SOFT IMAGE SEGMENTATION BASED ON CENTER-FREE FUZZY CLUSTERING

Image segmentation remains one of the major challenges in image analysis.And soft image segmentation has been widely used due to its good effect.Fuzzy clustering algorithms are very popular in soft segmentation.A new soft image segmentation method based on center-free fuzzy clustering is proposed.The center-free fuzzy clustering is the modified version of the classical fuzzy C-means ( FCM ) clustering.Different from traditional fuzzy clustering , the center-free fuzzy clustering does not need to calculate the cluster center , so it can be applied to pairwise relational data.In the proposed method , the mean-shift method is chosen for initial segmentation firstly , then the center-free clustering is used to merge regions and the final segmented images are obtained at last.Experimental results show that the proposed method is better than other image segmentation methods based on traditional clustering.

A fast and effective fuzzy clustering algorithm for color image segmentation

A fast and effective fuzzy clustering algorithm is proposed. The algorithm splits an image into n × n blocks, and uses block variance to judge whether the block region is homogeneous. Mean and center pixel of each homogeneous block are extracted for feature. Each inhomogeneous block is split into separate pixels and the mean of neighboring pixels within a window around each pixel and pixel value are extracted for feature. Then cluster of homogeneous blocks and cluster of separate pixels from inhomogeneous blocks are carried out respectively according to different membership functions. In fuzzy clustering stage, the center pixel and center number of the initial clustering are calculated based on histogram by using mean feature. Then different membership functions according to comparative result of block variance are computed. Finally, modified fuzzy c-means with spatial information to complete image segmentation axe used. Experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve better segmental results and has shorter executive time than many well-known methods.

Research on Image Segmentation Algorithm based on Fuzzy C-mean Clustering

This paper presents a fuzzy C- means clustering image segmentation algorithm based on particle swarm optimization, the method utilizes the strong search ability of particle swarm clustering search center. Because the search clustering center has small amount of calculation according to density, so it can greatly improve the calculation speed of fuzzy C- means algorithm. The experimental results show that, this method can make the fuzzy clustering to obviously improve the speed, so it can achieve fast image segmentation.

New two-dimensional fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm for image segmentation

To solve the problem of poor anti-noise performance of the traditional fuzzy C-means (FCM) algorithm in image segmentation, a novel two-dimensional FCM clustering algorithm for image segmentation was proposed. In this method, the image segmentation was converted into an optimization problem. The fitness function containing neighbor information was set up based on the gray information and the neighbor relations between the pixels described by the improved two-dimensional histogram. By making use of the global searching ability of the predator-prey particle swarm optimization, the optimal cluster center could be obtained by iterative optimization, and the image segmentation could be accomplished. The simulation results show that the segmentation accuracy ratio of the proposed method is above 99%. The proposed algorithm has strong anti-noise capability, high clustering accuracy and good segment effect, indicating that it is an effective algorithm for image segmentation.

Image segmentation algorithm based on high-dimension fuzzy character and restrained clustering network

An image segmentation algorithm of the restrained fuzzy Kohonen clustering network （RFKCN） based on high- dimension fuzzy character is proposed. The algorithm includes two steps. The first step is the fuzzification of pixels in which two redundant images are built by fuzzy mean value and fuzzy median value. The second step is to construct a three-dimensional （3-D） feature vector of redundant images and their original images and cluster the feature vector through RFKCN, to realize image seg- mentation. The proposed algorithm fully takes into account not only gray distribution information of pixels, but also relevant information and fuzzy information among neighboring pixels in constructing 3- D character space. Based on the combination of competitiveness, redundancy and complementary of the information, the proposed algorithm improves the accuracy of clustering. Theoretical anal- yses and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has a good segmentation performance.

