Multiple ellipses detection in noisy environments: A hierarchical approach

Detection of multiple ellipses in noisy environments is a basic yet challenging task in many vision related problems. The key area of difficulty is on distinguishing the pixels pertaining to each target in the presence of noise. To tackle with the issue, we propose a hierarchical approach which is motivated by the fact that any segment of an ellipse can identify itself in ellipse reconstruction. First, we find all the neat edges without any branches, followed by an ellipse fitting on each of them. Second, some target candidates are estimated based on the neat edges, by a proposed grouping strategy. Finally, the targets are detected based on the candidates, by a proposed selective competitive algorithm to distinguish the true pixels of each target. A real application of the proposed method is illustrated in addition to some other demonstrative experiments. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.