Abstract
Image segmentation is crucial for multimedia applications. Multimedia databases utilize segmentation for the storage and indexing of images and video. Image segmentation is used for object tracking in the new MPEG-7 video compression standard. It is also used in video conferencing for compression and coding purposes. These are only some of the multimedia applications in image segmentation. It is usually the first task of any image analysis process, and thus, subsequent tasks rely heavily on the quality of segmentation. The proposed method of color image segmentation is very effective in segmenting a multimedia-type image into regions. Pixels are first classified as either chromatic or achromatic depending on their HSI color values. Next, a seed determination algorithm finds seed pixels that are in the center of regions. These seed pixels are used in the region growing step to grow regions by comparing these seed pixels to neighboring pixels using the cylindrical distance metric. Merging regions that are similar in color is a final means used for segmenting the image into even smaller regions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alshatti, W. and Lambert, P.: Using eigenvecors of a vector field for deriving a second directional derivative operator for color images, in: Proc. of the 5th Internat. Conf. on Computer Analysis of Images and Patterns, Budapest, Hungary, 1993, pp. 149–156.
Baraldi, A., Blonda, P., Parmiggiani, F., and Satalino, G.: Contextual clustering for image segmentation, Technical Report TR–98–009, International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley, CA, 1998.
Celenk, M.: A color clustering technique for image segmentation, Comput. Vision Graphics Image Process. 52 (1990), 145–170.
Chang, M. M., Sezan, M. I., and Tekalp, A. M.: Adaptive Bayesian segmentation of colour images, J. Electronic Imaging 3(4) (1994), 404–414.
Chapron, M.: A new chromatic edge detector used for color image segmentation, in: Proc. of the 11th Internat. Conf. on Pattern Recognition, Vol. III, 1992, Conf. C, pp. 311–314.
Cohen, F. S. and Cooper, D. B.: Simple, parallel, hierarchical, and relaxation algorithms for segmenting noncausal Markovian random field models, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intelligence 9(2) (1987), 195–219.
Cross, G. R. and Jain, A. K.: Markov random field texture models, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intelligence 5 (1983), 25–39.
Cumani, A.: Edge detection inmultispectral images, CVGIP: Graphical Models Image Process. 53 (1991), 40–51.
Derin, H. and Elliott, H.: Modeling and segmentation of noisy and textured images using Gibbs random fields, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intelligence 9(1) (1987), 39–55.
Di Zenzo, S.: A note on the gradient of a multi-image, Comput. Vision Graphics Image Process. 33 (1986), 116–126.
Fisher, N. I.: Statistical Analysis of Circular Data, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993.
Gauch, J. and Hsia, C.: A comparison of three color image segmentation algorithms in four color spaces, in: Proc. of the SPIE: Visual Communications and Image Processing, Vol. 1818, 1992, pp. 1168–1181.
Geman, S. and Geman, D.: Stochastic relaxation, Gibbs distributions, and the Bayesian restoration of images, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intelligence 6 (1984), 721–741.
Gong, Y. and Sakauchi, M.: Detection of regions matching specified chromatic features, Comput. Vision Image Understanding 61(2) (1995), 263–269.
Gonzales, R. C. and Wood, R. E.: Digital Image Processing, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1992.
Hartigan, J. A.: Clustering Algorithms, Wiley, New York, 1975.
Holla, K.: Opponent colors as a 2-dimensional feature within a model of the first stages of the human visual system, in: Proc. of the 6th Internat. Conf. on Pattern Recognition, Munich, Germany, 1982, pp. 161–163.
Horowitz, S. L. and Pavlidis, T.: Picture segmentation by a directed split-and-merge procedure, in: Proc. of the 2nd Internat. Joint Conf. on Pattern Recognition, Copenhagen, 1974, pp. 424–433.
Huntsberger, T. L. and Descalzi, M. F.: Colour edge detection, Pattern Recogn. Lett. 3 (1985), 205–209.
