Edge detection based on Krawtchouk polynomials

Discrete orthogonal polynomials are useful tools in digital image processing to extract visual object contours in different application contexts. This paper proposes an alternative method that extends beyond classic first-order differential operators, by using the properties of Krawtchouk orthogonal polynomials to achieve a first order differential operator. Therefore, smoothing of the image with a 2-D Gaussian filter is not necessary to regularize the ill-posed nature of differentiation. Experimentally, we provide simulation results which show that the proposed method achieves good performance in comparison with commonly used algorithms.The authors dedicate this work to the memory of their friend Pablo González Vera. First and second authors work was partially supported by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain, under grant MTM2012-36372-C03-01