Showing papers on "Image segmentation published in 1996"
TL;DR: A novel statistical and variational approach to image segmentation based on a new algorithm, named region competition, derived by minimizing a generalized Bayes/minimum description length (MDL) criterion using the variational principle is presented.
Abstract: We present a novel statistical and variational approach to image segmentation based on a new algorithm, named region competition. This algorithm is derived by minimizing a generalized Bayes/minimum description length (MDL) criterion using the variational principle. The algorithm is guaranteed to converge to a local minimum and combines aspects of snakes/balloons and region growing. The classic snakes/balloons and region growing algorithms can be directly derived from our approach. We provide theoretical analysis of region competition including accuracy of boundary location, criteria for initial conditions, and the relationship to edge detection using filters. It is straightforward to generalize the algorithm to multiband segmentation and we demonstrate it on gray level images, color images and texture images. The novel color model allows us to eliminate intensity gradients and shadows, thereby obtaining segmentation based on the albedos of objects. It also helps detect highlight regions.
2,181 citations
TL;DR: Use of the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm leads to a method that allows for more accurate segmentation of tissue types as well as better visualization of magnetic resonance imaging data, that has proven to be effective in a study that includes more than 1000 brain scans.
Abstract: Intensity-based classification of MR images has proven problematic, even when advanced techniques are used. Intrascan and interscan intensity inhomogeneities are a common source of difficulty. While reported methods have had some success in correcting intrascan inhomogeneities, such methods require supervision for the individual scan. This paper describes a new method called adaptive segmentation that uses knowledge of tissue intensity properties and intensity inhomogeneities to correct and segment MR images. Use of the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm leads to a method that allows for more accurate segmentation of tissue types as well as better visualization of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data, that has proven to be effective in a study that includes more than 1000 brain scans. Implementation and results are described for segmenting the brain in the following types of images: axial (dual-echo spin-echo), coronal [three dimensional Fourier transform (3-DFT) gradient-echo T1-weighted] all using a conventional head coil, and a sagittal section acquired using a surface coil. The accuracy of adaptive segmentation was found to be comparable with manual segmentation, and closer to manual segmentation than supervised multivariant classification while segmenting gray and white matter.
1,328 citations
TL;DR: A theory of fuzzy objects forn-dimensional digital spaces based on a notion of fuzzy connectedness of image elements and algorithms for extracting a specified fuzzy object and for identifying all fuzzy objects present in the image data are presented.
925 citations
TL;DR: The Virage engine provides an open framework for developers to 'plug-in' primitives to solve specific image management problems and can be utilized to address high-level problems as well, such as automatic, unsupervised keyword assignment, or image classification.
Abstract: Until recently, the management of large image databases has relied exclusively on manually entered alphanumeric annotations. Systems are beginning to emerge in both the research and commercial sectors based on 'content-based' image retrieval, a technique which explicitly manages image assets by directly representing their visual attributes. The Virage image search engine provides an open framework for building such systems. The Virage engine expresses visual features as image 'primitives.' Primitives can be very general (such as color, shape, or texture) or quite domain specific (face recognition, cancer cell detection, etc.). The basic philosophy underlying this architecture is a transformation from the data-rich representation of explicit image pixels to a compact, semantic-rich representation of visually salient characteristics. In practice, the design of such primitives is non-trivial, and is driven by a number of conflicting real-world constraints (e.g. computation time vs. accuracy). The virage engine provides an open framework for developers to 'plug-in' primitives to solve specific image management problems. The architecture has been designed to support both static images and video in a unified paradigm. The infrastructure provided by the Virage engine can be utilized to address high-level problems as well, such as automatic, unsupervised keyword assignment, or image classification.
921 citations
TL;DR: A methodology for evaluating range image segmentation algorithms and four research groups have contributed to evaluate their own algorithm for segmenting a range image into planar patches.
Abstract: A methodology for evaluating range image segmentation algorithms is proposed. This methodology involves (1) a common set of 40 laser range finder images and 40 structured light scanner images that have manually specified ground truth and (2) a set of defined performance metrics for instances of correctly segmented, missed, and noise regions, over- and under-segmentation, and accuracy of the recovered geometry. A tool is used to objectively compare a machine generated segmentation against the specified ground truth. Four research groups have contributed to evaluate their own algorithm for segmenting a range image into planar patches.
895 citations
TL;DR: H holistic approaches that avoid segmentation by recognizing entire character strings as units are described, including methods that partition the input image into subimages, which are then classified.
