Image segmentation by Clustering

(using Mahalanobis distance)

- Manjit Chintalapalli

ABSTRACT:
In this work the way is described an algorithm, which are used to segmentation of images with clustering methods. This algorithm is tested on ten color images, which are firstly transformed to R*B*G* color space. Conditions, results and conclusions are described lower. The results are compared using both ahalanobis and !uclidean distances in the clustering algorithm.

INTRODUCTION:
Image segmentation was, is and will be a ma"or research topic for many image processing researchers. The reasons are ob#ious and applications endless$ most computer #ision and image analysis problems re%uire a segmentation stage in order to detect ob"ects or di#ide the image into regions which can be considered homogeneous according to a gi#en criterion, such as color, motion, te&ture, etc. Clustering is the search for distinct groups in the feature space. It is e&pected that these groups ha#e different structures and that can be clearly differentiated. The clustering task separates the data into number of partitions, which are #olumes in the n'dimensional feature space. These partitions define a hard limit between the different groups and depend on the functions used to model the data distribution.

Image segmentation:
To humans, an image is not "ust a random collection of pi&els( it is a meaningful arrangement of regions and ob"ects. There also e&its a #ariety of images$ natural scenes, paintings, etc. )espite the large #ariations of these images, humans ha#e no problem to interpret them. Considering the large databases on the ***, in our personal photograph folders, a strong and automatic image analysis would be welcome.

Image segmentation is the first step in image analysis and pattern recognition. It is a critical and essential component of image analysis system, is one of the most difficult tasks in image processing, and determines the %uality of the final result of analysis. Image segmentation is the process of di#iding an image into different regions such that each region is homogeneous. Image segmentation methods can be categori+ed as follows ,this is not an e&hausti#e list-$ Histogram thresholding: assumes that images are composed of regions with different gray ,or color- ranges, and separates it into a number of peaks, each corresponding to one region. Edge-based approaches: use edge detection operators such as .obel, /aplacian for e&ample. Resulting regions may not be connected, hence edges need to be "oined. Region-based approaches: based on similarity of regional image data. .ome of the more widely used approaches in this category are$ Thresholding, Clustering, Region growing, .plitting and merging. Hybrid: consider both edges and regions. The pro"ect is done using Image .egmentation by Clustering. It is based on Color image segmentation using ahalanobis distance. !uclidean distance is also used for comparing between the %uality of segmentation between the ahalanobis and !uclidean distance. Image Segmentation by Clustering Clustering is a classification techni%ue. Gi#en a #ector of 0 measurements describing each pi&el or group of pi&els ,i.e., region- in an image, a similarity of the measurement #ectors and therefore their clustering in the 0' dimensional measurement space implies similarity of the corresponding pi&els or pi&el groups. Therefore, clustering in measurement space may be an indicator of similarity of image regions, and may be used for segmentation purposes.

The #ector of measurements describes some useful image feature and thus is also known as a feature #ector. .imilarity between image regions or pi&els implies clustering ,small separation distances- in the feature space. Clustering methods were some of the earliest data segmentation techni%ues to be de#eloped.

Similar data points grouped together into clusters.

ost popular clustering algorithms suffer from two ma"or drawbacks First, the number of clusters is predefined, which makes them inade%uate for batch processing of huge image databases Secondly, the clusters are represented by their centroid and built using an !uclidean distance therefore inducing generally an hyperspheric cluster shape, which makes them unable to capture the real structure of the data. This is especially true in the case of color clustering where clusters are arbitrarily shaped

CLUSTERING ALGORITH S:
K-means K-medoids Hierarchical Clustering There are many other algorithms used for clustering. K-means algorithm was used in the project and the distances were calculated using Mahalanobis and Euclidean distances

!" eans Clustering O#er#ie$

1' eans clustering generates a specific number of dis"oint, flat ,non' hierarchical- clusters. It is well suited to generating globular clusters. The 1' eans method is numerical, unsuper#ised, non'deterministic and iterati#e.

!" eans Algorit%m &ro'erties

There are always 1 clusters. There is always at least one item in each cluster. The clusters are non'hierarchical and they do not o#erlap. !#ery member of a cluster is closer to its cluster than any other cluster because closeness does not always in#ol#e the center of clusters.

T%e !" eans Algorit%m &ro(ess

The dataset is partitioned into 1 clusters and the data points are randomly assigned to the clusters resulting in clusters that ha#e roughly the same number of data points. 2or each data point$ Calculate the distance , ahalanobis or !uclidean- from the data point to each cluster.

If the data point is closest to its own cluster, lea#e it where it is. If the data point is not closest to its own cluster, mo#e it into the closest cluster.

Repeat the abo#e step until a complete pass through all the data points results in no data point mo#ing from one cluster to another. 3t this point the clusters are stable and the clustering process ends.

The choice of initial partition can greatly affect the final clusters that result, in terms of inter'cluster and intra'cluster distances and cohesion.

