Abstract
An important aspect of any scientific discipline is the objective and independent comparison of algorithms which perform common tasks. In image analysis this problem has been neglected. In this paper we present the results and conclusions of a comparison of four Hough Transform, HT, based line finding algorithms on a range of realistic images from the industrial domain. We introduce the line detection problem and show the role of the Hough Transform in it. The basic idea underlying the Hough Transform is presented and is followed by a brief description of each of the four HT based methods considered in our work. The experimental evaluation and comparison of the four methods is given and a section offers our conclusions on the merits and deficiencies of each of the four methods.