Abstract: Character segmentation has long been a critical area of the OCR process. The higher recognition rates for isolated characters vs. those obtained for words and connected character strings well illustrate this fact. A good part of recent progress in reading unconstrained printed and written text may be ascribed to more insightful handling of segmentation. This paper provides a review of these advances. The aim is to provide an appreciation for the range of techniques that have been developed, rather than to simply list sources. Segmentation methods are listed under four main headings. What may be termed the "classical" approach consists of methods that partition the input image into subimages, which are then classified. The operation of attempting to decompose the image into classifiable units is called "dissection." The second class of methods avoids dissection, and segments the image either explicitly, by classification of prespecified windows, or implicitly by classification of subsets of spatial features collected from the image as a whole. The third strategy is a hybrid of the first two, employing dissection together with recombination rules to define potential segments, but using classification to select from the range of admissible segmentation possibilities offered by these subimages. Finally, holistic approaches that avoid segmentation by recognizing entire character strings as units are described.
880 citations
TL;DR: It is shown how prior assumptions about the spatial structure of outliers can be expressed as constraints on the recovered analog outlier processes and how traditional continuation methods can be extended to the explicit outlier-process formulation.
Abstract: The modeling of spatial discontinuities for problems such as surface recovery, segmentation, image reconstruction, and optical flow has been intensely studied in computer vision. While “line-process” models of discontinuities have received a great deal of attention, there has been recent interest in the use of robust statistical techniques to account for discontinuities. This paper unifies the two approaches. To achieve this we generalize the notion of a “line process” to that of an analog “outlier process” and show how a problem formulated in terms of outlier processes can be viewed in terms of robust statistics. We also characterize a class of robust statistical problems for which an equivalent outlier-process formulation exists and give a straightforward method for converting a robust estimation problem into an outlier-process formulation. We show how prior assumptions about the spatial structure of outliers can be expressed as constraints on the recovered analog outlier processes and how traditional continuation methods can be extended to the explicit outlier-process formulation. These results indicate that the outlier-process approach provides a general framework which subsumes the traditional line-process approaches as well as a wide class of robust estimation problems. Examples in surface reconstruction, image segmentation, and optical flow are presented to illustrate the use of outlier processes and to show how the relationship between outlier processes and robust statistics can be exploited. An appendix provides a catalog of common robust error norms and their equivalent outlier-process formulations.
752 citations
21 Jun 1996
TL;DR: Experimental evidence of the power and generality of the mutual information criterion is given by showing results for various applications involving CT, MR and PET images, which illustrate the large applicability of the approach.
Abstract: Mutual information of image intensities has been proposed as a new matching criterion for automated multi-modality image registration. In this paper the authors give experimental evidence of the power and the generality of the mutual information criterion by showing results for various applications involving CT, MR and PET images. The authors' results illustrate the large applicability of the approach and demonstrate its high suitability for routine use in clinical practice.
637 citations
TL;DR: The Wold model appears to offer a perceptually more satisfying measure of pattern similarity while exceeding the performance of these other methods by traditional pattern recognition criteria.
Abstract: One of the fundamental challenges in pattern recognition is choosing a set of features appropriate to a class of problems. In applications such as database retrieval, it is important that image features used in pattern comparison provide good measures of image perceptual similarities. We present an image model with a new set of features that address the challenge of perceptual similarity. The model is based on the 2D Wold decomposition of homogeneous random fields. The three resulting mutually orthogonal subfields have perceptual properties which can be described as "periodicity," "directionality," and "randomness," approximating what are indicated to be the three most important dimensions of human texture perception. The method presented improves upon earlier Wold-based models in its tolerance to a variety of local inhomogeneities which arise in natural textures and its invariance under image transformation such as rotation. An image retrieval algorithm based on the new texture model is presented. Different types of image features are aggregated for similarity comparison by using a Bayesian probabilistic approach. The, effectiveness of the Wold model at retrieving perceptually similar natural textures is demonstrated in comparison to that of two other well-known pattern recognition methods. The Wold model appears to offer a perceptually more satisfying measure of pattern similarity while exceeding the performance of these other methods by traditional pattern recognition criteria. Examples of natural scene Wold texture modeling are also presented.
618 citations
TL;DR: A Bayesian scheme, which is based on prior knowledge and the edge information in the input image, is employed to find a match between the deformed template and objects in the image and computational efficiency is achieved via a coarse-to-fine implementation of the matching algorithm.
