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In haptic interaction technology, texture haptic display is an important part. In order to perceive color image texture better, the haptic display methods of color texture based on force feedback and tactile feedback are proposed in this work. On the one hand, through the study of the physiological and psychological perception characteristics of color information, a new force rendering method of color image texture based on force feedback device is presented. The experimental results of color texture force perception show that the color texture force rendering algorithm in this paper works well. On the other hand, a color texture vibration tactile model is established based on the designed vibrotactile device. Its effectiveness is verified by vibration tactile perception experiment. Finally, for the color texture image of the real object surface, the force and vibrotactile display methods of color texture in this paper are used to conduct perception experiments and compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fractal image compression coding algorithm is a novel image compression technology; however, the long encoding time and unacceptable image reconstruction quality remain the primary obstacles in practical application. The purpose of this study is to improve the coding quality from the perspective of grey level transform and feature extraction. In this study, a novel orthogonal sparse fractal coding algorithm based on image texture feature is proposed. The authors define a normalised version as the new grey description feature of the image block so that two improved methods are scientifically combined in theory and algorithm. First, orthogonal sparse grey level transform based on sparse decomposition improves image reconstruction quality and decoding speed. Then, the similarity measure matrix, which stores the variance feature between range blocks and domain blocks, is used to reduce redundancies and encoding time. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm in this study can obtain better image reconstruction quality and speed up encoding time significantly as compared to the conventional fractal coding schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a fuzzy set scheme to present an adaptive fractional differential algorithm for image edge enhancement and texture preservation. In the proposed algorithm, an image's membership function and area feature are used to calculate the fuzzy set of images. The function of adaptive fractional differential order (FAFDO) can be constructed by making the linear transformation of the fuzzy set. Then, the fuzzy adaptive fractional differential mask (FAFDM) is obtained by substituting the FAFDO into the fractional differential mask. Finally, the image edge and texture are enhanced and preserved by applying airspace filtering of the FAFDM convolution. The experimental results show that, compared to fractional differential or fuzzy set‐based image enhancement algorithms, the proposed algorithm can adaptively enhance the image edge and preserve the image texture by analysing the fuzziness of the image itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image processing has played a relevant role in various industries, where the main challenge is to extract specific features from images. Specifically, texture characterizes the phenomenon of the occurrence of a pattern along the spatial distribution, taking into account the intensities of the pixels for which it has been applied in classification and segmentation tasks. Therefore, several feature extraction methods have been proposed in recent decades, but few of them rely on entropy, which is a measure of uncertainty. Moreover, entropy algorithms have been little explored in bidimensional data. Nevertheless, there is a growing interest in developing algorithms to solve current limits, since Shannon Entropy does not consider spatial information, and SampEn2D generates unreliable values in small sizes. We introduce a proposed algorithm, EspEn (Espinosa Entropy), to measure the irregularity present in two-dimensional data, where the calculation requires setting the parameters as follows: m (length of square window), r (tolerance threshold), and ρ (percentage of similarity). Three experiments were performed; the first two were on simulated images contaminated with different noise levels. The last experiment was with grayscale images from the Normalized Brodatz Texture database (NBT). First, we compared the performance of EspEn against the entropy of Shannon and SampEn2D. Second, we evaluated the dependence of EspEn on variations of the values of the parameters m, r, and ρ. Third, we evaluated the EspEn algorithm on NBT images. The results revealed that EspEn could discriminate images with different size and degrees of noise. Finally, EspEn provides an alternative algorithm to quantify the irregularity in 2D data; the recommended parameters for better performance are m = 3, r = 20, and ρ = 0.7. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fu, Y., 2020. Texture feature extraction and recognition of underwater target image considering incomplete tree wavelet decomposition. In: Qiu, Y.; Zhu, H., and Fang, X. (eds.), Current Advancements in Marine and Coastal Research for Technological and Sociological Applications. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 107, pp. 25-28. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Image texture feature extraction has become an important way of image retrieval, scene recognition and target location, which has become an important problem of image extraction and recognition. However, incomplete tree wavelet structure decomposition extraction will get better image clarity, which will be better for processing, such as preprocessing, image noise removal, contrast enhancement and so on. By analyzing the characteristics of image texture, we can decompose the incomplete tree wavelet structure of image, which will better describe the image texture in wavelet domain. In the naval battle, we must find out to launch weapon attack first, which needs the accuracy of automatic recognition of underwater target. Therefore, we need to improve the texture feature extraction and recognition of underwater target image. Firstly, this paper analyzes the image texture features and the algorithm of incomplete tree wavelet decomposition. Then, this paper demonstrates the texture feature extraction and recognition of underwater objects. Finally, some suggestions are put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, we propose a CNN-based infrared image enhancement method to transform pseudo-realistic regions of simulation-based infrared images into real infrared texture. The proposed algorithm consists of the following three steps. First, target infrared features based on a real infrared image are extracted through pretrained VGG-19 networks. Next, by implementing a neural style-transfer algorithm to a simulated infrared image, fractal nature features from the real infrared image are progressively applied to the image. Therefore, the fractal characteristics of the simulated image are improved. Finally, based on the results of fractal analysis, peak signal-to-noise (PSNR), structural similarity index measure (SSIM), and natural image quality evaluator (NIQE) texture evaluations are performed to know how the simulated infrared image is properly transformed as it contains the real infrared fractal features. We verified the proposed methodology using a simulation with three different simulation conditions with a real mid-wave infrared (MWIR) image. As a result, the enhanced simulated infrared images based on the proposed algorithm have better NIQE and SSIM score values in both brightness and fractal characteristics, indicating the closest similarity to the given actual infrared image. The proposed image fractal feature analysis technique can be widely used not only for the simulated infrared images but also for general synthetic images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A panoramic image texture detail enhancement method based on the Retinex algorithm is proposed to work on the nature of panoramic images. Firstly, the panoramic image is collected, then the panoramic image is preprocessed through brightness enhancement, the brightness of the preprocessed panoramic image is normalized, and the panoramic image is optimized and increased by the improved Retinex algorithm. Finally, the simulation test of the panoramic image was carried out. The results show that the improved Retinex algorithm works on the sign to-commotion proportion of the panoramic image. Furthermore, the time required to enhance the panoramic texture detail is short, which can meet the practical requirements of panoramic image subsequent processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional algorithms can achieve good results when registering homologous images, but it cannot reach satisfying results for registration between synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical images. The difficulty is that the image texture information and structures of different modalities is very different which leads to poor registration results. To solve this problem, we present a robust matching framework for registration between SAR and optical images. First, a novel deep learning network is utilized to generate high quality pseudo-optical images from SAR images. Next, feature points are detected and extracted using the multi-scale Harris algorithm. Then the feature points are constructed through the gradient position orientation histogram method. Finally, the actual position of the feature points will be reconstructed through a feedback mechanism for matching. Experimental results demonstrate its superior matching performance with respect to the state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To ensure the timely detection of safety hazards in transmission lines and to enhance accurately the detection of insulator defects in complicated environments, this study proposes a 3D attention-focused pure convolutional target detection algorithm (CMYOLOv7) based on you only look once v7 (YOLOv7) for defect detection on insulators in complicated environments. Firstly, to address the incapacity of focusing on the target in the backbone feature extraction networks, this study proposes a focused pure convolutional feature extraction module (ConvSimCB) to enhance the extraction and focus capability on insulator defect features. Secondly, to solve the problem of loss of key detail feature information caused by maximum pooling in spatial pyramid pooling module (SPPCSPC), this study proposes a mixed spatial pyramid pooling module (MIXPCSPC) to retain abundant image texture detail information and increase accuracy in detection of tiny insulator defects. Finally, a lightweight generic upsampling operator (CARAFE) is introduced to enhance the feature map resolution to address image distortion caused by the Nearest Neighbor Method of upsampling. This study proposed CMYOLOv7 achieves 98.37% precision, 90.59% recall, 95.68% mean average precision (MAP), and 94% F1 score, higher than YOLOv7 by 0.61%, 8.64%, 5.41%, and 5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the problem of image texture feature extraction, a direction measure statistic that is based on the directionality of image texture is constructed, and a new method of texture feature extraction, which is based on the direction measure and a gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) fusion algorithm, is proposed in this paper. This method applies the GLCM to extract the texture feature value of an image and integrates the weight factor that is introduced by the direction measure to obtain the final texture feature of an image. A set of classification experiments for the high-resolution remote sensing images were performed by using support vector machine (SVM) classifier with the direction measure and gray level co-occurrence matrix fusion algorithm. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were applied to assess the classification results. The experimental results demonstrated that texture feature extraction based on the fusion algorithm achieved a better image recognition, and the accuracy of classification based on this method has been significantly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) has become a research hotspot in the field of robots in recent years. However, most visual SLAM systems are based on static assumptions which ignored motion effects. If image sequences are not rich in texture information or the camera rotates at a large angle, SLAM system will fail to locate and map. To solve these problems, this paper proposes an improved ORB-SLAM2 algorithm based on information entropy and sharpening processing. The information entropy corresponding to the segmented image block is calculated, and the entropy threshold is determined by the adaptive algorithm of image entropy threshold, and then the image block which is smaller than the information entropy threshold is sharpened. The experimental results show that compared with the ORB-SLAM2 system, the relative trajectory error decreases by 36.1% and the absolute trajectory error decreases by 45.1% compared with ORB-SLAM2. Although these indicators are greatly improved, the processing time is not greatly increased. To some extent, the algorithm solves the problem of system localization and mapping failure caused by camera large angle rotation and insufficient image texture information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work tackles a recent challenge in digital image processing: how to identify the steganographic images from a steganographer, who is unknown among multiple innocent actors. The method does not need a large number of samples to train classification model, and thus it is significantly different from the traditional steganalysis. The proposed scheme consists of textural features and clustering ensembles. Local ternary patterns (LTP) are employed to design low-dimensional textural features which are considered to be more sensitive to steganographic changes in texture regions of image. Furthermore, we use the extracted low-dimensional textural features to train a number of hierarchical clustering results, which are integrated as an ensemble based on the majority voting strategy. Finally, the ensemble is used to make optimal decision for suspected image. Extensive experiments show that the proposed scheme is effective and efficient and outperforms the state-of-the-art steganalysis methods with an average gain from 4 % to 6 % . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important part of metal processing, welding is widely used in industrial manufacturing activities, and its application scenarios are very extensive. Due to technical limitations, the welding process always unavoidably leaves weld defects. Weld defects are extremely hazardous, and the work used must be guaranteed to be defect-free, regardless of the field. However, manual weld inspection has subjective factors such as inefficiency and easy missed detection, and although some automatic weld inspection methods have appeared, these traditional methods still do not meet actual demand in terms of detection time and detection accuracy. Therefore, there is a need for a higher quality weld image automatic detection method to replace the manual method and the traditional automatic detection method. In view of the above, this paper proposes a weld seam image recognition algorithm based on deep learning. The Adam adaptive moment estimation algorithm is chosen as the backpropagation optimization algorithm to accelerate the training of convolutional neural networks and design an independent adaptive learning rate. Through the simulation of the collected 4500 tube images, the adaptive threshold-based method is used for weld seam extraction. The algorithm proposed in this paper is compared with the weld seam recognition method based on image texture feature value distribution (ITFVD) and the SUSAN-based weld defect target detection method. The results show that the proposed method can identify weld defects in a short time on different sizes of weld images, and can further detect the type of weld defects. In addition, the method in this paper is better than the other two methods in the false detection rate, recall rate and overall recognition accuracy, which shows that the experimental results have achieved the expected results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Texture analysis is an important topic in Ultrasound (US) image analysis for structure segmentation and tissue classification. In this work a novel approach for US image texture feature extraction is presented. It is mainly based on parametrical modelling of a signal version of the US image in order to process it as data resulting from a dynamical process. Because of the predictive characteristics of such a model representation, good estimations of texture features can be obtained with less data than generally used methods require, allowing higher robustness to low Signal-to-Noise ratio and a more localized US image analysis. The usability of the proposed approach was demonstrated by extracting texture features for segmenting the thyroid in US images. The obtained results showed that features corresponding to