Narrow band region-based active contours and surfaces for 2D and 3D segmentation

We describe a narrow band region approach for deformable curves and surfaces in the perspective of 2D and 3D image segmentation. Basically, we develop a region energy involving a fixed-width band around the curve or surface. Classical region-based methods, like the Chan–Vese model, often make strong assumptions on the intensity distributions of the searched object and background. In order to be less restrictive, our energy achieves a trade-off between local features of gradient-like terms and global region features. Relying on the theory of parallel curves and surfaces, we perform a mathematical derivation to express the region energy in a curvature-based form allowing efficient computation on explicit models. We introduce two different region terms, each one being dedicated to a particular configuration of the target object. Evolution of deformable models is performed by means of energy minimization using gradient descent. We provide both explicit and implicit implementations. The explicit models are a parametric snake in 2D and a triangular mesh in 3D, whereas the implicit models are based on the level set framework, regardless of the dimension. Experiments are carried out on MRI and CT medical images, in 2D and 3D, as well as 2D color photographs.     

基于DenseNet-BC网络的皮肤镜下皮肤损伤分割

针对皮肤病变图像边界分割不准确的问题,提出了一种改进的稠密卷积网络(DenseNet-BC)皮肤损伤分割算法。首先,改变传统算法层与层之间的连接方式,通过密集连接使得所有层都能直接访问从原始输入信号到损失函数的梯度,让图像特征信息得到最大化的流动。其次,为降低参数数量与网络的计算量,在瓶颈层和过渡层中采用小卷积核对输入特征图的通道数进行减半操作。将DenseNet-BC算法与VGG-16、Inception-v3以及ResNet-50等算法在ISIC 2018 Task 1皮肤病变分割数据集上进行性能比较。实验结果表明,DenseNet-BC算法的病变分割准确率为0.975,Threshold Jaccard为0.835,分割准确率较其他算法提升显著,是一种有效的皮损分割算法。     

MRI图像的基于窄带的递进多分区C-V分割方法

提出了递进的基于窄带的多分区C-V方法,并对多幅医学脑部MRI图像进行了分割实验。由于该递进方法分为多个阶段,每阶段只需一个水平集函数,并且在每一阶段应用窄带区域,即只处理窄带区域中的点,从而使计算量大大减少。实验结果证明本算法是有效的,在提高计算速度的同时,可大大改进复杂几何结构的分割效果。     

A novel active contour model for image segmentation using distance regularization term

In this paper, a novel active contour model (R-DRLSE model) based on level set method is proposed for image segmentation. The R-DRLSE model is a variational level set approach that utilizes the region information to find image contours by minimizing the presented energy functional. To avoid the time-consuming re-initialization step, the distance regularization term is used to penalize the deviation of the level set function from a signed distance function. The numerical implementation scheme of the model can significantly reduce the iteration number and computation time. The results of experiments performed on some synthetic and real images show that the R-DRLSE model is effective and efficient. In particular, our method has been applied to MR kidney image segmentation with desirable results.     

一种动态场景多运动目标的综合检测方法

提出一种动态场景下多运动目标检测的方法。该方法融合基于帧间图像差值的运动分割技术以及区域生长法来获得各运动目标的初始轮廓。再利用主动轮廓线模型进行优化,从而得到各运动目标的最优轮廓,该方法具有以下明显特点：允许背景任意复杂;在无补偿情况下仍能得到良好结果;目标大小不影响算法的鲁棒性．实验证明了该方法的有效性、实用性和鲁棒性。     

Multiple piecewise constant with geodesic active contours (MPC-GAC) framework for interactive image segmentation using graph cut optimization

This paper proposes an improved variational model, multiple piecewise constant with geodesic active contour (MPC-GAC) model, which generalizes the region-based active contour model by Chan and Vese, 2001 [11] and merges the edge-based active contour by Caselles et al., 1997 [7] to inherit the advantages of region-based and edge-based image segmentation models. We show that the new MPC-GAC energy functional can be iteratively minimized by graph cut algorithms with high computational efficiency compared with the level set framework. This iterative algorithm alternates between the piecewise constant functional learning and the foreground and background updating so that the energy value gradually decreases to the minimum of the energy functional. The k-means method is used to compute the piecewise constant values of the foreground and background of image. We use a graph cut method to detect and update the foreground and background. Numerical experiments show that the proposed interactive segmentation method based on the MPC-GAC model by graph cut optimization can effectively segment images with inhomogeneous objects and background.     

