Texture segmentation by minimizing vector-valued energy functionals: The coupled-membrane model

Abstract

This paper presents a computational model that segments images based on the textural properties of object surfaces. The proposed Coupled-Membrane model applies the weak membrane approach to an image WI(σ, θ, x, y), derived from the power responses of a family of self-similar quadrature Gabor wavelets. While segmentation breaks are allowed in x and y only, coupling is introduced to in all 4 dimensions. The resulting spatial and spectral diffusion prevents minor variations in local textures from producing segmentation boundaries. Experiments showed that the model is adequate in segmenting a class of synthetic and natural texture images.