Saliency detection based on superpixels clustering and stereo disparity

Reliable saliency detection can be used to quickly and effectively locate objects in images. In this paper, a novel algorithm for saliency detection based on superpixels clustering and stereo disparity （SDC） is proposed. Firstly, we use an improved superpixels clustering method to decompose the given image. Then, the disparity of each superpixel is computed by a modified stereo correspondence algorithm. Finally, a new measure which combines stereo disparity with color contrast and spatial coherence is defined to evaluate the saliency of each superpixel. From the experiments we can see that regions with high disparity can get higher saliency value, and the saliency maps have the same resolution with the source images, objects in the map have clear boundaries. Due to the use of superpixel and stereo disparity information, the proposed method is computationally efficient and outperforms some state-of-the-art color- based saliency detection methods.

Object Detection Using SURF and Superpixels

This paper proposes a novel object detection method in which a set of local features inside the superpixels are extracted from the image under analysis acquired by a 3D visual sensor. To increase the segmentation accuracy, the proposed method firstly performs the segmentation of the image, under analysis, using the Simple Linear Iterative Clustering (SLIC) superpixels method. Next the key points inside each superpixel are estimated using the Speed-Up Robust Feature (SURF). These key points are then used to carry out the matching task for every detected keypoints of a scene inside the estimated superpixels. In addition, a probability map is introduced to describe the accuracy of the object detection results. Experimental results show that the proposed approach provides fairly good object detection and confirms the superior performance of proposed scene compared with other recently proposed methods such as the scheme proposed by Mae et al.

Precise Object Detection Using Iterative Superpixels Grouping Method

The region completeness of object detection is very crucial to video surveillance, such as the pedestrian and vehicle identifications. However, many conventional object detection approaches cannot guarantee the object region completeness because the object detection can be influenced by the illumination variations and clustering backgrounds. In order to overcome this problem, we propose the iterative superpixels grouping （ISPG） method to extract the precise object boundary and generate the object region with high completeness after the object detection. First, by extending the superpixel segmentation method, the proposed ISPG method can improve the inaccurate segmentation problem and guarantee the region completeness on the object regions. Second, the multi- resolution superpixel-based region completeness enhancement method is proposed to extract the object region with high precision and completeness. The simulation results show that the proposed method outperforms the conventional object detection methods in terms of object completeness evaluation.

A Research Review of Superpixels Generation Algorithms

Superpixels generation is becoming increasingly popular as a preprocessing in many computer vision applications. A superpixel is an image patch which has uniform pixels intensity and is aligned with intensity edges. Superpixels provide a convenient primitive from which local image features can be computed. So far, there are many methods to generate superpixels. Several main superpixels generation algorithms are summarized in this paper and the advantages and disadvantages of them are analyzed simply. In the end, some applications of superpixels are listed.

An review on superpixels generation algorithms

Superpixel segmentation is the oversegmentation of an image into a set of homogeneous regions. Superpixel has many specific properties and has been commonly used as supporting regions for primitives to reduce computations in various computer vision tasks. One property of superpixels is compactness, which is preferred in some applications. In this paper, we give an review on image superpixel segmentation algorithms proposed in recent years. Superpixel segmentation approaches are classified based on the compactness constraint and their main idea are introduced. We also compare these algorithms in visual and evaluate them with five common measurements.

Automated superpixels-based identification and mosaicking of cone photoreceptor cells for adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope

An automated superpixels identification/mosaicking method is presented for the analysis of cone photoreceptor cells with the use of adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope(AO-SLO) images. This is an image oversegmentation method used for the identification and mosaicking of cone photoreceptor cells in AO-SLO images.It includes image denoising, estimation of the cone photoreceptor cell number, superpixels segmentation, merging of superpixels, and final identification and mosaicking processing steps. The effectiveness of the presented method was confirmed based on its comparison with a manual method in terms of precision, recall, and F1-score of 77.3%, 95.2%, and 85.3%, respectively.

Beyond pixels:Learning from multimodal hyperspectral superpixels for land cover classification

Despite tons of advanced classification models that have recently been developed for the land cover mapping task,the monotonicity of a single remote sensing data source,such as only using hyperspectral data or multispectral data,hinders the classification accuracy from being further improved and tends to meet the performance bottleneck.For this reason,we develop a novel superpixel-based subspace learning model,called Supace,by jointly learning multimodal feature representations from HS and MS superpixels for more accurate LCC results.Supace can learn a common subspace across multimodal RS data,where the diverse and complementary information from different modalities can be better combined,being capable of enhancing the discriminative ability of to-be-learned features in a more effective way.To better capture semantic information of objects in the feature learning process,superpixels that beyond pixels are regarded as the study object in our Supace for LCC.Extensive experiments have been conducted on two popular hyperspectral and multispectral datasets,demonstrating the superiority of the proposed Supace in the land cover classification task compared with several well-known baselines related to multimodal remote sensing image feature learning.

