Application of Morphological Image Processing in Agriculture

Morphological image processing is a powerful and intuitive means of examining shape in visual scenes. Its power lies in its ability to transform the structure of objects into simpler forms that enhances their interpretation. From a practical standpoint, the tools of morphological image processing are easily implemented, highly parallel, and very robust. Using a smdl set of fundamental operators, many diverse applications can be addressed, including shape recognition and textural analysis. Because of this flexibility, morphological image processing has great potential in the field of agriculture. This article provides a brief introduction to the basic methods of morphologic image processing, including definitions of the fundamental image operations and illustration of their effects. In addition, the utility of the method is demonstrated with three example applications involving corn kernel size discrimination, plant leaf identification, and texture analysis of marbling in beef longissimus dorsi muscle.