Some approaches for location of centroids of quartz grain outlines to increase homology between Fourier amplitude spectra

Abstract

The ability to test for similarities and differences among families of shapes by closed-form Fourier expansion is greatly enhanced by the concept of homology. Underlying this concept is the assumption that each term of a Fourier series, when compared to the same term in another series, represents the “same thing”. A method that ensures homology is one which minimizes the “centering error,” as reflected in the first harmonic term of the Fourier expansion. The problem is to chose a set of edge points derived from a much larger, but variable, number of edge points such that a valid homologous Fourier series can be calculated. Methods are reviewed and criteria given to define a “proper” solution. An algorithm is presented which takes advantage of the fact that minimization of the “error term” can be accomplished by minimizing the distance between the origin of the polar coordinate system in the calculation of the Fourier series and the shape centroid. The use of this algorithm has produced higher quality solutions for quartz grain provenance studies.