# Roberts Edge Detector how to use?

I am trying to use Roberts edge detection to process an image. Do I just apply both of the masks to the image and perform convolution as normal? Could someone give me the breakdown of how to use this edge detection method, as I am trying to program it to process a greyscale image. I convoluted the image using both kernels separately but the image dent' look right.

Thanks.

Robert's Cross is a little tricky because it's not an odd size (2x2 rather than 3x3 or 5x5). I've done it using numpy+scipy using a padded 3x3 convolution mask.

import sys
import numpy as np
from scipy import ndimage
import Image

roberts_cross_v = np.array( [[ 0, 0, 0 ],
[ 0, 1, 0 ],
[ 0, 0,-1 ]] )

roberts_cross_h = np.array( [[ 0, 0, 0 ],
[ 0, 0, 1 ],
[ 0,-1, 0 ]] )
img = Image.open( infilename )
# note signed integer
return np.asarray( img, dtype="int32" )

def save_image( data, outfilename ) :
img = Image.fromarray( np.asarray( np.clip(data,0,255), dtype="uint8"), "L" )
img.save( outfilename )

def roberts_cross( infilename, outfilename ) :

vertical = ndimage.convolve( image, roberts_cross_v )
horizontal = ndimage.convolve( image, roberts_cross_h )

output_image = np.sqrt( np.square(horizontal) + np.square(vertical))

save_image( output_image, outfilename )

infilename = sys.argv[1]
outfilename = sys.argv[2]
roberts_cross( infilename, outfilename )


From the Wikipedia entry on Robert's Cross. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberts_Cross

My script's output.

• Do you square every pixel value in the image? – adamjmarkham Dec 7 '11 at 20:28
• Yes. The "np.sqrt( np.square(horizontal) + np.square(vertical))" gives the vector magnitude between the horizontal, vertical directions. – David Poole Dec 8 '11 at 14:16
• @DavidPoole Robert's edge detector wiki is fantastic - simple, to the point, and illustrative. How/why is it sensitive to noise VS other gradient measures? Isnt there only one 'true' gradient measure? – Spacey Mar 28 '12 at 21:22
• I am trying to implement this function in python (Spyder version) but I am having trouble understanding the arguments it takes and how to feed them? what is infilename and outfilename? Thanks Sam – user19959 Mar 10 '16 at 2:17
• infilename is a grayscale (1 plane) image. outfilename is just an output file the script will write to. The input/output images can be jpeg, png, tif, etc, the Image library (now Pillow) will interpret the image format based on the file extension. Example: python3 rcross.py bicycle.jpg out.tif – David Poole Mar 10 '16 at 15:27