A Modified Fuzzy C-Means Algorithm for Brain MR Image Segmentation and Bias Field Correction

In quantitative brain image analysis, accurate brain tissue segmentation from brain magnetic resonance image （MRI） is a critical step. It is considered to be the most important and difficult issue in the field of medical image processing. The quality of MR images is influenced by partial volume effect, noise, and intensity inhomogeneity, which render the segmentation task extremely challenging. We present a novel fuzzy c-means algorithm （RCLFCM） for segmentation and bias field correction of brain MR images. We employ a new gray-difference coefficient and design a new impact factor to measure the effect of neighbor pixels, so that the robustness of anti-noise can be enhanced. Moreover, we redefine the objective function of FCM （fuzzy c-means） by adding the bias field estimation model to overcome the intensity inhomogeneity in the image and segment the brain MR images simultaneously. We also construct a new spatial function by combining pixel gray value dissimilarity with its membership, and make full use of the space information between pixels to update the membership. Compared with other state-of-the-art approaches by using similarity accuracy on synthetic MR images with different levels of noise and intensity inhomogeneity, the proposed algorithm generates the results with high accuracy and robustness to noise.Jinan.

Object Detection in Remote Sensing Images Using Picture Fuzzy Clustering and MapReduce

In image processing, one of the most important steps is image segmentation. The objects in remote sensing images often have to be detected in order toperform next steps in image processing. Remote sensing images usually havelarge size and various spatial resolutions. Thus, detecting objects in remote sensing images is very complicated. In this paper, we develop a model to detectobjects in remote sensing images based on the combination of picture fuzzy clustering and MapReduce method (denoted as MPFC). Firstly, picture fuzzy clustering is applied to segment the input images. Then, MapReduce is used to reducethe runtime with the guarantee of quality. To convert data for MapReduce processing, two new procedures are introduced, including Map_PFC and Reduce_PFC.The formal representation and details of two these procedures are presented in thispaper. The experiments on satellite image and remote sensing image datasets aregiven to evaluate proposed model. Validity indices and time consuming are usedto compare proposed model to picture fuzzy clustering model. The values ofvalidity indices show that picture fuzzy clustering integrated to MapReduce getsbetter quality of segmentation than using picture fuzzy clustering only. Moreover,on two selected image datasets, the run time of MPFC model is much less thanthat of picture fuzzy clustering.

Improved fuzzy clustering for image segmentation based on a low-rank prior

Image segmentation is a basic problem in medical image analysis and useful for disease diagnosis.However,the complexity of medical images makes image segmentation difficult.In recent decades,fuzzy clustering algorithms have been preferred due to their simplicity and efficiency.However,they are sensitive to noise.To solve this problem,many algorithms using non-local information have been proposed,which perform well but are inefficient.This paper proposes an improved fuzzy clustering algorithm utilizing nonlocal self-similarity and a low-rank prior for image segmentation.Firstly,cluster centers are initialized based on peak detection.Then,a pixel correlation model between corresponding pixels is constructed,and similar pixel sets are retrieved.To improve efficiency and robustness,the proposed algorithm uses a novel objective function combining non-local information and a low-rank prior.Experiments on synthetic images and medical images illustrate that the algorithm can improve efficiency greatly while achieving satisfactory results.

EFFECTIVE FEATURE ANALYSIS FOR COLOR IMAGE SEGMENTATION

An approach for color image segmentation is proposed based on the contributions of color features to segmentation rather than the choice of a particular color space. The determination of effective color features depends on the analysis of various color features from each tested color image via the designed feature encoding. It is different from the pervious methods where self organized feature map (SOFM) is used for constructing the feature encoding so that the feature encoding can self organize the effective features for different color images. Fuzzy clustering is applied for the final segmentation when the well suited color features and the initial parameter are available. The proposed method has been applied in segmenting different types of color images and the experimental results show that it outperforms the classical clustering method. The study shows that the feature encoding approach offers great promise in automating and optimizing the segmentation of color images.

Entropy-like distance driven fuzzy clustering with local information constraints for image segmentation

To improve the anti-noise ability of fuzzy local information C-means clustering, a robust entropy-like distance driven fuzzy clustering with local information is proposed. This paper firstly uses Jensen-Shannon divergence to induce a symmetric entropy-like divergence. Then the root of entropy-like divergence is proved to be a distance measure, and it is applied to existing fuzzy C-means(FCM) clustering to obtain a new entropy-like divergence driven fuzzy clustering, meanwhile its convergence is strictly proved by Zangwill theorem. In the end, a robust fuzzy clustering by combing local information with entropy-like distance is constructed to segment image with noise. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has better segmentation accuracy and robustness against noise than existing state-of-the-art fuzzy clustering-related segmentation algorithm in the presence of noise.

