Analysis of bone X-rays using morphological fractals

The authors have applied mathematical morphology for fractal analysis on bone X-ray images. The digitized gray level image is treated as a three-dimensional surface whose fractal dimension is calculated by performing a series of dilations on this surface and plotting the area of the resulting set of surfaces against the size of the structuring element. This approach has the added advantage of encoding structural information via the use of a structuring element. The algorithm has been applied to several bone radiographs, and the results demonstrate that the fractal dimension using mathematical morphology gives a robust texture measure of trabecular bone structures.     

基于小波域和活动轮廓模型的纹理图像分割

提出一种双树复小波域局部二值模式和活动轮廓模型的纹理图像分割方法.该方法首先使用双树复合小波分解纹理图像,然后使用局部二值模式提取纹理特征.利用最大熵准则对纹理特征图像进行选择,活动轮廓模型用于最后的分割.实验结果表明提出的方法对于合成纹理和自然场景数据集,达到了较高的分割精度.     

Texture-based classification of atherosclerotic carotid plaques

There are indications that the morphology of atherosclerotic carotid plaques, obtained by high-resolution ultrasound imaging, has prognostic implications. The objective of this study was to develop a computer-aided system that will facilitate the characterization of carotid plaques for the identification of individuals with asymptomatic carotid stenosis at risk of stroke. A total of 230 plaque images were collected which were classified into two types: symptomatic because of ipsilateral hemispheric symptoms, or asymptomatic because they were not connected with ipsilateral hemispheric events. Ten different texture feature sets were extracted from the manually segmented plaque images using the following algorithms: first-order statistics, spatial gray level dependence matrices, gray level difference statistics, neighborhood gray tone difference matrix, statistical feature matrix, Laws texture energy measures, fractal dimension texture analysis, Fourier power spectrum and shape parameters. For the classification task a modular neural network composed of self-organizing map (SOM) classifiers, and combining techniques based on a confidence measure were used. Combining the classification results of the ten SOM classifiers inputted with the ten feature sets improved the classification rate of the individual classifiers, reaching an average diagnostic yield (DY) of 73.1%. The same modular system was implemented using the statistical k-nearest neighbor (KNN) classifier. The combined DY for the KNN system was 68.8%. The results of this paper show that it is possible to identify a group of patients at risk of stroke based on texture features extracted from ultrasound images of carotid plaques. This group of patients may benefit from a carotid endarterectomy whereas other patients may be spared from an unnecessary operation.     

一种基于小波纹理特征的目标检测方法

给出了一种利用小波分块分解和灰度共生矩阵特征来提取目标的方法。首先对图像进行分块小波变换,然后求分块灰度共生矩阵并且计算小波共生矩阵特征向量,选取纹理特征最大的作为种子区域;最后利用均值聚类的方法进行目标标记。实验结果证明,能够检测红外和可见光图像中各种类型的目标。     

Hierarchical Multiple Markov Chain Model for Unsupervised Texture Segmentation

In this paper, we present a novel multiscale texture model and a related algorithm for the unsupervised segmentation of color images. Elementary textures are characterized by their spatial interactions with neighboring regions along selected directions. Such interactions are modeled, in turn, by means of a set of Markov chains, one for each direction, whose parameters are collected in a feature vector that synthetically describes the texture. Based on the feature vectors, the texture are then recursively merged, giving rise to larger and more complex textures, which appear at different scales of observation: accordingly, the model is named Hierarchical Multiple Markov Chain (H-MMC). The Texture Fragmentation and Reconstruction (TFR) algorithm, addresses the unsupervised segmentation problem based on the H-MMC model. The “fragmentation” step allows one to find the elementary textures of the model, while the “reconstruction” step defines the hierarchical image segmentation based on a probabilistic measure (texture score) which takes into account both region scale and inter-region interactions. The performance of the proposed method was assessed through the Prague segmentation benchmark, based on mosaics of real natural textures, and also tested on real-world natural and remote sensing images.      

一种基于纹理元灰度模式统计的图像纹理分析方法

 本文提出了纹理元灰度模式的概念及采用纹理元灰度模式统计进行纹理分析的方法,根据纹理元灰度模式分布直方图,定义了若干反映其模式分布的特征,利用它们作为纹理特征对纹理图像进行分类与分割,并采用Laws纹理能量法做了对比实验,实验表明,采用本文方法比传统方法能取得更好的效果,有很强的实用性.     

