<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Segmentation is the art of partitioning an image into different regions where each one has some degree of uniformity in its feature space. A number of methods have been proposed and blind segmentation is one of them. It uses intrinsic image features, such as pixel intensity, color components and texture. However, some virtues, like poor contrast, noise and occlusion, can weaken the procedure. To overcome them, prior knowledge of the object of interest has to be incorporated in a top-down procedure for segmentation. Consequently, in this work, a novel integrated algorithm is proposed combining bottom-up (blind) and top-down (including shape prior) techniques. First, a color space transformation is performed. Then, an energy function (based on nonlinear diffusion of color components and directional derivatives) is defined. Next, signeddistance functions are generated from different shapes of the object of interest. Finally, a variational framework (based on the level set) is employed to minimize the energy function. The experimental results demonstrate a good performance of the proposed method compared with others and show its robustness in the presence of noise and occlusion. The proposed algorithm is applicable in outdoor and medical image segmentation and also in optical character recognition (OCR).</p></abstract>

Segmentation is the art of partitioning an image into different regions where each one has some degree of uniformity in its feature space. A number of methods have been proposed and blind segmentation is one of them. It uses intrinsic image features, such as pixel intensity, color components and texture. However, some virtues, like poor contrast, noise and occlusion, can weaken the procedure. To overcome them, prior knowledge of the object of interest has to be incorporated in a top-down procedure for segmentation. Consequently, in this work, a novel integrated algorithm is proposed combining bottom-up (blind) and top-down (including shape prior) techniques. First, a color space transformation is performed. Then, an energy function (based on nonlinear diffusion of color components and directional derivatives) is defined. Next, signeddistance functions are generated from different shapes of the object of interest. Finally, a variational framework (based on the level set) is employed to minimize the energy function. The experimental results demonstrate a good performance of the proposed method compared with others and show its robustness in the presence of noise and occlusion. The proposed algorithm is applicable in outdoor and medical image segmentation and also in optical character recognition (OCR).

Integrated region-based segmentation using color components and texture features with prior shape knowledge

Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Sahand New City, Tabriz, Iran

International Journal of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science

Segmentation is the art of partitioning an image into different regions where each one has some degree of uniformity in its feature space. A number of methods...

Integrated region-based segmentation using color components and texture features with prior shape knowledge

Published Online: Dec 20, 2010

Page range: 711 - 726

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/v10006-010-0054-y

Keywords
image segmentation, prior shape knowledge, level set, nonlinear diffusion, energy minimization

This content is open access.

Integrated region-based segmentation using color components and texture features with prior shape knowledge

Published Online: Dec 20, 2010

Page range: 711 - 726

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/v10006-010-0054-y

Keywordsimage segmentation, prior shape knowledge, level set, nonlinear diffusion, energy minimization

This content is open access.

Keywords
image segmentation, prior shape knowledge, level set, nonlinear diffusion, energy minimization