A color morphological ordering method based on additive and subtractive spaces

Mathematical morphology, based on lattice theory, is a nonlinear technique. In color image processing, it is necessary to determine a color space and an ordering to obtain a lattice structure. The classical lexicographical ordering is a total ordering where the choice of the main color component is not a trivial issue. In this work, to avoid this choice, a vectorial method in additive and subtractive color spaces is proposed. The method first consists of a pre-ordering relation based on the image local intensity and a second ordering that ensures a total ordering, in the case that the order between two pixels cannot be established. Experimental results based on morphological erosion and dilation show the proposed approach to be promising in processing color images.