Accurate and speedy computation of image Legendre moments for computer vision applications

A novel algorithm that permits the fast and accurate computation of the Legendre image moments is introduced in this paper. The proposed algorithm is based on the block representation of an image and on a new image representation scheme, the Image Slice Representation (ISR) method. The ISR method decomposes a gray-scale image as an expansion of several two-level images of different intensities (slices) and thus enables the partial application of the well-known Image Block Representation (IBR) algorithm to each image component. Moreover, using the resulted set of image blocks, the Legendre moments' computation can be accelerated through appropriate computation schemes. Extensive experiments prove that the proposed methodology exhibits high efficiency in calculating Legendre moments on gray-scale, but furthermore on binary images. The newly introduced algorithm is suitable for the computation of the Legendre moments for pattern recognition and computer vision applications, where the images consist of objects presented in a scene. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.