Skeleton pruning based on elongation and size of object’s limbs and boundary’s convexities

Abstract

We present a new pruning method able to remove peripheral branches of the skeleton of a 2D object without altering more significant branches. Pruning criteria take into account elongation and size of the object’s parts associated with skeleton branches. Only peripheral branches associated with scarcely significant object’s limbs and boundary’s convexities are removed, so that the object can be recovered satisfactorily starting from the pruned skeleton. Since by removing peripheral branches, new peripheral branches can be created, pruning is iterated until the skeleton structure becomes stable. The algorithm does not require fine tuning of the parameters and the obtained results are satisfactory.