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Superpixel segmentation is a popular preprocessing tool in the field of image processing. Nevertheless, conventional planar superpixel generation algorithms are inadequately suited for segmenting symmetrical spherical images due to the distinctive geometric differences. In this paper, we present a novel superpixel algorithm termed context identity and contour intensity (CICI) that is specifically tailored for spherical scene segmentation. By defining a neighborhood range and regional context identity, we propose a symmetrical spherical seed-sampling method to optimize both the quantity and distribution of seeds, achieving evenly distributed seeds across the panoramic surface. Additionally, we integrate the contour prior to superpixel correlation measurements, which could significantly enhance boundary adherence across different scales. By implementing the two-fold optimizations on the non-iterative clustering framework, we achieve synergistic CICI to generate higher-quality superpixels. Extensive experiments on the public dataset confirm that our work outperforms the baselines and achieves comparable results with state-of-the-art superpixel algorithms in terms of several quantitative metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the realm of digital image applications, image processing technology occupies a pivotal position, with image segmentation serving as a foundational component. As the digital image application domain expands across industries, the conventional segmentation techniques increasingly challenge to cater to modern demands. To address this gap, this paper introduces an MCMC-based image segmentation algorithm based on the Markov Random Field (MRF) model, marking a significant stride in the field. The novelty of this research lies in its method that capitalizes on domain information in pixel space, amplifying the local segmentation precision of image segmentation algorithms. Further innovation is manifested in the development of an adaptive segmentation image denoising algorithm based on MCMC sampling. This algorithm not only elevates image segmentation outcomes, but also proficiently denoises the image. In the experimental results, MRF-MCMC achieves better segmentation performance, with an average segmentation accuracy of 94.26% in Lena images, significantly superior to other common image segmentation algorithms. In addition, the study proposes that the denoising model outperforms other algorithms in peak signal-to-noise ratio and structural similarity in environments with noise standard deviations of 15, 25, and 50. In essence, these experimental findings affirm the efficacy of this study, opening avenues for refining digital image segmentation methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation is the process of partitioning an image into homogenous regions, and represents one of the most fundamental and important procedures in image processing. Image denoising is a process to remove unwanted noise from a digital image, enhancing its visual quality. Various algorithms, like non-local means and deep learning-based approaches, have been developed to remove noise while preserving important image details. Currently, the prevalent application of pattern recognition technology is achieved through the implementation of image segmentation algorithms. In this study, we present a new, highly efficient, and fast computational scheme specifically developed for a phase-field mathematical model of image segmentation. The numerical methodology is based on an operator splitting method (OSM). The split operators are solved by using closed-form analytic solutions and a finite difference method (FDM) with an alternating direction explicit (ADE) method. To show the notable efficiency and rapid computational performance of the proposed computational algorithm, we conduct a series of numerical experiments. Through these computational tests, we confirm a significant contribution to the advancement of methodologies employed in the critical domain of image processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An unresolved issue in contemporary biomedicine is the overwhelming number and diversity of complex images that require annotation, analysis and interpretation. Recent advances in Deep Learning have revolutionized the field of computer vision, creating algorithms that compete with human experts in image segmentation tasks. However, these frameworks require large human-annotated datasets for training and the resulting "black box" models are difficult to interpret. In this study, we introduce Kartezio, a modular Cartesian Genetic Programming-based computational strategy that generates fully transparent and easily interpretable image processing pipelines by iteratively assembling and parameterizing computer vision functions. The pipelines thus generated exhibit comparable precision to state-of-the-art Deep Learning approaches on instance segmentation tasks, while requiring drastically smaller training datasets. This Few-Shot Learning method confers tremendous flexibility, speed, and functionality to this approach. We then deploy Kartezio to solve a series of semantic and instance segmentation problems, and demonstrate its utility across diverse images ranging from multiplexed tissue histopathology images to high resolution microscopy images. While the flexibility, robustness and practical utility of Kartezio make this fully explicable evolutionary designer a potential game-changer in the field of biomedical image processing, Kartezio remains complementary and potentially auxiliary to mainstream Deep Learning approaches. Deep learning frameworks require large human-annotated datasets for training and the resulting 'black box' models are difficult to interpret. Here, the authors present Kartezio; a modular Cartesian Genetic Programming-based computational strategy that generates fully transparent and easily interpretable image processing pipelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud detection is critical in remote sensing image processing, and convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have significantly advanced this field. However, traditional CNNs primarily focus on extracting local features, which can be challenging for cloud detection due to the variability in the size, shape, and boundaries of clouds. To address this limitation, we propose a hybrid Swin transformer–CNN cloud detection (STCCD) network that combines the strengths of both architectures. The STCCD network employs a novel dual-stream encoder that integrates Swin transformer and CNN blocks. Swin transformers can capture global context features more effectively than traditional CNNs, while CNNs excel at extracting local features. The two streams are fused via a fusion coupling module (FCM) to produce a richer representation of the input image. To further enhance the network's ability in extracting cloud features, we incorporate a feature fusion module based on the attention mechanism (FFMAM) and an aggregation multiscale feature module (AMSFM). The FFMAM selectively merges global and local features based on their importance, while the AMSFM aggregates feature maps from different spatial scales to obtain a more comprehensive representation of the cloud mask. We evaluated the STCCD network on three challenging cloud detection datasets (GF1-WHU, SPARCS, and AIR-CD), as well as the L8-Biome dataset to assess its generalization capability. The results show that the STCCD network outperformed other state-of-the-art methods on all datasets. Notably, the STCCD model, trained on only four bands (visible and near-infrared) of the GF1-WHU dataset, outperformed the official Landsat-8 Fmask algorithm in the L8-Biome dataset, which uses additional bands (shortwave infrared, cirrus, and thermal). