Abstract
Image processing is usually concerned with the computer manipulation and analysis of pictures1. Typical procedures in computer image-processing are concerned with improvement of degraded (low-contrast or noisy) pictures, restoration and reconstruction, segmenting of pictures into parts and pattern recognition of properties of the pre-processed pictures. To solve these problems, digitized pictures are processed by local operations in a sequential manner. Here we describe a special light-sensitive chemical system, a variant of the Belousov–Zhabotinskii medium, in which chemical reaction fronts ('chemical waves') can be modified by light. Projection of a half-tone image on such a medium initiates a very complex response. We are able to demonstrate contrast modification (contrast enhancement or contrast decrease up to contrast reversal from positive to negative and vice versa), discerning of contours (for example, segmenting of pictures up to the extreme case of skeletonizing) and smoothing of partially degraded pictures.
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Kuhnert, L., Agladze, K. & Krinsky, V. Image processing using light-sensitive chemical waves. Nature 337, 244–247 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/337244a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/337244a0
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