Automatic image segmentation optimized by bilateral filtering

Abstract

The object-based methodology is one of the most commonly used strategies for processing high spatial resolution images. A prerequisite to object-based image analysis is image segmentation, which is normally defined as the subdivision of an image into separated regions. This study proposes a new image segmentation methodology based on a self-calibrating multi-band region growing approach. Two multispectral aerial images were used in this study. The unsupervised image segmentation approach begins with a first step based on a bidirectional filtering, in order to eliminate noise, smooth the initial image and preserve edges. The results are compared with ones obtained from Definiens Developper software. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.