OpenCV 3 Computer Vision Application Programming Cookbook - Third Edition

Eroding and dilating images using morphological filters

Erosion and dilation are the most fundamental morphological operators. Therefore, we will present them in this first recipe. The fundamental component in mathematical morphology is the structuring element. A structuring element can be simply defined as a configuration of pixels (the square shape in the following figure) on which an origin is defined (also called an anchor point). Applying a morphological filter consists of probing each pixel of the image using this structuring element. When the origin of the structuring element is aligned with a given pixel, its intersection with the image defines a set of pixels on which a particular morphological operation is applied (the nine shaded pixels ...