energy ratios between different modelled texture frequency bands allowed to clearly distinguish between thyroid and non-thyroid texture. A simple k-means clustering algorithm has been used for separating US image patches as belonging to thyroid or not. Segmentation of thyroid was performed in two different datasets obtaining Dice coefficients over 85%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Pediatric osteosarcoma is one of the most aggressive cancers, and predictions of metastasis and chemotherapy response have a significant impact on pediatric patient survival. Radiogenomics, as methods of analyzing gene expression or image texture features, have previously been used for the diagnosis of chemotherapy responses and metastasis and can reveal the current state of cancer. In this study, we aimed to generate a predictive model using gene expression and 18F-FDG PET/CT image texture features in pediatric osteosarcoma in relation to metastasis and chemotherapy response. A predictive model using radiogenomics technology that incorporates both imaging features and gene expression can accurately predict metastasis and chemotherapy responses to improve patient outcomes. Chemotherapy response and metastasis prediction play important roles in the treatment of pediatric osteosarcoma, which is prone to metastasis and has a high mortality rate. This study aimed to estimate the prediction model using gene expression and image texture features. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT) images of 52 pediatric osteosarcoma patients were used to estimate the machine learning algorithm. An appropriate algorithm was selected by estimating the machine learning accuracy. 18F-FDG PET/CT images of 21 patients were selected for prediction model development based on simultaneous KI67 and EZRIN expression. The prediction model for chemotherapy response and metastasis was estimated using area under the curve (AUC) maximum image texture features (AUC_max) and gene expression. The machine learning algorithm with the highest test accuracy in chemotherapy response and metastasis was selected using the random forest algorithm. The chemotherapy response and metastasis test accuracy with image texture features was 0.83 and 0.76, respectively. The highest test accuracy and AUC of chemotherapy response with AUC_max, KI67, and EZRIN were estimated to be 0.85 and 0.89, respectively. The highest test accuracy and AUC of metastasis with AUC_max, KI67, and EZRIN were estimated to be 0.85 and 0.8, respectively. The metastasis prediction accuracy increased by 10% using radiogenomics data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Texture enhancement is one of the most important techniques in digital image processing and plays an essential role in medical imaging since textures discriminate information. Most image texture enhancement techniques use classical integral order differential mask operators or fractional differential mask operators using fixed fractional order. These masks can produce excessive enhancement of low spatial frequency content, insufficient enhancement of large spatial frequency content, and retention of high spatial frequency noise. To improve upon existing approaches of texture enhancement, we derive an improved Variable Order Fractional Centered Difference (VOFCD) scheme which dynamically adjusts the fractional differential order instead of fixing it. The new VOFCD technique is based on the second order Riesz fractional differential operator using a Lagrange 3-point interpolation formula, for both grey scale and colour image enhancement. We then use this method to enhance photographs and a set of medical images related to patients with stroke and Parkinson’s disease. The experiments show that our improved fractional differential mask has a higher signal to noise ratio value than the other fractional differential mask operators. Based on the corresponding quantitative analysis we conclude that the new method offers a superior texture enhancement over existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weathering steel with a natural corrosion-resistant feature has been widely applied to the structural components of steel bridges. However, severe surface corrosion damage has been frequently observed in the weathering steels of bridges, which causes the performance degradation of the structure. Conventional visual classification approaches are time-consuming and subjective and cannot provide quantitative evaluation effectively and efficiently. This paper presents a new imaging-based intelligent method for quantitatively rating the corrosion states of weathering steel bridges. Images are characterized by image texture analysis using two-dimensional wavelet decomposition, from which both the local and global energy distributions of each detail subimage are extracted as representative features. To enhance the performance of a support vector machine (SVM) in corrosion state classification, a particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) is developed to obtain the optimal parameters of the SVM. A comparative study indicates that PSO-SVM can achieve better classification accuracy rates than artificial neural network. Numerical results demonstrate that this study provides an effective approach to imaging-based rating by integrating wavelet transform and PSO-SVM techniques for allocating the condition state of corroded weathering steel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Counting craters is a paramount tool of planetary analysis because it provides relative dating of planetary surfaces. Dating surfaces with high spatial resolution requires counting a very large number of small, sub-kilometer size craters. Exhaustive manual surveys of such craters over extensive regions are impractical, sparking