UNiT-4

Image Segmentation
What is image segmentation?
 Image segmentation is the process of dividing an image into different
segments to identify the objects and boundaries within it.
 Image segmentation is used to locate objects and boundaries in images.

Types of image segmentation:

There are two common approaches in image segmentation:

1. Similarity approach: This approach involves detecting similarity between

image pixels to form a segment based on a given threshold.

2. Discontinuity approach: This approach relies on the discontinuity of pixel

intensity values of the image. Line, point and edge detection techniques use this
type of approach for obtaining intermediate segmentation results that can later
be processed to obtain the final segmented image

Ex, point, Line, Edge

Detection of Discontinuities
This approach is applicable, where there arise a abrupt changes in the intensity level in
an image.

There are three basic types of discontinuities in digital images

1. Point Detection
2. Line Detection
3. Edges Detection

1. Point Detection:
 It is done using sharpening filter
 Threshold is used
 Pixel are detected as points that are above a set threshold

1
2. Line Detection
A special mask is needed to detect special types of line

Example:

2
3. Edge detection:
Edge detection: Edge detection is an image processing technique for finding the
boundaries of objects within images. It works by detecting discontinuities in
brightness. Edge detection is used for image segmentation and data extraction in
areas such as image processing, computer vision, and machine vision.

3
Image Segmentation Techniques:

There are five common image segmentation techniques.

1. Region-based image segmentation

2. Threshold-based segmentation
3. Edge-based image segmentation
4. Clustering-based image segmentation
5. Artificial neural network-based segmentation

1. Region based approach

 Region-based segmentation is based on the connectivity of similar pixels

in a images.
 A region can be classified as a group of connected pixels exhibiting
similar properties. Pixel similarity can be in terms of intensity and color,
etc.

 Region-based techniques are further classified into two types based on the
approaches they follow:
1. Region growing
2. Region splitting and merging

1. Region growing:

Region growing approach is the opposite of the split and merges approach:

With the region growing method, we start with a pixel as the seed pixel, and
then check the adjacent pixels. If the adjacent pixels abide by the

4
predefined rules, then that pixel is added to the region of the seed pixel and
the following process continues till there is no similarity left.

This method follows the bottom-up approach. If a region is growing, the

preferred rule can be set as a threshold.

Region growing methods often give very good segmentations that

correspond well to the observed edges.

5
Solution

The segmented region is shown in the following figure

Condition absolute difference <= 2

Region Splitting and Merging Technique

In region splitting, the whole image is first taken as a single region. If the region does
not follow the predefined rules, then it is divided into multiple regions (usually four

6
quadrants), and then the pre-defined rules are carried out on those regions in order to
decide whether to further subdivide or to classify that as a region. The following
process continues until every region follows the pre-defined rules.

In the region merging technique, we consider every pixel as an individual region. We

select a region as the seed region to check if adjacent regions are similar based on our
predefined rules. If they are similar, we merge them into a single region and move
ahead in order to build the segmented regions of the whole image. Both region
splitting and region merging are iterative processes. Usually, the first region splitting
is done on an image so as to split an image into maximum regions, and then these
regions are merged in order to form a good segmented image of the original image.

Example:

7
Example:

In region splitting, the following condition can be checked in order to determine

whether to subdivide a region or not. If the absolute value of the difference of the
maximum and minimum pixel intensities in a region is less than or equal to a
threshold value decided by the user, then the region does not require further splitting.

Example:

Solution

Condition absolute difference <= 3

Max value = 7

Min value = 0

|7-0|= 7, which is grater that 3

Therefore we will split the region into 4 sub- regions

8
Furthermore we will check all the sub-regions. Since all of them <=3, no further
splitting is required.

9
Merging

Check adjacent regions, if they are falling within the threshold, then merge

Consider region (a) and (b1)

Max value =7

Min value = 4

|7-4| = 3 , we will merge

Hit or Miss Transformation (Template Matching):

Hit-or-miss transform can be used for shape detection/ Template matching.

Given the shape as the structuring element B1 the Hit-or-miss transform is defined by:

10
Important Questions of Unit-4

11
1. Define image segmentation.
2. Explain Image Segmentation and related fundamental conditions.
3. What is segmentation? Explain point, line and edge detection in brief.
Also explain how to improve fast scanning algorithm by using
morphological?
4. Discuss the technique with example used for the following:
(i) Line Detection
(ii) Edge Detection
5. How will you detect isolated points (Point Detection) in an image?
6. What do you mean by image segmentation? What are various image
segmentation techniques? Describe due image segmentation technique.
7. Identify the problems in region based segmentation.
8. Describe the technique of thresholding for image segmentation.
9. Explain Region Splitting and merging.
10. Explain the process of image segmentation using region growing.
11. What do you mean by image segmentation? What are various image
12. Segmentation techniques? Describe due image segmentation technique.
13. Explain watershed segmentation algorithm in detail.

12
13