Topological characterization of simple points by complex collapsibility

Abstract : Thinning is an image operation whose goal is to reduce object points in a "topology-preserving" way. Such points whose removal does not change the topology are called simple points and they play an important role in any thinning process. For efficient computation, local characterizations have been already studied based on the concept of point connectivity for two-and three-dimensional digital images. In this paper, we introduce a new topological characterization of simple points based on collapsibility of polyhedral complexes. We also study their topological characteristics and propose a linear thinning algorithm.