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Image segmentation pipelines are commonly used in microscopy to identify cellular compartments like nucleus and cytoplasm, but there are few standards for comparing segmentation accuracy across pipelines. The process of selecting a segmentation assessment pipeline can seem daunting to researchers due to the number and variety of metrics available for evaluating segmentation quality. Results: Here we present automated pipelines to obtain a comprehensive set of 69 metrics to evaluate segmented data and propose a selection methodology for models based on quantitative analysis, dimension reduction or unsupervised classification techniques and informed selection criteria. Conclusion: We show that the metrics used here can often be reduced to a small number of metrics that give a more complete understanding of segmentation accuracy, with different groups of metrics providing sensitivity to different types of segmentation error. These tools are delivered as easy to use python libraries, command line tools, Common Workflow Language Tools, and as Web Image Processing Pipeline interactive plugins to ensure a wide range of users can access and use them. We also present how our evaluation methods can be used to observe the changes in segmentations across modern machine learning/deep learning workflows and use cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U-Net architecture is a prominent technique for image segmentation. However, a significant challenge in utilizing this algorithm is the selection of appropriate hyperparameters. In this study, we aimed to address this issue using an evolutionary approach. We conducted experiments on four different geometric datasets (triangle, kite, parallelogram, and square), with 1,000 training samples and 200 test samples. Initially, we performed image segmentation without the evolutionary approach, manually adjusting the U-Net hyperparameters. The average accuracy rates for the geometric images were 0.94463, 0.96289, 0.96962, and 0.93971, respectively. Subsequently, we proposed a hybrid version of the U-Net architecture, incorporating the Grasshopper Optimization Algorithm (GOA) for an evolutionary approach. This method automatically discovered the optimal hyperparameters, resulting in improved image segmentation performance. The average accuracy rates achieved by the proposed method were 0.99418, 0.99673, 0.99143, and 0.99946, respectively, for the geometric images. Comparative analysis revealed that the proposed UNet-GOA approach outperformed the traditional U-Net architecture, yielding higher accuracy rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intrinsic high parallelism and entanglement characteristics of quantum computing have made quantum image processing techniques a focus of great interest. One of the most widely used techniques in image processing is segmentation, which in one of their most basic forms can be carried out using thresholding algorithms. In this paper, a fault-tolerant quantum dual-threshold algorithm has been proposed. This algorithm has been built using only Clifford+T gates for compatibility with error detection and correction codes. Because fault-tolerant implementation of T gates has a much higher cost than other quantum gates, our focus has been on reducing the number of these gates. This has allowed adding noise tolerance, computational cost reduction, and fault tolerance to the state-of-the-art dual-threshold segmentation circuits. Since the dual-threshold image segmentation involves the comparison operation, as part of this work we have implemented two full comparator circuits. These circuits optimize the metrics T-count and T-depth with respect to the best circuit comparators currently available in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Picture processing is applied in all kind of fields, such as space science research, medical imaging, photography art. Because the human vision system is a complex nonlinear dynamic system, the traditional image enhancement methods often can not meet the requirements of real-time in practical applications. In the face of a large number of images, it is of great practical significance to obtain practical information from these data. With the rapid development of computer CnTech, image compression coding CnTech has also made great progress. And through the Mask R-CNN algorithm for effective segmentation and image recognition, can help people face massive image information, to their own needs as the goal, to achieve efficient retrieval, analysis, induction. The traditional methods of image classification by manually selecting features or manually extracting template matching have some defects. In this paper, a Mask R-CNN image optimization processing CnTech is proposed, which can accurately identify images and has higher accuracy for image feature extraction. It is meaningful to achieve automatic and accurate segmentation of microscopic images. Through training on COCO data set, it is verified through experiments that there are problems in image segmentation and recognition. In Mask R-CNN model, resource consumption is reduced and the efficiency of image segmentation and recognition is improved. Compared with the current cutting-edge algorithms, the image object detection on the strength of Mask R-CNN model has significant advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cracks are fractures or breaks that occur in materials such as concrete, metals, rocks, and other solids. Various methods are used to detect and monitor cracks; among many of them, image-based methodologies allow fast identification of the distress and easy quantification of the percentage of cracks in the scene. Two main categories can be identified: classical and deep learning approaches. In the last decade, the tendency has moved towards the use of the latter. Even though they have proven their outstanding predicting performance, they suffer some drawbacks: a "black-box" nature leaves the user blind and without the possibility of modifying any parameters, a huge amount of labeled data is generally needed, a process that requires expert judgment is always required, and, finally, they tend to be time-consuming. Accordingly, the present study details the methodology for a new algorithm for crack segmentation based on the theory of minimal path selection combined with a region-based approach obtained through the segmentation of texture features extracted using Gabor filters. A pre-processing step is described, enabling the equalization of brightness and shadows, which results in better detection of local minima. These local minimal are constrained by a minimum distance between adjacent points, enabling a better coverage of the cracks. Afterward, a region-based segmentation technique is introduced to determine two areas that are used to determine threshold values used for rejection. This step is critical to generalize the algorithm to images presenting close-up scenes or wide cracks. Finally, a geometrical thresholding step is presented, allowing the exclusion of rounded areas and small isolated cracks. The results showed a very competitive F1-score (0.839), close to state-of-the-art values achieved with deep learning techniques. The main advantage of this approach is the transparency of the workflow, contrary to what happens with deep learning frameworks. In the proposed approach, no prior information is required; however, the statistical parameters may have to be adjusted to the particular case and requirements of the situation. The proposed algorithm results in a useful tool for researchers and practitioners needing to validate their results against some reference or needing labeled data for their models. Moreover, the current study could establish the grounds to standardize the procedure for crack segmentation with a lower human bias and faster results. The direct application of the methodology to images obtained with any low-cost sensor makes the proposed algorithm an operational support tool for authorities needing crack detection systems in order to monitor and evaluate the current state of the infrastructures, such as roads, tunnels, or bridges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing infrared image processing technology mainly relies on the traditional segmentation algorithm, which is not only inefficient, but also has problems such as blurred edges, poor segmentation accuracy, and insufficient extraction of key power equipment features for the infrared image defect segmentation of power equipment. A CS_DeeplabV3+ network for the accurate segmentation of the infrared image defect segmentation of power equipment is designed for the situation of leakage and false detection after segmentation by traditional algorithms. The ASPP module is improved in the encoder part to enable the network to obtain a denser pixel sampling, an improved attention mechanism is introduced to enhance the sensitivity and accuracy of the network for feature extraction, and a semantic segmentation feature enhancement module—the structured feature enhancement module (SFEM)—is introduced in the decoder part to enhance the feature processing to improve the segmentation accuracy. The CS_DeeplabV3+ network is validated using the dataset, and the experimental comparison proves that the improved model has finer contours compared with other models for segmenting infrared images of power equipment defects, and MPA is improved by 5.6% and MIOU is improved by 7.3% compared with the DeeplabV3+ network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Denoising is the basis and premise of image processing and an important part of image preprocessing. Denoising can effectively improve image quality, which contributes to subsequent image processing such as image segmentation, feature extraction, and so on. In this paper, we propose a novel image denoising method based on wavelet transform and nonlocal moment mean filtering approach (NMM). The noisy image is firstly denoised by a wavelet-based soft-thresholding denoising technique