@techreport{TR-IC-05-30,
  number = {IC-05-30},
  author = {A.X. Falcão and P.A.V. Miranda and F.P.G. Bergo},
  title = {Object detection using tree pruning},
  month = {December},
  year = {2005}, 
  institution = {Institute of Computing, University of Campinas},
  note = {In English, 10 pages.
    \par\selectlanguage{english}\textbf{Abstract}
       We propose a new approach for object detection using the image
       foresting transform (IFT). For a given image with seed pixels
       inside the object, the IFT computes an optimum-path forest in a
       graph derived from the image, such that object and background
       are connected by a few optimum paths (leaking paths). The
       leaking paths cross the object's boundary through its "most
       weakly connected" parts (called leaking pixels). The topology
       of the forest is exploited to identify the leaking pixels and
       eliminate their subtrees, such that the remaining forest
       defines the object. The method is called tree pruning. We
       present tree pruning with an automatic approach to detect
       leaking pixels, which does not require parameters; show several
       examples; discuss its limitations; and evaluate the method for
       automatic detection of license plates using a database with 990
       images.
  }
}