一种新的粘连字符图像分割方法

针对监控画面采样图像中数字的自动识别问题,提出一种新的粘连字符图像分割方法。该方法以预处理后二值图像的连通状况来判定字符粘连的存在,并对粘连字符图像采用上下轮廓极值法确定候选粘连分割点,以双向最短路径确定合适的图像分割线路。仿真实验表明,该方法能有效解决粘连字符图像的分割问题。     

A multi-direction GVF snake for the segmentation of skin cancer images

A multi-direction gradient vector flow (GVF) snake-based scheme is proposed in this paper for the segmentation of skin cancer images. Unlike the traditional anisotropic diffusion (AD) filter, which has many disadvantages such as sensitivity to noise, a new AD filter has been developed to remove the noise. The proposed AD filter uses adaptive threshold selection and a new gradient computation method, which is robust to noise and can effectively remove the hairs. After the noise is removed from the skin cancer image, the image is segmented using a multi-direction GVF snake. The multi-direction GVF snake extends the single direction GVF snake and traces the boundary of the skin cancer even if there are other objects near the skin cancer region. Experiments performed on 11 cancer images show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

Active contours driven by median global image fitting energy for SAR river image segmentation

The existing active contour models can not achieve accurate segmentation of SAR river images. To solve this difficulty, a novel active contour model driven by median global image fitting energy is proposed. First, the median global fitted image is defined. Then by minimizing the difference between the median global fitted image and the original image, the energy functional of the proposed model is obtained. Moreover, the within-cluster absolute differences of the pixel grayscale values inside and outside the curve are introduced to adaptively adjust the proportions of the region energies inside and outside the curve. Compared with the popular active contour models, extensive experimental results demonstrate the proposed model has clear advantages in terms of both segmentation performance and segmentation efficiency.     

A coarse-to-fine approach for segmenting melanocytic skin lesions in standard camera images

Melanoma is a type of malignant melanocytic skin lesion, and it is among the most life threatening existing cancers if not treated at an early stage. Computer-aided prescreening systems for melanocytic skin lesions is a recent trend to detect malignant melanocytic skin lesions in their early stages, and lesion segmentation is an important initial processing step. A good definition of the lesion area and its border is very important for discriminating between benign and malignant cases. In this paper, we propose to segment melanocytic skin lesions using a sequence of steps. We start by pre-segmenting the skin lesion, creating a new image representation (channel) where the lesion features are more evident. This new channel is thresholded, and the lesion border pre-detection is refined using an active-contours algorithm followed by morphological operations. Our experimental results based on a publicly available dataset suggest that our method potentially can be more accurate than comparable state-of-the-art methods proposed in literature.     

A new iris segmentation method for non-ideal iris images

Many researchers have studied iris recognition techniques in unconstrained environments, where the probability of acquiring non-ideal iris images is very high due to off-angles, noise, blurring and occlusion by eyelashes, eyelids, glasses, and hair. Although there have been many iris segmentation methods, most focus primarily on the accurate detection with iris images which are captured in a closely controlled environment. This paper proposes a new iris segmentation method that can be used to accurately extract iris regions from non-ideal quality iris images. This research has following three novelties compared to previous works; firstly, the proposed method uses AdaBoost eye detection in order to compensate for the iris detection error caused by the two circular edge detection operations; secondly, it uses a color segmentation technique for detecting obstructions by the ghosting effects of visible light; and thirdly, if there is no extracted corneal specular reflection in the detected pupil and iris regions, the captured iris image is determined as a “closed eye” image.     

