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Binary image analysis problems can be solved by set operators implemented as programs for a binary morphological machine (BMM). This is a very general and powerful approach to solve this type of problem. However, the design of these programs is not a task manageable by nonexperts on mathematical morphology. In order to overcome this difficulty we have worked on tools that help users describe their goals at higher levels of abstraction and to translate them into BMM programs. Some of these tools are based on the representation of the goals of the user as a collection of input-output pairs of images and the estimation of the target operator from these data. PAC learning is a well suited methodology for this task, since in this theory 'concepts' are represented as Boolean functions that are equivalent to set operators. In order to apply this technique in practice we must have efficient learning algorithms. In this paper we introduce two PAC learning algorithms, both are based on the minimal representation of Boolean functions, which has a straightforward translation to the canonical decomposition of set operators. The first algorithm is based on the classical Quine-McCluskey algorithm for the simplification of Boolean functions, and the second one is based on a new idea for the construction of Boolean functions: the incremental splitting of intervals. We also present a comparative complexity analysis of the two algorithms. Finally, we give some application examples.

©2005 COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.