Color-to-grayscale algorithms effect on edge detection — A comparative study

In image processing, color images are converted into grayscale to perform edge detection, without considering the color-to-grayscale algorithms in details. We have evaluated the impact of various color-to-grayscale algorithms in edge detection. This study shows that edges are not only dependent on the methods used for edge detection but also on the color-to-grayscale conversion algorithms. We have implemented ten different color-to-grayscale conversion algorithms in MATLABR2016a and the resultant grayscale images were further tested with eight different edge detection algorithms. The experimental results shows that the Lightness color-to-grayscale conversion algorithm achieves higher performance among evaluated methods.