Abstract In computer vision and image processing, time and quality are major factors taken into account. In edge detection process, the smoothing operation by a low-pass filter is commonly performed first in order to reduce noise effect. However, performing the smoothing operation partially requires additional computational time and alters true edges as well. Attempting to resolve such problems, a new approach dealing with edge detection optimization is addressed in this paper. For this purpose, a short edge detector algorithm without smoothing operation is proposed and investigated. This algorithm is based on a fractional order mask used as kernel of convolution for edge enhancement. It has been shown that in the proposed algorithm, the smoothing pre-process is no longer necessary; because, the efficiency of our fractional order mask is expressed in term of immunity to noise and the capability of detecting edges. Simulation results show how the quality of edge detection can be enhanced on adjusting the fractional order parameter. Then, our proposed edge detection method can be very useful in real time applications in some fields such as, satellite and medical imaging.

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[28] Torre V. and Poggio T., “On Edge Detection,” IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. PAMI-8, no. 2, pp. 147-163, 1986. Mohammed Mekideche received his engineer diploma degree and his MSc diploma degree in electronics in 1988 and 2006 respectively, from the institute of electronics at Constantine University, Algeria. He is working for Ministry of National Education. Currently, his research interests are in signal and image processing, and preparing for obtaining his PhD diploma degree. Youcef Ferdi received his engineer diploma degree in electronics, MSc, and PhD diploma degrees in automatics and signal processing, from Constantine University, Algeria, in 1988, 1992, and 2001, respectively. During academic years (1997-1999), he was on leave at (CRAN) France. He was a full Professor until October 2015 at the department of EEatSkikda University. He joined the National Higher School of Biotechnology at Constantine In November 2015. His main fields of interest are: Biomedical signal processing, applications of fractional calculus to digital filter design and fractal signals synthesis.