A binary level set model and some applications to Mumford-Shah image segmentation.

In this paper, we propose a PDE-based level set method. Traditionally, interfaces are represented by the zero level set of continuous level set functions. Instead, we let the interfaces be represented by discontinuities of piecewise constant level set functions. Each level set function can at convergence only take two values, i.e., it can only be 1 or -1; thus, our method is related to phase-field methods. Some of the properties of standard level set methods are preserved in the proposed method, while others are not. Using this new method for interface problems, we need to minimize a smooth convex functional under a quadratic constraint. The level set functions are discontinuous at convergence, but the minimization functional is smooth. We show numerical results using the method for segmentation of digital images.     

Image segmentation and labeling using the Polya urn model

We propose a segmentation method based on Polya's (1931) urn model for contagious phenomena. A preliminary segmentation yields the initial composition of an urn representing the pixel. The resulting urns are then subjected to a modified urn sampling scheme mimicking the development of an infection to yield a segmentation of the image into homogeneous regions. This process is implemented using contagion urn processes and generalizes Polya's scheme by allowing spatial interactions. The composition of the urns is iteratively updated by assuming a spatial Markovian relationship between neighboring pixel labels. The asymptotic behavior of this process is examined and comparisons with simulated annealing and relaxation labeling are presented. Examples of the application of this scheme to the segmentation of synthetic texture images, ultra-wideband synthetic aperture radar (UWB SAR) images and magnetic resonance images (MRI) are provided.     

Image and texture segmentation using local spectral histograms.

We present a method for segmenting images consisting of texture and nontexture regions based on local spectral histograms. Defined as a vector consisting of marginal distributions of chosen filter responses, local spectral histograms provide a feature statistic for both types of regions. Using local spectral histograms of homogeneous regions, we decompose the segmentation process into three stages. The first is the initial classification stage, where probability models for homogeneous texture and nontexture regions are derived and an initial segmentation result is obtained by classifying local windows. In the second stage, we give an algorithm that iteratively updates the segmentation using the derived probability models. The third is the boundary localization stage, where region boundaries are localized by building refined probability models that are sensitive to spatial patterns in segmented regions. We present segmentation results on texture as well as nontexture images. Our comparison with other methods shows that the proposed method produces more accurate segmentation results.     

基于局部平滑加权图割方法的SAR图像分割

针对合成孔径雷达(SAR)图像分割,提出了一种 局部平滑加权图割(LSWGC,local smoothing weighted graph cut)模型。首先,在加权图割(WGCut)的目标函数中加入局部平滑罚项,提高了基于谱 聚类的SAR 图像分割方法对斑点噪声的稳健性,抑制了SAR图像分割中孤立点的产生;其次,利用WGCut 与加权核 K均值(WKKM)的等价性,LSWGC以不同于参数核 图割(PKGC)方法的核化方式将核映射引入目标函数中,用图 割最优化算法求解标号函数,避免了基于谱聚类的SAR图像分割方法中图谱的求解问题,同 时改善了PKGC方法二类划分易丢失目标的不足。模拟和真实SAR图像的实验结果证实 了本文方案的有效性。     

Image segmentation by histogram thresholding using fuzzy sets

Methods for histogram thresholding based on the minimization of a threshold-dependent criterion function might not work well for images having multimodal histograms. We propose an approach to threshold the histogram according to the similarity between gray levels. Such a similarity is assessed through a fuzzy measure. In this way, we overcome the local minima that affect most of the conventional methods. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach for both bimodal and multimodal histograms.     

Mumford-Shah model for one-to-one edge matching.

This paper presents a new algorithm based on the Mumford-Shah model for simultaneously detecting the edge features of two images and jointly estimating a consistent set of transformations to match them. Compared to the current asymmetric methods in the literature, this fully symmetric method allows one to determine one-to-one correspondences between the edge features of two images. The entire variational model is realized in a multiscale framework of the finite element approximation. The optimization process is guided by an estimation minimization-type algorithm and an adaptive generalized gradient flow to guarantee a fast and smooth relaxation. The algorithm is tested on T1 and T2 magnetic resonance image data to study the parameter setting. We also present promising results of four applications of the proposed algorithm: interobject monomodal registration, retinal image registration, matching digital photographs of neurosurgery with its volume data, and motion estimation for frame interpolation.     

Image segmentation using active contours driven by the Bhattacharyya gradient flow.