and NMM is then utilized to further eliminate the rest noises. Meanwhile, the fusion of moment invariants increases the robustness of our denoising algorithm due to the invariance of image scaling, translation, and rotation of color moments. Experiments show that our algorithm achieves a better denoising effect compared with some other denoising approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-level thresholding image segmentation divides an image into multiple regions of interest and is a key step in image processing and image analysis. Aiming toward the problems of the low segmentation accuracy and slow convergence speed of traditional multi-level threshold image segmentation methods, in this paper, we present multi-level thresholding image segmentation based on an improved slime mould algorithm (ISMA) and symmetric cross-entropy for global optimization and image segmentation tasks. First, elite opposition-based learning (EOBL) was used to improve the quality and diversity of the initial population and accelerate the convergence speed. The adaptive probability threshold was used to adjust the selection probability of the slime mould to enhance the ability of the algorithm to jump out of the local optimum. The historical leader strategy, which selects the optimal historical information as the leader for the position update, was found to improve the convergence accuracy. Subsequently, 14 benchmark functions were used to evaluate the performance of ISMA, comparing it with other well-known algorithms in terms of the optimization accuracy, convergence speed, and significant differences. Subsequently, we tested the segmentation quality of the method proposed in this paper on eight grayscale images and compared it with other image segmentation criteria and well-known algorithms. The experimental metrics include the average fitness (mean), standard deviation (std), peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), structure similarity index (SSIM), and feature similarity index (FSIM), which we utilized to evaluate the quality of the segmentation. The experimental results demonstrated that the improved slime mould algorithm is superior to the other compared algorithms, and multi-level thresholding image segmentation based on the improved slime mould algorithm and symmetric cross-entropy can be effectively applied to the task of multi-level threshold image segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-dimensional (3D) ground-penetrating radar is an effective method for detecting internal crack damage in pavement structures. Inefficient manual interpretation of radar images and high personnel requirements have substantially restrained the generalization of 3D ground-penetrating radar. An improved Crack Unet model based on the Unet semantic segmentation model is proposed herein for 3D ground-penetrating radar crack image processing. The experiment showed that the MPA, MioU, and accuracy of the model were improved, and it displayed better capacity in the radar image crack segmentation task than current mainstream algorithms do, such as deepLabv3, PSPNet, and Unet. In the test dataset without cracks, Crack Unet is on the same level as deepLabv3 and PSPNet, which can meet engineering requirements and display a significant improvement compared with Unet. According to the ablation experiment, the MPA and MioU of Unet configured with PMDA, MC-FS, and RS modules were larger than those of Unet configured with one or two modules. The PMDA module adopted by the Crack Unet model showed a higher MPA and MioU than the SE module and the CBAM module did, respectively. The results show that the Crack Unet model has a better segmentation ability than the current mainstream algorithms do in the task of the crack segmentation of radar images, and the performance of crack segmentation is significantly improved compared with the Unet model. The Crack Unet model has excellent engineering application value in the task of the crack segmentation of radar images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The density peaks clustering (DPC) algorithm can identify clusters with various shapes and densities in the underlying dataset. However, the DPC algorithm cannot exactly find the true quantity of clustering centers when computing the local density, and it is difficult to handle non‐convex datasets. Moreover, the DPC algorithm is difficult to identify boundary points and outliers without a reasonable allocation strategy when dealing with low‐density points. To solve these limitations, a novel deviation density peaks clustering (DeDPC) algorithm is proposed. First, the local deviation of the spatial distance of datasets with different structures is utilised to replace the local density to generate a more reasonable clustering center decision graph. Second, a threshold is defined to further divide and process low‐density points. Finally, outliers in low‐density points can be accurately found to accurately cluster the dataset. To evaluate the performance of the DeDPC algorithm, experiments are conducted on synthetic and real‐world datasets and the DeDPC is compared with other clustering methods. The DeDPC is also applied to medical image segmentation to further demonstrate its capability for medical image processing. The simulation results show that the DeDPC method has good validity and utility for both non‐convex datasets and medical image segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a constant rise in the amount of data being copied or plagiarized because of the abundance of content and information freely available across the internet. Even though the systems try to check documents for the plagiarism, there have been trials to overcome these system checks. In this paper, the concept of character injection is used to trick plagiarism checker is presented. It is also showcased that how does the similarity check algorithms based on k-grams fail to detect the character injection. In order to eradicate the problem or error in similarity rates caused due to the problem of character injection, image processing based approach of multiple histogram projections are used. An application is developed to detect the character injection in the document and produce the accurate similarity rate. The results are shown with some test documents and the proposed method eliminates any kind of character injected in the document that tricks plagiarism. The proposed method has addressed the problem of character injection with image processing based changes in the existing methods of document-similarity check algorithms using k-grams. The proposed method can detect 100% injected character be it any alphabet of any language, The processing time for conversion, histogram projections and applying winnowing algorithm takes 1.2 sec per page on average when experimented on multiple types of document varying in size from 2 KB to 10 MB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As we know, image colorization is widely used in computer graphics and has become a research hotspot in the field of image processing. Current image colorization technology has the phenomenon of single coloring effect and unreal color, which is too complicated to be implemented and struggled to gain popularity. In this paper, a new method based on a convolution neural network is proposed to study the reasonable coloring of human images and ensures the realism of the coloring effect and the diversity of coloring at the same time. First, this paper selects about 5000 pictures of people and plants from the Imagenet dataset and makes a small dataset containing only people and backgrounds. Secondly, in order to obtain the image segmentation results, this paper improves the U-net network and carries out three times of down sampling and three times of up-sampling. Finally, we add the expanded convolution, and use the sigmoid activation function to replace the ReLU (The Rectified Linear Unit) activation function and put the BN (Batch Normalization) before the activation function. Experimental results show that our proposed image colorization algorithm based on the deep learning scheme can reduce the training time of the network and achieve higher quality segmentation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In precision agriculture (PA), the usage of image processing, artificial intelligence, data analysis, and internet of things provides an increase in efficiency, energy, and time saving. In image processing–based applications, vegetation detection, in other words, segmentation that allows monitoring of plant growth and health as well as identification of weeds has a great importance. Vegetation indices (VIs) are widely used algorithms for segmentation. Their advantages include low computational cost and easy implementation and handling compared to the other algorithms. Nevertheless, they require a manual threshold detection that customizes the process and prevents generalization. In