MEASURING 2-D SHAPE COMPACTNESS USING THE CONTACT PERIMETER

A new perimeter for shapes composed of cells is defined. This perimete r is called the contact perimeter, which corresponds to the sum of the boundaries of neighboring cells of the shape. Also, a relation betwee n the perimeter of the shape and the contact perimeter is presented. T he contact perimeter corresponds to the measure of compactness propose d here called discrete compactness. In this case, the term compactness does not refer to point-set topology, but is related to intrinsic pro perties of objects.