局部熵驱动下的脑MR图像分割与偏移场恢复耦合模型

核磁共振图像受成像机制的影响往往导致图像中含有噪声以及偏移场,使得传统的图像分割方法很难得到较好的分割结果.为此,提出一种基于局部熵的分割与偏移场恢复耦合模型,首先在小邻域内构建基于模糊C均值(FCM)聚类模型的局部统计项并将偏移场信息耦合到模型中,以恢复图像偏移场;其次采用非局部信息来构建邻域正则项,使得模型在降低噪声影响的同时能有效地保留图像结构信息;最后在对局部能量项进行全局积分时引入局部熵信息,使得模型具有各向异性,从而对噪声和偏移场影响更具鲁棒性.实验结果表明,本文方法可以得到较准确的分割和偏移场矫正结果.     

A Modified Fuzzy C-Means Algorithm for Brain MR Image Segmentation and Bias Field Correction

In quantitative brain image analysis, accurate brain tissue segmentation from brain magnetic resonance image (MRI) is a critical step. It is considered to be the most important and difficult issue in the field of medical image processing. The quality of MR images is influenced by partial volume effect, noise, and intensity inhomogeneity, which render the segmentation task extremely challenging. We present a novel fuzzy c-means algorithm (RCLFCM) for segmentation and bias field correction of brain MR images. We employ a new gray-difference coefficient and design a new impact factor to measure the effect of neighbor pixels, so that the robustness of anti-noise can be enhanced. Moreover, we redefine the objective function of FCM (fuzzy c-means) by adding the bias field estimation model to overcome the intensity inhomogeneity in the image and segment the brain MR images simultaneously. We also construct a new spatial function by combining pixel gray value dissimilarity with its membership, and make full use of the space information between pixels to update the membership. Compared with other state-of-the-art approaches by using similarity accuracy on synthetic MR images with different levels of noise and intensity inhomogeneity, the proposed algorithm generates the results with high accuracy and robustness to noise.     

Robust spatially constrained fuzzy c-means algorithm for brain MR image segmentation

Objective

Accurate brain tissue segmentation from magnetic resonance (MR) images is an essential step in quantitative brain image analysis, and hence has attracted extensive research attention. However, due to the existence of noise and intensity inhomogeneity in brain MR images, many segmentation algorithms suffer from limited robustness to outliers, over-smoothness for segmentations and limited segmentation accuracy for image details. To further improve the accuracy for brain MR image segmentation, a robust spatially constrained fuzzy c-means (RSCFCM) algorithm is proposed in this paper.

Method

Firstly, a novel spatial factor is proposed to overcome the impact of noise in the images. By incorporating the spatial information amongst neighborhood pixels, the proposed spatial factor is constructed based on the posterior probabilities and prior probabilities, and takes the spatial direction into account. It plays a role as linear filters for smoothing and restoring images corrupted by noise. Therefore, the proposed spatial factor is fast and easy to implement, and can preserve more details. Secondly, the negative log-posterior is utilized as dissimilarity function by taking the prior probabilities into account, which can further improve the ability to identify the class for each pixel. Finally, to overcome the impact of intensity inhomogeneity, we approximate the bias field at the pixel-by-pixel level by using a linear combination of orthogonal polynomials. The fuzzy objective function is then integrated with the bias field estimation model to overcome the intensity inhomogeneity in the image and segment the brain MR images simultaneously.

Results

To demonstrate the performances of the proposed algorithm for the images with/without skull stripping, the first group of experiments is carried out in clinical 3T-weighted brain MR images which contain quite serious intensity inhomogeneity and noise. Then we quantitatively compare our algorithm to state-of-the-art segmentation approaches by using Jaccard similarity on benchmark images obtained from IBSR and BrainWeb with different level of noise and intensity inhomogeneity. The comparison results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can produce higher accuracy segmentation and has stronger ability of denoising, especially in the area with abundant textures and details.

