Image segmentation techniques

There are now a wide variety of image segmentation techniques, some considered general purpose and some designed for specific classes of images. These techniques can be classified as: measurement space guided spatial clustering, single linkage region growing schemes, hybrid linkage region growing schemes, centroid linkage region growing schemes, spatial clustering schemes, and split-and-merge schemes. In this paper, each of the major classes of image segmentation techniques is defined and several specific examples of each class of algorithm are described. The techniques are illustrated with examples of segmentations performed on real images.