this study, a novel automatic segmentation method, which does not require a manual threshold detection by combining VIs with a classification algorithm, is proposed. It deals with the segmentation process as a two class classification problem (vegetation and background). As the classification algorithm, Discriminative Common Vector Approach (DCVA) that has a high discrimination power is used. Each image pixel is represented with a 3 × 1 dimensional vector whose elements correspond to Excess Green (ExG), Green minus Blue (GB), and Color Index of Vegetation (CIVE); VI values are obtained. Then, on the sample space accepting this pixel vector as a sample, DCVA is applied and a discriminative common vector for each class which is unique and describes that class in the best way possible is obtained and it is used for classification. Proposed segmentation method's performance is compared with Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Random Forest (RF) algorithm. The proposed segmentation algorithm outperformed both CNN's and RF's performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the congenital coronary heart diseases, atrial septal defect constitutes the 1/3 most common type. In many cases, the affected person stays asymptomatic for the duration of the youth even having big shunts. Methodologies that may be hired for figuring out the defects are: echocardiogram, chest X-ray, electrocardiogram, cardiac catheterization, MRI, CT scan, phonocardiogram. Deep learning may be correctly utilised for the automatic estimation of the illness from the test result. The purpose of this review paper is to offer an perception into ASD, the strategies for figuring out it and the application of deep learning models for distinguishing the illness. The paper opinions diverse algorithms used for identity of defects also points out the restrictions of every algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Superpixel segmentation for polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) images plays a key role in remote-sensing tasks, such as ship detection and land-cover classification. However, the existing methods cannot directly generate multi-scale superpixels in a hierarchical style and they will take a long time when multi-scale segmentation is executed separately. In this article, we propose an effective and accurate hierarchical superpixel segmentation method, by introducing a minimum spanning tree (MST) algorithm called the Boruvka algorithm. To accurately measure the difference between neighboring pixels, we obtain the scattering mechanism information derived from the model-based refined 5-component decomposition (RFCD) and construct a comprehensive dissimilarity measure. In addition, the edge strength map and homogeneity measurement are considered to make use of the structural and spatial distribution information in the PolSAR image. On this basis, we can generate superpixels using the distance metric along with the MST framework. The proposed method can maintain good segmentation accuracy at multiple scales, and it generates superpixels in real time. According to the experimental results on the ESAR and AIRSAR datasets, our method is faster than the current state-of-the-art algorithms and preserves somewhat more image details in different segmentation scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation (IE) in several disciplines of image processing and computer vision is an essential topic. Segmentation splits a picture into the areas or items that it constitutes. Image segmentation may be achieved with many approaches, some easier than others because of sophisticated programming requirements. The most common technique for segmenting pictures is edge detection (ED) based on sudden (locomotive) intensity fluctuations. This paper aims to study edge detection approaches for the division of images and acquired experimental findings, Sobel, Prewitt, Robert, CannyLoG (Laplacian of Gaussian). It is vital to ensure that picture segmentation algorithms deliver correct results quickly and efficiently for computer vision to reach its full potential. Computer vision approaches require more investigation in hierarchical architectural IoT networks created for seeing the world. In this work, the new way to provide joint image detection (JID) algorithm is to provide multi-scaling approaches for edge detection and segmentation using IoT edge computing (EC). This JID-EC method avoids the requirement to choose and track the edge explicitly. This study provides an overview of fundamental ideas, techniques, and algorithms common to segment images and edge detection, focusing on the segmentation and visualization of joint-articular cartilage images. The reason for this failure is that it is an image noise-sensitive high pass filter. The need for improved algorithms to meet a suitable value of low and high thresholds should thus be stressed for picture noise such as a canny edge, and the performance is achieved with an efficiency of 95.2%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of medical image processing, due to the differences in tissues, organs, and imaging methods, obtained medical images have significant differences. With the development of intelligence in medicine, an increasing number of computing optimization algorithms based on AI technology have also been applied to the field of medicine. Because the image segmentation algorithm based on the semisupervised self-training algorithm solves initialization class center large randomness problem in the traditional cluster-based image segmentation algorithm, this article aims to integrate the artificial intelligence semisupervised self-training algorithm into the pathological tissue image segmentation problem. An experimental group is designed to collect sample images and the algorithm proposed in this article is used to perform image segmentation to achieve a better visual experience and images. Although there is no general image segmentation theory, many scholars have been committed to applying new concepts and new methods to image segmentation in recent years and combining specific theoretical image segmentation methods has achieved good application results in image segmentation. For example, wavelet analysis, wavelet transform, neural networks, and genetic algorithms can effectively improve the segmentation effect. The results of the Seg cutting method designed in this article show that, in retinal blood vessel segmentation results on a database of healthy people, the sensitivity value is 0.941633, the false-positive rate is 0.952933, the specificity is 0.956787, and the accuracy rate is 0.96182, which are all higher than those in other methods. Image cutting methods such as FNN, CNN, and AWN have addressed the case tissue image cutting problem. Using the Seg cutting method designed in this article to segment the retinal blood vessels on a diabetes patient database, the sensitivity value is 0.8106, the false-positive rate is 0.0511, the specificity is 0.9712, the accuracy is 0.9421, and the false-positive rate is omitted. The false-positive rate is lower than AWN, and other indicators are higher than FNN, CNN, AWN, and other image cutting methods. The application of artificial intelligence-based semisupervised self-training algorithms in pathological tissue image segmentation is realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate digital image segmentation is necessary for analyzing the characteristics of fuel spray from various optical measurements. However, some conventional segmentation methods cannot achieve the desired effect for the difficult task with severe noises such as schlieren images under diesel engine-like conditions. In this work, an image processing algorithm named Texture Assessment by Gradient Statistics (TAGS) was proposed for improving the recognition of spray images with noisy backgrounds, which utilizes gradient statistics reflecting texture to distinguish the spray region from the background region. The effects of the key parameters in the proposed algorithm on the segmentation quality were studied. And for validating the applicability and generalization of the proposed algorithm, a series of experiments on diesel evaporating sprays were conducted through high-speed photography of Mie-scattering and double-pass schlieren. It was found that the extraction of gradient statistics can enhance the difference between the spray and the background regions when their gray values are close, which contributes to the image segmentation. For the schlieren images with noisy backgrounds, the signal-to-noise ratio of the TAGS method increased from 1.24 to 9.40 compared with the conventional gray value subtraction thresholding method. The segmentation quality has low dependence on the algorithm parameters of TAGS, and a parameter setting method for its image processing program has been recommended, which enables the analysis of spray characteristics including the