Conclusion

In this paper, the RSCFCM algorithm is proposed by utilizing the negative log-posterior as the dissimilarity function, introducing a novel factor and integrating the bias field estimation model into the fuzzy objective function. This algorithm successfully overcomes the drawbacks of existing FCM-type clustering schemes and EM-type mixture models. Our statistical results (mean and standard deviation of Jaccard similarity for each tissue) on both synthetic and clinical images show that the proposed algorithm can overcome the difficulties caused by noise and bias fields, and is capable of improving over 5% segmentation accuracy comparing with several state-of-the-art algorithms.     

Image Segmentation Using a Local GMM in a Variational Framework

In this paper, we propose a new variational framework to solve the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) based methods for image segmentation by employing the convex relaxation approach. After relaxing the indicator function in GMM, flexible spatial regularization can be adopted and efficient segmentation can be achieved. To demonstrate the superiority of the proposed framework, the global, local intensity information and the spatial smoothness are integrated into a new model, and it can work well on images with inhomogeneous intensity and noise. Compared to classical GMM, numerical experiments have demonstrated that our algorithm can achieve promising segmentation performance for images degraded by intensity inhomogeneity and noise.     

局部区域拟合的快速水平集图像分割方法

目的 由于灰度不均匀图像在不同目标区域的灰度分布存在严重的重叠,对其进行分割仍然是一个难题;同时,图像中的噪声严重降低了图像分割的准确性。因此,传统水平集方法无法鲁棒、精确、快速地对具有灰度不均匀性和噪声的图像进行分割。针对这一问题,提出一种基于局部区域信息的快速水平集图像分割方法。方法 灰度不均匀图像通常被描述为一个分段常数图像乘以一个缓慢变化的偏移场。首先,通过一个经过微调的多尺度均值滤波器来估计图像的偏移场,并对图像进行预处理以减轻图像的不均匀性;然后,利用基于偏移场校正的方法和基于局部区域信息拟合的方法分别构建能量项,并利用演化曲线轮廓内外图像灰度分布的重叠程度,构建权重函数自适应调整两个能量项之间的权重;最后,引入全方差规则项对水平集进行约束,增强了数值计算的稳定性和对噪声的鲁棒性,并通过加性算子分裂策略实现水平集快速演化。结果 在具有不同灰度不均匀性和噪声图像上的分割结果表明,所提方法不但对初始轮廓的位置、灰度不均匀性和各种噪声具有较强的鲁棒性,而且具有高达94.5%的分割精度和较高的分割效率,与传统水平集方法相比分割精度至少提高了20.6%,分割效率是LIC（local intensity clustering）模型的9倍;结论 本文提出一种基于局部区域信息的快速水平集图像分割方法。实验结果表明,与传统水平集方法相比具有较高的分割精度和分割效率,可以很好地应用于具有灰度不均匀和噪声的医学、红外和自然图像等的分割。     

多描述子活动轮廓模型的医学图像分割

目的 医学图像分割结果可帮助医生进行预测、诊断及制定治疗方案。医学图像在采集过程中受多种因素影响,同一组织往往具有不同灰度,且伴有强噪声。现有的针对医学图像的分割方法,对图像的灰度分布描述不够充分,不足以为精确的分割图像信息,且抗噪性较差。为实现医学图像的精确分割,提出一种多描述子的活动轮廓（MDAC）模型。方法 首先,引入图像的熵,结合图像的局部均值和方差共同描述图像的灰度分布。其次,在贝叶斯框架下,引入灰度偏移因子,建立活动轮廓模型的能量泛函。最后,利用梯度下降流法得到水平集演化公式,演化的最后在完成分割的同时实现偏移场的矫正。结果 利用合成图像和心脏、血管和脑等医学图像进行了仿真实验。利用MDAC模型对加噪的灰度不均图像进行分割,结果显示,在完成精确分割的同时实现了纠偏。通过对比分割前后图像的灰度直方图,纠偏图像只包含对应两相的两个峰,且界限更加清晰;与经典分割算法进行对比,MDAC在视觉效果和定量分析中,分割效果最好,比LIC的分割精度提高了30%多。结论 实验结果表明,利用均值、方差和局部熵共同描述图像灰度分布,保证了算法的精度。局部熵的引入,在保证算法精度的同时,提高了算法的抗噪性。能泛中嵌入偏移因子,保证算法精确分割的同时实现偏移场纠正,进一步提高分割精度。     

