Image Segmentation

 Segmentation attempts to partition the pixels of

an image into groups that strongly correlate
with the objects in an image
 Typically the first step in any automated
computer vision application

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 Image Segmentation
• Segmentation algorithms generally are based
on one of two basis properties of intensity
values
• Discontinuity: to partition an image based
on abrupt changes in intensity (such as
edges)

• Similarity: to partition an image into regions

that are similar according to a set of
predefined criteria.

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 Image Segmentation
 Image Segmentation

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 Image Segmentation
 Image Segmentation

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 Image Segmentation
 Detection of discontinuities:
 There are three basic types of gray-level
discontinuities:
 points , lines , edges

 the common way is to run a mask through

the image

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 Point Detection:
• Note that the mark is the same as the mask of
Laplacian Operation (in chapter 3)

• The only differences that are considered of

interest are those large enough (as determined
by T) to be considered isolated points.

|R| >T

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 Point Detection:

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 Line Detection

R1 R2 R3 R4

• Horizontal mask will result with max response when a line

passed through the middle row of the mask with a constant
background.
• the similar idea is used with other masks.
• note: the preferred direction of each mask is weighted with
a larger coefficient (i.e.,2) than other possible directions.

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 Line Detection
• Apply every masks on the image
• let R1, R2, R3, R4 denotes the response of
the horizontal, +45 degree, vertical and -45
degree masks, respectively.
• if, at a certain point in the image
|Ri| > |Rj|, for all j≠i,
• that point is said to be more likely
associated with a line in the direction of
mask i.
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 Line Detection
• Alternatively, if we are interested in detecting all
lines in an image in the direction defined by a
given mask, we simply run the mask through the
image and threshold the absolute value of the
result.
• The points that are left are the strongest
responses, which, for lines one pixel thick,
correspond closest to the direction defined by
the mask.

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 Line Detection

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 Edge Detection Approach
 Segmentation by finding pixels on a region
boundary.

 Edges found by looking at neighboring pixels.

 Region boundary formed by measuring gray

value differences between neighboring pixels

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 Edge Detection

• an edge is a set of connected pixels that

lie on the boundary between two regions.

• an edge is a “local” concept whereas a

region boundary, owing to the way it is
defined, is a more global idea.

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 Edge Detection

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 Edge Detection

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 Edge Detection

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 Edge Detection
 Detection of discontinuities: Image Derivatives

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 Edge Detection
• First column: images and gray-
level profiles of a ramp edge
corrupted by random Gaussian
noise of mean 0 and = 0.0,
0.1, 1.0 and 10.0, respectively.
• Second column: first-derivative
images and gray-level profiles.
• Third column : second-
derivative images and gray-
level profiles.

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 Edge Detection
 Gradient Operator
 f 
Gx   x 
f      f 
G y   
 y 
f  G  G 2
x y 
2 1/ 2

for 3  3 mask
Gx  ( z7  z8  z9 )  ( z1  z 2  z3 )
G y  ( z3  z6  z9 )  ( z1  z 4  z7 )

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 Edge Detection
 Prewitt and Sobel Operators

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 Edge Detection

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 Edge Detection

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 Edge Detection

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 Edge Detection

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 Edge Detection
 The Laplacian

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 Edge Detection

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 Edge Detection
 The Laplacian of Gaussian (LoG)

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 Edge Detection
 The Laplacian of Gaussian (LoG)

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 The Hough Transform

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 The Hough Transform
 Global processing: The Hough Transform

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 The Hough Transform
 Global processing: The Hough Transform

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 The Hough Transform
 Global processing: The Hough Transform

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 Region-Based Segmentation

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 What is a Region?
 Basic definition :- A group of connected
pixels with similar properties.

 Important in interpreting an image because

they may correspond to objects in a scene.
 For that an image must be partitioned into
regions that correspond to objects or parts of
an object.

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 Region-Based vs. Edge-Based

Region-Based Edge-Based

 Closed boundaries  Boundaries formed

not necessarily
closed
 Multi-spectral  No significant
images improve improvement for
segmentation multi-spectral images
 Computation based  Computation based
on similarity on difference

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 Image Thresholding

•What is thresholding?
•Simple thresholding
•Adaptive thresholding

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 Thresholding – A Key Aspect
 Most algorithms involve establishing a
threshold level of certain parameter.
 Correct thresholding leads to better
segmentation.
 Using samples of image intensity available,
appropriate threshold should be set
automatically in a robust algorithm i.e. no
hard-wiring of gray values

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 Automatic Thresholding
 Use of one or more of the following:-
1. Intensity characteristics of objects
2. Sizes of objects
3. Fractions of image occupied by objects
4. Number of different types of objects
 Size and probability of occurrence – most
popular
 Intensity distributions estimate by histogram
computation.
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 Automatic Thresholding Methods

 Some automatic thresholding schemes:

1. P-tile method
2. Iterative threshold selection
3. Adaptive thresholding

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Thresholding Methods
 P-tile Method:- If object
occupies P% of image pixels
then set a threshold T such
that P% of pixels have
intensity below T.

 Iterative Thresholding:-
Successively refines an
T  1   2
approx. threshold to get a 1
new value which partitions 2
the image better.

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 P-Tile Thresholding
• Thresholding is usually the first
step in any segmentation approach
• Single value thresholding can be
given mathematically as follows:

1 if f ( x, y )  T
g ( x, y )  
0 if f ( x, y )  T
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 P-Tile Thresholding
• Basic global thresholding:
• Based on the histogram of an image
Partition the image histogram using
a single global threshold

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 P-Tile Thresholding
• Basic global thresholding:
• The success of this technique very
strongly depends on how well the
histogram can be partitioned

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 Iterative P-Tile Thresholding
• The Basic global thresholding:
1. Select an initial estimate for T (typically the
average grey level in the image)
2. Segment the image using T to produce two
groups of pixels: G1 consisting of pixels with
grey levels >T and G2 consisting pixels with
grey levels ≤ T
3. Compute the average grey levels of pixels
in G1 to give μ1 and G2 to give μ2

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 Iterative P-Tile Thresholding
• The Basic global thresholding:
4. Compute a new threshold value:
1   2
T
2
5. Repeat steps 2 – 4 until the difference in T
in successive iterations is less than a
predefined limit T∞
This algorithm works very well for finding thresholds
when the histogram is suitable.
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 P-Tile Thresholding

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 P-Tile Thresholding

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 P-Tile Thresholding
• Limitation of P-Tile thresholding:

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 P-Tile Thresholding
• Limitation of P-Tile thresholding:

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 P-Tile Thresholding
• Limitation of P-Tile thresholding:

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 Adaptive Thresholding
 Adaptive Thresholding is used in scenes with
uneven illumination where same threshold
value not usable throughout complete image.
 In such case, look at small regions in the
image and obtain thresholds for individual
sub-images. Final segmentation is the union
of the regions of sub-images.

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 Adaptive Thresholding
 Thresholding – Basic Adaptive Thresholding

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 Adaptive Thresholding
 Thresholding – Basic Adaptive Thresholding

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 Adaptive Thresholding
 Thresholding – Basic Adaptive Thresholding

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 Adaptive Thresholding
 Thresholding – Basic Adaptive Thresholding

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 Adaptive Thresholding
 Thresholding – Basic Adaptive Thresholding

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 Summary
 Segmentation is the most essential step
in most scene analysis and automatic
pictorial pattern recognition problems.

 Choice of the technique depends on the

peculiar characteristics of individual
problem in hand.

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