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This Special Issue contains four papers focused on hyperspectral data analysis. The authors use multivariate data analysis to establish a quantitative relationship between the obtained spectral information of the kidney and its reference TWC values. The present Special Issue covers a range of algorithms and techniques for hyperspectral data analysis. [Extracted from the article]

Waterway transportation is a crucial mode of transportation, but ensuring navigational safety in waterways requires effective guidance of ships by the Water Resources Bureau. However, supervisors may only be interested in the ship portion of a complex image and need to quickly obtain relevant ship information. Therefore, this paper proposes a two-dimensional OTSU inland ships multi-threshold image segmentation algorithm based on the improved genetic algorithm. The improved algorithm enhances search accuracy and efficiency, improving image thresholding accuracy and reducing algorithm time complexity. Experimental verification shows the algorithm has excellent evaluation indexes and can achieve real-time segmentation of complex images. This method can not only address the challenges of complex inland navigation environments and difficult acquisition of target data sets, but also be applied to optimization problems in other fields by combining various metaheuristic algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studied the multilevel threshold image segmentation-based metaheuristics optimization methods and their applications. Image segmentation is a common problem in the image processing domain, and it is an essential process in image analysis, directly impacting image analysis results. Thresholding is one of the most manageable and extensively utilized methods for handling image segmentation problems. In this paper, four main parts are given; (1) We present the main procedures and definitions of the multilevel threshold image segmentation problem. The standard fitness function and the evaluation criteria are also given to facilitate the problem representation for the new researchers in this domain. (2) All the related works that have used optimization methods in solving the multilevel threshold image segmentation problems are presented in more detail, focusing on the image segmentation problem and its solutions. The given related works are outlined according to the used algorithms. (3) Comprehensive results and analysis of several well-known optimization algorithms are conducted to solve the multilevel threshold image segmentation problems. These comparative methods include Aquila Optimizer (AO), Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA), Salp Swarm Algorithm (SSA), Arithmetic Optimization Algorithm (AOA), Particle Swarm Optimizer (PSO), Marine Predators Algorithm (MPA), Krill Herd Algorithm (KHA), Multi-verse Optimizer (MVO), and Gray Wolf Optimizer (GWO). Eight standard benchmark images are used to test the comparative methods. The results are evaluated using three standard measures: fitness function, PeakSignal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), and the Structural Similarity Index (SSIM). (4) Discussion, open challenging, and new trends are given to help the scholars in future research get near the common problems and defect in that domain. The collected data in this review has been taken from google scholar using the stander search method. The main keywords that have been used in the search are multilevel, threshold, image, segmentation, optimization, and algorithm. We covered all the published papers in detail according to the given information, focusing on finding the common problems that still need further investigation. Furthermore, future research directions based on recently evolving designs are outlined, which should undoubtedly aid current researchers and practitioners and pave the way for new researchers interested in multilevel threshold image segmentation to seek their research in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Artificial Bee Colony algorithm (ABC) is a swarm intelligence algorithm inspired by honey bee harvesting behavior. It boasts the benefits of minimal parameters and strong exploration capabilities. However, the ABC algorithm is still susceptible to local optima entrapment and lacks consideration of selection probability in the onlooker bee phase, leading to reduced convergence accuracy in later search stages. To address these issues, this paper introduces an enhanced ABC algorithm called Hierarchical Learning-based Artificial Bee Colony (HLABC). Initially, a hierarchical learning approach is devised, dividing the entire population into distinct layers based on solution quality. In this hierarchical approach, bees at lower layers can access much better advantageous information from higher layers. Secondly, the exploitation ability of onlooker bees is enhanced through novel strategies designed based on hierarchical learning. Thirdly, the exploration ability of scout bees is strengthened by implementing an opposition-based learning method. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, 69 benchmark functions from four benchmark suites (CEC2005, CEC2010, CEC2013 and CEC2022) are used to test the performance of HLABC, along with five variants of the ABC algorithm, The experimental statistical results show that the HLABC algorithm outperforms the ABC algorithm on all test problems with an average winning rate of 89%. Furthermore, to validate the performance of the HLABC algorithm in real-world optimization problems, this paper applies the HLABC algorithm to two practical applications: the deployment of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the power scheduling problem in a smart home (PSPSH) and the multi-thresholding image segmentation (MIS). The experimental and statistical results demonstrate that HLABC is an efficient and stable optimizer. It shows better or comparable performance compared to other ABC variants when considering the quality of solutions for a suite of benchmark problems and real-world optimization problems. These findings affirm the effectiveness and versatility of the HLABC algorithm in addressing both theoretical and practical optimization challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lesion segmentation is a fundamental task in medical image processing, often facing the challenge of subtle lesions. It is important to detect these lesions, even though they can be difficult to identify. Convolutional neural networks, an effective method in medical image processing, often ignore the relationship between lesions, leading to topological errors during training. To tackle topological errors, move is made from pixel‐level to hypergraph representations. Hypergraphs can model lesions as vertices connected by hyperedges, capturing the topology between lesions. This paper introduces a novel dynamic hypergraph learning strategy called DHLS. DHLS allows for the dynamic construction of hypergraphs contingent upon input vertex variations. A hypergraph global‐aware segmentation network, termed HGSNet, is further proposed. HGSNet can capture the key high‐order structure information, which is able to enhance global topology expression. Additionally, a composite loss function is introduced. The function emphasizes the global aspect and the boundary of segmentation regions. The experimental setup compared HGSNet with other advanced models on medical image datasets from various organs. The results demonstrate that HGSNet outperforms other models and achieves state‐of‐the‐art performance on three public datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical image segmentation is crucial in using digital images for disease diagnosis, particularly in post-processing tasks such as analysis and disease identification. Segmentation of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography images pose distinctive challenges attributed to factors such as inadequate illumination during the image acquisition process. Multilevel thresholding is a widely adopted method for image segmentation due to its effectiveness and ease of implementation. However, the primary challenge lies in selecting the optimal set of thresholds to achieve accurate segmentation. While Otsu's between-class variance and Kapur's entropy assist in identifying optimal thresholds, their application to cases requiring more than two thresholds can be computationally intensive. Meta-heuristic algorithms are commonly employed in literature to calculate the threshold values; however, they have limitations such as a lack of precise convergence and a tendency to become stuck in local optimum solutions. In this paper, we introduce an improved chameleon swarm algorithm (ICSA) to address these limitations. ICSA is designed for image segmentation and global optimization tasks, aiming to improve the precision and efficiency of threshold selection in medical image segmentation. ICSA introduces the concept of the "best random mutation strategy" to enhance the search capabilities of the standard chameleon swarm algorithm (CSA). This strategy leverages three distribution functions—Levy, Gaussian, and Cauchy—for mutating search individuals. These diverse distributions contribute to improved solution quality and help prevent premature convergence. We conduct comprehensive experiments using the IEEE CEC'20 complex optimization benchmark test suite to evaluate ICSA's performance. Additionally, we employ ICSA in image segmentation, utilizing Otsu's approach and Kapur's entropy as fitness functions to determine optimal threshold values for a set of MRI images. Comparative analysis reveals that ICSA outperforms well-known metaheuristic algorithms when applied to the CEC'20 test suite and significantly improves image segmentation performance, proving its ability to avoid local optima and overcome the original algorithm's drawbacks. Medical image segmentation is essential for employing digital images for disease diagnosis, particularly for post-processing activities such as analysis and disease identification. Due to poor illumination and other acquisition-related difficulties, radiologists are especially concerned about the optimal segmentation of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Multilevel thresholding is the most widely used image segmentation method due to its efficacy and simplicity of implementation. The issue, however, is selecting the optimum set of criteria to effectively segment each image. Although methods like Otsu's between-class variance and Kapur's entropy help locate the optimal thresholds, using them for more than two thresholds requires a significant amount of processing resources. Meta-heuristic algorithms are commonly employed in literature to calculate