An efficient chain code with Huffman coding

This paper presents a new chain code based on the eight-direction Freeman code. Each element in the chain is coded as a relative angle difference between it and the previous element. Statistical analysis showed that the probabilities of the Freeman codes differ importantly. Therefore, the Huffman coding was applied. The proposed chain code requires 1.97 bits/code, its chain length is short, it allows the representation of non-closed patterns and it is rotationally independent. (C) 2004 Pattern Recognition Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.