A method of automatic image segmentation for gas bubbles in water

This paper presents an algorithm of automatic bubble image segmentation using the improved ant colony optimization methodology. The ant colony optimization method is a metaheuristic algorithm, and has been applied in many fields. To reveal the versatility and appropriateness of automatic bubble image segmentation, the fuzzy clustering analysis method is employed in ant colony optimization algorithm. Compared with the well-known image feature extraction operators such as SUSAN and Canny, the proposed method can comparatively suitable to extract the gas bubbles image edge features. The experimental results show that the proposed method is effective and reliable, and can achieve satisfactory image edge extraction effect.

Image Segmentation Based on Intuitionistic Type-2 FCM Algorithm

Due to using the fuzzy clustering algorithm,the accuracy of image segmentation is not high enough.So one hybrid clustering algorithm combined with intuitionistic fuzzy factor and local spatial information is proposed.Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is superior to other methods in image segmentation accuracy and improves the robustness of the algorithm.

Illumination-Free Clustering Using Improved Slime Mould Algorithm for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Image Segmentation

Partitional clustering techniques such as K-Means(KM),Fuzzy C-Means(FCM),and Rough K-Means(RKM)are very simple and effective techniques for image segmentation.But,because their initial cluster centers are randomly determined,it is often seen that certain clusters converge to local optima.In addition to that,pathology image segmentation is also problematic due to uneven lighting,stain,and camera settings during the microscopic image capturing process.Therefore,this study proposes an Improved Slime Mould Algorithm(ISMA)based on opposition based learning and differential evolution’s mutation strategy to perform illumination-free White Blood Cell(WBC)segmentation.The ISMA helps to overcome the local optima trapping problem of the partitional clustering techniques to some extent.This paper also performs a depth analysis by considering only color components of many well-known color spaces for clustering to find the effect of illumination over color pathology image clustering.Numerical and visual results encourage the utilization of illumination-free or color component-based clustering approaches for image segmentation.ISMA-KM and“ab”color channels of CIELab color space provide best results with above-99%accuracy for only nucleus segmentation.Whereas,for entire WBC segmentation,ISMA-KM and the“CbCr”color component of YCbCr color space provide the best results with an accuracy of above 99%.Furthermore,ISMA-KM and ISMA-RKM have the lowest and highest execution times,respectively.On the other hand,ISMA provides competitive outcomes over CEC2019 benchmark test functions compared to recent well-established and efficient Nature-Inspired Optimization Algorithms(NIOAs).

Fuzzy c-means clustering with non local spatial information for noisy image segmentation

As an effective image segmentation method, the standard fuzzy c-means （FCM） clustering algorithm is very sensitive to noise in images. Several modified FCM algorithms, using local spatial information, can overcome this problem to some degree. However, when the noise level in the image is high, these algorithms still cannot obtain satisfactory segmentation performance. In this paper, we introduce a non local spatial constraint term into the objective function of FCM and propose a fuzzy c- means clustering algorithm with non local spatial information （FCM_NLS）. FCM_NLS can deal more effectively with the image noise and preserve geometrical edges in the image. Performance evaluation experiments on synthetic and real images, especially magnetic resonance （MR） images, show that FCM NLS is more robust than both the standard FCM and the modified FCM algorithms using local spatial information for noisy image segmentation.

A RVR-based Method for Bias Field Estimation in Brain Magnetic Resonance Images Segmentation

This paper presents a relevance vector regression(RVR) based on parametric approach to the bias field estimation in brain magnetic resonance(MR) image segmentation. Segmentation is a very important and challenging task in brain analysis,while the bias field existed in the images can significantly deteriorate the performance.Most of current parametric bias field correction techniques use a pre-set linear combination of low degree basis functions, the coefficients and the basis function types of which completely determine the field. The proposed RVR method can automatically determine the best combination for the bias field, resulting in a good segmentation in the presence of noise by combining with spatial constrained fuzzy C-means(SCFCM)segmentation. Experiments on simulated T1 images show the efficiency.

