I had a need to classify polygon shapes into general categories such as
roads and buildings, and I though it might be possible to use a thinness
factor calculated using the area and perimeter. After fooling around with
it for a while and not getting the answer, I goggled and found the following
Hi Larry,
I don't know if this ratio is often used in geomatics, but I implemented
it in a plugin available on the site :
https://sourceforge.net/projects/jump-pilot/files/p_%20More%20Plugins/OJ%20graph%20toolbox/
I called it circularity and defined it as an integer (where 100 means
perfect
We implemented this as part of the JCS Conflation Suite (which was the
reason JUMP was originally developed!)
There's a whole body of theory around shape recognition - much of which
is very complicated and hard to implement/use. The circularity ratio is
one of the more usable techniques.
