Novel fast and scalable parallel union-find ASIC implementation for real-time digital image segmentation

This paper presents a new fast and scalable Parallel Union-Find algorithm for image segmentation and its System-on-Chip (SoC) implementation using 65nm CMOS technology following the Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) design flow. The algorithm is capable of labeling all foreground and background pixels, using the least possible pixels scanning. This contrasts the classical labeling algorithms that label only foreground (or background) pixels in a single run. The new algorithm utilizes only two memory blocks. In one memory block, it labels image segments using their seeds as the label and, simultaneously, the segments sizes are used as the other label in second memory block. By this parallel labeling, monitoring the image segments is very fast and efficient. With 350 MHz operating frequency, the processing rate estimated to be 2100 frames/sec, the total chip area of 15950.5 μm2 (off-chip memory) and very low-power of 0.3 mW, the SoC tends to be an excellent candidate for mobile devices and real-time applications.