In Search of a General Picture Processing Operator

The problem of finding a general, parallel, and hierarchical operator for picture processing is considered. An operator is defined which at different levels can detect and describe structure as opposed to uniformity within local regions, whatever structure and uniformity may imply at a particular level. The operator performs a mapping from one complex field to another. The important characteristic of this approach is the use of complex fields which allows a global-to-local feedback. In the transformation process the image is simplified. A Fourier implementation of the operator is described and a new transform is defined. The operators become increasingly global on higher levels in order to include adjacent high-level features. A hierarchical structure of such transformations gives a sequential description of structure over increasingly larger regions of the image. The processed information at different levels can be used as input to a classifier. Examples are given of processing results.