Comparison of color image edge detectors in multiple color spaces

Abstract

A comprehensive color edge comparison across a variety color spaces is presented. Color adaptations of several well known edge detectors are compared in RGB, XYZ, CIELAB, CIELUV, rgb, l/sub 1/l/sub 2/l/sub 3/ and h/sub 1/h/sub 2/h/sub 3/-a new color space. The edge detectors studied are the Sobel operator, the modified Roberts operator, the vector gradient operator, and the 3/spl times/3 difference vector operator. Pratt's (1991) figure of merit is used for quantitative evaluation. The results indicate that the Sobel operator has the best performance across the edge detectors being compared and that results appear best for the h/sub 1/h/sub 2/h/sub 3/ color space.