Basics of cellular logic with some applications in medical image processing

Abstract

Cellular logic operations (CLO's) are performed digitally to transform an array of data P(I,J) into a new data array P'(I,J). The value of each element in the new array is determined by its value in the original array and the orginal values of its nearest neighbors. The neighborhood configuration (tessellation) is usually called the "cell"; whence the term "cellular logic." CLO's may be categorized acording to the tessellation in which they are embedded and according to the type or types of CLO sequences: sequences which are carried out in a single step; those which iterate the same CLO for many steps; those which repetitively alternate subsequences of CLO strings. The effect of the CLO sequence on the contents of the data array is frequently one of boundary modification. Depending on the CLO sequence(s) utilized, a boundary may be expanded to form the convex hull, or reduced so as to form the convex kernel, skeleton, or residue. As of 1977, cellular logic computers have become a commercial product in biomedical image processing where they are used in clinical instruments whose purpose is to classify white blood cell images at rates of several thousand per hour. Many other applications are foreseen and, as further examples, preliminary results in automatic X-ray image analysis and tissue image analysis are presented.