macroscopic morphology, the tip penetration and the projected area of liquid/vapor phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Image segmentation is considered an important step in image processing. Fuzzy c-means clustering is one of the common methods of image segmentation. However, this method suffers from drawbacks, such as sensitivity to initial values, entrapment in local optima, and the inability to distinguish objects with similar color intensity. This paper proposes the hybrid Fuzzy c-means clustering and Gray wolf optimization for image segmentation to overcome the shortcomings of Fuzzy c-means clustering. The Gray wolf optimization has a high exploration capability in finding the best solution to the problem, which prevents the entrapment of the algorithm in local optima. In this study, breast cytology images were used to validate the methods, and the results of the proposed method were compared to those of c-means clustering. Results: FCMGWO has performed better than FCM in separating the nucleus from the other dark objects in the cell. The clustering was validated using Vpc, Vpe, Davies-Bouldin, and Calinski Harabasz criteria. The FCM and FCMGWO methods have a significant difference with respect to the Vpc and Vpe indexes. However, there is no significant difference between the performances of the two clustering methods with respect to the Calinski-Harabasz and Davies-Bouldin indices. The results indicate the better efficacy of the proposed method. Conclusions: The hybrid FCMGWO algorithm distinguishes the cells better in images with less detail than in images with high detail. However, FCM exhibits unacceptable performance in both low- and high-detail images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a novel edge tracing algorithm using Gaussian process regression. Our edge-based segmentation algorithm models an edge of interest using Gaussian process regression and iteratively searches the image for edge pixels in a recursive Bayesian scheme. This procedure combines local edge information from the image gradient and global structural information from posterior curves, sampled from the model’s posterior predictive distribution, to sequentially build and refine an observation set of edge pixels. This accumulation of pixels converges the distribution to the edge of interest. Hyperparameters can be tuned by the user at initialisation and optimised given the refined observation set. This tunable approach does not require any prior training and is not restricted to any particular type of imaging domain. Due to the model’s uncertainty quantification, the algorithm is robust to artefacts and occlusions which degrade the quality and continuity of edges in images. Our approach also has the ability to efficiently trace edges in image sequences by using previous-image edge traces as a priori information for consecutive images. Various applications to medical imaging and satellite imaging are used to validate the technique and comparisons are made with two commonly used edge tracing algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim was to further explore the clinical value of deep learning algorithm in the field of spinal medical image segmentation, and this study designed an improved U-shaped network (BN-U-Net) algorithm and applied it to the spinal MRI medical image segmentation of 22 research objects. The application value of this algorithm in MRI image processing was comprehensively evaluated by accuracy (Acc), sensitivity (Sen), specificity (Spe), and area under curve (AUC). The results show that the image processing time of fully convolutional network (FCN) algorithm and U-Net algorithm is greater than 6 min, while the processing time of BN-U-Net algorithm is only 5–10 s, and the processing time is significantly shortened (P < 0.05). The Acc, Sen, and Spe results of BN-U-Net segmentation algorithm were 94.54 ± 3.56%, 88.76 ± 2.67%, and 86.27 ± 6.23%, respectively, which were significantly improved compared with FCN algorithm and U-Net algorithm (P < 0.05). In summary, the improved U-Net network algorithm used in this study significantly improves the quality of spinal MRI images by automatic segmentation of MRI images, which is worthy of further promotion in the field of spinal medical image segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation is one of the pivotal steps in image processing. Actually, it deals with the partitioning of the image into different classes based on pixel intensities. This work introduces a new image segmentation method based on the constriction coefficient‐based particle swarm optimization and gravitational search algorithm (CPSOGSA). The random samples of the image act as searcher agents of the CPSOGSA algorithm. The optimal number of thresholds is determined using Kapur's entropy method. The effectiveness and applicability of CPSOGSA in image segmentation is accomplished by applying it to five standard images from the USC‐SIPI image database, namely Aeroplane, Cameraman, Clock, Lena, and Pirate. Various performance metrics are employed to investigate the simulation outcomes, including optimal thresholds, standard deviation, MSE (mean square error), run time analysis, PSNR (peak signal to noise ratio), best fitness value calculation, convergence maps, segmented image graphs, and box plot analysis. Moreover, image accuracy is benchmarked by utilizing SSIM (structural similarity index measure) and FSIM (feature similarity index measure) metrics. Also, a pairwise non‐parametric signed Wilcoxon rank‐sum test is utilized for statistical verification of simulation results. In addition, the experimental outcomes of CPSOGSA are compared with eight different algorithms including standard PSO, classical GSA, PSOGSA, SCA (sine cosine algorithm), SSA (salp swarm algorithm), GWO (grey wolf optimizer), MFO (moth flame optimizer), and ABC (artificial bee colony). The simulation results clearly indicate that the hybrid CPSOGSA has successfully provided the best SSIM, FSIM, and threshold values to the benchmark images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation is an important part of image processing. For the disadvantages of image segmentation under multiple thresholds such as long time and poor quality, an improved cuckoo search (ICS) is proposed for multithreshold image segmentation strategy. Firstly, the image segmentation model based on the maximum entropy threshold is described, and secondly, the cuckoo algorithm is improved by using chaotic initialization population to improve the diversity of solutions, optimizing the step size factor to improve the possibility of obtaining the optimal solution, and using probability to reduce the complexity of the algorithm; finally, the maximum entropy threshold function in image segmentation is used as the individual fitness function of the cuckoo search algorithm for solving. The simulation experiments show that the algorithm has a good segmentation effect under four different thresholding conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation is main point in computer vision (CV) and image processing (IP), that are used routinely in the fields of medicine and surgery training tools. Segmenting images and converting into a model that depends on work by the different algorithms from analysis DICOM files to convert to three-dimensional models. This paper describes a combination of two fields of solving segmentation problem to convert through the workflow of a hybrid algorithm structure Convolutional neural network (CNN, Active Contour & Deep Multi-Planar) based on seg3d2 to switch DICOMmedical rays "Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine" into a 3Dimintional model, using data from active contour to be the input of deep learning. the result of the pre-processing from DICOMrawimages, each image contains edges and image size =256 X 256 pixel, which through adjustment and control we can create multiple results for output using Active Contour, by resizing the threshold frames and gray-scale image, and show liver 3D-model Deep architecture, it is through the CNN which the images of the three axes X, Y, and Z (three orthogonal) (coronal = X, sagittal = Y, axial = Z = 1) are determined and matched with a real image of the body, the area required to be determined, and edits the contrast using a histogram. This research will be using are human liver DICOM images and is divided into two stages (medical image segmentation - retinal model optimization), to help surgeons to study the patient's condition with accuracy and efficiency through the use of mixed reality technology in liver surgery [living donor liver transplantation (LDLT)], all implement by Seg3D2 and Python. