The Scale-Space Formulation of Pyramid Data Structures.

Pyramid data structures for image processing are usually defined using discrete grids and discrete levels. It has proven useful to formulate pyramids in terms of continuous variable. When the level of the pyramid is changed to be a continuous variables, we talk of the resulting domain as scale-space. When both the image domain and level are treated as continuous, the resulting pyramid structures are most naturally viewed in terms of partial differential equations governing their formation. This viewpoint allows one to generalize to new kinds of pyramid data structures, analyze their information content, and develop rational methods for treating borders and other problems in the discrete construction of pyramids. Keywords Gaussian and Laplacian pyramids Zero crossings Heat equation. Author