K-Means image segmentation using Mumford–Shah model

Abstract

k-Means (KM) is well known for its ease of implementation as a clustering technique. It has been applied for color quantization in RGB, YUV, hyperspectral image, Lab, and other spaces, but this leads to fragmented segments as the pixels are clustered only in the color space without considering connectivity. The problem has been attacked by adding connectivity constraints, or using joint color and spatial features (r, g, b, x, y), which prevent fragmented and nonconvex segments. However, it does not take into account the complexity of the shape itself. The Mumford–Shah model has been earlier used to overcome this problem but with slow and complex mathematical optimization algorithms. We integrate Mumford–Shah model directly into KM context and construct a fast and simple implementation of the algorithm. The proposed approach uses standard KM algorithm with distance function derived from Mumford–Shah model so that it optimizes both the content and the shape of the segments jointly. We demonstrate by experiments that the proposed algorithm provides better results than comparative methods when compared using various error evaluation criteria. The algorithm is applied on 100 images in the Weizmann dataset and two remote sensing images.