Image Superpixel Segmentation Research Articles

USNet: underwater image superpixel segmentation via multi-scale water-net

Underwater images commonly suffer from a variety of quality degradations, such as color casts, low contrast, blurring details, and limited visibility. Existing superpixel segmentation algorithms face challenges in achieving superior performance when directly applied to underwater images with quality degradation. In this paper, to alleviate the limitations of superpixel segmentation when applied to underwater scenes, we propose the first underwater superpixel segmentation network (USNet), specifically designed according to the intrinsic characteristics of underwater images. Considering the quality degradation, we propose a multi-scale water-net module (MWM) aimed at enhancing the quality of underwater images before superpixel segmentation. The degradation-aware attention (DA) mechanism is then created and incorporated into MWM to solve light scattering and absorption, which can decrease object visibility and cause blurred edges. By effectively directing the network to prioritize locations that exhibit a considerable decrease in quality, this method enhances the visibility of those specific areas. Additionally, we extract the deep spatial features using the coordinate attention method. Finally, these features are fused with the shallow spatial information using the dynamic spatiality embedding module to embed comprehensive spatial features. Training and testing were conducted on the SUIM dataset, the underwater change detection dataset, and UIEB dataset. Experimental results show that our method achieves the best scores in terms of achievable segmentation accuracy, undersegmentation error, and boundary recall evaluation metrics compared to other methods. Both quantitative and qualitative evaluations demonstrate that our method can handle complicated underwater scenes and outperform existing state-of-the-art segmentation methods.

Infrared Image Superpixel Segmentation Based on Seed Strategy of Contour Encoding

Superpixel segmentation has become a crucial pre-processing tool to reduce computation in many computer vision applications. In this paper, a superpixel extraction algorithm based on a seed strategy of contour encoding (SSCE) for infrared images is presented, which can generate superpixels with high boundary adherence and compactness. Specifically, SSCE can solve the problem of superpixels being unable to self-adapt to the image content. First, a contour encoding map is obtained by ray scanning the binary edge map, which ensures that each connected domain belongs to the same homogeneous region. Second, according to the seed sampling strategy, each seed point can be extracted from the contour encoding map. The initial seed set, which is adaptively scattered based on the local structure, is capable of improving the capability of boundary adherence, especially for small regions. Finally, the initial superpixels limited by the image contour are generated by clustering and refined by merging similar adjacent superpixels in the region adjacency graph (RAG) to reduce redundant superpixels. Experimental results on a self-built infrared dataset and the public datasets BSD500 and 3Dircadb demonstrate the generalization ability in grayscale and medical images, and the superiority of the proposed method over several state-of-the-art methods in terms of accuracy and compactness.

Adaptive and fast image superpixel segmentation approach

Superpixel is one of the most popular image over-segmentations with broad applications in the computer vision field to reduce their computations by replacing pixels as primitives. The main concerns of one superpixel generation algorithm are its accuracy and efficiency. One of the most important things in superpixel accuracy is to fit the image boundaries tightly with a few pixels as possible (namely minimal contour density, which is measured by the percent of superpixel contour pixels in the whole image). In this paper, we propose a new fast algorithm based on the clustering method to produce superpixels accurately with low contour density. First, we adopt the linear path from a pixel to one superpixel seed to define a regular term and propose a new distance measurement between them. In addition, we introduce the gradient and Local Binary Pattern (LBP) features and propose formulas of parameters in the proposed method adaptively. In this way, we can use the new distance measurement to group pixels as initial regions adaptively and produce the final superpixels by merging those small ones. Finally, we test the new algorithm on two public datasets and compare it with the state-of-the-art. Our method can generate superpixels with lower contour density while being competitive in accuracy and computational time.

