0) = (xn, yn), the path is closed path.

• 4-, 8-, and m-paths can be defined based on the type of adjacency
used.

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 Examples - Adjacency and Path

V = {1, 2}
0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1
0 2 0 0 2 0 0 2 0
0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1

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 Examples - Adjacency and Path

V = {1, 2}
0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1
0 2 0 0 2 0 0 2 0
0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1

8-adjacent

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 Examples - Adjacency and Path

V = {1, 2}
0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1
0 2 0 0 2 0 0 2 0
0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1

8-adjacent m-adjacent

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 Examples - Adjacency and Path

V = {1, 2}
0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1
0 2 0 0 2 0 0 2 0
0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1

8-adjacent m-adjacent

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 Examples - Adjacency and Path

V = {1, 2}
0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1
0 2 0 0 2 0 0 2 0
0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1

8-adjacent m-adjacent

Considering the initial pixel as (1,1)

The 8-path from (1,3) to (3,3): The m-path from (1,3) to (3,3):
(i) (1,3), (1,2), (2,2), (3,3) (1,3), (1,2), (2,2), (3,3)
(ii) (1,3), (2,2), (3,3)

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 Examples - Adjacency and Path

• M-adjacency path, V={1}

0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1
0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1
0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1
0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1
0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0

0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1
0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1
0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1
0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1
0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0

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 Connectivity
• Let S represent a subset of pixels in an image
• Two pixels are said to be connected, if they are neighbors and
if their gray levels are equal.
• Connected component (c. c.): For any pixel p in S , the set of
pixels in S that are connected to p is called Connected
Component (entirety of pixels). If it has only one connected
component, then the set S is called a connected set.

S S→ Connected set
c.c. 1 c.c.

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 Example - Connectivity

• In the following arrangement of pixels with set S, find the

nature of the set S. (use 8-adjacency, V={1})

Set S
1 1 1
1 0 1
0 1 0
0 0 1
1 1 1
1 1 1

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 Example - Connectivity

• In the following arrangement of pixels with set S, find the

nature of the set S. (use m-adjacency)

Set S
1 1 1
1 0 1
0 1 0
0 0 1 One Connected Component →
1 1 1 Connected Set
1 1 1

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 Region &Boundary
Region
• Let R represent a subset of pixels in an image, it is called a region of the
image if R is a connected set.
• Two regions, Ri and Rj are said to be adjacent if their union forms a connected
set.
• Regions that are not to be adjacent are said to be disjoint.
Boundary (or border/contour)
• The boundary of the region R is the set of pixels in the region that have one or
more neighbors that are not in R.
• If R happens to be an entire image, then its boundary is defined as the set of
pixels in the first and last rows and columns of the image.
Foreground and background
• An image contains K disjoint regions, Rk, k = 1, 2, …, K. Let Ru denote the
union of all the K regions, and let (Ru)c denote its complement.
All the points in Ru is called foreground;
All the points in (Ru)c is called background.
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 Example - Region

• In the following arrangement of pixels, are the two regions

(of 1s) adjacent? (if 8-adjacency is used)

1 1 1
Region 1
1 0 1
0 1 0
0 0 1 Region 2

1 1 1
1 1 1

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 Example - Region

• In the following arrangement of pixels, are the two parts (of

1s) adjacent? (if 4-adjacency is used)

1 1 1
Part 1
1 0 1
0 1 0
0 0 1 Part 2

1 1 1
1 1 1

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 Example - Boundary

• In the following arrangement of pixels, the circled point is

part of the boundary of the 1-valued pixels if 8-adjacency is
used, true or false? (what if 4-adjacency is used?)

0 0 0 0 0
0 1 1 0 0
0 1 1 0 0
0 1 1 1 0
0 1 1 1 0
0 0 0 0 0

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 Example – Foreground, Background

• In the following arrangement of pixels, the two regions (of 1s)

are disjoint (if 4-adjacency is used)

1 1 1
foreground
1 0 1
0 1 0
0 0 1 background

1 1 1
1 1 1

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 Distance Measures

• Given three pixels p, q, and z with coordinates (x, y), (s, t),
(u, v) respectively, D is a distance function or metric, if

(a) D(p,q)  0 (D(p,q) = 0, if p = q)

(b) D(p,q) = D(q,p), and

(c) D(p,z)  D(p,q) + D(q,z)

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 Distance Measures
The three types of distances are:
1. Euclidean distance De(p, q) = [(x-s)2+(y-t)2]1/2
2. City-block distance (D4 distance)
D4(p, q) = | x - s | + | y - t |
The pixels with D4=1 to a pixel p are the 4-neighbors of p
3. Chessboard distance (D8 distance)
D8(p, q) = max ( | x - s | , | y - t | )
The pixels with D8=1 to a pixel p are the 8-neighbors of p
4. Dm distance:
It is defined as the shortest m-path between the points.
In this case, the distance between two pixels will depend on the
values of the pixels along the path, as well as the values of their
neighbors.
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 Example – Distance Measures

• In the following arrangement of pixels, what’s the value of

the city-block distance between the two circled points?

0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1 0
0 1 1 0 0
0 1 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0

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 Example – Distance Measures

• In the following arrangement of pixels, what’s the value of

the city-block distance between the two circled points?

0 0 0 0 0
(1,3)→(3,1)
0 0 1 1 0 D4 = │1-3│+│3-1│
0 1 1 0 0 = 4
0 1 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0

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 Example – Distance Measures

• In the following arrangement of pixels, what’s the value of

the chessboard distance between the two circled points?

0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1 0
0 1 1 0 0
0 1 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0

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 Example – Distance Measures

• In the following arrangement of pixels, what’s the value of

the chessboard distance between the two circled points?

0 0 0 0 0
(1,3)→(3,1)
0 0 1 1 0 D8 = max(│1-3│,│3-1│)
0 1 1 0 0 = 2
0 1 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0

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 Example – Distance Measures

• In the following arrangement of pixels, what’s the value of

the Dm distance between the two circled points, V={1},
m-adjacent ?

0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1 0
0 1 1 0 0
0 1 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0

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 Example – Distance Measures

• In the following arrangement of pixels, what’s the value of

the Dm distance between the two circled points, V={1},
m-adjacent ?

0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1 0
0 1 1 0 0 (1,3)→(1,2) →(2,2) →(2,1) →(3,1)
Dm = 1+1+1+1
0 1 0 0 0 = 4
0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0

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 Summary

• The relationship between pixels in an image is discussed with

examples.
• The connectivity and adjacency between the pixels are
illustrated with examples.

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 Test your understanding

Consider the image segment given below,

 V={0,1}, compute the length of 4-, 8- and m- path between p
and q .
 Repeat for V={1,2}
 Calculate the D4, D8 and Dm distance between p & q
3 1 2 1 (q)
2 2 0 2
1 2 1 1
(p)1 0 1 2

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 References
• Gonzalez and Woods, Digital Image Processing, Pearson,
Third Edition, 2008.

Additional Reading:
• http://www.cse.iitm.ac.in/~vplab/courses/CV_DIP/PDF/NEIG
H_CONN.pdf

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