the threshold values; however, they have limitations such as a lack of precise convergence and a tendency to become stuck in local optimum solutions. Due to the aforementioned, we present an improved chameleon swarm algorithm (ICSA) in this paper for image segmentation and global optimization tasks to be able to address these weaknesses. In the ICSA method, the best random mutation strategy has been introduced to improve the searchability of the standard CSA. The best random strategy utilizes three different types of distribution: Levy, Gaussian, and Cauchy to mutate the search individuals. These distributions have different functions, which help enhance the quality of the solutions and avoid premature convergence. Using the IEEE CEC'20 test suite as a recent complex optimization benchmark, a comprehensive set of experiments is carried out in order to evaluate the ICSA method and demonstrate the impact of combining the best random mutation strategy with the original CSA in improving both the performance of the solutions and the rate at which they converge. Furthermore, utilizing the Otsu approach and Kapur's entropy as a fitness function, ICSA is used as an image segmentation method to select the ideal threshold values for segmenting a set of MRI images. Within the experiments, the ICSA findings are compared with well-known metaheuristic algorithms. The comparative findings showed that ICSA performs better than other competitors in solving the CEC'20 test suite and has a significant performance boost in image segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sign language is used as a communication medium in the field of trade, defence, and in deaf-mute communities worldwide. Over the last few decades, research in the domain of translation of sign language has grown and become more challenging. This necessitates the development of a Sign Language Translation System (SLTS) to provide effective communication in different research domains. In this paper, novel Hybrid Adaptive Gaussian Thresholding with Otsu Algorithm (Hybrid-AO) for image segmentation is proposed for the translation of alphabet-level Indian Sign Language (ISLTS) with a 5-layer Convolution Neural Network (CNN). The focus of this paper is to analyze various image segmentation (Canny Edge Detection, Simple Thresholding, and Hybrid-AO), pooling approaches (Max, Average, and Global Average Pooling), and activation functions (ReLU, Leaky ReLU, and ELU). 5-layer CNN with Max pooling, Leaky ReLU activation function, and Hybrid-AO (5MXLR-HAO) have outperformed other frameworks. An open-access dataset of ISL alphabets with approx. 31K images of 26 classes have been used to train and test the model. The proposed framework has been developed for translating alphabet-level Indian Sign Language into text. The proposed framework attains 98.95% training accuracy, 98.05% validation accuracy, and 0.0721 training loss and 0.1021 validation loss and the performance of the proposed system outperforms other existing systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the most common pepper noise in grayscale image noise is investigated in depth in the median filtering algorithm, and the improved median filtering algorithm, adaptive switching median filtering algorithm, and adaptive polar median filtering algorithm are applied to the OTSU algorithm. Two improved OTSU algorithms such as the adaptive switched median filter-based OTSU algorithm and the polar adaptive median filter-based OTSU algorithm are obtained. The experimental results show that the algorithm can better cope with grayscale images contaminated by pretzel noise, and the segmented grayscale images are not only clear but also can better retain the detailed features of grayscale images. A genetic algorithm is a kind of search algorithm with high adaptive, fast operation speed, and good global space finding ability, and it will have a good effect when applied to the threshold finding of the OTSU algorithm. However, the traditional genetic algorithm will fall into the local optimal solution in different degrees when finding the optimal threshold. The advantages of the two interpolation methods proposed in this paper are that one is the edge grayscale image interpolation algorithm using OTSU threshold adaptive segmentation and the other is the edge grayscale image interpolation algorithm using local adaptive threshold segmentation, which can accurately divide the grayscale image region according to the characteristics of different grayscale images and effectively improve the loss of grayscale image edge detail information and jagged blur caused by the classical interpolation algorithm. The visual effect of grayscale images is enhanced by selecting grayscale images from the standard grayscale image test set and interpolating them with bilinear interpolation, bucolic interpolation, NEDI interpolation, and FEOI interpolation for interpolation simulation validation. The subjective evaluation and objective evaluation, as well as the running time, are compared, respectively, showing that the method of this paper can effectively improve the quality of grayscale image interpolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The segmentation process requires separating the image region into sub-regions of similar properties. Each sub-region has a group of pixels having the same characteristics, such as texture or intensity. This