I am currently exploring OpenCV and have come across the thresholding function. I have implemented a few basic thresholding programs and I understand the concept of it. However, I would like to know what is the purpose of it. I only know it's used in image analysis applications. However I feel that is too generic. I would like to know what can it be used for in the real world applications.
I tried finding a research paper or explanations on it but I couldn't find any. Wondering if anyone can point me to a particular resource or research paper?
Thanks
There are many applications for thresholding. More than I can and more than I want to write down.
I can give you some keywords like erosion and dilation. The first one removes the border of a binary image (after thresholding) and the second one extends the border of a binary image (which means setting every pixel to 255 which has a foreground pixel in the neighborhood). This can be used to remove artifacts and fill gaps after thresholding.
And you might want to read something about the canny edge detector in which thresholding (non-maxima supression) is used for edge detection.
Thresholding is also used in the field of segmentation. You may want to have a look into some topics of low-level vision and mid-level vision.
You may want to have a look at this computer vision lecture by Dr. Mubarak Shah to get some idea.
I hope this helps.