• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.107-116
• /
• 2002

A hybrid image segmentation algorithm is proposed which integrates edge-based and region-based techniques through the watershed algorithm. First, by using mean curvature diffusion coupled to min/max flow, noise is eliminated and thin edges are preserved. After images are segmented by watershed algorithm, the segmented regions are combined with neighbor regions. Region adjacency graph (RAG) is employed to analyze the relationship among the segmented regions. The graph nodes and edge costs in RAG correspond to segmented regions and dissimilarities between two adjacent regions respectively. After the most similar pair of regions is determined by searching minimum cost RAG edge, regions are merged and the RAG is updated. The proposed method efficiently reduces noise and provides one-pixel wide, closed contours.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.82-91
• /
• 2013

This paper proposes a building recognition algorithm using watershed image segmentation algorithm and integrated region matching (IRM). To recognize a building, a preprocessing algorithm which is using Gaussian filter to remove noise and using canny edge extraction algorithm to extract edges is applied to input building image. First, images are segmented by watershed algorithm. Next, a region adjacency graph (RAG) based on the information of segmented regions is created. And then similar and small regions are merged. Second, a color distribution feature of each region is extracted. Finally, similar building images are obtained and ranked. The building recognition algorithm was evaluated by experiment. It is verified that the result from the proposed method is superior to color histogram matching based results.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.38-46
• /
• 2004

Image segmentation is the task which partitions the image into meaningful regions and considered to be one of the most important steps in computer vision and image processing. Image segmentation is also widely used in object-based video compression such as MPEG-4 to extract out the object regions from the given frame. Watershed algorithm is frequently used to obtain the more accurate region boundaries. But, it is well known that the watershed algorithm is extremely sensitive to gradient noise and usually results in oversegmentation. To solve such a problem, we propose an image segmentation method which is robust to noise by using stabilized inverse diffusion equation (SIDE) and is more efficient in segmentation by employing multiresolution approach. In this paper, we apply both the region projection method using labels of adjacent regions and the region merging method based on region adjacency graph (RAG). Experimental results on noisy image show that the oversegmenation is reduced and segmentation efficiency is increased.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
• /
• 2008.10a
• /
• pp.72-75
• /
• 2008

Image segmentation techniques becoming increasingly important in the field of remote sensing image analysis in areas such as object oriented image classification. This paper presents a new method for image segmentation in High Resolution Remote Sensing Image based on Seeded Region Growing (SRG) and Edge Information. Firstly, multi-spectral edge detection was done using an entropy operator in pan-sharpened QuickBird imagery. Then, the initial seeds were automatically selected from the obtained edge map. After automatic selection of significant seeds, an initial segmentation was achieved by applying SRG. Finally the region merging process, using region adjacency graph (RAG), was carried out to get the final segmentation result. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method has good potential for application in the segmentation of high resolution satellite images.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.26 no.6
• /
• pp.731-740
• /
• 2010

A region merging technique is suggested in this paper for the segmentation of high-spatial resolution imagery. It employs a region growing scheme based on the region adjacency graph (RAG). The proposed algorithm uses directional neighbor-line average feature vectors to improve the quality of segmentation. The feature vector consists of 9 components which includes an observation and 8 directional averages. Each directional average is the average of the pixel values along the neighbor line for a given neighbor line length at each direction. The merging coefficients of the segmentation process use a part of the feature components according to a given merging coefficient order. This study performed the extensive experiments using simulation data and a real high-spatial resolution data of IKONOS. The experimental results show that the new approach proposed in this study is quite effective to provide segments of high quality for the object-based analysis of high-spatial resolution images.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
• /
• v.28 no.10C
• /
• pp.1023-1032
• /
• 2003

Object-based coding, such as MPEG-4, enables various content-based functionalities for multimedia applications. In order to support such functionalities, as well as to improve coding efficiency, each frame of video sequences should be segmented into video objects. In this paper. we propose an effective video object segmentation method using nonlinear multiscale filtering and spatio-temporal information. Proposed method performs a spatial segmentation using a nonlinear multiscale filtering based on the stabilized inverse diffusion equation(SIDE). And, the segmented regions are merged using region adjacency graph(RAG). In this paper, we use a statistical significance test and a time-variant memory as temporal segmentation methods. By combining of extracted spatial and temporal segmentations, we can segment the video objects effectively. Proposed method is more robust to noise than the existing watershed algorithm. Experimental result shows that the proposed method improves a boundary accuracy ratio by 43% on "Akiyo" and by 29% on "Claire" than A. Neri's Method does.

• Spatial Information Research
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.83-92
• /
• 2012

Location-based services (LBS) are increasingly popular due to the improvement of geo-positioning capabilities and wireless communication technology. However, in order to enjoy LBS services, a user requesting a query must send his/her exact location to the LBS provider. Therefore, it is a key challenge to preserve user's privacy while providing LBS. To solve this problem, the existing method employs a 2PASS cloaking framework that not only hides the actual user location but also reduces bandwidth consumption. However, 2PASS does not fully guarantee the actual user privacy because it does not take the real user distribution into account. Hence, in this paper, we propose a nearest neighbor query processing algorithm that supports K-anonymity property based on the weighted adjacency graph(WAG). Our algorithm not only preserves the location of a user by guaranteeing k-anonymity in a query region, but also improves a bandwidth usage by reducing unnecessary search for a query result. We demonstrate from experimental results that our algorithm outperforms the existing one in terms of query processing time and bandwidth usage.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.22 no.6
• /
• pp.613-619
• /
• 2006

This study proposed an unsupervised image classification through the dendrogram of agglomerative clustering as a higher stage of image segmentation in image processing. The proposed algorithm is a hierarchical clustering which includes searching a set of MCSNP (Mutual Closest Spectral Neighbor Pairs) based on the data structures of RAG(Regional Adjacency Graph) defined on spectral space and Min-Heap. It also employes a multi-window system in spectral space to define the spectral adjacency. RAG is updated for the change due to merging using RNV (Regional Neighbor Vector). The proposed algorithm provides a dendrogram which is a graphical representation of data. The hierarchical relationship in clustering can be easily interpreted in the dendrogram. In this study, the proposed algorithm has been extensively evaluated using simulated images and applied to very large QuickBird imagery acquired over an area of Korean Peninsula. The results have shown it potentiality for the application of remotely-sensed imagery.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.44-58
• /
• 1999

In this paper, a rate-distortion based image segmentation algorithm is presented using a recursive merging with region adjacency graph (RAG). In the method, the dissimilarity between a pair of adjacent regions is represented as a Lagrangian cost function considered in rate-distortion sense. Lagrangian multiplier is estimated in each merging step, a pair of adjacent regions whose cost is minimal is searched and then the pair of regions are merged into a new region. The merging step is recursively performed until some termination criterion is reached. The proposed method thus is suitable for region-based coding or segmented-based coding. Experiment results for 256x256 Lena show that segmented-based coding using the proposed method yields PSNR improvement of about 2.5 - 3.5 dB. 0.8 -1.0 dB. 0.3 -0.6 dB over mean-difference-based method. distortion-based method, and JPEG, respectively.