Experimental reaction-diffusion pre-processor for shape recognition

Adamatzky, Andrew; de Lacy Costello, Ben; Ratcliffe, Norman M.

Abstract

We have produced an experimental implementation of a massively-parallel reaction-diffusion processor which performs one of the most essential parts of shape recognition - construction of a skeleton. A skeleton is a unique, stable and invariant representation of a shape, therefore computation of the skeleton is an essential tool of computer vision. Skeleton computation is a typical 'natural' spatial problem that can be solved with the use of biological, chemical or physical phenomena. One possible approach - a reaction-diffusion based computation - is explored in this Letter. A contour is represented by a concentration profile of one reagent, a planar substrate is mixed with another reagent. The reagent, representing the original contour diffuses to form a coloured phase in a reaction with the substrate-reagent. However, at sites where two diffusion wave fronts meet no coloured phase is formed and the substrate retains its uncoloured state. These loci of the computation space represent a skeleton of the given contour. In the Letter we only describe a laboratory prototype of a reaction-diffusion processor that computes a skeleton, no further tasks of image processing are undertaken, one could say we have designed an unconventional chemical pre-processor for shape recognition. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: May 20, 2002
• Deposit Date: May 8, 2013
• Journal: Physics Letters, Section A: General, Atomic and Solid State Physics
• Print ISSN: 0375-9601
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 297
• Issue: 5-6
• Pages: 344-352
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0375-9601%2802%2900289-X
• Keywords: chemical processor, computing in reaction–diffusion, physics-based computing medium
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1077966
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0375-9601(02)00289-X
• Contract Date: Apr 1, 2016