Scale-adaptive superpixels for medical images

Background:Superpixel segmentation is a powerful preprocessing tool to reduce the complexity of image processing.Traditionally,size uniformity is one of the significant features of superpixels.However,in medical images,in which subjects scale varies greatly and background areas are often flat,size uniformity rarely conforms to the varying content.To obtain the fewest superpixels with retaining important details,the size of superpixel should be chosen carefully.Methods:We propose a scale-adaptive superpixel algorithm relaxing the size-uniformity criterion for medical images,especially pathological images.A new path-based distance measure and superpixel region growing schema allow our algorithm to generate superpixels with different scales according to the complexity of image content,that is smaller(larger)superpixels in color-riching areas(flat areas).Results:The proposed superpixel algorithm can generate superpixels with boundary adherence,insensitive to noise,and with extremely big sizes and extremely small sizes on one image.The number of superpixels is much smaller than size-uniformly superpixel algorithms while retaining more details of images.Conclusion:With the proposed algorithm,the choice of superpixel size is automatic,which frees the user from the predicament of setting suitable superpixel size for a given application.The results on the nuclear dataset show that the proposed superpixel algorithm superior to the respective state-of-the-art algorithms on both quantitative and quantitative comparisons.

Motion Analysis for Human Interaction Detection Using Optical Flow on Lattice Superpixels

We develop a new video-based motion analysis algorithn to determine whether two persons have any interaction in their meet- ing. The interaction between two persons can be very general, such as shaking hands, exchanging objects, and so on. To make the motio~ analysis robust to image noise, we segment each video flame into a set of superpixels and then derive a motion feature and a motion pattern for each superpixel by averaging the optical flow within the superpixe Specifically, we use the lattice cut to construct the superpixels, which are spatially and temporally consistent across frames. Based on the motion feature and the motion pattern of the superpixels, we develop an algorithm to divide an input video sequence into three consecutive periods： 1） two persons walking toward each other, 2） two persons meeting each other, and 3） two persons walking away fi＇om each other. The experiment show that the proposed algorithm can accurately dis- tinguish the videos with and without human interactions.

Hyperspectral remote sensing identification of marine oil spills and emulsions using feature bands and double-branch dual-attention mechanism network

The accurate identification of marine oil spills and their emulsions is of great significance for emergency response to oil spill pollution.The selection of characteristic bands with strong separability helps to realize the rapid calculation of data on aircraft or in orbit,which will improve the timeliness of oil spill emergency monitoring.At the same time,the combination of spectral and spatial features can improve the accuracy of oil spill monitoring.Two ground-based experiments were designed to collect measured airborne hyperspectral data of crude oil and its emulsions,for which the multiscale superpixel level group clustering framework(MSGCF)was used to select spectral feature bands with strong separability.In addition,the double-branch dual-attention(DBDA)model was applied to identify crude oil and its emulsions.Compared with the recognition results based on original hyperspectral images,using the feature bands determined by MSGCF improved the recognition accuracy,and greatly shortened the running time.Moreover,the characteristic bands for quantifying the volume concentration of water-in-oil emulsions were determined,and a quantitative inversion model was constructed and applied to the AVIRIS image of the deepwater horizon oil spill event in 2010.This study verified the effectiveness of feature bands in identifying oil spill pollution types and quantifying concentration,laying foundation for rapid identification and quantification of marine oil spills and their emulsions on aircraft or in orbit.

Image quality assessment based on perceptual grouping

To further explore the human visual system（ HVS）,the perceptual grouping（ PG）, which has been proven to play an important role in the HVS, is adopted to design an effective image quality assessment（ IQA） model. Compared with the existing fixed-window-based models, the proposed one is an adaptive window-like model that introduces the perceptual grouping strategy into the IQA model. It works as follows： first,it preprocesses the images by clustering similar pixels into a group to the greatest extent; then the structural similarity is used to compute the similarity of the superpixels between reference and distorted images; finally, it integrates all the similarity of superpixels of an image to yield a quality score. Experimental results on three databases（ LIVE, IVC and MICT） showthat the proposed method yields good performance in terms of correlation with human judgments of visual quality.

