What is "melem" in the image processing functions?

[mepp]

I am very new to the image processing functions in Mathcad prime or Mathcad 15.0.  In the image processing functions, I don't know what "melem" does.  When I look in the help files, it says that "melem" is a vector or matrix.  I can get my functions to work with a basic matrix but I really don't understand its purpose or function.  Does anyone else know?

Thanks ahead of time.

[RichardJ]

I have no such function.

[mepp]

I should have been more specific.  Inside some of the image processing functions, one of the inputs is "melem".  This is about all the information I have found for what it is and does.

[Werner_E]

There are exactly four function using this argument: close, dilate, erode, open (and their counterparts gray_close, gray_dilate, etc.).

I am not well versed in image processing so I can't help determining the exact meaning of that "structuring element". As far as I understood at first glance Melem influences what "neighborhood" means, but I my be wrong about that. Why do you think that you need those arguments?

Admittedly the documentation is less than mediocre in that respect. I could not find more information than in the Image Processing E-Book (Mathcad 15) under "Morphological Processing" where some examples with a vector and a matrix  Melem are given.

WE

[RichardJ · Accepted solution]

The section of the handbook "Morphological Processing", "Erosion and Dilation" explains what melem is, and gives several examples, including how to duplicate dilate4 and dilate8. In the context of that section, do you have a more specific question?

[mepp]

The Mathcad 15 e-book helped.  Thanks.