非局部降噪快速模糊C-均值聚类算法

传统的模糊C-均值聚类算法未利用图像的空间信息,在分割迭加了噪声的MR图像时分割精度较差。采用了既能有效去除噪声又能较好地保持图像边缘特征的非局部降噪方法,结合基于图像灰度直方图聚类分析的快速模糊C-均值聚类算法,得到了一种具有较高分割精度的图像快速分割算法。通过对模拟图像、仿真脑部MR图像和临床脑部MR图像的分割实验,表明提出的新算法比已有的快速模糊C-均值聚类算法有更精确的图像分割能力。     

显著性驱动的局部相似拟合模型分割算法研究

灰度不均匀和噪声图像的分割是计算机视觉中的难点。现有的活动轮廓模型尽管能够取得较好的分割效果,但仍然对噪声图像分割效果不理想,初始轮廓曲线的选取敏感,优化易陷入局部极小导致演化速度慢等问题。针对该问题,首先使用局部区域灰度的均值和方差拟合高斯分布,构建新的能量泛函,均值和方差随着能量的最小化过程而变化,从而增强了灰度不均匀和噪声图像的分割能力。此外,结合视觉显著性检测算法获取待分割目标的先验形状信息,并自适应地创建水平集函数,从而降低了初始轮廓位置敏感性及计算时间复杂度,实现全自动的图像分割。实验结果证明,提出的算法可以用于灰度不均匀和噪声图像分割,并取得了较好的分割性能,消除了算法对初始轮廓位置敏感性,减少了迭代次数。     

A novel segmentation model for medical images with intensity inhomogeneity based on adaptive perturbation

In medical field, it remains challenging to accurately segment medical images due to low contrast, complex noises and intensity inhomogeneity. To overcome these obstacles, this paper provides a novel edge-based active contour model (ACM) for medical image segmentation. Specifically, an accurate regularization approach is presented to maintain the level set function with a signed distance property, which guarantees the stability of the evolution curve and the accuracy of the numerical computation. More significantly, an adaptive perturbation is integrated into the framework of the edge-based ACM. The perturbation technique can balance the stability of curve evolution and the accuracy of segmentation, which is key for segmenting medical images with intensity inhomogeneity. A number of experiments on both artificial and real medical images demonstrate that the proposed segmentation model outperforms state-of-the-art methods in terms of robustness to noise and segmentation accuracy.

     

Unsupervised segmentation of noisy and inhomogeneous images using global region statistics with non-convex regularization

Improving the segmentation of magnetic resonance (MR) images remains challenging because of the presence of noise and inhomogeneous intensity. In this paper, we present an unsupervised, multiphase segmentation model based on a Bayesian framework for both MR image segmentation and bias field correction in the presence of noise. In our model, global region statistics are utilized as segmentation criteria in order to classify regions with similar mean intensities but different variances. Additionally, we propose an edge indicator function based on a guided filter (instead of a Gaussian filter) that can preserve the underlying edges of the image obscured by noise. The proposed edge indicator function is integrated with non-convex regularization to overcome the influence of noise, resulting in more accurate segmentation. Furthermore, the proposed model utilizes a Markov random field to model the spatial correlation between neighboring pixels, which increases the robustness of the model under high-noise conditions. Experimental results demonstrate significant advantages in terms of both segmentation accuracy and bias field correction for inhomogeneous images in the presence of noise.     

