Comparative Study of Bitmixing, Marginal, and Lexicographic Methods for Color Image Morphological Processing

A comprehensive comparative study is presented of three approaches for color morphological processing: the proposed bitmixing transformation, lexicographic ordering, and conventional marginal processing. The novel bitmixing method converts RGB channels into a single 24-bit scalar representation through bit-interleaving, preserving both color information and spatial ordering relationships. This enables the direct application of grayscale morphological operators while generally preserving structural, chromatic, and visual relationships in processed objects. Under appropriate conditions—such as when objects exhibit clear color-based boundaries and bilateral symmetry—the method tends to maintain these symmetries more consistently than marginal or lexicographic alternatives. Experimental evaluation shows that the bitmixing approach achieves a competitive balance between color preservation and computational efficiency. In specific scenarios involving color-defined regions and symmetric structures, it demonstrates modest advantages over marginal and lexicographic methods. These findings suggest that the proposed method can serve as a viable alternative in applications where color fidelity, structural coherence, and symmetry preservation are desirable, though its benefits are context-dependent.