An analysis of local energy and phase congruency models in visual feature detection

A variety of approaches have been developed for the detection of features such as edges, lines, and corners in images. Many techniques presuppose the feature type, such as a step edge, and use the differential properties of the luminance function to detect the location of such features. The local energy model provides an alternative approach, detecting a variety of feature types in a single pass by analysing order in the phase components of the Fourier transform of the image. The local energy model is usually implemented by calculating the envelope of the analytic signal associated with the image function. Here we analyse the accuracy of such an implementation, and show that in certain cases the feature location is only approximately given by the local energy model. Orientation selectivity is another aspect of the local energy model, and we show that a feature is only correctly located at a peak of the local energy function when local energy has a zero gradient in two orthogonal directions at the peak point.