λ-connected segmentation and fitting

This paper presents three new algorithms for λ-connected segmentation and fitting. It deals with a discrete system in which the elements are connected. The connectivity (known as the degree of connectedness) has the property of gradual variation. The first algorithm proposed is a direct segmentation method for quadtree represented images. The algorithm does not decode the original quadtree code to restore the compressed image before segmentation. The second algorithm, called the λ-band-connected search, is designed for noised image segmentation. It reserves a band width for the search agent to surpass, so that the search agent will not stop when it encounters a small noise. The third algorithm adds gradients and smoothes in λ-connected fitting.