Canny edge detector

The Canny edge detector is an edge detection operator that uses a multi-stage algorithm to detect a wide range of edges in images. It was developed by John F. Canny in 1986. Canny also produced a computational theory of edge detection explaining why the technique works.

Canny edge detection is a technique to extract useful structural information from different vision objects and dramatically reduce the amount of data to be processed. It has been widely applied in various computer vision systems. Canny has found that the requirements for the application of edge detection on diverse vision systems are relatively similar. Thus, an edge detection solution to address these requirements can be implemented in a wide range of situations. The general criteria for edge detection include:

To satisfy these requirements Canny used the calculus of variations – a technique which finds the function which optimizes a given functional. The optimal function in Canny's detector is described by the sum of four exponential terms, but it can be approximated by the first derivative of a Gaussian.

Among the edge detection methods developed so far, Canny's algorithm is one of the most strictly defined methods that provides good and reliable detection. Owing to its optimality to meet with the three criteria for edge detection and the simplicity of the process for its implementation, it has become one of the most popular algorithms for edge detection.

The process of Canny edge detection algorithm can be broken down to five different steps:

Since all edge detection results are easily affected by the noise in the image, it is essential to filter out the noise to prevent false detection caused by it. To smooth the image, a Gaussian filter kernel is convolved with the image. This step will slightly smooth the image to reduce the effects of obvious noise on the edge detector. The equation for a Gaussian filter kernel of size (2k+1)×(2k+1) is given by:

${\displaystyle H_{ij}={\frac {1}{2\pi \sigma ^{2}}}\exp \left(-{\frac {(i-(k+1))^{2}+(j-(k+1))^{2}}{2\sigma ^{2}}}\right);1\leq i,j\leq (2k+1)}$

Here is an example of a 5×5 Gaussian filter, used to create the adjacent image, with ${\displaystyle \sigma }$ = 2. (The asterisk denotes a convolution operation.)