The ``distance map'' of a window $W$ is the function
  $f$ whose value f(u) is defined for any two-dimensional
  location $u$ as the shortest distance from $u$ to $W$.  This function computes the distance map of the window X
  and returns the distance map as a pixel image. The greyscale value
  at a pixel $u$ equals the distance from $u$ to the nearest
  pixel in X.
  Additionally, the return value 
  has an attribute "bdry" which is 
  also a pixel image. The grey values in "bdry" give the
  distance from each pixel to the bounding rectangle of the image.
  If the window X is not already a pixellated window
  (a binary image mask), it is converted into one. The arguments
  ... control the pixel resolution in this case, but will
  otherwise be ignored.
  
  This function is a method for the generic distmap.