Improved SLIC Segmentation Algorithm for Artificial Structure Images

Simple linear iterative cluster(SLIC) is widely used because controllable superpixel number, accurate edge covering, symmetrical production and fast speed of calculation. The main problem of the SLIC algorithm is its under-segmentation when applied to segment artificial structure images with unobvious boundaries and narrow regions. Therefore, an improved clustering segmentation algorithm to correct the segmentation results of SLIC is presented in this paper. The allocation of pixels is not only related to its own characteristic, but also to those of its surrounding pixels.Hence, it is appropriate to improve the standard SLIC through the pixels by focusing on boundaries. An improved SLIC method adheres better to the boundaries in the image is proposed, by using the first and second order difference operators as magnified factors. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves an excellent boundary adherence for artificial structure images. The application of the proposed method is extended to images with an unobvious boundary in the Berkeley Segmentation Dataset BSDS500. In comparison with SLIC, the boundary adherence is increased obviously.

Improved Region Merging Algorithm for Remote Sensing Images

To segment high-resolution remote sensing images(RSIs)accurately on an object level and meet the precise boundary dividing requirement,an improved superpixel segmentation and region merging algorithm is proposed.Simple linear iterative clustering(SLIC)is widely used because of its advantages in performance and effect;however,it causes over-segmentation,which is very disadvantageous to information extraction.In this proposed method,SLIC is firstly adopted for initial superpixel partition.The second stage follows the iterative merging procedure,which uses a hierarchical clustering algorithm and introduces a local binary pattern(LBP)texture feature operator during the process of merging.The experimental results indicate that the proposed method achieved a good segmentation and region merging performance,and worked effectively on cloud detection preprocessing in high-resolution RSIs with cloud and snow overlap situations.

AGWO-CNN Classification for Computer-Assisted Diagnosis of Brain Tumors

Brain cancer is the premier reason for cancer deaths all over the world.The diagnosis of brain cancer at an initial stage is mediocre,as the radiologist is ineffectual.Different experiments have been conducted and demonstrated clearly that the algorithms for nodule segmentation are unsuccessful.Therefore,the research has consolidated incremental clustering focused on superpixel segmentation as an appropriate optimization approach for the accurate segmentation of pulmonary nodules.The key aim of the research is to refine brain CT images to accurately distinguish tumors and the segmentation of small-scale anomalous nodules in the brain region.In the beginning stage,an anisotropic diffusion filters(ADF)method with un-sharp intensification masking is utilized to eliminate the noise discernment in images.In the following stage,within the improved nodule image sequence,a Superpixel Segmentation Based Iterative Clustering(SSBIC)algorithm is proposed for irregular brain tissue prediction.Subsequently,the brain nodule samples are captured using deep learning methods:Advanced Grey Wolf Optimization(AGWO)with ONN(AGWO-ONN)and Advanced GWO with CNN-based(AGWOCNN).The proposed technique indicates that the sensitivity is increased and the calculation time is decreased.Consequently,the proposed methodology manifests that the advanced Computer-Assisted Diagnosis(CAD)system has outstanding potential for automatic brain tumor diagnosis.The average segmentation time of the nodule slice order is 1.06s,and 97%of AGWO-ONN and 97.6%of AGWO-CNN achieve the best classification reliability.

Real-time object segmentation based on convolutional neural network with saliency optimization for picking

This paper concerns the problem of object segmentation in real-time for picking system. A region proposal method inspired by human glance based on the convolutional neural network is proposed to select promising regions, allowing more processing is reserved only for these regions. The speed of object segmentation is significantly improved by the region proposal method.By the combination of the region proposal method based on the convolutional neural network and superpixel method, the category and location information can be used to segment objects and image redundancy is significantly reduced. The processing time is reduced considerably by this to achieve the real time. Experiments show that the proposed method can segment the interested target object in real time on an ordinary laptop.

High-contrast imaging based on wavefront shaping to improve low signal-to-noise ratio photoacoustic signals using superpixel method

Photoacoustic(PA) imaging has drawn tremendous research interest for various applications in biomedicine and experienced exponential growth over the past decade. Since the scattering effect of biological tissue on ultrasound is two-to three-orders magnitude weaker than that of light, photoacoustic imaging can effectively improve the imaging depth.However, as the depth of imaging further increases, the incident light is seriously affected by scattering that the generated photoacoustic signal is very weak and the signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) is quite low. Low SNR signals can reduce imaging quality and even cause imaging failure. In this paper, we proposed a new wavefront shaping and imaging method of low SNR photoacoustic signal using digital micromirror device(DMD) based superpixel method. We combined the superpixel method with DMD to modulate the phase and amplitude of the incident light, and the genetic algorithm(GA) was used as the wavefront shaping algorithm. The enhancement of the photoacoustic signal reached 10.46. Then we performed scanning imaging by moving the absorber with the translation stage. A clear image with contrast of 8.57 was obtained while imaging with original photoacoustic signals could not be achieved. The proposed method opens new perspectives for imaging with weak photoacoustic signals.