Abstract: We propose a general object localization and retrieval scheme based on object shape using deformable templates. Prior knowledge of an object shape is described by a prototype template which consists of the representative contour/edges, and a set of probabilistic deformation transformations on the template. A Bayesian scheme, which is based on this prior knowledge and the edge information in the input image, is employed to find a match between the deformed template and objects in the image. Computational efficiency is achieved via a coarse-to-fine implementation of the matching algorithm. Our method has been applied to retrieve objects with a variety of shapes from images with complex background. The proposed scheme is invariant to location, rotation, and moderate scale changes of the template.
611 citations
TL;DR: A hierarchical segmentation process is derived, which gives a compact description of the image, containing all the segmentations one can obtain by the notion of dynamics, by means of a simple thresholding.
Abstract: The watershed is one of the latest segmentation tools developed in mathematical morphology. In order to prevent its oversegmentation, the notion of dynamics of a minimum, based on geodesic reconstruction, has been proposed. In this paper, we extend the notion of dynamics to the contour arcs. This notion acts as a measure of the saliency of the contour. Contrary to the dynamics of minima, our concept reflects the extension and shape of the corresponding object in the image. This representation is also much more natural, because it is expressed in terms of partitions of the plane, i.e., segmentations. A hierarchical segmentation process is then derived, which gives a compact description of the image, containing all the segmentations one can obtain by the notion of dynamics, by means of a simple thresholding. Finally, efficient algorithms for computing the geodesic reconstruction as well as the dynamics of contours are presented.
TL;DR: The authors have developed an automatic technique for registering clinical data, such as segmented magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) reconstructions, with any view of the patient on the operating table, and allows us to interactively view extracranial or intracranial structures nonintrusively.
Abstract: There is a need for frameless guidance systems to help surgeons plan the exact location for incisions, to define the margins of tumors, and to precisely identify locations of neighboring critical structures. The authors have developed an automatic technique for registering clinical data, such as segmented magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) reconstructions, with any view of the patient on the operating table. The authors demonstrate on the specific example of neurosurgery. The method enables a visual mix of live video of the patient and the segmented three-dimensional (3-D) MRI or CT model. This supports enhanced reality techniques for planning and guiding neurosurgical procedures and allows us to interactively view extracranial or intracranial structures nonintrusively. Extensions of the method include image guided biopsies, focused therapeutic procedures, and clinical studies involving change detection over time sequences of images.
TL;DR: The validity-guided VGC algorithm uses cluster-validity information to guide a fuzzy (re)clustering process toward better solutions, and VGC's performance approaches that of the (supervised) k-nearest-neighbors algorithm.
Abstract: When clustering algorithms are applied to image segmentation, the goal is to solve a classification problem. However, these algorithms do not directly optimize classification duality. As a result, they are susceptible to two problems: 1) the criterion they optimize may not be a good estimator of "true" classification quality, and 2) they often admit many (suboptimal) solutions. This paper introduces an algorithm that uses cluster validity to mitigate problems 1 and 2. The validity-guided (re)clustering (VGC) algorithm uses cluster-validity information to guide a fuzzy (re)clustering process toward better solutions. It starts with a partition generated by a soft or fuzzy clustering algorithm. Then it iteratively alters the partition by applying (novel) split-and-merge operations to the clusters. Partition modifications that result in improved partition validity are retained. VGC is tested on both synthetic and real-world data. For magnetic resonance image (MRI) segmentation, evaluations by radiologists show that VGC outperforms the (unsupervised) fuzzy c-means algorithm, and VGC's performance approaches that of the (supervised) k-nearest-neighbors algorithm.
21 Jun 1996
TL;DR: Deformable models have proven to be effective in segmenting, matching, and tracking anatomic structures by exploiting (bottom-up) constraints derived from the image data together with (top-down) a priori knowledge about the location, size, and shape of these structures as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: This article surveys deformable models, a promising and vigorously researched computer-assisted medical image analysis technique. Among model-based techniques, deformable models offer a unique and powerful approach to image analysis that combines geometry, physics, and approximation theory. They have proven to be effective in segmenting, matching, and tracking anatomic structures by exploiting (bottom-up) constraints derived from the image data together with (top-down) a priori knowledge about the location, size, and shape of these structures. Deformable model are capable of accommodating the significant variability of biological structures over time and across different individuals. Furthermore, they support highly intuitive interaction mechanisms that, when necessary, allow medical scientists and practitioners to bring their expertise to bear on the model-based image interpretation task. This article reviews the rapidly expanding body of work on the development and application of deformable models to problems of fundamental importance in medical image analysis, including segmentation, shape representation, matching, and motion tracking.
