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Digital image feature detectors often comprise two stages of processing: an initial filtering phase and a secondary search stage. The initial filtering is designed to accentuate specific feature characteristics or suppress spurious components of the image signal. The second stage of processing involves searching the results for various criteria that will identify the locations of the image features. The local energy feature detection scheme combines the squares of the signal convolved with a pair of filters that are in quadrature with each other. The resulting local energy value is proportional to phase congruency which is a measure of the local alignment of the phases of the signals constituent Fourier components. Points of local maximum phase alignment have been shown to correspond to visual features in the image. The local energy calculation accentuates the location of many types of image features, such as lines, edges and ramps and estimates of local energy can be calculated in multidimensional image data by rotating the quadrature filters to several orientations. The second stage search criterion for local energy is to locate the points that lie along the ridges in the energy map that connect the points of local maxima. In three dimensional data the relatively higher energy values will form films between connecting laments and tendrils. This thesis examines the use of recursive spatial domain filtering to calculate local energy. A quadrature pair of filters which are based on the first derivative of the Gaussian function and its Hilbert transform, are rotated in space using a kernel of basis functions to obtain various orientations of the filters. The kernel is designed to be separable and each term is implemented using a recursive digital filter. Once local energy has been calculated the ridges and surfaces of high energy values are determined using a flooding technique. Starting from the points of local minima we perform an ablative skeletonisation of the higher energy values. The topology of the original set is maintained by examining and preserving the topology of the neighbourhood of each point when considering it for removal. This combination of homotopic skeletonisation and sequential processing of each level of energy values, results in a well located, thinned and connected tracing of the ridges. The thesis contains examples of the local energy calculation using steerable recursive filters and the ridge tracing algorithm applied to two and three dimensional images. Details of the algorithms are contained in the text and details of their computer implementation are provided in the appendices.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 172-178).

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institue of Technology 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-90).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2003. / Adviser: Robert Gonsalves. Submitted to the Dept. of Electrical Engineering. Includes bibliographical references. Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D) -- McMaster University, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-104). Also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-77).