This paper addresses the problem of image segmentation by means of active contours, whose evolution is driven by the gradient flow derived from an energy functional that is based on the Bhattacharyya distance. In particular, given the values of a photometric variable (or of a set thereof), which is to be used for classifying the image pixels, the active contours are designed to converge to the shape that results in maximal discrepancy between the empirical distributions of the photometric variable inside and outside of the contours. The above discrepancy is measured by means of the Bhattacharyya distance that proves to be an extremely useful tool for solving the problem at hand. The proposed methodology can be viewed as a generalization of the segmentation methods, in which active contours maximize the difference between a finite number of empirical moments of the "inside" and "outside" distributions. Furthermore, it is shown that the proposed methodology is very versatile and flexible in the sense that it allows one to easily accommodate a diversity of the image features based on which the segmentation should be performed. As an additional contribution, a method for automatically adjusting the smoothness properties of the empirical distributions is proposed. Such a procedure is crucial in situations when the number of data samples (supporting a certain segmentation class) varies considerably in the course of the evolution of the active contour. In this case, the smoothness properties of the empirical distributions have to be properly adjusted to avoid either over- or underestimation artifacts. Finally, a number of relevant segmentation results are demonstrated and some further research directions are discussed.     

Image segmentation using hidden Markov Gauss mixture models.

Image segmentation is an important tool in image processing and can serve as an efficient front end to sophisticated algorithms and thereby simplify subsequent processing. We develop a multiclass image segmentation method using hidden Markov Gauss mixture models (HMGMMs) and provide examples of segmentation of aerial images and textures. HMGMMs incorporate supervised learning, fitting the observation probability distribution given each class by a Gauss mixture estimated using vector quantization with a minimum discrimination information (MDI) distortion. We formulate the image segmentation problem using a maximum a posteriori criteria and find the hidden states that maximize the posterior density given the observation. We estimate both the hidden Markov parameter and hidden states using a stochastic expectation-maximization algorithm. Our results demonstrate that HMGMM provides better classification in terms of Bayes risk and spatial homogeneity of the classified objects than do several popular methods, including classification and regression trees, learning vector quantization, causal hidden Markov models (HMMs), and multiresolution HMMs. The computational load of HMGMM is similar to that of the causal HMM.     

Foreground segmentation based on selective foreground model

Foreground segmentation often fails when the background and foreground exhibit similar colour distributions. In this reported work, the general foreground model as a set of latest sequential segmentations is challenged, and it is asserted that the latest samples are not always best suited for foreground modelling. Proposed is a selective foreground model composed of the best suited samples chosen from all historical segmentations based on colour histogram similarity, with the time order of segmentations being ignored. Experiments demonstrate that the selective foreground model is efficient in solving the colour similarity problem.     

Image segmentation using data-modulated nonlinear diffusion

Effective object segmentation is achieved by applying a novel data-modulated nonlinear diffusion technique. The advantages of this strategy are a considerable smoothing of the detail of the scene image within the boundaries of the object while inhibiting the diffusion across the boundaries, as well as preserving and even enhancing the object borders     

Image segmentation by clustering

This paper describes a procedure for segmenting imagery using digital methods and is based on a mathematical-pattern recognition model. The technique does not require training prototypes but operates in an "unsupervised" mode. The features most useful for the given image to be segmented are retained by the algorithm without human interaction, by rejecting those attributes which do not contribute to homogeneous clustering in N-dimensional vector space. The basic procedure is a K-means clustering algorithm which converges to a local minimum in the average squared intercluster distance for a specified number of clusters. The algorithm iterates on the number of clusters, evaluating the clustering based on a parameter of clustering quality. The parameter proposed is a product of between and within cluster scatter measures, which achieves a maximum value that is postulated to represent an intrinsic number of clusters in the data. At this value, feature rejection is implemented via a Bhattacharyya measure to make the image segments more homogeneous (thereby removing "noisy" features); and reclustering is performed. The resulting parameter of clustering fidelity is maximized with segmented imagery resulting in psychovisually pleasing and culturally logical image segments.     

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.     

Image segmentation based on fuzzy connectedness using dynamic weights.

