A Review of Statistical Approaches to Level Set Segmentation: Integrating Color,Texture, Motion and Shape

Since their introduction as a means of front propagation and their first application to edge-based segmentation in the early 90’s, level set methods have become increasingly popular as a general framework for image segmentation. In this paper, we present a survey of a specific class of region-based level set segmentation methods and clarify how they can all be derived from a common statistical framework. Region-based segmentation schemes aim at partitioning the image domain by progressively fitting statistical models to the intensity, color, texture or motion in each of a set of regions. In contrast to edge-based schemes such as the classical Snakes, region-based methods tend to be less sensitive to noise. For typical images, the respective cost functionals tend to have less local minima which makes them particularly well-suited for local optimization methods such as the level set method. We detail a general statistical formulation for level set segmentation. Subsequently, we clarify how the integration of various low level criteria leads to a set of cost functionals. We point out relations between the different segmentation schemes. In experimental results, we demonstrate how the level set function is driven to partition the image plane into domains of coherent color, texture, dynamic texture or motion. Moreover, the Bayesian formulation allows to introduce prior shape knowledge into the level set method. We briefly review a number of advances in this domain.     

基于简化Mumford-Shah模型的水平集红外图像分割算法

由于红外图像大多具有目标模糊,对比度低的特点,传统的分割方法容易受到噪声和边界轮廓的影响而导致分割效果不佳,提出了一种基于简化Mumford-Shah模型的水平集红外图像分割算法.该算法能够通过将初始闭合曲线嵌入水平集函数,利用函数的求解从而达到图像分割的目的.仿真实验结果表明,该分割算法与初始轮廓线位置无关,受边界轮廓线和图像噪声的影响较小,具有较强的鲁棒性,在目标与背景灰度级差别较小的红外图像的分割中取得了较好的效果.     

Generating High-quality Superpixels in Textured Images

Superpixel segmentation is important for promoting various image processing tasks. However, existing methods still have difficulties in generating high-quality superpixels in textured images, because they cannot separate textures from structures well. Though texture filtering can be adopted for smoothing textures before superpixel segmentation, the filtering would also smooth the object boundaries, and thus weaken the quality of generated superpixels. In this paper, we propose to use the adaptive scale box smoothing instead of the texture filtering to obtain more high-quality texture and boundary information. Based on this, we design a novel distance metric to measure the distance between different pixels, which considers boundary, color and Euclidean distance simultaneously. As a result, our method can achieve high-quality superpixel segmentation in textured images without texture filtering. The experimental results demonstrate the superiority of our method over existing methods, even the learning-based methods. Benefited from using boundaries to guide superpixel segmentation, our method can also suppress noise to generate high-quality superpixels in non-textured images.     

分片常值灰度图像的快速分割

PC模型是一个著名的基于区域的活动轮廓模型,它实际上是利用水平集方法解决分片常值灰度图像的分割问题。提出一个以偏微分方程形式表达的新模型,它可以看成是PC模型的一种改进。实验显示：新模型能够实现分片常值灰度图像的快速分割,同时迭代次数对初始轮廓的大小和位置不敏感。     

Multiscale Bayesian texture segmentation using neural networks and Markov random fields

This paper presents a wavelet-based texture segmentation method using multilayer perceptron (MLP) networks and Markov random fields (MRF) in a multi-scale Bayesian framework. Inputs and outputs of MLP networks are constructed to estimate a posterior probability. The multi-scale features produced by multi-level wavelet decompositions of textured images are classified at each scale by maximum a posterior (MAP) classification and the posterior probabilities from MLP networks. An MRF model is used in order to model the prior distribution of each texture class, and a factor, which fuses the classification information through scales and acts as a guide for the labeling decision, is incorporated into the MAP classification of each scale. By fusing the multi-scale MAP classifications sequentially from coarse to fine scales, our proposed method gets the final and improved segmentation result at the finest scale. In this fusion process, the MRF model serves as the smoothness constraint and the Gibbs sampler acts as the MAP classifier. Our texture segmentation method was applied to segmentation of gray-level textured images. The proposed segmentation method shows better performance than texture segmentation using the hidden Markov trees (HMT) model and the HMTseg algorithm, which is a multi-scale Bayesian image segmentation algorithm.     

