Efficient connected component labelling using multiple-bank memory storage

Connected component processing is a method used for segmenting an image into regions by means of grouping connected pixels of similar value. To do this, the current pixel value is compared to other connected pixel values, typically four or eight other values. Multiple read cycles would be required if these values are stored in a single bank memory. This paper presents an application of multiple-bank memory for an efficient connected components labelling. This approach has four other advantages: (1) it enables a more efficient single-pass processing of the connected components, (2) it reduces the number of clock cycles required to process each pass by enabling the architecture to process one pixel per clock cycle and when compared to the classical union-find method, (3) it reduces memory usage by eliminating the need to store temporary labels and equivalences and (4) it allows for continuous sequential labels without omitting any intermediate values.