A fast recursive algorithm for the computation of axial moments

This paper describes a fast algorithm to compute local axial moments used for the detection of objects of interest in images. The basic idea is grounded on the elimination of redundant operations while computing axial moments for two neighboring angles of orientation. The main result is that the complexity of recursive computation of axial moments becomes independent of the total number of computed moments in a given point, i.e. it is of the order O(N) where N is the data size. This result is of great importance in computer vision since many feature extraction methods are based on the computation of axial moments. The experimental results confirm the time complexity and accuracy predicted by the theoretical analysis. © 2001 IEEE.