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation is an important research in image processing and machine vision in which automated driving can be seen the main application scene of image segmentation algorithms. Due to the many constraints of power supply and communication in in-vehicle systems, the vast majority of current image segmentation algorithms are implemented based on the deep learning model. Despite the ultrahigh segmentation accuracy, the problem of mesh artifacts and segmentation being too severe is obvious, and the high cost, computational, and power consumption devices required are difficult to apply in real-world scenarios. It is the focus of this paper to construct a road scene segmentation model with simple structure and no need of large computing power under the premise of certain accuracy. In this paper, the ESPNet (Efficient Spatial Pyramid of Dilated Convolutions for Semantic Segmentation) model is introduced in detail. On this basis, an improved ESPNet model is proposed based on ESPNet. Firstly, the network structure of the ESPNet model is optimized, and then, the model is optimized by using a small amount of weakly labeled and unlabeled scene sample data. Finally, the new model is applied to video image segmentation based on dash cam. It is verified on Cityscape, PASCAL VOC 2012, and other datasets that the algorithm proposed in this paper is faster, and the amount of parameters required is less than 1% of other algorithms, so it is suitable for mobile terminals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation is the process of dividing image into homogenous regions by some charasteristics and is widely used in medical diagnostics. Segmentation algorithms are used for anatomical features extraction from medical images. The Hybrid Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) – k-means and Grub Cut image segmentation algorithms for MRI images segmentation are considered in this paper. The proposed algorithms and sub-system for the medical image segmentation have been implemented. As there is no universal algorithm for medical image segmentation, image segmentation is still a challenging problem in image processing and computer vision in many real time applications and hence more research work is required. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has good accuracy in comparison to Grub cut. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Immunofluorescent confocal microscopy uses labeled antibodies as probes against specific macromolecules to discriminate between multiple cell types. For images of the developmental mouse lung, these cells are themselves organized into densely packed higher-level anatomical structures. These types of images can be challenging to segment automatically for several reasons, including the relevance of biomedical context, dependence on the specific set of probes used, prohibitive cost of generating labeled training data, as well as the complexity and dense packing of anatomical structures in the image. The use of an application ontology helps surmount these challenges by combining image data with its metadata to provide a meaningful biological context, modeled after how a human expert would make use of contextual information to identify histological structures, that constrains and simplifies the process of segmentation and object identification. Results: We propose an innovative approach for the semi-supervised analysis of complex and densely packed anatomical structures from immunofluorescent images that utilizes an application ontology to provide a simplified context for image segmentation and object identification. We describe how the logical organization of biological facts in the form of an ontology can provide useful constraints that facilitate automatic processing of complex images. We demonstrate the results of ontology-guided segmentation and object identification in mouse developmental lung images from the Bioinformatics REsource ATlas for the Healthy lung database of the Molecular Atlas of Lung Development (LungMAP1) program Conclusion: We describe a novel ontology-guided approach to segmentation and classification of complex immunofluorescence images of the developing mouse lung. The ontology is used to automatically generate constraints for each image based on its biomedical context, which facilitates image segmentation and classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a method is presented for automatic scaling of the F-layer from ionograms based on an image processing technique for the extraction of curvilinear structures. The algorithm obtains the ordinary and extraordinary traces and determines the F2 critical frequency. The performance was tested using a wide data set of ionograms recorded by the Advanced Ionospheric Sounder/Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (AIS/INGV) ionosonde located at Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Tucuman, Argentina, and the results are compared with manual scaling and also with Autoscala method. Results from these tests show that the method is feasible and can be the seed for the development of a robust automated scaling system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the fault states of the split pins in the catenary fastening devices of high-speed railway, such as missing, loosening, and improper installation, a method for detecting the defects in the split pins is proposed. First, the split pins are localized by a two-stage positioning method based on the improved YOLOV3 algorithm. The first stage is used to localize five joint components on the catenary support devices and the second stage is applied to locate the split pins in the joint component images. Then, the deeplabv3+ algorithm is implemented for semantic segmentation on the split-pin images. Finally, the split pins are classified based on the semantic segmentation images, in accordance with the split-pins’ semantic information of the head, body, and tail. In order to verify the adaptability and accuracy of the proposed method, the catenary support device images in the multihigh-speed railway lines and multienvironments were tested. Meanwhile, our algorithm is compared with other deep learning algorithm. The results show that the proposed method has a higher accuracy in detecting the defects in the split pins, which can guarantee the stable operation of the catenary support devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: The methods presented in this paper can be applied in medical computer systems for supporting medical diagnosis. This article describes the automated computed tomography (CT) image processing technique supporting kidney detection. The main goal of the study is a fully automatic generation of a kidney boundary for each slice in the set of slices obtained in the computed tomography examination. This work describes three main tasks in the process of automatic kidney identification: the initial location of the kidneys using the U-Net convolutional neural network, the generation of an accurate kidney boundary using extended maxima transformation, and the application of the slice scanning algorithm supporting the process of generating the result for the next slice, using the result of the previous one. To assess the quality of the proposed technique of medical image analysis, automatic numerical tests were performed. In the test section, we presented numerical results, calculating the F1-score of kidney boundary detection by an automatic system, compared to the kidneys boundaries manually generated by a human expert from a medical center. The influence of the use of U-Net support in the initial detection of the kidney on the final F1-score of generating the kidney outline was also evaluated. The F1-score achieved by the automated system is 84 %   ±   10 % for the system without U-Net support and 89 %   ±   9 % for the system with U-Net support. Performance tests show that the presented technique can generate the kidney boundary up to 3 times faster than raw U-Net-based network. The proposed kidney recognition system can be successfully used in systems that require a very fast image processing time. The measurable effect of the developed techniques is a practical help for doctors, specialists from medical centers dealing with the analysis and description of medical image data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The classification methods based on minimum spanning forest (MSF) have yielded impressive results for hyperspectral image. However, previous methods exist several drawbacks, i.e., marker selection methods are easily affected by boundary noise pixels, dissimilarity measure methods between pixels are inaccurate, and also image segmentation process is not robust, since they have not effectively utilized spatial information. To this end, in this paper, novel gradient-based marker selection technique, dissimilarity measures, and adaptive connection weighting method are proposed by making full use of spatial information in hyperspectral image. Concretely, for a given hyperspectral image, a pixel-wise classification is firstly performed, and meanwhile the gradient map is generated by a morphology-based