双窗口特征的SAR图像丛林区域MRF分割算法

针对固定窗口灰度共生矩阵纹理特征对合成孔径雷达(SAR)图像丛林区域分割存在的局限性,讨论了丛林区域纹理特征值的聚类特性,分析计算窗口大小对分割的影响。基于马尔科夫随机场(MRF)分割方法对SAR图像噪声抑制能力,提出一种基于小窗口纹理特征分割作为初始标记计算初始吉布斯分布,大窗口纹理特征作为样本估计高斯分布的MRF分割方法。该方法经实验验证,能够改善分割噪声和边缘模糊的问题,很好地对SAR丛林区域进行分割。     

基于GLCM和EM算法的纹理图像分割

基于纹理图像的特征,提出了基于灰度共生矩阵（GLCM）和快速极大似然估计（EM）算法相结合的纹理图像分割新算法,为了获得较好的纹理图像分割结果该算法采用灰度共生矩阵的三个常用特征并在四个方向上求平均,从而克服了方向的影响。采用欧式距离度量函数求得两特征向量的距离。通过用改进EM算法对距离矩阵进行聚类,得到纹理图像的初始分割结果,最后用形态学的方法实现对纹理图像边界的精确定位。     

基于区域MRF和贝叶斯置信传播的SAR图像分割

 本文通过定义新的势函数,将贝叶斯置信传播算法和区域MRF模型有效结合,提出了一种SAR图像分割算法.考虑到SAR图像丰富的纹理信息,该算法对分水岭分割后的过分割区域提取纹理特征,在得到的区域邻接图上构建MRF模型,并加入区域灰度均值和方差作为区域特征,利用FCM聚类的初分割结果定义区域的关联势函数,并将区域特征引入到置信传播算法中,定义了新的交互势函数.该算法充分利用了SAR图像空间的背景信息,所定义的新的交互势函数能在促进分割结果区域一致性的同时较好保护边缘.实验结果表明,相对于其他MRF模型分割算法,本文算法能取得更好的分割效果.     

Wavelet-based level set evolution for classification of textured images

We present a supervised classification model based on a variational approach. This model is specifically devoted to textured images. We want to get a partition of an image, composed of texture regions separated by regular interfaces. Each kind of texture defines a class. We use a wavelet packet transform to analyze the textures, characterized by their energy distribution in each sub-band. In order to have an image segmentation according to the classes, we model the regions and their interfaces by level set functions. We define a functional on these level sets whose minimizers define the optimal classification according to texture. A system of coupled PDEs is deduced from the functional. By solving this system, each region evolves according to its wavelet coefficients and interacts with the neighbor regions in order to obtain a partition with regular contours. Experiments are shown on synthetic and real images.     

Image segmentation using association rule features

A new type of texture feature based on association rules is described. Association rules have been used in applications such as market basket analysis to capture relationships present among items in large data sets. It is shown that association rules can be adapted to capture frequently occurring local structures in images. The frequency of occurrence of these structures can be used to characterize texture. Methods for segmentation of textured images based on association rule features are described. Simulation results using images consisting of man made and natural textures show that association rule features perform well compared to other widely used texture features. Association rule features are used to detect cumulus cloud fields in GOES satellite images and are found to achieve higher accuracy than other statistical texture features for this problem.     

基于高斯混合模型的纹理图像的分割

文章提出了使用高斯混合模型对纹理图像分割的方法。该模型考虑到图像纹理的特点，使用二状态的高斯混合分布来对图像各纹理类像素的分布进行拟和。首先对待分割的各类像素寻找与之匹配的最佳模型参数，然后再进行分割。最后，对分割结果进行多尺度综合，得到了各尺度的分割结果。实验表明该算法不仅能够较精确地定位各纹理区域，而且还有运算速度快的优点。     

基于鲁棒Otsu的红外无损检测缺陷分割算法

在红外无损检测获取的图像中,缺陷区域与非缺陷区域所占面积比例悬殊,且图像经过序列增强处理之后仍然存在阴暗区域,导致缺陷分割准确性受损。为此,结合局部阈值分割法的相对阈值思想,提出一种基于鲁棒Otsu的缺陷分割算法。首先,引入邻域均值与邻域总梯度作为表征像素点的所属类别与空间状态的重要参数。然后,采用基于像素点-块区的统计调整模型对红外图像缺陷区和非缺陷区的灰度值进行动态调整。最后,采用基于灰度-邻域偏差的改进二维直方图及其区域划分方法,通过自动选取邻域边长的遗传算法搜索最佳阈值,实现红外图像的缺陷分割。结果表明:该算法不仅改善了Otsu算法的鲁棒性,且能够提高红外无损检测缺陷分割的准确性。     

