Segmentation of textured images

Abstract

The authors present a method for texture segmentation that does not assume any prior knowledge about either the type of textures or the number of textured regions present in the image. Local orientation and spatial frequencies are used as the key parameters for classifying texture. The information is obtained by creating a local multifrequency multiorientation channel decomposition of the image, with the width of each frequency band constant on a logarithmic scale. This decomposition is implemented by applying a set of Gabor-like functions that were modified to have a decreased frequency selectivity when the filter's center frequency increases. The set of filter outputs is then used to create robust texture descriptors. The segmentation algorithm uses the similarity of the descriptors to determine the existence of texture regions and to outline their border rather than concentrating on segregating the textures. The method has been applied to image containing natural textures, resulting in a good segmentation of the texture regions. >