基于模糊聚类的脑磁共振图像分割算法综述

磁共振成像（Magnetic resonance imaging, MRI） 技术以其非介入、无损伤以及不受目标运动影响等特点,已成为临床诊断的重要辅助手段。精确的脑MR图像分割对生物医学研究和临床应用具有重要的指导意义。在实际应用中,脑MR图像中存在的噪声、灰度不均匀性、部分容积效应和低对比度等缺陷,都给脑MR图像的 精确分割带来了巨大困难和挑战。本文基于模糊聚类模型的脑MR图像分割问题,从聚类类别数的确定、模型初始化、克服噪声、估计偏移场、克服部分容积效应、数据不确定性描述以及模型扩展7个方面深入阐述了国内外发展现状、应对技巧及改进策略,并分析存在的不足 ,指出进一步的研究方向。     

A study on fuzzy clustering for magnetic resonance brain image segmentation using soft computing approaches

This paper presents a novel idea of intracranial segmentation of magnetic resonance (MR) brain image using pixel intensity values by optimum boundary point detection (OBPD) method. The newly proposed (OBPD) method consists of three steps. Firstly, the brain only portion is extracted from the whole MR brain image. The brain only portion mainly contains three regions–gray matter (GM), white matter (WM) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). We need two boundary points to divide the brain pixels into three regions on the basis of their intensity. Secondly, the optimum boundary points are obtained using the newly proposed hybrid GA–BFO algorithm to compute final cluster centres of FCM method. For a comparison, other soft computing techniques GA, PSO and BFO are also used. Finally, FCM algorithm is executed only once to obtain the membership matrix. The brain image is then segmented using this final membership matrix. The key to our success is that we have proposed a technique where the final cluster centres for FCM are obtained using OBPD method. In addition, reformulated objective function for optimization is used. Initial values of boundary points are constrained to be in a range determined from the brain dataset. The boundary points violating imposed constraints are repaired. This method is validated by using simulated T1-weighted MR brain images from IBSR database with manual segmentation results. Further, we have used MR brain images from the Brainweb database with additional noise levels to validate the robustness of our proposed method. It is observed that our proposed method significantly improves segmentation results as compared to other methods.     

基于NL-Means的双水平集脑部MR图像分割算法

针对脑部MR图像中通常伴有灰度不均、高噪声的缺点,且传统水平集无法有效分割的问题,提出了一种基于NL-Means的双水平集算法。首先,利用改进型NL-Means算法对带有噪声的医学图像进行去噪处理,再通过双水平集算法对图像进行分割,提取多目标区域,为了去除医学图像中灰度不均对分割效果的影响,所提算法引入了偏移场拟合项,进一步改进了双水平集模型,进而对去噪图像分割效果进行了优化处理。实验结果表明,所提算法能有效地解决灰度不均与高噪声的问题,能够将伴有灰度不均的高噪声脑部MR图像完全分割出来,从而获得预期的分割效果。     

基于局部区域拟合模型的磁共振图像分割与偏移估计算法

磁共振(MR)图像的灰度通常是不均匀的,这种不均匀性是由于成像设备的缺陷导致产生了一种光滑的偏移场.一般的基于灰度统计特性的分割算法都是假设目标区域和背景区域图像的灰度分别是一致的,因此该类算法不能很好地应用于磁共振图像的分割.提出一种基于局部拟合模型的磁共振图像分割与偏移估计算法:利用图像的局部区域的灰度特性建立恢复...     

克服灰度不均匀性的脑MR图像分割模型

为了克服脑核磁共振图像中存在的灰度不均匀现象,提出一种有效的脑核磁共振图像分割模型.该模型利用多相位水平集方式来拟合图像的局部灰度,实现多种脑组织的同时分割,并提供光滑且准确的目标边界或曲面.在二维、三维的图像上的比较实验结果表明,该模型是有效的.     