基于模糊集理论的迭代多值化图像分割

针对阈值分割存在精确性不高和分割效率低的问题,提出一种基于模糊集理论的迭代多值化图像分割方法。采用自顶向下的迭代分割策略综合考虑分割区域的灰度分布特征和各像素点的邻域信息,用模糊综合评判代替分割阈值,实现对图像中各像素点的合理分类,既摆脱了阈值分割方法需要找到若干确定的阈值才能实现图像多值化分割的约束,又提高了图像分割的质量和效率。为验证该方法的优越性和快速性,采用Otsu法和Kapur法两种经典的阈值分割方法为对照,针对带噪图像、不同对照度图像和2幅分割难度较大的图像进行了分割实验。研究结果表明,与阈值分割相比,本文方法能够完整地保留目标的细节,且分割时间较短。     

Deformable segmentation of 3-D ultrasound prostate images using statistical texture matching method

This paper presents a novel deformable model for automatic segmentation of prostates from three-dimensional ultrasound images, by statistical matching of both shape and texture. A set of Gabor-support vector machines (G-SVMs) are positioned on different patches of the model surface, and trained to adaptively capture texture priors of ultrasound images for differentiation of prostate and nonprostate tissues in different zones around prostate boundary. Each G-SVM consists of a Gabor filter bank for extraction of rotation-invariant texture features and a kernel support vector machine for robust differentiation of textures. In the deformable segmentation procedure, these pretrained G-SVMs are used to tentatively label voxels around the surface of deformable model as prostate or nonprostate tissues by a statistical texture matching. Subsequently, the surface of deformable model is driven to the boundary between the tentatively labeled prostate and non-prostate tissues. Since the step of tissue labeling and the step of label-based surface deformation are dependent on each other, these two steps are repeated until they converge. Experimental results by using both synthesized and real data show the good performance of the proposed model in segmenting prostates from ultrasound images.     

基于二维最大熵阈值分割的SIFT图像匹配算法

提出了一种基于二维灰度直方图最大熵阈值分割的SIFT图像特征匹配算法。与传统SIFT算法相比,该算法首先综合利用图像像素的灰度信息和邻域空间信息,生成图像二维灰度直方图,并基于此直方图的最大熵对图像进行阈值分割,然后检测分割后图像的DoG尺度空间局部极值,并以此作为特征点进行图像匹配。实验结果表明,基于所提出的匹配算法,可以有效降低图像背景噪声和边缘像素点对目标匹配的干扰,进而提高图像目标的匹配性能。     

基于改进主动轮廓模型的图像分割算法

针对C-V模型对灰度不均匀的图像分割效果不理想的情况,提出一种改进的C-V模型.该模型在C-V模型的基础上,引入非加权的邻域平均和局部窗口方差概念,加快并精确了C-V模型的演化效果,同时在C-V模型的能量函数中加入惩罚项,使得C-V模型在演化过程中无须重新初始化,进一步提高了分割速度.仿真实验结果表明改进的C-V模型较原模型对灰度不均匀图像分割具有较好的分割效果.     

A methodology for evaluation of boundary detection algorithms onmedical images

Image segmentation is the partition of an image into a set of nonoverlapping regions whose union is the entire image. The image is decomposed into meaningful parts which are uniform with respect to certain characteristics, such as gray level or texture. In this paper, we propose a methodology for evaluating medical image segmentation algorithms wherein the only information available is boundaries outlined by multiple expert observers. In this case, the results of the segmentation algorithm can be evaluated against the multiple observers' outlines. We have derived statistics to enable us to find whether the computer-generated boundaries agree with the observers' hand-outlined boundaries as much as the different observers agree with each other. We illustrate the use of this methodology by evaluating image segmentation algorithms on two different applications in ultrasound imaging. In the first application, we attempt to find the epicardial and endocardial boundaries from cardiac ultrasound images, and in the second application, our goal is to find the fetal skull and abdomen boundaries from prenatal ultrasound images     

复杂背景下的车牌自动分割方法

车牌分割是汽车牌照自动识别的基础。本文针对含有车牌的灰度图像，利用车牌字符具有明显垂直纹理的特征．提出了一种适合字符纹理特征的边缘检测方法，获取垂直边缘图。根据车牌固有的特征，运用改进的投影算法确定车牌区域。文中详细给出了车牌分割步骤。实验结果表明，在复杂的背景下，该方法能够快速有效地实现车牌自动分割。