How to recognize rectangles in this image?

Question

I have a image with horizontal and vertical lines. In fact, this image is the BBC website converted to horizontal and vertical lines. My problem is that I want to be able to

Answer 1

To get from the image you have with the nearly touching horizontal and vertical lines to just the rectangles:

1. Convert to binary (i.e. all lines are white, the rest is black)
2. Perform a Binary dilation (here you make every pixel that touches a white pixel in the source image or is a white pixel in the source image white. Touch is straight only (so each pixel "touches" the pixels to its left, right, above and below it) this is called "4-connected"
3. repeat step 3 a few times if the gaps between the ends are larger then 2 pixels wide, but not too often!
4. Perform a skeleton operation (here you make every pixel in the output image black if it is a white pixel in the source image that touches at least one black pixel and the white pixels it touches (in the source image) all touch eachother. Again touch defined with 4-connectedness. See sample below.
5. Repeat step 4 untill the image doesn't change after a repeat (all white pixels are line ends or connectors)

This will, with a bit of luck, first show the boxes with thick fat lines, leaving thick fat artifacts all over the image (after step 3) and then then after step 5 all thick fat artifacts will have been removed, while all boxes remain. You need to tweek the number of repeats in step 3 for best results. If you're interested in image morphology, this is the book of a really good introductory course I took.

Sample: (0=black, 1=white, pixels in the center of each 3x3 block are being considered, input left, output right)

011 => 011    
011 => 001  all other white pixels touch, so eliminate      
011 => 011    

010 => 010    
010 => 010  top pixel would become disconnected, so leave      
010 => 010    

010 => 010    
010 => 000  touches only one white pixel, so remove     
000 => 000    

010 => 010    
111 => 111  does not touch black pixels, leave    
010 => 010    

010 => 010    
011 => 011  other pixels do not touch. so leave    
000 => 000