Extended set of superpixel features

Superpixel-based image processing and analysis methods usually use a small set of superpixel features. Expanding the description of superpixels can improve the quality of processing algorithms. In the paper, a set of 25 basic superpixel features of shape, intensity, geometry, and location is proposed. The features meet the requirements of low computational complexity in the process of image superpixel segmentation and sufficiency for solving a wide class of application tasks. Applying the set, we present a modification of the well-known approach to the superpixel generation. It consists of fast primary superpixel segmentation of the image with a strict homogeneity predicate, which provides superpixels preserving the intensity information of the original image with high accuracy, and the subsequent enlargement of the superpixels with softer homogeneity predicates. The experiments show that the approach can significantly reduce the number of image elements, which helps to reduce the complexity of processing algorithms, meanwhile the expanded superpixels more accurately correspond to the image objects.

Image superpixel segmentation based on hierarchical multi-level LI-SLIC

In computer vision, superpixel segmentation has been widely used as a very important preprocessing to reduce the number of image primitives for subsequent image processing tasks. To improve the segmentation accuracy and the robustness to noise, a hierarchical multi-level segmentation framework is developed in this paper. First, original image is initially segmented by a local information based simple liner iterative clustering (LI-SLIC) method. Then, the initial generated superpixels are further segmented hierarchically by LI-SLIC to ensure that all pixels contained within each superpixel belong to a same object. Finally, to eliminate over-segmentation and reduce the number of superpixels, adjacent superpixels belonging to a same object are merged based on the probability distribution similarity. The proposed method does not require setting the seeds or number of the superpixels to be generated in advance, which can segment image into an appropriate number of superpixels without under- or over- segmentation automatically according to its content. Experiments are conducted on two public datasets Berkeley and 3Dircadb, and the results demonstrate that our method is more effective and accurate than many existing superpixel methods and shows a great advantage in dealing with images corrupted by various noises.

An edge attention‐based geodesic distance for PolSAR image superpixel segmentation

The simple linear iterative clustering (SLIC) is the most popular superpixel segmentation method for its simplicity and effectiveness. In this Letter, we propose an edge attention-based geodesic distance, which can be applied to the SLIC framework for polarimetric synthetic aperture radar image superpixel segmentation. Image edges are especially considered to generate superpixels with better boundary adherence property, while the computing burden does not increase. Specifically, the authors first detect image edges, then fuse the edge map and polarimetric dissimilarity, and finally define the geodesic distance based on the fused results. Experiments performed on real scene images demonstrate the superiority of the proposed distance in both qualitative and quantitative ways.

In brief

PAGE 476 Chinese researchers present an irregular pentagonal patch array antenna, featuring a multilayer structure to enable dual-band and multi-mode orbital angular momentum (OAM) generation. The proposed array has the potential generate 6 different OAMs in 3 frequency bands and may provide new ideas for generating multi-mode vortex electromagnetic waves. PAGE 482 A multiplier design technique for stochastic computing is presented. The proposed design offers exact output and latency in the order of 2N, where N = the input precision. Compared to state of the art deterministic methods, the proposed design is faster by a factor of 2N. The technique is verified by mathematical analysis and simulation. Schematic diagram of proposed antenna array's element PAGE 501 Researchers from the Republic of Korea demonstrate integrated one-dimensional optical phase arrays (OPAs) for wide-angle, two-dimensional beam-steering in a 26.5 mm2 area. The 2-D OPA consists of 16 1-D transversal steering OPAs, whose radiators have different grating periods – allowing assignment of different longitudinal angles. Carry save adder in proposed design for N = 3. Full adder and half adder are denoted by fa and ha respectively. PAGE 510 Chinese researchers present an edge-attention-based geodesic distance which can be applied to the simple linear iterative clustering (SLIC) framework for PolSAR image superpixel segmentation, improving performance without an increase in computational expense. Experiments show the superiority of the proposed distance both qualitatively and quantitatively. Structure and design parameters of the grating radiator. PAGE 490 A collaboration of Chinese researchers propose two schemes to help prevent unwanted sideslip by wheeled mobile robots when turning. A controller is proposed combining robust control and model predictive control. Together the longitudinal velocity can be adjusted according to the state of the robot, whilst the model predictive control is used to achieve path tracking. Superpixel segmentation on PolSAR images over Changle using SLIC with the proposed distance. Fuzzy-NMPC system structure.