interest in designing crater detection algorithms (CDAs). As a part of our effort to design a CDA, which is robust and practical for planetary research analysis, we propose a crater detection approach that utilizes both shape and texture features to identify efficiently sub-kilometer craters in high resolution panchromatic images. First, a mathematical morphology-based shape analysis is used to identify regions in an image that may contain craters; only those regions – crater candidates – are the subject of further processing. Second, image texture features in combination with the boosting ensemble supervised learning algorithm are used to accurately classify previously identified candidates into craters and non-craters. The design of the proposed CDA is described and its performance is evaluated using a high resolution image of Mars for which sub-kilometer craters have been manually identified. The overall detection rate of the proposed CDA is 81%, the branching factor is 0.14, and the overall quality factor is 72%. This performance is a significant improvement over the previous CDA based exclusively on the shape features. The combination of performance level and computational efficiency offered by this CDA makes it attractive for practical application. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents a system for automated, non-contact, and flexible prediction of surface roughness of end-milled parts through a machine vision system which is integrated with an artificial neural network (ANN). The images of milled surface grabbed by the machine vision system could be extracted using the algorithm developed in this work, in the spatial frequency domain using a two-dimensional Fourier transform to get the features of image texture (major peak frequency F, principal component magnitude squared value F, and the average gray level G). Since F1 is the distance between the major peak and the origin, it is a robust measure to overcome the effect of lighting of the environment. The periodically occurring features such as feed marks and tool marks present in the gray-level image can be easily observed from the principal component magnitude squared value F The experimental machining variables speed S, feedrate F, depth of cut D, and the response extracted image variables F, F, and G could be used as input data, and the response surface roughness R measured by Surfcorder SE-1100 (traditional stylus method) could be used as output data of an ANN ability to construct the relationships between input and output variables. The ANN was trained using the back-propagation algorithm developed in this work due to its superior strength in pattern recognition and reasonable speed. Using the trained ANN, the experimental result had shown that the surface roughness of milled parts predicted by machine vision system over a wide range of machining conditions could be got with a reasonable accuracy compared with those measured by traditional stylus method. Compared with the stylus method, the constructed machine vision system is a useful method for prediction of the surface roughness faster, with a lower price, and lower environment noise in manufacturing process. Experimental results have shown that the proposed machine vision system can be implemented for automated prediction of surface roughness with accuracy of 97.53%. The results are encouraging that machine vision system can be extended to many real-time industrial prediction applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a modular system for medical image archiving, management, diagnosis support, and telematic cooperation is presented. The system provides digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM)-compatible tools for digital image processing and database management of medical images. The software features algorithms for preprocessing, manual or semi-automatic segmentation, automatic calculation of geometrical/size characteristics, and 3-D visualization of organs or selected regions of interest. Additionally, the system incorporates a database where patient data and information can be stored and retrieved. Access to the database is only permitted to authorized users. The user-friendly interface makes the software handy and accessible to clinicians, whereas the telematic components allow collaboration with remote experts. The pilot system incorporates a computer-aided diagnosis module aiming at providing support in the diagnosis of focal liver lesions from computed tomography images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite extensive research on image texture analysis, it is still problematic to characterize and segment texture images especially in the presence of complex patterns. Upon tremendous advancement of the internet and the digital technology, there is also a need for the development of simple but efficient algorithms, which can be adaptable to real-time systems. In this study, we propose such an approach based on multiresolution discrete wavelet transform (DWT). After the transform, we compute salient energy points from each directional sub-band (LH, HL, and HH) in the form of binary image by thresholding intermittency indices of wavelet coefficients. We then propose and extract two new texture features namely Salient Point Density (SPD) and Salient Point Distribution Nonuniformity (SPDN) based on the number and the distribution of salient pixels in the local neighborhood of every pixel of the multiscale binary images. We thus obtain a set of feature images, which are subsequently applied to the popular K-means algorithm for the unsupervised segmentation of texture images. Though the above representation appear simple and infrequent in the literature, it proves useful in the context of texture segmentation. Experimental results with the standard texture (Brodatz) and natural images demonstrate the robustness and potentiality of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Textured surfaces are an inherent constituent of the natural surroundings, therefore efficient real-world applications of computer vision algorithms require precise surface descriptors. Often textured surfaces present not only variations of color or reflectance, but also local height variations. This type of surface is referred to as a 3D texture. As the lighting and viewing conditions are varied, effects such as shadowing, foreshortening and occlusions, give rise to significant changes in texture appearance. Accounting for the variation of texture appearance due to changes in imaging parameters is a key issue in developing accurate 3D texture models. The bidirectional texture function (BTF) is observed image texture as a function of viewing and illumination directions. In this work, we construct a BTF-based surface model which captures the variation of the underlying statistical distribution of local structural image features, as the viewing and illumination conditions are changed. This 3D texture representation is called the bidirectional feature histogram (BFH). Based on the BFH, we design a 3D texture recognition method which employs the BFH as the surface model, and classifies surfaces based on a single novel texture image of unknown imaging parameters. Also, we develop a computational method for quantitatively evaluating the relative significance of texture images within the BTF. The performance of our methods is evaluated by employing over 6200 texture images corresponding to 40 real-world surface samples from the CUReT (Columbia-Utrecht reflectance and texture) database. Our experiments produce excellent classification results, which validate the strong descriptive properties of the BFH as a 3D texture representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanical factors such as deformation and strain are thought to play important roles in the maintenance, repair, and degeneration of soft tissues. Determination of soft tissue static deformation has traditionally only been possible at a tissue's surface, utilizing external markers or instrumentation. Texture correlation is a displacement field measurement technique which it lies on unique image patterns within a pair of digital images to track displacement. The technique has recently been applied to MR images, indicating the possibility of high-resolution displacement and strain field determination within the mid-substance of soft tissues. However, the utility of MR texture correlation analysis may vary amongst tissue types depending on their underlying structure, composition, and contrast mechanism, which give rise to variations in texture with MRI. In this study, we investigate the utility of a texture correlation algorithm with first-order displacement mapping terms for use with MR images, and suggest a novel index of image "roughness" as a way to decrease errors associated with the use of texture correlation for intra-tissue strain measurement with Mill. We find that a first-order algorithm can significantly reduce strain measurement error, and that an image "roughness" index correlates with displacement measurement error for a variety of imaging conditions and tissue types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multiscale method in surface processing is presented which carries over image processing methodology based on nonlinear diffusion equations to the fairing of noisy, textured, parametric surfaces. The aim is to smooth noisy, triangulated surfaces and accompanying noisy textures--as they are delivered by new scanning technology--while enhancing geometric and texture features. For an initial textured surface a fairing method is described which simultaneously processes the texture and the surface. Considering an appropriate coupling of the two smoothing processes one can take advantage of the frequently present strong correlation between edge features in the texture and on the surface edges. The method is based on an anisotropic curvature evolution of the surface itself and an anisotropic diffusion on the processed surface applied to the texture. Here, the involved diffusion tensors depends on a regularized shape operator of the evolving surface and on regularized texture gradients. A spatial finite element discretization on arbitrary unstructured triangular grids and a semi-implicit finite difference discretization in lime are the building blocks of the corresponding numerical algorithm. A normal projection is applied to the discrete propagation velocity to avoid tangential drifting in the surface evolution. Different applications underline the efficiency and flexibility of the presented surface processing tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The segmentation of images into meaningful and homogenous regions is a key method for image analysis within applications such as content based retrieval. The watershed transform is a well established tool for the segmentation of images. However, watershed segmentation is often not effective for textured image regions that are perceptually homogeneous. In order to properly segment such regions the concept of the "texture gradient" is now introduced. Texture information and its gradient are extracted using a novel nondecimated form of a complex wavelet transform. A novel marker location algorithm is subsequently used to locate significant homogeneous textured or non textured regions. A marker driven watershed transform is then used to properly segment the identified regions. The combined algorithm produces effective texture and intensity based segmentation for the application to content based image retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vein texture elements