From stochastic completion fields to tensor voting

Abstract

Several image processing algorithms imitate the lateral interaction of neurons in the visual striate cortex VI to account for the correlations along contours and lines. Here we focus on two methodologies: tensor voting by Guy and Medioni, and stochastic completion fields by Mumford, Williams and Jacobs. The objective of this article is to compare these two methods and to place them into a common mathematical framework. As a consequence we obtain a sound stochastic foundation of tensor voting, a new tensor voting field, and an analytic approximation of the stochastic completion kernel. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.