A binarization method for a scenery image with the fractal dimension

Abstract

We propose a new binarization method suited for character extraction from a sign board in a scenery image. The binarization is thought to be a significant step in character extraction in order to get high quality result. Character region of sigh board, however, has many variation and colors. In addition to it, if there exists high frequency texture region like a mountain or trees in the background, it can be a cause of difficulty to binarize an image. At the high frequency region, the binarized result is sensitive to the threshold change. On the other hand, a character region of sign board consists of solid area, that is, includes few high frequency regions, and has relatively high contrast. So the binarized result of character region is stabile against an interval of the threshold value. Focusing attention on this point, we propose a new method which obtains a threshold value based on the fractal dimension to evaluate both region's density and stability to threshold change. Through the proposed method, we can get a fine quality binarized images, where the characters can be extracted correctly. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.