The article is devoted to the automatic measurement of objects longitudinal dimensions on images obtained by probe microscopy. The solution of this problem can be relevant for quality control of microelectronics, nanotechnics products and materials. Existing tools for objects length measuring are compared by means of test image containing geometric figures with known dimensions. The advantages of software surface curvature detectors, intended for objects lengths measuring directly on a halftone image by forming the skeleton of an object with a surface curvature detector, are shown. A two-dimensional “Circle” detector, based on the curvature analysis of raster images line and column profilograms, was used for the measuring. The curvature was estimated based on the area of the figure bounded by the profilogram at a predefined interval. Features of measuring the length of objects using curvature maxima are considered. It is shown that the curvature detector allows to more accurately determine the lengths of objects with overlapping contours and a significant brightness range. Algorithms of the detector operation, formation of the object skeleton and determination of its length are described. The results of investigation confirming the performance of the presented algorithms are presented. Comparative analysis with existing length measurement tools, performed on magnetic disk domains and nanopolymer fibers images, showed a more correct detector operation in sceletonization of object and measuring its length.