in images are sometimes degraded due to centrally symmetric blur, e.g. due to motion of hand or camera not being in focus, which significantly affects recognition systems performance. Multiscale local phase quantisation (MLPQ) can effectively improve system accuracy in the presence of blur by dividing vein images into non-overlapping blocks and extracting multiscale local phase information. However, MLPQ misses some important discriminant information at the intersections of different regions, which leaves room for improving the system performance. In the present work, a multiscale overlapping blocks local phase quantisation (MOLPQ) histogram algorithm is presented to divide the vein image into overlapping blocks and extract multiscale local phase information, which includes the discriminant information lost in MLPQ. MOLPQ is validated via comparison with state-of-the-art recognition algorithms on a normal hand vein database, artificial-blur databases, and a normal-blur database, and the accuracies on the normal hand vein and normal-blur databases are 99.57 and 98.07%, respectively. Additionally, MOLPQ outperforms other methods on all databases in terms of accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work introduces a super-resolution (SR) algorithm for range images on the basis of self-guided joint filtering (SGJF), adding the range information of the range image as a coefficient of the filter to reduce the influence of the intensity image texture on the super-resolved image. A range image SR recognition system is constructed to study the effect of four SR algorithms including the SGJF algorithm on the recognition of the laser radar (ladar) range image. The effects of different model library sizes, SR algorithms, SR factors and noise conditions on the recognition are tested via experiments. Results demonstrate that all tested SR algorithms can improve the recognition rate of low-resolution (low-res) range images to varying degrees and the proposed SGJF algorithm has a very good comprehensive recognition performance. Finally, suggestions for the use of SR algorithms in actual scene recognition are proposed on the basis of the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate and efficient extraction of cultivated land data is of great significance for agricultural resource monitoring and national food security. Deep-learning-based classification of remote-sensing images overcomes the two difficulties of traditional learning methods (e.g., support vector machine (SVM), K-nearest neighbors (KNN), and random forest (RF)) when extracting the cultivated land: (1) the limited performance when extracting the same land-cover type with the high intra-class spectral variation, such as cultivated land with both vegetation and non-vegetation cover, and (2) the limited generalization ability for handling a large dataset to apply the model to different locations. However, the "pooling" process in most deep convolutional networks, which attempts to enlarge the sensing field of the kernel by involving the upscale process, leads to significant detail loss in the output, including the edges, gradients, and image texture details. To solve this problem, in this study we proposed a new end-to-end extraction algorithm, a high-resolution U-Net (HRU-Net), to preserve the image details by improving the skip connection structure and the loss function of the original U-Net. The proposed HRU-Net was tested in Xinjiang Province, China to extract the cultivated land from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) images. The result showed that the HRU-Net achieved better performance (Acc: 92.81%; kappa: 0.81; F1-score: 0.90) than the U-Net++ (Acc: 91.74%; kappa: 0.79; F1-score: 0.89), the original U-Net (Acc: 89.83%; kappa: 0.74; F1-score: 0.86), and the Random Forest model (Acc: 76.13%; kappa: 0.48; F1-score: 0.69). The robustness of the proposed model for the intra-class spectral variation and the accuracy of the edge details were also compared, and this showed that the HRU-Net obtained more accurate edge details and had less influence from the intra-class spectral variation. The model proposed in this study can be further applied to other land cover types that have more spectral diversity and require more details of extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid progress of virtual reality technology, 360 videos have become increasingly popular. Given that the resolution of a 360 video is ultra-high (generally 4K to 8K), the encoding time for this type of video is considerably high. To reduce encoding complexity, this study proposed a fast intra algorithm that is based on image texture characteristics. On the one hand, the proposed algorithm determines whether to terminate the coding unit partition early on the basis of texture complexity. On the other hand, the proposed algorithm reduces the number of candidate modes in mode decision according to texture directivity. Experimental results showed that the proposed algorithm can obtain an average time reduction rate of 53% and a Bjontegaard delta rate increase of only 1.3%, which is acceptable for rate distortion performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, multibeam echosounder (MBES) and dual frequency sidescan sonar (SSS) data are combined to map the shallow (5–100 m) benthic habitats of the National Marine Park of Zakynthos (NMPZ), Greece, a Marine Protected Area (MPA). NMPZ hosts extensive prairies of the protected Mediterranean phanerogams Posidonia oceanica and Cymodocea nodosa, as well as reefs and sandbanks. Seafloor characterization is achieved using the multi-frequency acoustic backscatter of: (a) the two simultaneous frequencies of the SSS (100 and 400 kHz) and (b) the MBES (180 kHz), as well as the MBES bathymetry. Overall, these high-resolution