paper suggests an efficient hybrid segmentation approach for different medical image modalities based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) and improved fast fuzzy C-means clustering (IFFCM) algorithms. An extensive comparative study on different medical images is presented between the proposed approach and other different previous segmentation techniques. The existing medical image segmentation techniques incorporate clustering, thresholding, graph-based, edge-based, active contour, region-based, and watershed algorithms. This paper extensively analyzes and summarizes the comparative investigation of these techniques. Finally, a prediction of the improvement involves the combination of these techniques is suggested. The obtained results demonstrate that the proposed hybrid medical image segmentation approach provides superior outcomes in terms of the examined evaluation metrics compared to the preceding segmentation techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquila Optimization (AO) is a recently proposed meta-heuristic algorithm, which has been proved to be more competitive than other meta-heuristic algorithms in function optimization and practical applications. However, when solving more complex optimization problems, AO still has the shortcomings of local optimal stagnation and low solving accuracy. To overcome these shortcomings, an improved Aquila Optimization algorithm (IAO) is proposed in this paper. During the initialization of IAO population, a hybrid chaotic mapping mechanism was introduced to initialize the population, improving both the population diversity and the uniformity of the population distribution. The elite dimensional lens imaging learning strategy is introduced for elite individual to improve the optimization quality of the algorithm as elite individual has more useful information than ordinary individuals. Then the probabilistic jump mechanism of simulated annealing algorithm is used to select the position update mode to balance local development and global search. The experimental results on the CEC2005 test function verify the viability and effectiveness of IAO. IAO is used to the multi-threshold segmentation problem based on symmetric cross entropy to demonstrate its capacity to resolve practical optimization problems. The segmentation performance on different reference images shows that IAO has good segmentation performance in most cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crack formation is a common phenomenon in engineering structures, which can cause serious damage to the safety and health of these structures. An important method of ensuring the safety and health of engineered structures is the prompt detection of cracks. Image threshold segmentation based on machine vision is a crucial technology for crack detection. Threshold segmentation can separate the crack area from the background, providing convenience for more accurate measurement and evaluation of the crack condition and location. The segmentation of cracks in complex scenes is a challenging task, and this goal can be achieved by means of multilevel thresholding. The arithmetic-geometric divergence combines the advantages of the arithmetic mean and the geometric mean in probability measures, enabling a more precise capture of the local features of an image in image processing. In this paper, a multilevel thresholding method for crack image segmentation based on the minimum arithmetic-geometric divergence is proposed. To address the issue of time complexity in multilevel thresholding, an enhanced particle swarm optimization algorithm with local stochastic perturbation is proposed. In crack detection, the thresholding criterion function based on the minimum arithmetic-geometric divergence can adaptively determine the thresholds according to the distribution characteristics of pixel values in the image. The proposed enhanced particle swarm optimization algorithm can increase the diversity of candidate solutions and enhance the global convergence performance of the algorithm. The proposed method for crack image segmentation is compared with seven state-of-the-art multilevel thresholding methods based on several metrics, including RMSE, PSNR, SSIM, FSIM, and computation time. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms several competing methods in terms of these metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to address the problems of Coyote Optimization Algorithm in image thresholding, such as easily falling into local optimum, and slow convergence speed, a Fuzzy Hybrid Coyote Optimization Algorithm (here-inafter referred to as FHCOA) based on chaotic initialization and reverse learning strategy is proposed, and its effect on image thresholding is verified. Through chaotic initialization, the random number initialization mode in the standard coyote optimization algorithm (COA) is replaced by chaotic sequence. Such sequence is nonlinear and long-term unpredictable, these characteristics can effectively improve the diversity of the population in the optimization algorithm. Therefore, in this paper we first perform chaotic initialization, using chaotic sequence to replace random number initialization in standard COA. By combining the lens imaging reverse learning strategy and the optimal worst reverse learning strategy, a hybrid reverse learning strategy is then formed. In the process of