python - Find Nearest Transition in N-dimensional Array

Question

I want to find index of the nearest transition in a numpy ndarray of integers given a current index in an efficient manner. Transition means a change of value.

For example, in the 2D array below, the right output for location (2,4) would be (3,6) (transition from Class 1 to Class 8) at the approximate distance of 2.236. In case of more than one optimum, returning any would suffice.

import seaborn as sns
import numpy as np

step_size = [1,1]  # size of step in each dimension
arr = np.array([[6,6,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,8],[6,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,8,8],[6,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,8,8],[6,1,1,1,1,1,8,8,8,8],[6,6,1,1,1,1,1,8,8,8]])
sns.heatmap(arr, annot=True, cbar=False)

The application is to estimate distances to boundaries. Such as a sample's distance to decision boundary in classification algorithms where an accurate algorithm or formula for that is not available (like xgboost, and unlike SVM and decision trees).

Answer 1

Waitting for answers