A novel Hough transform method for line detection by enhancing accumulator array

In this paper, an improved Hough transform (HT) method is proposed to robustly detect line segments in images with complicated backgrounds. The work focuses on detecting line segments of distinct lengths, totally independent of prior knowledge of the original image. Based on the characteristics of accumulation distribution obtained by conventional HT, a local operator is implemented to enhance the difference between the accumulation peaks caused by line segments and noise. Through analysis of the effect of the operator, a global threshold is obtained in the histogram of the enhanced accumulator to detect peaks. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of the proposed method.

► An operator is defined to enhance the accumulation peak differences caused by lines and noise.
► The operator’s enhancing effect w.r.t. noise decreases with increasing noise level.
► A global threshold is obtained by analyzing the shape of original accumulator histogram.
► The method’s effect depends on few prior knowledge w.r.t. the original images.