A class-adaptive spatially variant mixture model for image segmentation.

We propose a new approach for image segmentation based on a hierarchical and spatially variant mixture model. According to this model, the pixel labels are random variables and a smoothness prior is imposed on them. The main novelty of this work is a new family of smoothness priors for the label probabilities in spatially variant mixture models. These Gauss-Markov random field-based priors allow all their parameters to be estimated in closed form via the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation using the expectation-maximization methodology. Thus, it is possible to introduce priors with multiple parameters that adapt to different aspects of the data. Numerical experiments are presented where the proposed MAP algorithms were tested in various image segmentation scenarios. These experiments demonstrate that the proposed segmentation scheme compares favorably to both standard and previous spatially constrained mixture model-based segmentation.     

Semiautomated segmentation of myocardial contours for fast strain analysis in cine displacement-encoded MRI

The purposes of this study were to develop a semiautomated cardiac contour segmentation method for use with cine displacement-encoded MRI and evaluate its accuracy against manual segmentation. This segmentation model was designed with two distinct phases: preparation and evolution. During the model preparation phase, after manual image cropping and then image intensity standardization, the myocardium is separated from the background based on the difference in their intensity distributions, and the endo- and epi-cardial contours are initialized automatically as zeros of an underlying level set function. During the model evolution phase, the model deformation is driven by the minimization of an energy function consisting of five terms: model intensity, edge attraction, shape prior, contours interaction, and contour smoothness. The energy function is minimized iteratively by adaptively weighting the five terms in the energy function using an annealing algorithm. The validation experiments were performed on a pool of cine data sets of five volunteers. The difference between the semiautomated segmentation and manual segmentation was sufficiently small as to be considered clinically irrelevant. This relatively accurate semiautomated segmentation method can be used to significantly increase the throughput of strain analysis of cine displacement-encoded MR images for clinical applications.      

采用全局相似性测量的彩色图像分割

本文提出一种新的采用全局相似性测量的彩色图像分割算法。该算法将图像分割问题表述为求解能量泛函最小化的问题。利用Bhattacharyya距离测量前景和背景之间的概率分布函数的全局相似性,并将Bhattacharyya系数作为最终的能量泛函。由于高阶能量项的引入,该能量的最小化通常是一个NP难题,为了能够有效的优化该能量泛函,本文提出一个辅助上界函数并且利用graph cuts对该函数进行优化求解。该辅助函数在优化的过程中能够保证能量递减。该算法能够应用于多种分割问题,包括交互式分割、显著性分割等。实验结果表明,算法具有全局分割的特点,能够对彩色图像进行较准确的分割。      

基于小波域的模糊化区域竞争模型的图像分割方法

本文中提出了一种基于小波变换的模糊化区域竞 争图像分割算法。该算法利用小波变 换在纹理分类 的优越性,在模糊化区域竞争算法的框架下对图像实施非抽样小波变换,建立起基于小波域 的统计特征参 数,并根据此特征参数构造能量函数。在算法求解过程中,通过采用快速迭代算法加快算法 求解的速度。 本文提出的图像分割算法可以有效地降低信噪比的敏感性,有效地解决模糊图像分割问题。 实验结果表明, 本文提出的分割方法在分割质量和速度上比经典的主动轮廓模型和模糊化区域竟争分割算法 更具有优越性。     

Integrated active contours for texture segmentation.

We address the issue of textured image segmentation in the context of the Gabor feature space of images. Gabor filters tuned to a set of orientations, scales and frequencies are applied to the images to create the Gabor feature space. A two-dimensional Riemannian manifold of local features is extracted via the Beltrami framework. The metric of this surface provides a good indicator of texture changes and is used, therefore, in a Beltrami-based diffusion mechanism and in a geodesic active contours algorithm for texture segmentation. The performance of the proposed algorithm is compared with that of the edgeless active contours algorithm applied for texture segmentation. Moreover, an integrated approach, extending the geodesic and edgeless active contours approaches to texture segmentation, is presented. We show that combining boundary and region information yields more robust and accurate texture segmentation results.     

