Quantum Image Processing Using Edge Detection Based on Roberts Cross Operators

Quantum image processing is mainly used in quantum computing and quantum information processing to create and manipulate quantum images. Due to the quantum physics properties, entanglement, and parallelism, the quantum image processing technologies will offer capabilities and performance that exceed their traditional counterparts in terms of computational speed, security, and minimum storage requirements. Detecting the edges in an image significantly reduces the amount of data by preserving information that can be considered more relevant. In image processing, edge detection is used to identify pixels in an image that correspond to an abrupt change in light intensity. These changes in the properties of the digital image indicate important structural elements in the object being depicted. This work demonstrates that the Roberts cross-edge detection method used in classical images can also be used in quantum images to highlight intensity changes. We implemented and tested the quantum circuits on the IBM Quantum Experience platform and on a local virtual quantum simulator.