A robust active contour model driven by fuzzy c-means energy for fast image segmentation

In this paper, we propose a robust region-based active contour model driven by fuzzy c-means energy that draws upon the clustering intensity information for fast image segmentation. The main idea of fuzzy c-means energy is to quickly compute the two types of cluster center functions for all points in image domain by fuzzy c-means algorithm locally with a proper preprocessing procedure before the curve starts to evolve. The time-consuming local fitting functions in traditional models are substituted with these two functions. Furthermore, a sign function and a Gaussian filtering function are utilized to replace the penalty term and the length term in most models, respectively. Experiments on several synthetic and real images have proved that the proposed model can segment images with intensity inhomogeneity efficiently and precisely. Moreover, the proposed model has a good robustness on initial contour, parameters and different kinds of noise.     

A robust incremental learning framework for accurate skin region segmentation in color images

In this paper, we propose a robust incremental learning framework for accurate skin region segmentation in real-life images. The proposed framework is able to automatically learn the skin color information from each test image in real-time and generate the specific skin model (SSM) for that image. Consequently, the SSM can adapt to a certain image, in which the skin colors may vary from one region to another due to illumination conditions and inherent skin colors. The proposed framework consists of multiple iterations to learn the SSM, and each iteration comprises two major steps: (1) collecting new skin samples by region growing; (2) updating the skin model incrementally with the available skin samples. After the skin model converges (i.e., becomes the SSM), a post-processing can be further performed to fill up the interstices on the skin map. We performed a set of experiments on a large-scale real-life image database and our method observably outperformed the well-known Bayesian histogram. The experimental results confirm that the SSM is more robust than static skin models.     

A systematic method for fingerprint ridge orientation estimation and image segmentation

This paper proposes a scheme for systematically estimating fingerprint ridge orientation and segmenting fingerprint image by means of evaluating the correctness of the ridge orientation based on neural network. The neural network is used to learn the correctness of the estimated orientation by gradient-based method. The trained network is able to distinguish correct and incorrect ridge orientations, and as a consequence, the falsely estimated ridge orientation of a local image block can be corrected using the around blocks of which orientations are correctly estimated. A coarse segmentation can also be done based on the trained neural network by taking the blocks of correctly estimated orientation as foreground and the blocks of incorrectly estimated orientation as background. Besides, following the steps of estimating ridge orientation correctness, a secondary segmentation method is proposed to segment the remaining ridges which are the afterimage of the previously scanned fingers. The proposed scheme serves for minutiae detection and is compared with VeriFinger 4.2 published by Neurotechnologija Ltd. in 2004, and the comparison shows that the proposed scheme leads to an improved accuracy of minutiae detection.     

A novel method for automated human behavior segmentation

In order to conveniently classify, retrieve, and synthesize human motion, motion capture (MoCap) data need to be properly segmented into distinct behaviors. In this paper, we propose a novel automated segmentation method based on posture histograms in sliding window. Firstly, a set of new posture features are proposed and defined to construct the posture histogram, which is a new compact representation of behavioral features. Then, by executing the sliding window, especially in this paper, the behavior features are analyzed in subsequence level to reduce noise sensitivity. We open up a novel way to tune sliding window by studying steady states of human behaviors, so that conspicuous and stable behavioral features can be obtained. Finally, by analyzing the clustering property of posture histograms of the subsequences, the behavior segmentation problem is tactfully simplified to the detection of outlier subsequence. In particular, the local outlier factor algorithm is adopted to solve outlier subsequence detection, and good results are achieved. Extensive experiments are conducted on 14 pieces of multi‐bcase, † † CMU Graphics Lab Motion Capture Database: http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu
and the experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms other state‐of‐the‐art ones. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.