Image segmentation by contours and regions cooperation. (Q1575170)

In this paper we propose an algorithm for image segmentation in which contours and regions cooperate. In order for this cooperation to be efficient, the role of contour pixels and region pixels should be considered differently. Region pixels carry information about the content of the image. They are defined on a lattice identical to the image lattice. Contour pixels carry information about a region's boundary. They should be located between region pixels, therefore on a lattice different than the image lattice. A way to make these two statements concord is to achieve segmentation on a double-sized lattice where sites of both even coordinates are reserved for image pixels, whereas the remaining sites are reserved for contour pixels. We therefore propose a gradient operator, based on B-spline interpolation, which locates contour pixels between image pixels. Contours detected in this manner are used in an image segmentation algorithm which makes contours and regions cooperate.