Ho$ t%e 'roblem $as a''roa(%e)*

Flow-chart of an image segmentation method Step 1: 2irst, an image is taken as an input. The input image is in the form of pi&els and is transformed into a feature space ,RBG-. Step 2: 0e&t similar data points, i.e. the points which ha#e similar color, are grouped together using any clustering method. 3 clustering method such as k'means clustering is used to form clusters as shown in the flow chart. The distances are calculated using ahalanobis and !uclidean distant.

The abo#e figure shows how the data points are clustered in the 4'd RGB space. 3s one can see all similar colors are grouped together to form a cluster. The data points with minimum ahalanobis distance or !uclidean distance are grouped together to form the clusters. ahalanobis and !uclidean are described later below. Step : 3fter clustering is done, the mean of the clusters is taken. Then the mean color in each cluster is calculated to be remapped onto the image.

Ho$
Both

a%alanobis an) Eu(li)ean )istan(e is (al(ulate)*

ahalanobis and !uclidean distances are described below clearly.

a%alanobis Distan(e: ahalanobis )istance is a #ery useful way of determining the 5similarity5 of a set of #alues from an 5unknown5$ sample to a set of #alues measured from a collection of 5known5 samples

 .uperior to !uclidean distance because it takes distribution of the points ,correlations- into account Traditionally to classify obser#ations into different groups It takes into account not only the a#erage #alue but also its #ariance and the co#ariance of the #ariables measured It compensates for interactions ,co#ariance- between #ariables It is dimensionless The formula used to calculate ahalanobis distance is gi#en below. Dt+,- . +, / Ci- 0 In#erse+S- 0 +, / Ci-1 6ere 7 is a data point in the 4') RGB space, Ci is the center of a cluster . is the co#ariance matri& of the data points in the 4') RGB space In#erse,.- is the in#erse of co#ariance matri& ..

a%alanobis Distan(e

The abo#e figure shows how the mahalanobis distance is calculated considering the #ariances of the data points in the 4') RGB space.

The function used for ahalano8, -(

ahalanobis distance is user defined in the program.

Eu(li)ean Distan(e:
The !uclidean distance is the straight'line distance between two pi&els !uclidean distance 9 :,,&; ' &8-< = ,y; ' y8-<- , where ,&;,y;- > ,&8,y8- are two pi&el points or two data points. Ho! the "unction #ahalano2$ % !as used "or both #ahalanobis and Euclidean distances & The only difference between ahalanobis and !uclidean distance is that ahalanobis considers the In#erse of the co#ariance matri& of the set of data points in the 4'd space. .o, #ahalanobis distance ' $( ) *% + ,-.$Co/$S%% + $( ) *%0 Euclidean distance ' $( ) *% + $( ) *%0 6ere ? is a data point and @ is the center of a cluster. . is a #ector containing all the data points the 4'd color space.

Results
Original Images:

1e2ture

Rose

(ainting

3andscape

4ea/er

China camp

Car

Canoe

1he 1ree

Segmente) Color Images

5riginal ,mage

,mage segmented !ith 6 clusters

,mage segmented !ith 7 clusters

Bea#er:

Bea#er +original-

2-Clusters Anly two colors can be seen after segmentation

7-Clusters 6-Clusters colors can be seen 2our colors can be .i& seen after segmentation with four clusters

Comparison bet!een #ahalanobis and Euclidean

Rose +original-

Image Segmente) $it% 2 (lusters using a%alanobis Distan(e

Image Segmente) $it% 2 (lusters using Eu(li)ean Distan(e

Car +Original-

Image segmente) $it% 3 (lusters using a%alanobis Distan(e

Image segmente) $it% 3 (lusters using Eu(li)ean Distan(e

Image segmente) $it% 2 (lusters using a%alanobis Distan(e

Image segmente) $it% 2 (lusters using Eu(li)ean Distan(e

CONCLUSION
The image segmentation is done using k'means clustering in 4') RGB space, so it works perfectly fine with all images. The clarity in the segmented image is #ery good compared to other segmentation techni%ues. The clarity of the image also depends on the number of clusters used. Ane disad#antage of the procedure used is that the number of clusters is to be defined in each iteration. The results are compared using both distance. 3s one can see from the abo#e image in the pre#ious page that the image segmented with ahalanobis distance did come better than ahalanobis distance considers the !uclidean )istance when the image is segmented with B clusters. That has to be true because the #ariances also. ahalanobis and !uclidean

RE4ERENCES:
C;D .chmid, ?.$ Colorimetry and color spaces, http$EEwww.schmid' saugeon.chEpublications.html, 8FF; C8D .chmid, ?.$ Image segmentation by color clustering, http$EEwww.schmid' saugeon.chEpublications.html, 8FF; C4D )igital Image ?rocessing , R.C. Gon+ale+, R.!. *oods, ../. !ddins.