Self-crossing detection and location for parametric active contours

Active contours are very popular tools for video tracking and image segmentation. Parameterized contours are used due to their fast evolution and have become the method of choice in the Sobolev context. Unfortunately, these contours are not easily adaptable to topological changes, and they may sometimes develop undesirable loops, resulting in erroneous results. To solve such topological problems, one needs an algorithm for contour self-crossing detection. We propose a simple methodology via simple techniques from differential topology. The detection is accomplished by inspecting the total net change of a given contour's angle, without point sorting and plane sweeping. We discuss the efficient implementation of the algorithm. We also provide algorithms for locating crossings by angle considerations and by plotting the four-connected lines between the discrete contour points. The proposed algorithms can be added to any parametric active-contour model. We show examples of successful tracking in real-world video sequences by Sobolev active contours and the proposed algorithms and provide ideas for further research.     

Global regularizing flows with topology preservation for active contours and polygons.

Active contour and active polygon models have been used widely for image segmentation. In some applications, the topology of the object(s) to be detected from an image is known a priori, despite a complex unknown geometry, and it is important that the active contour or polygon maintain the desired topology. In this work, we construct a novel geometric flow that can be added to image-based evolutions of active contours and polygons in order to preserve the topology of the initial contour or polygon. We emphasize that, unlike other methods for topology preservation, the proposed geometric flow continually adjusts the geometry of the original evolution in a gradual and graceful manner so as to prevent a topology change long before the curve or polygon becomes close to topology change. The flow also serves as a global regularity term for the evolving contour, and has smoothness properties similar to curvature flow. These properties of gradually adjusting the original flow and global regularization prevent geometrical inaccuracies common with simple discrete topology preservation schemes. The proposed topology preserving geometric flow is the gradient flow arising from an energy that is based on electrostatic principles. The evolution of a single point on the contour depends on all other points of the contour, which is different from traditional curve evolutions in the computer vision literature.     

An Active Contour Algorithm for Continuous-Time Cellular Neural Networks

A CNN-based algorithm for image segmentation by active contours is proposed here. The algorithm is based on an iterative process of expansion of the contour and its subsequent thinning guided by external and internal energy. The proposed strategy allows for a high level of control over contour evolution making their topologic transformations easier. Therefore processing of multiple contours for segmenting several objects can be carried out simultaneously.     

Active contours without edges

We propose a new model for active contours to detect objects in a given image, based on techniques of curve evolution, Mumford-Shah (1989) functional for segmentation and level sets. Our model can detect objects whose boundaries are not necessarily defined by the gradient. We minimize an energy which can be seen as a particular case of the minimal partition problem. In the level set formulation, the problem becomes a "mean-curvature flow"-like evolving the active contour, which will stop on the desired boundary. However, the stopping term does not depend on the gradient of the image, as in the classical active contour models, but is instead related to a particular segmentation of the image. We give a numerical algorithm using finite differences. Finally, we present various experimental results and in particular some examples for which the classical snakes methods based on the gradient are not applicable. Also, the initial curve can be anywhere in the image, and interior contours are automatically detected.     

Robust real-time segmentation of images and videos using a smooth-spline snake-based algorithm.

This paper deals with fast image and video segmentation using active contours. Region-based active contours using level sets are powerful techniques for video segmentation, but they suffer from large computational cost. A parametric active contour method based on B-Spline interpolation has been proposed in to highly reduce the computational cost, but this method is sensitive to noise. Here, we choose to relax the rigid interpolation constraint in order to robustify our method in the presence of noise: by using smoothing splines, we trade a tunable amount of interpolation error for a smoother spline curve. We show by experiments on natural sequences that this new flexibility yields segmentation results of higher quality at no additional computational cost. Hence, real-time processing for moving objects segmentation is preserved.     

Zernike moment and local distribution fitting fuzzy energy-based active contours for image segmentation

This paper presents a new region-based active contour model for extracting the object boundaries in an image, based on techniques of curve evolution. The proposed model introduces an energy functional that involves intensity distributions in local image regions and fuzzy membership functions. The local image intensity distribution information used to guide the motion of the contour, in the paper, is derived by Hueckel operator in the neighborhood of each image point. The parameters of Hueckel operator are estimated by a set of orthogonal Zernike moments before curve evolution. Meanwhile, the fuzzy membership functions are used to measure the association degree of each image pixel to the region outside and inside the contour. To minimize the energy functional, instead of solving the Euler–Lagrange equation of the underlying problem, the paper employs a direct method to compute the energy alterations. As a result, the model can deal with images with intensity inhomogeneity. In addition, the model effectively alleviates the sensitivity to contour initialization. Moreover, the model reduces computational cost, avoids problems associated with choosing time steps as well as allows fast convergence to the segmentation solutions. Experimental results on synthetic, real images and comparisons with other models show the desired performances of the proposed model.     