Ikonomakis, N., Plataniotis, K. N., and Venetsanopoulos, A. N.: A region-based color image segmentation scheme, in: Proc. of the SPIE: Visual Communications and Image Processing, Vol. 3653, San Jose, CA, 1999, pp. 1202–1209.
Koschan, A.: A comparitive study on color edge detection, in: Proc. of the 2nd Asian Conf. on Computer Vision, ACCV'95, Vol. III, Singapore, 1995, pp. 574–578.
Lakshmanan, S. and Derin, H.: Simultaneous parameter estimation and segmentation of Gibbs random field using simulated annealing, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intelligence 11(8) (1989), 799–813.
Levine, M. D.: Vision in Man and Machine, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1985.
Lim, Y. W. and Lee, S. U.: On the color image segmentation algorithm based on the thresholding and the fuzzy c-means techniques, Pattern Recognition 23(9) (1990), 935–952.
Liu, J. and Yang, Y. H.: Multiresolution color image segmentation, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intelligence 16(7) (1994), 689–700.
Marr, D.: Vision, Freeman, San Francisco, CA, 1982.
Marr, D. and Hildreth, E.: Theory of edge detection, Proc. Roy. Soc. London (1980), 187–217.
Ohlander, R., Price, K., and Reddy, D. R.: Picture segmentation using a recursive splitting method, Comput. Graphics Image Process. 8 (1978), 313–333.
Ohta, Y., Kanade, T., and Sakai, T.: Color information for region segmentation, Comput. Graphics Image Process. 13 (1980), 222–241.
Pal, N. and Pal, S. K.: A review on image segmentation techniques, Pattern Recognition 26(9) (1993), 127–1294.
Panjwani, D. K. and Healey, G.: Markov random field models for unsupervised segmentation of textured colour images, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intelligence 17(10) (1995), 939–954.
Pappas, T. N.: An adaptive clustering algorithm for image segmentation, IEEE Trans. Signal Process. 40(4) (1992), 901–914.
Samet, H.: The quadtree and related hierarchical data structures, Computer Surveys 16(2) (1984), 187–230.
Scharcanski, J. and Venetsanopoulos, A. N.: Edge detection of color images using directional operators, IEEE Trans. Circuits Systems Video Technol. 7(2) (1997), 397–401.
Shiozaki, A.: Edge extraction using entropy operator, Comput. Vision Graphics Image Process. 33 (1986), 116–126.
Tominaga, S.: Color image segmentation using three perceptual attributes, in: Proc. of CVPR'86, Miami Beach, FL, USA, 1986, pp. 628–630.
Tominaga, S.: A color classification method for color images using a uniform color space, in: Proc. of the 10th Internat. Conf. on Pattern Recognition, Vol. 1, 1990, pp. 803–807.
Tou, J. and Gonzales, R. C.: Pattern Recognition Principles, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1974.
Trahanias, P. E. and Venetsanopoulos, A. N.: Vector order statistics operators as color edge detectors, IEEE Trans. System Man Cybernet. 26(1) (1996), 135–143.
Tremeau, A. and Borel, N.: A region growing and merging algorithm to color segmentation, Pattern Recognition 30(7) (1997), 1191–1203.
Trivedi, M. and Bezdek, J. C.: Low-level segmentation of aerial images with fuzzy clustering, IEEE Trans. Systems Man Cybernet. 16(4) (1986), 589–598.
Tseng, D. C. and Chang, C. M.: Color segmentation using perceptual attributes, in: Proc. of the 11th Internat. Conf. on Pattern Recognition, Vol. III, 1992, Conf. C, pp. 228–231.
Weeks, A. R. and Hague, G. E.: Color segmentation in the HSI color space using the K-means algorithm, in: Proc. of the SPIE, Vol. 3026, 1997, pp. 143–154.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ikonomakis, N., Plataniotis, K.N. & Venetsanopoulos, A.N. Color Image Segmentation for Multimedia Applications. Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems 28, 5–20 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008163913937
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008163913937