基于隶属度光滑约束的模糊C均值聚类算法

传统的FCM聚类算法未利用图像的空间信息,在分割叠加了噪声的MR图像时分割效果不理想。本文考虑到脑部MR图像真实的灰度值具有分片为常数的特性,按照合理利用图像空间信息的原则,对传统的FCM聚类算法进行了改进,增加了使隶属度趋向于分片光滑的约束项,得到了新的聚类算法。通过对模拟脑部MR图像和临床脑部MR图像的分割实验结果表明,本文提出的新算法比传统的FCM算法等多种图像分割算法有更精确的图像分割能力,并且运算简单、运算速度快、稳健性好。     

结合局部熵能量泛函与非凸正则项的图像分割

为了克服灰度不均匀对图像分割的影响，结合CV模型的全局能量项和LBF模型的局部能量项，引入图像局部熵信息和非凸正则项，构造新的能量泛函，提出了结合局部熵的局部能量泛函与非凸正则项的图像分割算法。该算法首先采用CV模型中的全局能量泛函得到图像的大致演化轮廓；通过构建具有局部熵信息的局部能量泛函，实现对图像的精确分割。然后，利用非凸正则项作为图像演化过程中零水平集逼近目标的又一驱动力驱动曲线演化和边缘保护。该算法利用变分水平集方法将这一新构建的能量泛函进行最小化，通过迭代更新水平集函数，完成曲线演化。最后，对比实验表明，所提出的算法可以高效、准确地分割灰度不均匀图像。     

结合全局与局部信息活动轮廓的非同质图像分割

目的 通过对现有基于区域的活动轮廓模型能量泛函的Euler-Lagrange方程进行变形,建立其与K-means方法的等价关系,提出一种新的基于K-means活动轮廓模型,该模型能有效分割灰度非同质图像。方法 结合图像全局和局部信息,根据交互熵的特性,提出新的局部自适应权重,它根据像素点所在邻域的局部统计信息自适应地确定各个像素点的分割阈值,排除灰度非同质分割目标的影响。结果 采用Jaccard相似系数-JS(Jaccard similarity)和Dice相似系数-DSC(Dice similarity coefficient)两个指标对自然以及合成图像的分割结果进行定量分析,与传统及最新经典的活动轮廓模型相比,新模型JS和DSC的值最接近1,且迭代次数不多于50次。提出的模型具有较高的计算效率和准确率。结论 通过大量实验发现,新模型结合图像全局和局部信息,利用交互熵特性得到自适应权重,对初始曲线位置具有稳定性,且对灰度非同质图像具有较好地分割效果。本文算法主要适用于分割含有噪声及灰度非同质的医学图像,而且分割结果对初始轮廓具有鲁棒性。     

Robust level set image segmentation via a local correntropy-based K-means clustering

It is still a challenging task to segment real-world images, since they are often distorted by unknown noise and intensity inhomogeneity. To address these problems, we propose a novel segmentation algorithm via a local correntropy-based K-means (LCK) clustering. Due to the correntropy criterion, the clustering algorithm can decrease the weights of the samples that are away from their clusters. As a result, LCK based clustering algorithm can be robust to the outliers. The proposed LCK clustering algorithm is incorporated into the region-based level set segmentation framework. The iteratively re-weighted algorithm is used to solve the LCK based level set segmentation method. Extensive experiments on synthetic and real images are provided to evaluate our method, showing significant improvements on both noise sensitivity and segmentation accuracy, as compared with the state-of-the-art approaches.     

Active contour model for simultaneous MR image segmentation and denoising

In this paper, a new region-based active contour model is proposed for magnetic resonance image segmentation and denoising based on the global minimization framework and level set evolution. A new region fitting energy based on Nadaraya–Watson estimator and local image information is defined to enforce the curve evolution. By this improved region fitting term, the images with noise and intensity un-uniformity can be segmented and denoised. Inspired by the Perona–Malik diffusion equation, an edge-preserving regularization term is defined through the duality formulation to penalize the length of region boundaries. By this new regularization term, the edge information is utilized to improve the contour?s ability of capturing the edge and remaining smooth during the evolution. The energy functional of the proposed model is minimized by an efficient dual algorithm avoiding the inefficiency of the gradient descent method. Experiments on medical images demonstrate the proposed model provides a hybrid way to perform image segmentation and image denoising simultaneously.