Harris Corner Detector: How to find key-points in pictures

Harris Corner Detector is a popular computer vision algorithm used to detect key points in images and video. Corners are important features of the image, as they provide useful information for detecting objects and scenes.

---

Applications

Key points extraction is a common image analysis task where Harris operator fits well. The algorithm is robust and is accurate in distinguishing edges and corners.

Some of its applications are:

• Image classification
• Objects recognition
• Objects tracking in video sequence
• Image alignment and stitching for panoramic image creation

---

How does Harris Corner Detector works?

Corners are regions located between two dominant image edges with different direction. This means that at such points there will be large variations in intensity in many directions.

Harris puts this fact into action so that his operator finds significant changes in image gradient for a local area (window). The basic principle is that it calculates the difference in the displacement of the kernel in all directions.

When the window is above a linear gradient segment, changes in direction will reduce the result. Otherwise, when the window is over a corner, movements in each direction will increase the intensity change.

Basically the Harris corner detector algorithm will have the following steps:

• Edge detection – for image derivatives calculation it is appropriate to use Sobel edge detector
• Image smoothing – frequently this step uses Gaussian or Mean filters
• Harris measure computation
• Non-maximum suppression
• Feature points thresholding

Harris response calculation

A movable image patch at position (x, y) shifts with defined offset (dx,dy):

The Harris corner score is used to determine if the current position contains a corner or not:

Matrix trace calculation

In linear algebra the det(M) stands for a square matrix determinant. To calculate determinant of 2×2 matrix use the following eqution:

Matrix trace calculation

In linear algebra the trace(M) of a square matrix is the total sum of the main diagonal. To calculate the trace of the Harris matrix use the following equation:

Harris result image map

Finally, the algorithm creates a gray-scale map image where the bright areas are the corners.

Source Code

Below are code snippets of Harris Corner Detection, which are part of FivekoGFX image processing library. The proposed algorithm uses OpenGL shaders to provide parallel execution and good performance.

Derivatives calculation

First of all we calculate image gradients in horizontal and vertical direction. As a result our algorithm stores the derivatives as in below snippet.

float dx = length((GET_PIXEL(-1, -1)*u_kernel[0] +
			GET_PIXEL(-1,  0)*u_kernel[1] +
			GET_PIXEL(-1, +1)*u_kernel[2]) -
		   (GET_PIXEL(+1, -1)*u_kernel[0] +
			GET_PIXEL(+1,  0)*u_kernel[1] +
			GET_PIXEL(+1, +1)*u_kernel[2]));
float dy = length((GET_PIXEL(-1, -1)*u_kernel[0] +
			GET_PIXEL(0, -1)*u_kernel[1] +
			GET_PIXEL(+1, -1)*u_kernel[2]) -
		   (GET_PIXEL(-1, +1)*u_kernel[0] +
			GET_PIXEL(0, +1)*u_kernel[1] +
			GET_PIXEL(+1, +1)*u_kernel[2]));

gl_FragColor = vec4(dx*dx, dy*dy, dx*dy, 1.0);

How to generate key-points map

Next step is to compute Harris corner score at each image pixel and generate key-points map.  Using accelerated GPU computation, FivekoGFX  performs local 3×3 average to get the sums of the derivatives products. The matrix determinant and trace calculates using point parameters from above step.

#define DET(_p)     ((_p).x*(_p).y - (_p).z*(_p).z)
#define TRACE(_p)   ((_p).x + (_p).y)

vec4 p = (GET_PIXEL(0, 0) + GET_PIXEL(-1, -1) + 
		GET_PIXEL(-1,  0) + GET_PIXEL(-1,  1) + 
		GET_PIXEL( 0,  1) + GET_PIXEL( 1,  1) + 
		GET_PIXEL( 1,  0) + GET_PIXEL( 1, -1) +
		GET_PIXEL( 0, -1)) / 9.0;
float k = 0.04;
float R = DET(p) - (k * (TRACE(p)*TRACE(p)));

How to extract dominant feature point?

Similar to Hough’s transformation, Harris’s algorithm yields multiple detection results in neighboring locations. Therefore, it is usually required to apply fast peak detection algorithm and to isolate only prominent key points.

---

---

Fiveko Graphics API

Using FivekoGFX library it is possible to extract Harris corners map with a simple API call. Below is an example code snippet for feature points map extraction.

Fortunately, the algorithm works on a pixel basis and is therefore suitable for parallel computation. On this occasion, the library implements a fast online version of Harris operator using WebGL/OpenGL GLSL code.

var fivekogfx = new FivekoGFX();
// Load the initial image from e.g. a canvas source
fivekogfx.load(canvas);
// Perform Harris Corner Detector
fivekogfx.harrisCorners();
// Extract peaks using non-maximum suppression with specific size
fivekogfx.nms(size);
// Draw the result points map
fivekogfx.draw(canvas);

---

Online App

Visit our online demo page to see the Harris corners detector in action.

---

References

• Wikipedia – Harris Corner Detector
• OpenCV – Harris corner detector