Requirements for multispectral remote sensing data used for the detection of arable land colonization by tree and shrubbery vegetation

We discuss requirements for the multispectral remote sensing (RS) data utilized in the author's technique for estimating plant species concentration to detect arable land colonization by tree and shrubbery vegetation. The study is carried out using available high-resolution remote sensing data of two arable land plots. The paper considers the influence of resolution, combinations of spectral channels of RS data, as well as the season RS data is acquired on the quality of identification of elementary vegetation classes that form the basis of the plant community – a fallow land. A fallow land represents a piece of arable land that has not been cultivated for a long time. The study was conducted using a technology that is based on image superpixel segmentation. We found out that for determining tree and shrub vegetation, it is preferable to use RS data acquired in autumn, namely, in late September. The combination of red and blue spectral channels turned out to be the best for the analysis of tree-shrub vegetation against the background of grassy plant communities, and the presence of a near-infrared channel is necessary to range the various grassy plant communities in different classes. RS data with a spatial resolution of 2.5 m can be used to define tree-shrub plant communities with a high closeness of crowns (90 % or more), but cannot be used to classify isolated trees. Trees and shrubs (with a height of 8 m) can be classified in images with a spatial resolution of 0.8 m. An increase in spatial resolution does not improve the quality of the classification. The highest accuracies achieved for the land areas studied are 90 % and 83 %. Therefore, the suggested technology can be used in arable land expertise.

Adaptive Nonlocal Random Walks for Image Superpixel Segmentation

In this paper, we propose a novel superpixel segmentation method using an adaptive nonlocal random walk (ANRW) algorithm. There are three main steps in our image superpixel segmentation algorithm. Our method is based on the random walk model, in which the seed points are produced to generate the initial superpixels by a gradient-based method in the first step. In the second step, the ANRW is proposed to get the initial superpixels by adjusting the NRW to obtain a better image and superpixel segmentation. In the last step, these small superpixels are merged to get the final regular and compact superpixels. The experimental results demonstrate that our method achieves a better superpixel performance than the state-of-the-art methods. Our source code will be available at: http://github.com/shenjianbing/ANRW .

Superpixel Segmentation of Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Images Based on Generalized Mean Shift

The mean shift algorithm has been shown to perform well in optical image segmentation. However, the conventional mean shift algorithm performs poorly if it is directly used with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images due to the large dynamic range and strong speckle noise. Recently, the Generalized Mean Shift (GMS) algorithm with an adaptive variable asymmetric bandwidth has been proposed for Polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) image filtering. In this paper, the GMS algorithm is further developed for PolSAR image segmentation. A new merging predicate that is defined in the joint spatial-range domain is derived based on the GMS algorithm. A pre-sorting strategy and a post-processing step are also introduced into the GMS segmentation algorithm. The proposed algorithm can be directly used for PolSAR image superpixel segmentation without any pre-processing steps. Experiments using Airborne SAR (AirSAR) and Experimental SAR (ESAR) L-band PolSAR data demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed superpixel segmentation algorithm. The parameter settings, stability, quality, and efficiency of the GMS algorithm are also discussed at the end of this paper.

SUPER PIXEL USING RANDOM WALK SEGMENTATION

Objectives: An innovative image superpixel segmentation approach run on the test image to acquire the probabilities of every pixel and performs grouping in light of shading similarities and spatial nearness of the pixels in histopathologic images. LRW algorithm using self-circles has the benefits of portioning the weak limits and confounded surface areas extremely fit. Method of analysis: This technique starts with instating the seed locations and tracks the LRW algorithm on the test image to acquire the probabilities of every pixel. At that point, the limits of starting superpixels is acquired by the probabilities what’s more, the drive time. Findings: At the point when the outcomes are assessed, it has been watched that the superpixel strategy has a positive commitment to both the segmentation achievement and the running time. The execution of superpixel is enhanced using moving the focus places of super pixels then separating the huge superpixels into little with the proposed improvement procedure. The exploratory outcomes have shown that our technique accomplishes preferable execution over past superpixel approaches. Application/Improvements: To detect the distance objects as a test image, and through this method, we can analyze and provide an optimal solution where time is constraint. Keywords: Features Classification Forest, Grey Level Co-Occurrence Matrix, Single Value Decomposition

