Geometric attraction-driven flow for image segmentation and boundary detection

Abstract

Novel forces in image segmentation based on active contours models are proposed for capturing objects in the image. Contemplating the common functionality of forces in previous active contours models, we propose the geometric attraction-driven flow (GADF), the binary edge function, and the binary balloon forces to detect objects in difficult cases such as varying illumination and complex shapes. The orientation of GADF is orthogonally aligned with the boundary of object and has the opposite direction across the boundary. It prevents the leakage through weak edges of objects, which occur due to illumination. To reduce the interference from other forces, we design the binary edge function using the property of the orientation in the GADF. We also design the binary balloon force based on the four-color theorem. Combining with initial dual level set functions, the proposed model captures holes in objects and multiple junctions from different colors. The result does not depend on positions of initial contours. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.