Introduction

Edge detection is used in computer vision applications for contours extraction of objects. The usual method is to use convolution
operation of the image with complex filters like Sobel or Prewitt.

Sobel Filter
Real
1.0 0.0 -1.0
2.0 0.0 -2.0
1.0 0.0 -1.0
Imaginary
1.0 2.0 1.0
0.0 0.0 0.0
-1.0 -2.0 -1.0
Prewitt Filter
Real
0.5 0.0 -0.5
0.5 0.0 -0.5
0.5 0.0 -0.5
Imaginary
0.5 0.5 0.5
0.0 0.0 0.0
-0.5 -0.5 -0.5
You may extract the edges for example with my vec2D wrapper described in my article Vector Class Wrapper SSE Optimized for
Math Operations.
However unless integer optimized, floating point operations might take quite a long time. With wavelet transform, you might achieve
similar results with a few mathematical operations. For example, Haar transform of the image provides details of that image
contained in the high frequency bands very similar in appearance if you used X and Y difference filters on the same image.

X Difference Filter
0.0 0.0 0.0
0.5 0.0 -0.5
0.0 0.0 0.0

Y Difference Filter
0.0 0.5 0.0
0.0 0.0 0.0
0.0 -0.5 0.0
If we keep the details of the image obtained with Haar transform, remove the coarse-grained low frequency component and perform
image reconstruction, we obtain the edges of the objects present in the image.

Background
Image processing background for Edge Detection is needed. You might also consult my articles about wavelet analysis of image
data: 2D Fast Wavelet Transform Library for Image Processing and Fast Dyadic Image Scaling with Haar Transform.

Using the Code

The code and the demo application are used from my article 2D Fast Wavelet Transform Library for Image Processing where you
may find details on how to run the code and use the library. In this project, I added several edge specific operations so you may
experiment with different wavelet filters, scales, and denoising thresholds to select the best combination. Below I demonstrate
the daub1 filter application, which is the filter used in Haar transform.
Open the image and transform it to 1, 2 or 3 scales. You might add the threshold to remove the noise.
SOFTWARE SPECIFICATION:OPERATING SYSTEM

: Windows XP Professional

FRONT END

: Microsoft Visual Studio .Net 2010

CODING LANGUAGE

: C# .Net

HARDWARE SPECIFICATION:SYSTEM

: Pentium III 700 MHz

HARD DISK

: 40 GB

MONITOR
RAM

: 15 VGA colour monitor

: 256MB