Shape independent VLSI-architecture design approach for 2D morphological operations with non-flat structuring elements

In this work we present a structuring element shape independent Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) design approach for 2D morphological operations, which is capable to handle flat and non-flat structuring elements. Contrary to other architectural concepts which are commonly based on structuring element areal decomposition and a sequential calculation approach, our approach requires no intermediate image data storage over several image lines. In addition, the amount of comparators, registers and for non-flat structuring elements adders / subtractors is reduced significantly by reusing results on so called orthogonal shift levels. This leads to hardware efficient and fast VLSI realizations of 2D morphological operations.