TL;DR: A 2-stage method based on wavelet transforms for detecting and segmenting calcifications designed to overcome the limitations of the simplistic Gaussian assumption and provides an accurate segmentation of calcification boundaries is developed.
Abstract: Clusters of fine, granular microcalcifications in mammograms may be an early sign of disease. Individual grains are difficult to detect and segment due to size and shape variability and because the background mammogram texture is typically inhomogeneous. The authors develop a 2-stage method based on wavelet transforms for detecting and segmenting calcifications. The first stage is based on an undecimated wavelet transform, which is simply the conventional filter bank implementation without downsampling, so that the low-low (LL), low-high (LH), high-low (HL), and high-high (HH) sub-bands remain at full size. Detection takes place in HH and the combination LH+HL. Four octaves are computed with 2 inter-octave voices for finer scale resolution. By appropriate selection of the wavelet basis the detection of microcalcifications in the relevant size range can be nearly optimized. In fact, the filters which transform the input image into HH and LH+HL are closely related to prewhitening matched filters for detecting Gaussian objects (idealized microcalcifications) in 2 common forms of Markov (background) noise. The second stage is designed to overcome the limitations of the simplistic Gaussian assumption and provides an accurate segmentation of calcification boundaries. Detected pixel sites in HH and LH+HL are dilated then weighted before computing the inverse wavelet transform. Individual microcalcifications are greatly enhanced in the output image, to the point where straightforward thresholding can be applied to segment them. FROG curves are computed from tests using a freely distributed database of digitized mammograms.
TL;DR: The authors' approach uses Green's theorem to derive the boundary of a homogeneous region-classified area in the image and integrates this with a gray level gradient-based boundary finder, which combines the perceptual notions of edge/shape information with gray level homogeneity.
Abstract: Accurately segmenting and quantifying structures is a key issue in biomedical image analysis. The two conventional methods of image segmentation, region-based segmentation, and boundary finding, often suffer from a variety of limitations. Here the authors propose a method which endeavors to integrate the two approaches in an effort to form a unified approach that is robust to noise and poor initialization. The authors' approach uses Green's theorem to derive the boundary of a homogeneous region-classified area in the image and integrates this with a gray level gradient-based boundary finder. This combines the perceptual notions of edge/shape information with gray level homogeneity. A number of experiments were performed both on synthetic and real medical images of the brain and heart to evaluate the new approach, and it is shown that the integrated method typically performs better when compared to conventional gradient-based deformable boundary finding. Further, this method yields these improvements with little increase in computational overhead, an advantage derived from the application of the Green's theorem.
TL;DR: A new algorithm for automatically computing approximations of a given polyhedral object at different levels of details, similar to the region‐merging method used for image segmentation is proposed.
Abstract: We propose a new algorithm for automatically computing approximations of a given polyhedral object at different levels of details. The applications for this algorithm is the display of very complex scenes. Our approach is similar to the region-merging method used in image segmentation. We iteratively collapse edges based on a measure of the geometric deviation from the initial shape. when edges are merged in the right order, this strategy produces a continuum of valid approximations of the original object, which can be used for faster rendering at vastly different scales.
TL;DR: A new efficient algorithm for Gabor-filter design is presented, along with methods for estimating filter output statistics, which typically requires an order of magnitude less computation to design a filter than a previously proposed method.
IBM1
TL;DR: The techniques used to separate the hand from a cluttered background in a gesture recognition system are described, which is of sufficient speed and quality to support an interactive user interface.
Abstract: This paper describes the techniques used to separate the hand from a cluttered background in a gesture recognition system. Target colors are identified using a histogram-like structure called a Color Predicate, which is trained in real-time using a novel algorithm. Running on standard PC hardware, the segmentation is of sufficient speed and quality to support an interactive user interface. The method has shown its flexibility in a range of different office environments, segmenting users with many different skin-tones. Variations have been applied to other problems including finding face candidates in video sequences.
TL;DR: To segment brain tissues in magnetic resonance images of the brain, the authors have implemented a stochastic relaxation method which utilizes partial volume analysis for every brain voxel, and operates on fully three-dimensional (3-D) data.