algorithm. Secondly, the most reliable pixels are selected as the markers from the classification map, and then the boundary noise pixels are excluded from the marker map by using the gradient map. Thirdly, several new dissimilarity measures are proposed by incorporating gradient information or probability information of pixels. Furthermore, in the growth procedure of MSF, the connection weighting between pixels is adjusted adaptively to improve the robustness of the MSF algorithm. Finally, when building the final classification map by using the majority voting rule, the labels of the training samples are used to dominate the label prediction. Experimental results are performed on two hyperspectral image sets Indian Pines and University of Pavia with different resolutions and contexts. The proposed approach yields higher classification accuracies compared to previously proposed classification methods, and provides accurate segmentation maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brain tumors are major causes of death in today's world and methods of detecting them prematurely require vast improvement. The objective of this project is to detect the tumors early from MR image scans by utilizing deep convolutional networks to locate the tumor. The tumor is divided at first in the main stage and the generated bounding box is utilized for the center of the tumor in second step. This is trailed by division based on the bounding box of the tumor center division result. Examinations are performed with the BraTS 2017 validation set. This is a numerous division issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Segmentation is a fundamental problem in image processing and a common operation in Remote Sensing, which has been widely used especially in Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA). In this paper, we propose a new unsupervised segmentation algorithm based on the Conditional Random Fields (CRF) theory. The method relies on two levels of information: (1) that comes from an unsupervised classification with Fuzzy C-Means algorithm; (2) the 8-connected neighbourhood of a pixel. The algorithm was tested on a WorldView-2 multispectral image, with 2 m of spatial resolution. Results were evaluated using 6 quality measures, and their performance was compared with other image segmentation algorithms that are usually applied by the Remote Sensing community. Results indicate that the proposed algorithm achieved superior overall performance when compared others, despite some over-segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Structural measurements after separation of cortical from trabecular bone are of interest to a wide variety of communities but are difficult to obtain because of the lack of accurate automated techniques. Methods: We present a structure-based algorithm for separating cortical from trabecular bone in binarized images. Using the thickness of the cortex as a seed value, bone connected to the cortex within a spatially local threshold value is identified and separated from the remaining bone. The algorithm was tested on seven biological data sets from four species imaged using micro-computed tomography (μ-CT) and high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT). Area and local thickness measurements were compared to images segmented manually. Results: The algorithm was approximately 11 times faster than manual measurements and the median error in cortical area was −4.47 ± 4.15%. The median error in cortical thickness was approximately 0.5 voxels for μ-CT data and less than 0.05 voxels for HR-pQCT images resulting in an overall difference of −28.1 ± 71.1 μm. Conclusion: A simple and readily implementable methodology has been developed that is repeatable, efficient, and requires few user inputs, providing an unbiased means of separating cortical from trabecular bone. Significance: Automating the segmentation of variably thick cortices will allow for the evaluation of large data sets in a time-efficient manner and allow for full-field analyses that have been previously limited to small regions of interest. The MATLAB code can be downloaded from https://github.com/TBL-UIUC/downloads.git. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human disease identification from the scanned body parts helps medical practitioners make the right decision in lesser time. Image segmentation plays a vital role in automated diagnosis for the delineation of anatomical organs and anomalies. There are many variants of segmentation algorithms used by current researchers, whereas there is no universal algorithm for all medical images. This paper classifies some of the widely used medical image segmentation algorithms based on their evolution, and the features of each generation are also discussed. The comparative analysis of segmentation algorithms is done based on characteristics like spatial consideration, region continuity, computation complexity, selection of parameters, noise immunity, accuracy, and computation time. Finally, in this work, some of the typical segmentation algorithms are implemented on real-time datasets using Matlab 2010 software, and the outcome of this work will be an aid for the researchers in medical image processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud detection plays a significant role in remote sensing (RS) image processing. Numbers of cloud detection algorithms have been developed in the literature. However, they suffer the weakness of omitting thin and small cloud, and poor ability of differentiating the cloud from confusing ground region (e.g. artificial building). In this study, a robust ragged cloud detection algorithm for RS image is proposed. First, the simple linear iterative clustering method is applied to segment ragged cloud. Then, the improved Qtsu's method is introduced to remove the redundant superpixel. Finally, the Natural Scene Statistic is designed to classify the cloud region. Finally, original image will be classified into thick cloud, thin cloud and non-cloud. Experimental results indicate that the proposed model outperforms the state-of-the-art methods for cloud detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of remote-sensing data acquisition technology means that the resolution of remote-sensing image has been continuously improved, resulting in the large scale of remote-sensing image data and the increase of redundant information, which restricts the image processing and analysis. However, super-pixel segmentation method mainly aimed at the general image segmentation algorithm, rarely for remote-sensing image. Therefore, here, the polarisation decomposition of full-polarised remote-sensing images is used to synthesise pseudo-colour images. Then, based on the region, the image segmentation algorithm based on the colour feature of SLIC super-pixel segmentation algorithm is used to make it have important application value in remote-sensing image target extraction. Here, the image of Danjiangkou reservoir obtained by high-resolution space-borne SAR is selected as the research object. Finally, the polarisation decomposition and segmentation of full-polarised remote-sensing images are realised, and the advantages of SLIC super-pixel algorithm are proved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation applied to medical image analysis is still a critical and important task. Although there exist several segmentation algorithms that have been widely studied in literature, these are subject to segmentation problems such as over- and under-segmentation as well as non-closed edges. In this paper, a simple method that combines well-known segmentation algorithms is presented. This method is applied to detect acid-fast bacilli (AFB) in bacilloscopies used to diagnose pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). This diagnosis can be performed through different tests, and the most used worldwide is smear microscopy because of its low cost and effectiveness. This diagnosis technique is based on the analysis and counting of the bacilli in the bacilloscopy observed under an optical microscope. The proposed method is used to segment the bacilli in digital images from bacilloscopies processed using Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) staining. The proposed method is fast, has a low computational cost and good efficiency compared to other methods. The bacilli image segmentation is performed by image processing and analysis techniques, probability concepts and classifiers. In this work, a Bayesian classifier based on a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) is used. The segmentations' results are validated by using the Jaccard index, which indicates the efficiency of the classifier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Segmentation plays an important role in the field of image processing and computer vision. Intuitionistic fuzzy C-means (IFCM) clustering algorithm emerged as an effective technique for image