datasets cover an area of 84 km2 with ground coverage varying from 50% to 100%. Image texture, terrain and backscatter angular response analyses are applied to the above, to extract a range of statistical features. Those have different spatial densities and so they are combined through an object-based approach based on the full-coverage 100-kHz SSS mosaic. Supervised classification is applied to data models composed of operationally meaningful combinations between the above features, reflecting single-sonar or multi-sonar mapping scenarios. Classification results are validated against a detailed expert interpretation habitat map making use of extensive ground-truth data. The relative gain of one system or one feature extraction method or another are thoroughly examined. The frequency-dependent separation of benthic habitats showcases the potentials of multi-frequency backscatter and bathymetry from different sonars, improving evidence-based interpretations of shallow benthic habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce a method to detect co-saliency from an image pair that may have some objects in common. The co-saliency is modeled as a linear combination of the single-image saliency map (SISM) and the multi-image saliency map (MISM). The first term is designed to describe the local attention, which is computed by using three saliency detection techniques available in literature. To compute the MISM, a co-multilayer graph is constructed by dividing the image pair into a spatial pyramid representation. Each node in the graph is described by two types of visual descriptors, which are extracted from a representation of some aspects of local appearance, e.g., color and texture properties. In order to evaluate the similarity between two nodes, we employ a normalized single-pair SimRank algorithm to compute the similarity score. Experimental evaluation on a number of image pairs demonstrates the good performance of the proposed method on the co-saliency detection task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The histopathological examination of tissue specimens is essential for cancer diagnosis and grading. However, this examination is subject to a considerable amount of observer variability as it mainly relies on visual interpretation of pathologists. To alleviate this problem, it is very important to develop computational quantitative tools, for which image segmentation constitutes the core step. In this paper, we introduce an effective and robust algorithm for the segmentation of histopathological tissue images. This algorithm incorporates the background knowledge of the tissue organization into segmentation. For this purpose, it quantifies spatial relations of cytological tissue components by constructing a graph and uses this graph to define new texture features for image segmentation. This new texture definition makes use of the idea of gray-level run-length matrices. However, it considers the runs of cytological components on a graph to form a matrix, instead of considering the runs of pixel intensities. Working with colon tissue images, our experiments demonstrate that the texture features extracted from “graph run-length matrices” lead to high segmentation accuracies, also providing a reasonable number of segmented regions. Compared with four other segmentation algorithms, the results show that the proposed algorithm is more effective in histopathological image segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many popular texture analysis methods, second or higher order statistics on the relation between pixel gray level values are stored in matrices. A high dimensional vector of predefined, nonadaptive features is then extracted from these matrices. Identifying a few consistently valuable features is important, as it improves classification reliability and enhances our understanding of the phenomena that we are modeling. Whatever sophisticated selection algorithm we use, there is a risk of selecting purely coincidental "good" feature sets, especially if we have a large number of features to choose from and the available data set is limited. In a unified approach to statistical texture feature extraction, we have used class distance and class difference matrices to obtain low dimensional adaptive feature vectors for texture classification. We have applied this approach to four relevant texture analysis methods. The new adaptive features outperformed the classical features when applied to the most difficult set of 45 Brodatz texture pairs. Class distance and difference matrices also clearly illustrated the difference in texture between cell nucleus images from two different prognostic classes of early ovarian cancer. For each of the texture analysis methods, one adaptive feature contained most of the discriminatory power of the method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present computer vision techniques for building dressed human models using images. We develop an algorithm for three-dimensional body reconstruction and texture mapping using contour, stereo, and texture information from several images and deformable superquadrics as the model parts. We demonstrate a novel vision technique for analysis of cloth draping behavior. This technique allows for estimation of cloth model parameters, such as bending properties, but can also be used to estimate the contact points between the body and clothing in the range data of dressed humans. Combined with our body reconstruction algorithm and additional constraints on the articulation model, the detection of the garment-body contact points allows construction of a dressed human model in which even the geometry that was covered by clothing in the available data is reasonably well estimated [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]