We discuss the physical generation process of images as a combination of basic operations: occlusions, transparencies and contrast changes. These operations generate the essential singularities which we call junctions. We deduce a mathematical and computational model for image analysis according to which the "atoms" of the image must be "pieces of level lines joining junctions", fitting the phenomenological description of Gaetano Kanizsa (1990). A parameter free junction detection algorithm is proposed for the computation of the previously defined "atoms". Then we propose an adequate modification of the morphological filtering algorithms so that they smooth the "atoms" without altering the junctions. Finally, we give some experiments on real and synthetic images.
['Vicent Caselles', 'Bartomeu Coll', 'Jean-Michel Morel']
Junction detection and filtering: a morphological approach