Image segmentation and similarity of color-texture objects

We aim for content-based image retrieval of textured objects in natural scenes under varying illumination and viewing conditions. To achieve this, image retrieval is based on matching feature distributions derived from color invariant gradients. To cope with object cluttering, region-based texture segmentation is applied on the target images prior to the actual image retrieval process. The retrieval scheme is empirically verified on color images taken from textured objects under different lighting conditions.     

A fast level set method for segmentation of low contrast noisy biomedical images

This paper presents a new fast front propagation algorithm for image segmentation. To approximate the partial differential equation (PDE) in level set algorithm, instead of moving the front in a small constant time step, the point with a minimum arrival time will be touched in one iteration. Only in a neighbourhood of this point, should the level set function be updated. Like the previously proposed level set methods, it is a robust method for image segmentation with capabilities to handle topological changes, significant protrusions and narrow regions. It is faster than the narrow band algorithm and more robust than the monotonically advancing scheme in image segmentation. The effectiveness and the capabilities of the algorithm were verified by simulated and real experiments.     

三维图像多相分割的变分水平集方法

变分水平集方法是图像分割等领域出现的新的建模方法,借助多个水平集函数可有效地实现图像多相分割.但在区域/相的通用表达、不同区域内图像模型的表达、通用的能量函的设计、高维图像分割中的拓展研究等方面仍是图像处理的变分方法、水平集方法、偏微分方程方法等研究的热点问题.文中以三维图像为研究对象,系统地建立了一种新的三维图像多相分割的变分水平集方法.该方法用n-1个水平集函数划分n个区域,并基于Heaviside函数设汁出区域划分的通用的特征函数;其能量泛函包括通用的区域模型、边缘检测模型和水平集函数为符号距离函数的约束项3部分;最后,针对所得到的曲面演化方程,采用半隐式差分格式进行离散,并对多种类型三维图像进行分割验证了所提出模型的通用性和有效性.     

A level set method for oil slick segmentation in SAR images

Despite much effort and significant progress in recent years, image segmentation remains a challenging problem in image processing, especially for the low contrast, noisy synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. This paper explores the segmentation of oil slicks using a partial differential equation (PDE)‐based level set method, which represents the slick surface as an implicit propagation interface. Starting from an initial estimation with priori information, the level set method creates a set of speed functions to detect the position of the propagation interface. Specifically, the image intensity gradient and the curvature flow are utilized together to determine the speed and direction of the propagation. This allows the front interface to propagate naturally with topological changes, significant protrusions and narrow regions, giving rise to stable and smooth boundaries that discriminate oil slicks from the surrounding water. As the speckles are removed concurrently while the front interface propagates, the pre‐filtering of noise is saved. The proposed method has been illustrated by experiments on oil slick segmentation using the ERS‐2 SAR images. Its advantages over the traditional image segmentation approaches have also been demonstrated.     

基于水平集接力的图像自动分割方法

为了实现图像的完全分割,基于无须重新初始化的水平集方法提出了一种接力水平集方法.该方法在待分割图像中自动交替地创建嵌套子区域和相应的初始水平集函数,使水平集函数在其中演化并收敛,然后重复这个过程直到子区域面积为0.与原始算法及经典的基于区域的水平集方法相比,该方法具有如下优点:1) 自动完成,无须交互式的初始化;2) 多次分割图像,能够比原始算法检测到更多的边缘;3) 对于非匀质的图像,能够取得比经典的基于区域的水平集方法更好的分割效果;4) 提供一个开放的分割算法框架,其他单水平集方法稍作修改后也可替换这里所使用的单水平集方法.实验结果表明,此算法对人造图像和医学影像实现了无须交互的完全分割,对非匀质图像分割表现出更好的鲁棒性.