Interactive Image Enhancement by Fuzzy Relaxation

In this paper, an interactive image enhancement （HE） technique based on fuzzy relaxation is presented, which allows the user to select different intensity levels for enhancement and intermit the enhancement process according to his/her preference in applications. First, based on an analysis of the convergence of a fuzzy relaxation algorithm for image contrast enhancement, an improved version of this algorithm, which is called FuzzIIE Method 1, is suggested by deriving a relationship between the convergence regions and the parameters in the transformations defined in the algorithm. Then a method called FuzzIIE Method 2 is introduced by using a different fuzzy relaxation function, in which there is no need to re-select the parameter values for interactive image enhancement. Experimental results are presented demonstrating the enhancement capabilities of the proposed methods under different conditions.

Fast interactive segmentation algorithm of image sequences based on relative fuzzy connectedness

A fast interactive segmentation algorithm of image-sequences based on relative fuzzy connectedness is presented. In comparison with the original algorithm, the proposed one, with the same accuracy, accelerates the segmentation speed by three times for single image. Meanwhile, this fast segmentation algorithm is extended from single object to multiple objects and from single-image to image-sequences. Thus the segmentation of multiple objects from complex hackground and batch segmentation of image-sequences can be achieved. In addition, a post-processing scheme is incorporated in this algorithm, which extracts smooth edge with one-pixel-width for each segmented object. The experimental results illustrate that the proposed algorithm can obtain the object regions of interest from medical image or image-sequences as well as man-made images quickly and reliably with only a little interaction.

Visual interactive image clustering:a target-independent approach for configuration optimization in machine vision measurement

Machine vision measurement(MVM)is an essential approach that measures the area or length of a target efficiently and non-destructively for product quality control.The result of MVM is determined by its configuration,especially the lighting scheme design in image acquisition and the algorithmic parameter optimization in image processing.In a traditional workflow,engineers constantly adjust and verify the configuration for an acceptable result,which is time-consuming and significantly depends on expertise.To address these challenges,we propose a target-independent approach,visual interactive image clustering,which facilitates configuration optimization by grouping images into different clusters to suggest lighting schemes with common parameters.Our approach has four steps:data preparation,data sampling,data processing,and visual analysis with our visualization system.During preparation,engineers design several candidate lighting schemes to acquire images and develop an algorithm to process images.Our approach samples engineer-defined parameters for each image and obtains results by executing the algorithm.The core of data processing is the explainable measurement of the relationships among images using the algorithmic parameters.Based on the image relationships,we develop VMExplorer,a visual analytics system that assists engineers in grouping images into clusters and exploring parameters.Finally,engineers can determine an appropriate lighting scheme with robust parameter combinations.To demonstrate the effiectiveness and usability of our approach,we conduct a case study with engineers and obtain feedback from expert interviews.

A survey of recent interactive image segmentation methods

Image segmentation is one of the most basic tasks in computer vision and remains an initial step of many applications. In this paper, we focus on interactive image segmentation(IIS), often referred to as foreground–background separation or object extraction, guided by user interaction. We provide an overview of the IIS literature by covering more than 150 publications, especially recent works that have not been surveyed before. Moreover, we try to give a comprehensive classification of them according to different viewpoints and present a general and concise comparison of the most recent published works. Furthermore, we survey widely used datasets,evaluation metrics, and available resources in the field of IIS.

Interactive image segmentation with a regression based ensemble learning paradigm

To achieve fine segmentation of complex natural images, people often resort to an interactive segmentation paradigm, since fully automatic methods often fail to obtain a result consistent with the ground truth. However, when the foreground and background share some similar areas in color, the fine segmentation result of conventional interactive methods usually relies on the increase o f manual labels. This paper presents a novel interactive image segmentation method via a regression-based ensemble model with semi-supervised learning. The task is formulated as a non-linear problem integrating two complementary spline regressors and strengthening the robustness of each regressor via semi-supervised learning. First, two spline regressors with a complementary nature are constructed based on multivariate adaptive regression splines （MARS） and smooth thin plate spline regression （TPSR）. Then, a regressor boosting method based on a clustering hypothesis and semi-supervised learning is proposed to assist the training of MARS and TPSR by using the region segmentation information contained in unlabeled pixels. Next, a support vector regression （SVR） based decision fusion model is adopted to integrate the results of MARS and TPSR. Finally, the GraphCut is introduced and combined with the SVR ensemble results to achieve image segmentation. Extensive experimental results on benchmark datasets of BSDS500 and Pascal VOC have demonstrated the effectiveness of our method, and the com- parison with experiment results has validated that the proposed method is comparable with the state-of-the-art methods for in- teractive natural image segmentation.

Robust interactive image segmentation via graph-based manifold ranking

Interactive image segmentation aims at classifying the image pixels into foreground and background classes given some foreground and background markers. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for interactive image segmentation that builds upon graph-based manifold ranking model, a graph-based semi-supervised learning technique which can learn very smooth functions with respect to the intrinsic structure revealed by the input data. The final segmentation results are improved by overcoming two core problems of graph construction in traditional models: graph structure and graph edge weights. The user provided scribbles are treated as the must-link and must-not-link constraints. Then we model the graph as an approximatively k-regular sparse graph by integrating these constraints and our extended neighboring spatial relationships into graph structure modeling. The content and labels driven locally adaptive kernel parameter is proposed to tackle the insufficiency of previous models which usually employ a unified kernel parameter. After the graph construction,a novel three-stage strategy is proposed to get the final segmentation results. Due to the sparsity and extended neighboring relationships of our constructed graph and usage of superpixels, our model can provide nearly real-time, user scribble insensitive segmentations which are two core demands in interactive image segmentation. Last but not least, our framework is very easy to be extended to multi-label segmentation,and for some less complicated scenarios, it can even get the segmented object through single line interaction. Experimental results and comparisons with other state-of-the-art methods demonstrate that our framework can efficiently and accurately extract foreground objects from background.