The ``distance map'' of a point pattern $X$ is the function
  $f$ whose value f(u) is defined for any two-dimensional
  location $u$ as the shortest distance from $u$ to $X$.  This function computes the distance map of the point pattern 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
  point of the pattern X.
  Additionally, the return value 
  has two attributes, "index" and "bdry", which are
  also pixel images. The grey values in "bdry" give the
  distance from each pixel to the bounding rectangle of the image.
  The grey values in "index" are integers identifying which
  point of X is closest. 
  
  This is a method for the generic function distmap.