Digital Image Processing

Image Segmentation
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The Segmentation Problem
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The Segmentation Problem
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
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)
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Segmentation Examples
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Image Segmentation
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Image Segmentation
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Detection Of Discontinuities
There are three basic types of grey level
discontinuities that we tend to look for in
digital images:
– Points
– Lines
– Edges
We typically find discontinuities using masks
and correlation
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Detection Of Discontinuities
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Detection Of Discontinuities
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Point Detection
Point detection can be achieved simply
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

using the mask below:

Points are detected at those pixels in the

subsequent filtered image that are above a
set threshold
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Point Detection (cont…)
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

X-ray image of Result of point Result of

a turbine blade detection thresholding
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Line Detection
The next level of complexity is to try to
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

detect lines
The masks below will extract lines that are
one pixel thick and running in a particular
direction
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Line Detection
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Line Detection (cont…)
Binary image of a wire
bond mask
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

After
Result of
processing
thresholding
with -45° line
filtering result
detector
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Edge Detection
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Edge Detection
An edge is a set of connected pixels that lie
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

on the boundary between two regions

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Derivative Operators
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Edges & Derivatives
We have already spoken
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

about how derivatives

are used to find
discontinuities
1st derivative tells us
where an edge is
2nd derivative can
be used to show
edge direction
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Derivatives & Noise
Derivative based edge detectors are
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

extremely sensitive to noise

We need to keep this in mind
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Common Edge Detectors
Given a 3*3 region of an image the following
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

edge detection filters can be used

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Edge Detection Example
Original Image Horizontal Gradient Component
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Vertical Gradient Component Combined Edge Image

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Edge Detection Example
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Edge Detection Example
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Edge Detection Example
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Edge Detection Example
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Laplacian Edge Detection
We encountered the 2nd-order derivative
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based Laplacian filter already

The Laplacian is typically not used by itself

as it is too sensitive to noise
Usually when used for edge detection the
Laplacian is combined with a smoothing
Gaussian filter
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Laplacian Edge Detection
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Edge Linking and boundary
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detection
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Edge Linking : local processing
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Edge Linking : local processing
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Edge Linking : local processing
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Summary
In this lecture we have begun looking at
segmentation, and in particular edge detection
Edge detection is massively important as it is
in many cases the first step to object
recognition