Run Diameter Statistics as a Measure of Image Texture

The new concept of "run circles" and their "run diameters," which can be used as a statistical measure of the spacing between points in a two-dimensional image, are presented. For synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images the spacing between bright spots in the image is a useful measure of image texture. The histogram of the run diameters for a set of points has been found to be useful in characterizing the spacings of the points. These histograms can be classified either using features of the histogram such as mode or median, or using classical linear classifiers. As an example, the histogram of run diameters is used to detect a set of points with approximately equal spacing interspersed with a background set of randomly located points.