A new approach to thinning based on time-reversed heat conduction model [image processing]

In this article, a novel thinning algorithm, based on a time-reversed heat conduction model, is proposed. The image is viewed as a thermal conductor and the thinning task is then considered as an inverse process of heat conduction. Given an image, the direction map of heat conduction is first computed, and then time-reversed heat conduction is simulated. The result turns out to be a thinned pattern. The algorithm can be applied to gray-scale or binary images.