The plastic coupled map lattice: A novel image-processing paradigm

Coupled map lattices (CML) can describe many relaxation and optimization algorithms currently used in image processing. We recently introduced the ''plastic-CML'' as a paradigm to extract (segment) objects in an image. Here, the image is applied by a set of forces to a metal sheet which is allowed to undergo plastic deformation parallel to the applied forces. In this paper we present an analysis of our ''plastic-CML'' in one and two dimensions, deriving the nature and stability of its stationary solutions. We also detail how to use the CML in image processing, how to set the system parameters and present examples of it at work. We conclude that the plastic-CML is able to segment images with large amounts of noise and large dynamic range of pixel values, and is suitable for a very large scale integration (VLSI) implementation.