Color Texture Segmentation Based on the Modal Energy of Deformable Surfaces

This paper presents a new approach for the segmentation of color textured images, which is based on a novel energy function. The proposed energy function, which expresses the local smoothness of an image area, is derived by exploiting an intermediate step of modal analysis that is utilized in order to describe and analyze the deformations of a 3-D deformable surface model. The external forces that attract the 3-D deformable surface model combine the intensity of the image pixels with the spatial information of local image regions. The proposed image segmentation algorithm has two steps. First, a color quantization scheme, which is based on the node displacements of the deformable surface model, is utilized in order to decrease the number of colors in the image. Then, the proposed energy function is used as a criterion for a region growing algorithm. The final segmentation of the image is derived by a region merge approach. The proposed method was applied to the Berkeley segmentation database. The obtained results show good segmentation robustness, when compared to other state of the art image segmentation algorithms.     

Image Segmentation and Selective Smoothing Based on Variational Framework

This paper addresses the segmentation and smoothing problems in biomedical imaging under variational framework. In order to get better results, this paper proposes a new segmentation and selective smoothing algorithm. This paper has the following three contributions. First, a new statistical active contour model (SACM) is introduced for noisy image segmentation. SACM is proposed to solve the problem in fast edge integration (FEI) method, which takes advantages of both edge-based and region-based active contour model but only considers the mean information inside and outside of the evolution curve. In SACM, a new statistical term for considering the probability distribution density of regions and a unified variational framework are proposed for construction of different segmentation models with different probability density functions. Moreover, a penalized term is also introduced in the proposed model as internal energy in order to avoid the time consuming re-initialization process. Second, a new symmetric fourth-order PDE denoising algorithm is developed to avoid the blocky effects in second-order PDE model, while preserving edges. Third, in each stage of segmentation process, different denoising algorithms (or different parameters in the same denoising model) can be employed for different sub-regions independently, so that better segmentation and smoothing results can be obtained. Compared with existing methods, our method is more flexible, robust to noise, computationally efficient and produces better results.     

A novel texture segmentation method based on co-occurrence energy-driven parametric active contour model

In this paper, a novel approach to texture segmentation based on the parametric active contour model (ACM) is proposed. At first, gray-level co-occurrence matrix and subsequently co-occurrence energy of the regions inside and outside of the dynamic contour are calculated. Difference of this energy corresponding to both the regions is used as the external energy of the proposed ACM. The contour stops and converges completely when this difference attains a maximum value. The proposed approach requires only initial contour selection and no object point selection like the other variants of parametric ACM used for texture segmentation. Experiments on a number of synthetic and real-world texture images show that in all cases, we are getting a better segmentation of the object although for few cases the execution time is bit more than that of other existing methods.     

于形态学梯度重建的分水岭分割

提出一种基于形态学梯度重建的分水岭图像分割方法.该方法在形态学梯度图像的基础上,利用形态学开闭重建运算对梯度图像进行重建,在保留重要区域轮廓的同时去除了细节和噪声.避免了标准分水岭存在的过分割现象及传统形态学开闭运算先平滑原始图像,后进行分水岭变换而造成的区域轮廓位置偏移.仿真实验证明,无论从消除过分割还是区域轮廓定位等性能方面,该方法均具有较好的分割效果.整个分割过程无需进行分割后的区域合并处理,降低了分割的复杂性;且分割过程只需选择合适的结构元素大小,增强了算法的灵活性.     

