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An Improved Teaching–Learning-Based Optimization for Multilevel Thresholding Image Segmentation

  • Research Article-Computer Engineering and Computer Science
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Abstract

Due to its successful application image processing or computer vision system, image segmentation plays a significant role and has become a hot research hotspot. In this paper, we propose an improved teaching–learning-based optimization (NFDR-TLBO) to segment grayscale images via multilevel thresholding. In the proposed teaching–learning-based optimization variant, the neighborhood topology is introduced into the original teaching–learning-based optimization algorithm to maintain the exploration ability of the population and the fitness-distance-ratio mechanism is introduced into the original teaching–learning-based optimization algorithm to improve its optimization performance on complex numerical optimization problems. Moreover, the experimental results on 18 typical benchmark functions with different characteristics verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm is used to optimize Kapur entropy function in order to find the optimal threshold for image segmentation. Finally, the experimental simulations on different benchmark images show that the proposed algorithm is effective and efficient in improving the image segmentation performance in terms of peak-signal-to-noise ratio, structure similarity index and feature similarity.

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Acknowledgement

This work is partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61976101). This work is also partially supported by the University Natural Science Research Project of Anhui Province (Grant No. KJ2019A0593).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Electronic Information, Huaibei Normal University, Huaibei, 235000, China

    Ziqi Jiang, Feng Zou & Jiahui Kang

  2. School of Computer Science and Technology, Huaibei Normal University, Huaibei, 235000, China

    Debao Chen

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  1. Ziqi Jiang
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  2. Feng Zou
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  3. Debao Chen
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  4. Jiahui Kang
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Correspondence to Feng Zou.

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Jiang, Z., Zou, F., Chen, D. et al. An Improved Teaching–Learning-Based Optimization for Multilevel Thresholding Image Segmentation. Arab J Sci Eng 46, 8371–8396 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-021-05483-0

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