CH 08

Digital Image Processing
Image Segmentation
Chapter 08
Asst. Prof. Abdulle Hassan

Image Segmentation
Segmentation divides an image into its constituent
regions or objects.
Segmentation of images is a difficult task in image

processing. Still under research.
Segmentation allows to extract objects in images.

Segmentation is unsupervised learning.
Model based object extraction, e.g., template

matching, is supervised learning.
What it is useful for
After a successful segmenting the image, the contours of
objects can be extracted using edge detection and/or
border following techniques.
Shape of objects can be described.
Based on shape, texture, and color objects can be

identified.
Image segmentation techniques are extensively used in

similarity searches, e.g.:
http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/photos/blobworld/
Segmentation Algorithms
Segmentation algorithms are based on one of two
basic properties of color, gray values, or texture:
discontinuity and similarity.
First category is to partition an image based on

abrupt changes in intensity, such as edges in an
image.
Second category are based on partitioning an

image into regions that are similar according to a
predefined criteria. Histogram thresholding
approach falls under this category.
Domain spaces
• Spatial domain (row-column (rc) space)
• Histogram spaces
• Color space
• Texture space
• Other complex feature space

Clustering in Color Space
1. Each image point is mapped to a point in a color
space, e.g.:
Color(i, j) = (R (i, j), G(i, j), B(i, j))
It is many to one mapping.
2. The points in the color space are grouped to clusters.
3. The clusters are then mapped back to regions in the

image.
Examples
Original pictures segmented pictures
Mnp: 30, percent 0.05, cluster number 4
Mnp : 20, percent 0.05, cluster number 7

Displaying objects in the
Segmented Image
The objects can be distinguished by

assigning an arbitrary pixel value or
average pixel value to the pixels
belonging to the same clusters.
Thus, one needs clustering algorithms
for image segmentation.
Homework 8:
Implement in Matlab and test on some example images the

clustering in the color space.
Use Euclidean distance in RGB color space.
You can use k-means, PAM, or some other clustering algorithm.
Links to k-means, PAM, data normalization
Test images: rose, plane, car, tiger, landscape

Segmentation by Thresholding
Suppose that the gray-level histogram
corresponds to an image f(x,y) composed of dark
objects on the light background, in such a way
that object and background pixels have gray levels
grouped into two dominant modes.
One obvious way to extract the objects from the

background is to select a threshold ‘T’ that
separates these modes.
Then any point (x,y) for which f(x,y) < T is called

an object point, otherwise, the point is called a
background point.
Gray Scale Image Example
Image of a Finger Print with light background

Histogram
Segmented Image
Image after Segmentation

In Matlab histograms for images can be constructed using the imhist
command.
I = imread('pout.tif');
figure, imshow(I);
figure, imhist(I) %look at the hist to get a threshold, e.g., 110
BW=roicolor(I, 110, 255); % makes a binary image
figure, imshow(BW) % all pixels in (110, 255) will be 1 and white
% the rest is 0 which is black
roicolor returns a region of interest selected as those pixels in I that match the values
in the gray level interval.
BW is a binary image with 1's where the values of I match the values of the interval.
Thresholding Bimodal
Histograms
Basic Global Thresholding:
1)Select an initial estimate for T
2)Segment the image using T. This will produce two groups of

pixels. G1 consisting of all pixels with gray level values >T and
G2 consisting of pixels with values <=T.
3)Compute the average gray level values mean1 and mean2 for
the pixels in regions G1 and G2.
4)Compute a new threshold value

T=(1/2)(mean1 +mean2)
5)Repeat steps 2 through 4 until difference in T in successive

iterations is smaller than a predefined parameter T0.
Gray Scale Image - bimodal
Image of rice with black background

Segmented Image
Image histogram of rice Image after segmentation

Basic Adaptive Thresholding:
Images having uneven illumination

makes it difficult to segment using
histogram, this approach is to divide the
original image into sub images and use
the thresholding process to each of the
sub images.
Multimodal Histogram
If there are three or more dominant modes in the
image histogram, the histogram has to be
partitioned by multiple thresholds.
Multilevel thresholding classifies a point (x,y) as

belonging to one object class
if T1 < (x,y) <= T2,
to the other object class
if f(x,y) > T2
and to the background
if f(x,y) <= T1.
Thresholding multimodal
histograms
A method based on
Discrete Curve Evolution
to find thresholds in the histogram.
The histogram is treated as a polyline and is simplified

until a few vertices remain.
Thresholds are determined by vertices that are local

minima.
Discrete Curve Evolution (DCE)
It yields a sequence: P=P0, ..., Pm
Pi+1 is obtained from Pi by deleting the vertices of Pi

that have minimal relevance measure
K(v, Pi) = |d(u,v)+d(v,w)-d(u,w)|
v v
> w
w u
u
Gray Scale Image - Multimodal
Original Image of lena

Multimodal Histogram
Histogram of lena
Segmented Image
Image after segmentation – we get a outline of her face, hat, s

Color Image - bimodal
Colour Image having a bimodal histogram

Histogram
Histograms for the three colour spaces

Segmented Image
Segmented image, skin color is shown

End
Course Completes
Projects presentation
Notice : DIP Projects 20%
presentation starts on: 25 June 015

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Digital Image Processing

Asst. Prof. Abdulle Hassan

Segmentation of images is a difficult task in image

Segmentation allows to extract objects in images.

Model based object extraction, e.g., template

Shape of objects can be described.

Based on shape, texture, and color objects can be

Image segmentation techniques are extensively used in

First category is to partition an image based on

Second category are based on partitioning an

• Spatial domain (row-column (rc) space)

• Other complex feature space

Color(i, j) = (R (i, j), G(i, j), B(i, j))

It is many to one mapping.

2. The points in the color space are grouped to clusters.

3. The clusters are then mapped back to regions in the

Mnp: 30, percent 0.05, cluster number 4

Mnp : 20, percent 0.05, cluster number 7

The objects can be distinguished by

Implement in Matlab and test on some example images the

Test images: rose, plane, car, tiger, landscape

One obvious way to extract the objects from the

Then any point (x,y) for which f(x,y) < T is called

Image of a Finger Print with light background

Image after Segmentation

2)Segment the image using T. This will produce two groups of

4)Compute a new threshold value

5)Repeat steps 2 through 4 until difference in T in successive

Image of rice with black background

Image histogram of rice Image after segmentation

Images having uneven illumination

Multilevel thresholding classifies a point (x,y) as

The histogram is treated as a polyline and is simplified

Thresholds are determined by vertices that are local

It yields a sequence: P=P0, ..., Pm

Pi+1 is obtained from Pi by deleting the vertices of Pi

K(v, Pi) = |d(u,v)+d(v,w)-d(u,w)|

Original Image of lena

Image after segmentation – we get a outline of her face, hat, s

Colour Image having a bimodal histogram

Histograms for the three colour spaces

Segmented image, skin color is shown

Notice : DIP Projects 20%

presentation starts on: 25 June 015

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