MR Image Segmentation Using a Power Transformation Approach

This study proposes a segmentation method for brain MR images using a distribution transformation approach. The method extends traditional Gaussian mixtures expectation-maximization segmentation to a power transformed version of mixed intensity distributions, which includes Gaussian mixtures as a special case. As MR intensities tend to exhibit non-Gaussianity due to partial volume effects, the proposed method is designed to fit non-Gaussian tissue intensity distributions. One advantage of the method is that it is intuitively appealing and computationally simple. To avoid performance degradation caused by intensity inhomogeneity, different methods for correcting bias fields were applied prior to image segmentation, and their correction effects on the segmentation results were examined in the empirical study. The partitions of brain tissues (i.e., gray and white matter) resulting from the method were validated and evaluated against manual segmentation results based on 38 real T1-weighted image volumes from the internet brain segmentation repository, and 18 simulated image volumes from BrainWeb. The Jaccard and Dice similarity indexes were computed to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach relative to the expert segmentations. Empirical results suggested that the proposed segmentation method yielded higher similarity measures for both gray matter and white matter as compared with those based on the traditional segmentation using the Gaussian mixtures approach.      

Segmentation of kidney from ultrasound images based on texture and shape priors

This paper presents a novel texture and shape priors based method for kidney segmentation in ultrasound (US) images. Texture features are extracted by applying a bank of Gabor filters on test images through a two-sided convolution strategy. The texture model is constructed via estimating the parameters of a set of mixtures of half-planed Gaussians using the expectation-maximization method. Through this texture model, the texture similarities of areas around the segmenting curve are measured in the inside and outside regions, respectively. We also present an iterative segmentation framework to combine the texture measures into the parametric shape model proposed by Leventon and Faugeras. Segmentation is implemented by calculating the parameters of the shape model to minimize a novel energy function. The goal of this energy function is to partition the test image into two regions, the inside one with high texture similarity and low texture variance, and the outside one with high texture variance. The effectiveness of this method is demonstrated through experimental results on both natural images and US data compared with other image segmentation methods and manual segmentation.     

基于局部图划分的多相活动轮廓图像分割模型

几何活动轮廓模型是图像分割领域的强有力工具。最近,一种基于成对相似性的图划分活动轮廓(GPAC)模型被提出,并有效应用于均质图像分割。但是,该模型的连接权函数仅与图像光谱相关,使得模型在低对比度模糊图像的应用存在较大局限,同时,成对相似性的计算量大,模型的数值实现效率不甚理想。针对这些问题,该文引入测地核函数定义连接权函数,结合多相水平集,提出了基于局部图划分的多相活动轮廓图像分割模型。自然图像的实验结果证明了该模型的有效性。     

Multiple motion segmentation with level sets

Segmentation of motion in an image sequence is one of the most challenging problems in image processing, while at the same time one that finds numerous applications. To date, a wealth of approaches to motion segmentation have been proposed. Many of them suffer from the local nature of the models used. Global models, such as those based on Markov random fields, perform, in general, better. In this paper, we propose a new approach to motion segmentation that is based on a global model. The novelty of the approach is twofold. First, inspired by recent work of other researchers we formulate the problem as that of region competition, but we solve it using the level set methodology. The key features of a level set representation, as compared to active contours, often used in this context, are its ability to handle variations in the topology of the segmentation and its numerical stability. The second novelty of the paper is the formulation in which, unlike in many other motion segmentation algorithms, we do not use intensity boundaries as an accessory; the segmentation is purely based on motion. This permits accurate estimation of motion boundaries of an object even when its intensity boundaries are hardly visible. Since occasionally intensity boundaries may prove beneficial, we extend the formulation to account for the coincidence of motion and intensity boundaries. In addition, we generalize the approach to multiple motions. We discuss possible discretizations of the evolution (PDE) equations and we give details of an initialization scheme so that the results could be duplicated. We show numerous experimental results for various formulations on natural images with either synthetic or natural motion.     

应用分层MRF/GRF模型的立体图像视差估计及分割

视差估计与分割是立体图像编码及立体视觉匹配的核心问题,本文提出一种基于分层MRF/GRF模型和交叠块匹配(HMOM)视差估计算法以及结合主动轮廓模型的视差分割提取算法.该混合视差估计方法,可得到光滑准确,且具有清晰边缘的视差场;并便于用主动轮廓模型提取感兴趣对象(OOI)的视差轮廓.与通常的变尺寸块匹配(VSBM)相比,本算法得到的视差补偿图像的峰值信噪比可提高2.5dB左右.本文得到的视差场及对应的轮廓可进一步用于立体图像编码以及视频对象分割.