Two-dimensional digitized picture arrays and Parikh matrices

Parikh matrix mapping or Parikh matrix of a word has been introduced in the literature to count the scattered subwords in the word. Several properties of a Parikh matrix have been extensively investigated. A picture array is a two-dimensional connected digitized rectangular array consisting of a finite number of pixels with each pixel in a cell having a label from a finite alphabet. Here we extend the notion of Parikh matrix of a word to a picture array and associate with it two kinds of Parikh matrices, called row Parikh matrix and column Parikh matrix. Two picture arrays A and B are defined to be M-equivalent if their row Parikh matrices are the same and their column Parikh matrices are the same. This enables to extend the notion of M-ambiguity to a picture array. In the binary and ternary cases, conditions that ensure M-ambiguity are then obtained. © 2013 World Scientific Publishing Company.