Minimum barrier superpixel segmentation

Superpixel has become an essential processing unit in many computer vision systems, and superpixel segmentation of images is one of the most important step. In this paper, an efficient superpixel segmentation algorithm was proposed. We introduce a new compact-aware minimum barrier distance for superpixel segmentation (MBS), and a propagation scheme for the cluster centers between adjacent levels on a hierarchical architecture. Experiments show that it achieves state-of-the-art performance and can be configured with simple trade-off between performance and efficiency. Furthermore, the compactness of segmented superpixel could be flexibly controlled continuously by only one parameter, which could be easily integrated in other computer vision tasks. The source code of MBS is available at https://github.com/YinlinHu/MBS.

Superpixel Segmentation of Polarimetric SAR Images Based on Integrated Distance Measure and Entropy Rate Method

This paper proposes to integrate two different distances to measure the dissimilarity between neighboring pixels in PolSAR images, and introduces the entropy rate method into PolSAR image superpixel segmentation. Since the Gaussian model is commonly used for homogeneous scenes and less suitable for heterogeneous scenes, we adopt the spherically invariant random vector (SIRV) model to describe the back-scattering characteristics in heterogeneous areas. Moreover, a directional span-driven adaptive (DSDA) region is proposed such that it contains independent and identically distributed samples only, thus it can obtain accurate estimation of the distribution parameters. Using the DSDA region, the Wishart distance and SIRV distance are calculated, and then combined together through a homogeneity measurement. Therefore, the integrated distance takes advantage of the SIRV model and the Gaussian model, and suits both homogeneous and heterogeneous areas. Finally, based on the integrated distance, the superpixel segments are generated using the entropy rate framework. The experimental results on ESAR and PiSAR L-band datasets show that the proposed method can generate homogeneity-adaptive segments, resulting in smooth representation of the land covers in homogeneous areas, and better preserved details in heterogeneous areas.

Real-Time Superpixel Segmentation by DBSCAN Clustering Algorithm.

In this paper, we propose a real-time image superpixel segmentation method with 50 frames/s by using the density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) algorithm. In order to decrease the computational costs of superpixel algorithms, we adopt a fast two-step framework. In the first clustering stage, the DBSCAN algorithm with color-similarity and geometric restrictions is used to rapidly cluster the pixels, and then, small clusters are merged into superpixels by their neighborhood through a distance measurement defined by color and spatial features in the second merging stage. A robust and simple distance function is defined for obtaining better superpixels in these two steps. The experimental results demonstrate that our real-time superpixel algorithm (50 frames/s) by the DBSCAN clustering outperforms the state-of-the-art superpixel segmentation methods in terms of both accuracy and efficiency.

Lazy Random Walks for Superpixel Segmentation

We present a novel image superpixel segmentation approach using the proposed lazy random walk (LRW) algorithm in this paper. Our method begins with initializing the seed positions and runs the LRW algorithm on the input image to obtain the probabilities of each pixel. Then, the boundaries of initial superpixels are obtained according to the probabilities and the commute time. The initial superpixels are iteratively optimized by the new energy function, which is defined on the commute time and the texture measurement. Our LRW algorithm with self-loops has the merits of segmenting the weak boundaries and complicated texture regions very well by the new global probability maps and the commute time strategy. The performance of superpixel is improved by relocating the center positions of superpixels and dividing the large superpixels into small ones with the proposed optimization algorithm. The experimental results have demonstrated that our method achieves better performance than previous superpixel approaches.