Fast algorithms for running ordering and max/min calculation

Order statistics are used in a variety of filtering techniques (e.g. median, alpha -trimmed mean, nonlinear order statistics filtering, morphological filtering). Their computation is relatively fast, because it requires only comparisons. The author presents an algorithm that requires a significantly smaller number of comparisons and is significantly faster than the traditional approach to order statistics filtering. Also proposed are filter structures for order statistics filtering that are much faster than the known sorting structures.>