Improved adaptive spatial information clustering for image segmentation

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a different framework for incorporating spatial information with the aim of achieving robust and accurate segmentation in case of mixed noise without using experimentally set parameters, called improved adaptive spatial information clustering (IASIC) algorithm. The proposed objective function has a new dissimilarity measure, and the weighting factor for neighborhood effect is fully adaptive to the image content. It enhances the smoothness towards piecewise-homogeneous segmentation and reduces the edge-blurring effect. Furthermore, a unique characteristic of the new information segmentation algorithm is that it has the capabilities to eliminate outliers at different stages of the IASIC algorithm. These result in improved segmentation result by identifying and relabeling the outliers in a relatively stronger noisy environment. The experimental results with both synthetic and real images demonstrate that the proposed method is effective and robust to mixed noise and the algorithm outperforms other popular spatial clustering variants. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008.