Abstract: To segment brain tissues in magnetic resonance images of the brain, the authors have implemented a stochastic relaxation method which utilizes partial volume analysis for every brain voxel, and operates on fully three-dimensional (3-D) data. However, there are still problems with automatically or semi-automatically segmenting thick magnetic resonance (MR) slices, particularly when trying to segment the small lesions present in MR images of multiple sclerosis patients. To improve lesion segmentation the authors have extended their method of stochastic relaxation by both pre- and post-processing the MR images. The preprocessing step involves image enhancement using homomorphic filtering to correct for nonhomogeneities in the coil and magnet. Because approximately 95% of all multiple sclerosis lesions occur in the white matter of the brain, the post-processing step involves application of morphological processing and thresholding techniques to the intermediate segmentation in order to develop a mask image containing only white matter and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) lesion. This white/lesion masked image is then segmented by again applying the authors' stochastic relaxation technique. The process has been applied to multispectral MRI scans of multiple sclerosis patients and the results compare favorably to manual segmentations of the same scans obtained independently by radiology health professionals.
TL;DR: The approach is to build geometric-probabilistic models for road image generation using Gibbs distributions and produces two boundaries for each road, or four boundaries when a mid-road barrier is present.
Abstract: This paper presents an automated approach to finding main roads in aerial images. The approach is to build geometric-probabilistic models for road image generation. We use Gibbs distributions. Then, given an image, roads are found by MAP (maximum a posteriori probability) estimation. The MAP estimation is handled by partitioning an image into windows, realizing the estimation in each window through the use of dynamic programming, and then, starting with the windows containing high confidence estimates, using dynamic programming again to obtain optimal global estimates of the roads present. The approach is model-based from the outset and is completely different than those appearing in the published literature. It produces two boundaries for each road, or four boundaries when a mid-road barrier is present.
16 Sep 1996
TL;DR: The algorithms proposed select certain blocks in the image based on a Gaussian network classifier such that their discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients fulfil a constraint imposed by the watermark code.
Abstract: Watermarking algorithms are used for image copyright protection. The algorithms proposed select certain blocks in the image based on a Gaussian network classifier. The pixel values of the selected blocks are modified such that their discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients fulfil a constraint imposed by the watermark code. Two different constraints are considered. The first approach consists of embedding a linear constraint among selected DCT coefficients and the second one defines circular detection regions in the DCT domain. A rule for generating the DCT parameters of distinct watermarks is provided. The watermarks embedded by the proposed algorithms are resistant to JPEG compression.
18 Jun 1996
TL;DR: A Gabor feature representation for textured images is proposed, and its performance in pattern retrieval is evaluated on a large texture image database, and these features compare favorably with other existing texture representations.
Abstract: This paper addresses two important issues related to texture pattern retrieval: feature extraction and similarity search. A Gabor feature representation for textured images is proposed, and its performance in pattern retrieval is evaluated on a large texture image database. These features compare favorably with other existing texture representations. A simple hybrid neural network algorithm is used to learn the similarity by simple clustering in the texture feature space. With learning similarity the performance of similar pattern retrieval improves significantly. An important aspect of this work is its application to real image data. Texture feature extraction with similarity learning is used to search through large aerial photographs. Feature clustering enables efficient search of the database as our experimental results indicate.
18 Jun 1996
TL;DR: This work shows how to add spatial constraints to the mixture formulations and presents a variant of the EM algorithm that makes use of both the form and the motion constraints and estimates the number of segments given knowledge about the level of model failure expected in the sequence.
Abstract: Describing a video sequence in terms of a small number of coherently moving segments is useful for tasks ranging from video compression to event perception. A promising approach is to view the motion segmentation problem in a mixture estimation framework. However, existing formulations generally use only the motion, data and thus fail to make use of static cues when segmenting the sequence. Furthermore, the number of models is either specified in advance or estimated outside the mixture model framework. In this work we address both of these issues. We show how to add spatial constraints to the mixture formulations and present a variant of the EM algorithm that males use of both the form and the motion constraints. Moreover this algorithm estimates the number of segments given knowledge about the level of model failure expected in the sequence. The algorithm's performance is illustrated on synthetic and real image sequences.
TL;DR: The examples show that the semi-supervised approach provides MRI segmentations that are superior to ordinary fuzzy c-means and to the crisp k-nearest neighbor rule and further, that the new method ameliorates (P1)-(P3).
