High-resolution image segmentation using fully parallel mean shift

Abstract

In this paper, we present a fast and effective method of image segmentation. Our design follows the bottom-up approach: first, the image is decomposed by nonparametric clustering; then, similar classes are joined by a merging algorithm that uses color, and adjacency information to obtain consistent image content. The core of the segmenter is a parallel version of the mean shift algorithm that works simultaneously on multiple feature space kernels. Our system was implemented on a many-core GPGPU platform in order to observe the performance gain of the data parallel construction. Segmentation accuracy has been evaluated on a public benchmark and has proven to perform well among other data-driven algorithms. Numerical analysis confirmed that the segmentation speed of the parallel algorithm improves as the number of utilized processors is increased, which indicates the scalability of the scheme. This improvement was also observed on real life, high-resolution images.