MATLAB: Label connected components in binary image using non-standard pixel connectivity

bwlabelbwlabelnclusteringimage processingImage Processing Toolboximage segmentationMATLAB

Assume I have the following binary image
BW = [ 1 0 0 0;
       0 0 0 0; 
       0 1 1 0;
       0 0 0 0;
       0 0 0 0
       0 1 1 0 ];
I would like to find all connected components in this binary image, where 2 points are connected if they are at most 2 rows and at most 1 column away from each other and both have the value 1. The function bwlabeln seems to be useful for this task, but it does not provide me the flexibility of specifying the desired pixel connectivity. My problem statement seems to translate to a 5-by-3 pixel connectivity of all ones. Is there any function that can help me here?
The desired labeling of connected components is
L = [ 1 0 0 0;
      0 0 0 0; 
      0 1 1 0;
      0 0 0 0;
      0 0 0 0
      0 2 2 0 ];
and the number of connected components is 2.

Best Answer

Call imdilate with a custom structuring element of your size. This will then expand the regions so they overlap and bwlabel can then do its thing.
After, do a logical index to remove the added values from imdilate.
Id = imdilate(I, custom_element)
L = bwlabel(Id);
L(~I) = 0;
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