Traditional segmentation techniques do not quite meet the challenges posed by inherently fuzzy medical images. Image segmentation based on fuzzy connectedness addresses this problem by attempting to capture both closeness, based on characteristic intensity, and "hanging togetherness," based on intensity homogeneity, of image elements to the target object. This paper presents a modification and extension of previously published image segmentation algorithms based on fuzzy connectedness, which is computed as a linear combination of an object-feature-based and a homogeneity-based component using fixed weights. We provide a method, called fuzzy connectedness using dynamic weights (DyW), to introduce directional sensitivity to the homogeneity-based component and to dynamically adjust the linear weights in the functional form of fuzzy connectedness. Dynamic computation of the weights relieves the user of the exhaustive search process to find the best combination of weights suited to a particular application. This is critical in applications such as analysis of cardiac cine magnetic resonance (MR) images, where the optimal combination of affinity component weights can vary for each slice, each phase, and each subject, in spite of data being acquired from the same MR scanner with identical protocols. We present selected results of applying DyW to segment phantom images and actual MR, computed tomography, and infrared data. The accuracy of DyW is assessed by comparing it to two different formulations of fuzzy connectedness. Our method consistently achieves accuracy of more than 99.15% for a range of image complexities: contrast 5%-65%, noise-to-contrast ratio of 6%-18%, and bias field of four types with maximum gain factor of up to 10%.     

基于改进Chan-Vese模型的图像分割

目前基于水平集的图像分割方法很难给出基于全局极值的算法终止条件,而大多采用事先设定迭代次数的方法。本文提出了一种改进的Chan-Vese模型,通过添加水平集函数约束项,使得新模型抑制了水平集函数的取值范围,最终收敛至全局极值,并以此作为算法终止条件,无需事先设定迭代次数。实验结果表明,新模型在其终止条件下,分割结果正确,与传统Chan-Vese模型相比,新模型的收敛速度快3~6倍,且通用性更强。     

Image block classification using stochastic image segmentation

The authors propose a new image block classification method. The proposed algorithm incorporates image context into the classification via pixel-based segmentation. To obtain a segmented image they adopt the stochastic model-based unsupervised image segmentation algorithm. Since the block classifier considers the grey level distribution in the block, it can differentiate edges from textures. Also, since the segmentation is executed independently at each small block, a parallel processor can be applied to obtain a real-time block classification     

Image flow segmentation and estimation using displaced spatial gradient

There are two main causes of inaccuracies in estimating image flows using gradient based techniques. One is the erroneous measurement of gradients in brightness and the other is the blurring of motion boundaries which is caused by the smoothness constraint. In the Letter, the gradient measurement error of conventional methods is analysed and a new technique based on this analysis proposed.<>     

Nonlinear analog networks for image smoothing and segmentation

Image smoothing and segmentation algorithms are frequently formulated as optimization problems. Linear and nonlinear (reciprocal)resistive networks have solutions characterized by an extremum principle. Thus, appropriately designed networks canautomatically solve certain smoothing and segmentation problems in robot vision. This paper considers switched linear resistive networks and nonlinear resistive networks for such tasks. Following [1] the latter network type is derived from the former via an intermediate stochastic formulation, and a new result relating the solution sets of the two is given for the zero temperature limit. We then present simulation studies of several continuation methods that can be gracefully implemented in analog VLSI and that seem to give good results for these nonconvex optimization problems.     

CMOS resistive fuses for image smoothing and segmentation

A two-terminal nonlinear element called a resistive fuse is described. Its application in image smoothing and segmentation is explained. Two types of CMOS resistive fuses were designed, fabricated, and tested. The first implementation employs four depletion-mode NMOS and PMOS transistors, occupying a minimum area of 30 μm×38 μm. The second implementation uses seven or 11 standard enhancement-mode transistors on an area of 75 μm×100 μm or less. Individual resistive-fuse circuits have been fabricated and tested and their functionality has been demonstrated. A one-dimensional network of 35 resistive fuses using the 11-transistor implementation was also fabricated in a standard CMOS process. Experimental results indicate that the network is capable of smoothing out small variations in image intensity while preserving the edges of objects     

Image sequence coding using multiple-level segmentation and affinemotion estimation

A very low bit-rate video codec using multiple-level segmentation and affine motion compensation is presented. The translational motion model is adequate to motion compensate small regions even when complex motion is involved; however, it is no longer capable of delivering satisfactory results when applied to large regions or the whole frame. The proposed codec is based on a variable block size algorithm enhanced with global motion compensation, inner block segmentation, and a set of motion models used adaptively in motion compensation. The experimental results show that the proposed method gives better results in terms of the bit rate under the same PSNR constraint for most of the tested sequences as compared with the fixed block size approach and traditional variable block size codec in which only translational motion compensation is utilized     

基于改进C-V模型的图像分割算法

提出一种新的模型——Chan-Vese模型,该模型是基于曲线演化、水平集方法、局部的统计信息,新模型包括两个方面:局部核心函数和惩罚项.引入局部统计信息后的新模型可以对非同质图像进行有效的分割.另外,核心函数中加入惩罚项,可以有效避免水平集函数初始化,缩短模型演化时间.通过实验的仿真结果发现,新模型在对非同质图像进行分割时得到了良好的结果.