segmentation in recent years. However, standard fuzzy C-means (FCM) and IFCM algorithms are sensitive to noise and initial cluster centers, and they ignore the spatial relationship of pixels. In view of these shortcomings, an improved algorithm based on IFCM is proposed in this paper. Firstly, we propose a modified non-membership function to generate intuitionistic fuzzy set and a method of determining initial clustering centers based on grayscale features, they highlight the effect of uncertainty in intuitionistic fuzzy set and improve the robustness to noise. Secondly, an improved nonlinear kernel function is proposed to map data into kernel space to measure the distance between data and the cluster centers more accurately. Thirdly, the local spatial-gray information measure is introduced, which considers membership degree, gray features and spatial position information at the same time. Finally, we propose a new measure of intuitionistic fuzzy entropy, it takes into account fuzziness and intuition of intuitionistic fuzzy set. The experimental results show that compared with other IFCM based algorithms, the proposed algorithm has better segmentation and clustering performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Propose indirect diffusion model for extraction of deeply concave edges and sharp corners. • Model is defined as two PDEs, one driving level set motion and one smoothing indirectly level set. • Level set function can be initialized to zero function, so allowing for flexible initialization. • It is easy to set a termination criterion for the proposed algorithm. Abstract In this paper, we put forward an idea of indirect diffusion and further develope an indirect diffusion-based level set model for image segmentation. This model is based on the dynamic process of diffusion that is posed indirectly on level set function by way of auxiliary function, coupled with a transition region-based force that exhibits the desired sign-changing property. It is formulated as a coupled system of two evolution equations, in which the first equation drives the motion of zero level set toward the object edges and makes it possible to set a termination criterion on the algorithm, while the second equation (indirect diffusion) smoothens the auxiliary function and keeps the auxiliary function as close to the level set function as possible. The derived model can effectively be solved purely by the simplest explicit finite difference. Experimental results show that the proposed model not only has the strong capability of noise immunity, but it also can much better conduce to extraction of deeply concave edges and preservation of sharp corners, compared with the direct diffusion-based counterpart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selective segmentation methods involve incorporating user input to partition an image into a foreground and background. These methods are often sensitive to some aspect of the user input in a counter intuitive manner, making their use in practice difficult. The most robust methods often involve laborious refinement on the part of the user, and sometimes editing/supervision. The proposed method reduces the burden of the user by simplifying the requirements in the input. Specifically, the fitting term does not depend on a distance function, and so no selection parameter is introduced. Instead, we consider how the user input relates to some general intensity fitting term to ensure the approach is less sensitive to the decisions or intuition of the user. We give comparisons to existing approaches to show the advantages of the new selective segmentation model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We construct a set of special complex-valued integral images and an algorithm that allows to calculate Zernike moments fast, namely in constant time. The technique is suitable for dense detection procedures, where the image is scanned by a sliding window at multiple scales, and where rotational invariance is required at the level of each window. We assume no preliminary image segmentation. Owing to the proposed integral images and binomial expansions, the extraction of each feature does not depend on the number of pixels in the window and thereby is an $O(1)$ calculation. We analyze algorithmic properties of the proposition, such as: number of needed integral images, complex-conjugacy of integral images, number of operations involved in feature extraction, speed-up possibilities based on lookup tables. We also point out connections between Zernike and orthogonal Fourier–Mellin moments in the context of computations backed with integral images. Finally, we demonstrate three examples of detection tasks of varying difficulty. Detectors are trained on the proposed features by the RealBoost algorithm. When learning, the classifiers get acquainted only with examples of target objects in their upright position or rotated within a limited range. At the testing stage, generalization onto the full $360^\circ$ angle takes place automatically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation, as a key step of microarray image processing, is crucial for obtaining the spot expressions simultaneously. However, state-of-art clustering-based segmentation algorithms are sensitive to noises. To solve this problem and improve the segmentation accuracy, in this article, several improvements are introduced into the fast and simple clustering methods (K-means and Fuzzy C means). Firstly, a contrast enhancement algorithm is implemented in image preprocessing to improve the gridding precision. Secondly, the data-driven means are proposed for cluster center initialization, instead of usual random setting. The third improvement is that the multi features, including intensity features, spatial features, and shape features, are implemented in feature selection to replace the sole pixel intensity feature used in the traditional clustering-based methods to avoid taking noises as spot pixels. Moreover, the principal component analysis is adopted for various feature extraction. Finally, an adaptive adjustment algorithm is proposed based on data mining and learning for further dealing with the missing spots or low contrast spots. Experiments on real and simulation data sets indicate that the proposed improvements made our proposed method obtains higher segmented precision than the traditional K-means and Fuzzy C means clustering methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase of the camera resolution, the number of pixels contained in froth image is increased, which brings many challenges to image segmentation. Froth size and distribution are the important index in froth flotation. The segmentation of froth images is always a problem in building flotation model. In segmenting froth images, Otsu method is usually used to get a binary image for classification of froth images, this method can get a satisfactory segmentation result. However, each gray level is required to calculate each of the between-class variance, it takes a longer time in froth images with a large number of pixels. To solve this problem, an improved method is proposed in this paper. Most froth images have the pixel distribution characteristic that the gray histogram curve is a sawtooth shape. The proposed method uses polynomial to fit the curve of gray histogram and takes the characteristic of gray histogram's valley into consideration in Otsu method. Two performance comparison methods are introduced and used. Experimental comparison between Otsu method and the proposed method shows that the proposed method has a satisfactory image segmentation with a low computing time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to create an image segmentation method robust to lighting changes, two novel homogeneity criteria of an image region were studied. Both were defined using the Logarithmic Image Processing (LIP) framework whose laws model lighting changes. The first criterion estimates the LIP-additive homogeneity and is based on the LIP-additive law. It is theoretically insensitive to lighting changes caused by variations of the camera exposure-time or source intensity. The second, the LIP-multiplicative homogeneity criterion, is based on the LIP-multiplicative law and is insensitive to changes due to variations of the object thickness or opacity. Each criterion is then applied in Revol and Jourlin's (1997) region growing method which is based on the homogeneity of an image region. The region growing method becomes therefore robust to the lighting changes specific to each criterion. Experiments on simulated and on real images presenting lighting variations prove the robustness of the criteria to those variations. Compared to a state-of the art method based on the image component-tree, ours is more robust. These results open the way to numerous applications where the lighting is uncontrolled or partially controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]