Efficient global minimization for the multiphase Chan-Vese model of image segmentation

Abstract

The Mumford-Shah model is an important variational image segmentation model. A popular multiphase level set approach, the Chan-Vese model, was developed for this model by representing the phases by several overlapping level set functions. Recently, exactly the same model was also formulated by using binary level set functions. In both approaches, the gradient descent equations had to be solved numerically, a procedure which is slow and has the potential of getting stuck in a local minima. In this work, we develop an efficient and global minimization method for the binary level set representation of the multiphase Chan-Vese model based on graph cuts. If the average intensity values of the different phases are sufficiently evenly distributed, the discretized energy function becomes submodular. Otherwise, a novel method for minimizing nonsubmodular functions is proposed with particular emphasis on this energy function. © 2009 Springer.