Paraspinal Muscle Segmentation in CT Images Using GSM-Based Fuzzy C-Means Clustering

Minimally Invasive Spine surgery (MISS) was developed to treat disorders of the spine with less disruption to the muscles. Surgeons use CT images to monitor the volume of muscles after operation in order to evaluate the progress of patient recovery. The first step in the task is to segment the muscle regions from other tissues/organs in CT images. However, manual segmentation of muscle regions is not only inaccurate, but also time consuming. In this work, Gray Space Map (GSM) is used in fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm to segment muscle regions in CT images. GSM com- bines both spatial and intensity information of pixels. Experiments show that the proposed GSM- based fuzzy c-means clustering muscle CT image segmentation yields very good results.

Clustering based segmentation of text in complex color images

We propose a novel scheme based on clustering analysis in color space to solve text segmentation in complex color images. Text segmentation includes automatic clustering of color space and foreground image generation. Two methods are also proposed for automatic clustering: The first one is to determine the optimal number of clusters and the second one is the fuzzy competitively clustering method based on competitively learning techniques. Essential foreground images obtained from any of the color clusters are combined into foreground images. Further performance analysis reveals the advantages of the proposed methods.

Color Image Segmentation Using Feedforward Neural Networks with FCM

This paper proposes a hybrid technique for color image segmentation. First an input image is converted to the image of CIE L＊a＊b＊ color space. The color features ＂a＂ and ＂b＂ of CIE L^＊a^＊b^＊ are then fed into fuzzy C-means （FCM） clustering which is an unsupervised method. The labels obtained from the clustering method FCM are used as a target of the supervised feed forward neural network. The network is trained by the Levenberg-Marquardt back-propagation algorithm, and evaluates its performance using mean square error and regression analysis. The main issues of clustering methods are determining the number of clusters and cluster validity measures. This paper presents a method namely co-occurrence matrix based algorithm for finding the number of clusters and silhouette index values that are used for cluster validation. The proposed method is tested on various color images obtained from the Berkeley database. The segmentation results from the proposed method are validated and the classification accuracy is evaluated by the parameters sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy.

ENTROPY TOLERANT FUZZY C-MEANS IN MEDICAL IMAGES

Segmenting the Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Breast Magnetic Resonance Images(DCE-BMRI)is an extremely important task to diagnose the disease because it has the highest specificity when acquired with high temporal and spatial resolution and is also corrupted by heavy noise,outliers,and other imaging artifacts.In this paper,we intend to develop efficient robust segmentation algorithms based on fuzzy clustering approach for segmenting the DCE-BMRs.Our proposed segmentation algorithms have been amalgamated with effective kernel-induced distance measure on standard fuzzy c-means algorithm along with the spatial neighborhood information,entropy term,and tolerance vector into a fuzzy clustering structure for segmenting the DCE-BMRI.The significant feature of our proposed algorithms is its capability tofind the optimal membership grades and obtain effective cluster centers automatically by minimizing the proposed robust objective functions.Also,this article demonstrates the superiority of the proposed algorithms for segmenting DCE-BMRI in comparison with other recent kernel-based fuzzy c-means techniques.Finally the clustering accuracies of the proposed algorithms are validated by using silhouette method in comparison with existed fuzzy clustering algorithms.

An Adaptive Fuzzy C-Means Algorithm for Improving MRI Segmentation

In this paper, we propose new fuzzy c-means method for improving the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) segmenta- tion. The proposed method called “possiblistic fuzzy c-means (PFCM)” which hybrids the fuzzy c-means (FCM) and possiblistic c-means (PCM) functions. It is realized by modifying the objective function of the conventional PCM algorithm with Gaussian exponent weights to produce memberships and possibilities simultaneously, along with the usual point prototypes or cluster centers for each cluster. The membership values can be interpreted as degrees of possibility of the points belonging to the classes, i.e., the compatibilities of the points with the class prototypes. For that, the proposed algorithm is capable to avoid various problems of existing fuzzy clustering methods that solve the defect of noise sensitivity and overcomes the coincident clusters problem of PCM. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by extensive segmentation experiments by applying them to the challenging applications: gray matter/white matter segmentation in magnetic resonance image (MRI) datasets and by comparison with other state of the art algorithms. The experimental results show that the proposed method produces accurate and stable results.