18 Jun 1996
TL;DR: This paper combines geometry and illumination into an algorithm that tracks large image regions on live video sequences using no more computation than would be required to trade with no accommodation for illumination changes.
Abstract: Historically, SSD or correlation-based visual tracking algorithms have been sensitive to changes in illumination and shading across the target region. This paper describes methods for implementing SSD tracking that is both insensitive to illumination variations and computationally efficient. We first describe a vector-space formulation of the tracking problem, showing how to recover geometric deformations. We then show that the same vector space formulation can be used to account for changes in illumination. We combine geometry and illumination into an algorithm that tracks large image regions on live video sequences using no more computation than would be required to trade with no accommodation for illumination changes. We present experimental results which compare the performance of SSD tracking with and without illumination compensation.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this paper, a multi-pass, pair-wise, region-growing algorithm is proposed for image segmentation, which is based on a simple adaptive-window interactive texture channel.
Abstract: Image segmentation is a method of defining discrete objects or classes of objects in images. Addition of n spatial attxibute, i.e., image texture, improves the segmentation process in most areas where there are differences in texture between classes in the image. Such areas include sparsely vegetated areas and highly textured human-generated areas, such as the urban-suburban interface. A simple udaptive-window iexture program creates a texture channel useful in image segmentation. The segmentation algorithm is a multi-pass, pair-wise, region-growing algorithm. The test sites include a simulated conifer forest, a natural vegetation urea, and a mixed-use suburban area. The simulated image is especially useful because polygon boundaries are unambiguous. Both the weighting of textural data relative to the spectral data, and the effects of the degree of segmentation, are explored. The use of texture improves segmentations for most areas. It is apparent that the addition of texture, at worst, has no influence on the accuracy of the segmentation, and can improve the accuracy in areas where the features of interest exhibit differences in local variance. Results indicate that, for most uses, segmentation scheme.? should include both a minimum and maximum region size to insure the greaiest accuracy.
TL;DR: A segmentation algorithm using deformable template models to segment a vehicle of interest both from the stationary complex background and other moving vehicles in an image sequence is proposed and solved by the Metropolis algorithm.
Abstract: This paper proposes a segmentation algorithm using deformable template models to segment a vehicle of interest both from the stationary complex background and other moving vehicles in an image sequence. We define a polygonal template to characterize a general model of a vehicle and derive a prior probability density function to constrain the template to be deformed within a set of allowed shapes. We propose a likelihood probability density function which combines motion information and edge directionality to ensure that the deformable template is contained within the moving areas in the image and its boundary coincides with strong edges with the same orientation in the image. The segmentation problem is reduced to a minimization problem and solved by the Metropolis algorithm. The system was successfully tested on 405 image sequences containing multiple moving vehicles on a highway.
07 May 1996
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that the binary texture features provide excellent performance in image query response time while providing highly effective texture discriminability, accuracy in spatial localization and capability for extraction from compressed data representations.
Abstract: Digital image and video libraries require new algorithms for the automated extraction and indexing of salient image features. Texture features provide one important cue for the visual perception and discrimination of image content. We propose a new approach for automated content extraction that allows for efficient database searching using texture features. The algorithm automatically extracts texture regions from image spatial-frequency data which are represented by binary texture feature vectors. We demonstrate that the binary texture features provide excellent performance in image query response time while providing highly effective texture discriminability, accuracy in spatial localization and capability for extraction from compressed data representations. We present the binary texture feature extraction and indexing technique and examine searching by texture on a database of 500 images.
TL;DR: The DWCE algorithm is introduced and results of a preliminary study based on 25 digitized mammograms with biopsy proven masses are presented, which compares morphological feature classification based on sequential thresholding, linear discriminant analysis, and neural network classifiers for reduction of false-positive detections.
Abstract: Presents a novel approach for segmentation of suspicious mass regions in digitized mammograms using a new adaptive density-weighted contrast enhancement (DWCE) filter in conjunction with Laplacian-Gaussian (LG) edge detection. The DWCE enhances structures within the digitized mammogram so that a simple edge detection algorithm can be used to define the boundaries of the objects. Once the object boundaries are known, morphological features are extracted and used by a classification algorithm to differentiate regions within the image. This paper introduces the DWCE algorithm and presents results of a preliminary study based on 25 digitized mammograms with biopsy proven masses. It also compares morphological feature classification based on sequential thresholding, linear discriminant analysis, and neural network classifiers for reduction of false-positive detections.