Rapid measurement of transmission matrix with the sequential semi-definite programming method

This paper puts forward for the first time a combined transmission matrix （TM） method to measure the monochromatic TM of scattering media without a reference beam. This method can be named a sequential semi-definite programming method which combines the sequential algorithm and the semi-definite programming method. Firstly, each part of the TM is calculated respectively in proper sequence. Then every part of TM is combined to form a complete TM in accordance with a certain rule. The phase modulation of the incident light is achieved by using a high speed digital mirror device with the superpixel method. We have experimentally demonstrated that the incident light field is focused at the target through scattering media using the measured TM to optimize the wavefront of the incident light. Compared with the semi- definite programming method, our method takes less computational time and occupies less memory space. The sequential semi-definite programming method shows potential applications in imaging through biological tissues.

A Noise-Resistant Superpixel Segmentation Algorithm for Hyperspectral Images

The superpixel segmentation has been widely applied in many computer vision and image process applications.In recent years,amount of superpixel segmentation algorithms have been proposed.However,most of the current algorithms are designed for natural images with little noise corrupted.In order to apply the superpixel algorithms to hyperspectral images which are always seriously polluted by noise,we propose a noiseresistant superpixel segmentation(NRSS)algorithm in this paper.In the proposed NRSS,the spectral signatures are first transformed into frequency domain to enhance the noise robustness;then the two widely spectral similarity measures-spectral angle mapper(SAM)and spectral information divergence(SID)are combined to enhance the discriminability of the spectral similarity;finally,the superpixels are generated with the proposed frequency-based spectral similarity.Both qualitative and quantitative experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed superpixel segmentation algorithm when dealing with hyperspectral images with various noise levels.Moreover,the proposed NRSS is compared with the most widely used superpixel segmentation algorithm-simple linear iterative clustering(SLIC),where the comparison results prove the superiority of the proposed superpixel segmentation algorithm.

Guided Intra-Patch Smoothing Graph Filtering for Single-Image Denoising

Graph filtering is an important part of graph signal processing and a useful tool for image denoising.Existing graph filtering methods,such as adaptive weighted graph filtering(AWGF),focus on coefficient shrinkage strategies in a graph-frequency domain.However,they seldom consider the image attributes in their graph-filtering procedure.Consequently,the denoising performance of graph filtering is barely comparable with that of other state-of-the-art denoising methods.To fully exploit the image attributes,we propose a guided intra-patch smoothing AWGF(AWGF-GPS)method for single-image denoising.Unlike AWGF,which employs graph topology on patches,AWGF-GPS learns the topology of superpixels by introducing the pixel smoothing attribute of a patch.This operation forces the restored pixels to smoothly evolve in local areas,where both intra-and inter-patch relationships of the image are utilized during patch restoration.Meanwhile,a guided-patch regularizer is incorporated into AWGF-GPS.The guided patch is obtained in advance using a maximum-a-posteriori probability estimator.Because the guided patch is considered as a sketch of a denoised patch,AWGF-GPS can effectively supervise patch restoration during graph filtering to increase the reliability of the denoised patch.Experiments demonstrate that the AWGF-GPS method suitably rebuilds denoising images.It outperforms most state-of-the-art single-image denoising methods and is competitive with certain deep-learning methods.In particular,it has the advantage of managing images with significant noise.

Monocular depth ordering with occlusion edges extraction and local depth inference

In this paper, a method to infer global depth ordering for monocular images is presented. Firstly a distance metric is defined with color, compactness, entropy and edge features to estimate the difference between pixels and seeds, which can ensure the superpixels to obtain more accurate object contours. To correctly infer local depth relationship, a weighting descriptor is designed that combines edge, T-junction and saliency features to avoid wrong local inference caused by a single feature. Based on the weighting descriptor, a global inference strategy is presented,which not only can promote the performance of global depth ordering, but also can infer the depth relationships correctly between two non-adjacent regions. The simulation results on the BSDS500 dataset, Cornell dataset and NYU 2 dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.