algorithm traversal, the best coyote and the worst coyote in the pack are selected for reverse learning operation respectively, which prevents the algorithm falling into local optimum to a certain extent and also solves the problem of premature convergence. Based on the above improvements, the coyote optimization algorithm has better global convergence and computational robustness. The simulation results show that the algorithmhas better thresholding effect than the five commonly used optimization algorithms in image thresholding when multiple images are selected and different threshold numbers are set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of the development of image processing technology, image segmentation is a very important image processing technology in the field of machine vision, pedestrian detection, medical imaging, and so on. However, the traditional image segmentation technology cannot solve the problems of reflection and uneven illumination. This paper presents a local threshold segmentation method based on FPGA, which can automatically select the optimal threshold according to different gray levels of images. First, the image is processed by mean filtering to remove noise interference in the image. Then, the idea of the mean value of the local neighborhood block and the Gaussian weighted sum in the local neighborhood is used to deal with the reflective and uneven light on the image. The process is designed and realized on FPGA. Finally, the design algorithm is verified by ModelSim simulation software and QT5 software. The experimental results show that the algorithm can effectively solve the problems of reflection and uneven illumination on the image surface, and the segmentation effect is significantly improved compared with the fixed threshold algorithm and Otsu algorithm. It also has certain reference value in medicine, agriculture, engineering, and other fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mumford-Shah model is a classical segmentation model, but its objective function is nonconvex. The smoothing and thresholding (SaT) approach is a convex variant of the Mumford-Shah model, which seeks a smoothed approximation solution to the Mumford-Shah model. The SaT approach separates the segmentation into two stages: first, a convex energy function is minimized to obtain a smoothed image; then, a thresholding technique is applied to segment the smoothed image. The energy function consists of three weighted terms and the weights are called the regularization parameters. Selecting appropriate regularization parameters is crucial to achieving effective segmentation results. Traditionally, the regularization parameters are chosen by trial-and-error, which is a very time-consuming procedure and is not practical in real applications. In this paper, we apply a Bayesian inference approach to infer the regularization parameters and estimate the smoothed image. We analyze the convex variant Mumford-Shah variational model from a statistical perspective and then construct a hierarchical Bayesian model. A mean field variational family is used to approximate the posterior distribution. The variational density of the smoothed image is assumed to have a Gaussian density, and the hyperparameters are assumed to have Gamma variational densities. All the parameters in the Gaussian density and Gamma densities are iteratively updated. Experimental results show that the proposed approach is capable of generating high-quality segmentation results. Although the proposed approach contains an inference step to estimate the regularization parameters, it requires less CPU running time to obtain the smoothed image than previous methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A brain tumor is an abnormal collection of tissue in the brain. When tumors form, they are classified as either malignant or benign. It is critical to notice and identify the existence of tumors in brain images since they can be life threatening. This paper illustrates a novel segmentation method in which threshold technique is combined with normalized cut (Ncut) for the segregation of the tumors from brain magnetic resonance (MR) images. Image segmentation is a technique for grouping images. It is a method of splitting an image into sections with comparable attributes such as intensity, texture, colour, and so on. In thresholding, an object is distinguished from the background, and for the proposed segmentation methodology, the threshold value is determined by normalized graph cut. A weighted graph is divided into disjointed sets (groups) in which the similarity within a group is high and the similarity across groups is low. A graph-cut is a grouping approach in which the total weight of edges eliminated between these two pieces is used to calculate the degree of dissimilarity between these two groups. The normalized cut criterion is used to calculate the total likeness within the groups as well as the dissimilarity between the different groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that carbonate sands possess weak mineralogies, complex particle morphologies and porous microstructures. These characteristics lead to very distinct mechanical properties of carbonate sands, such as low shear strength, high crushability and high permeability. This paper presents a novel investigation of the recognition and tracking of intact carbonate sand particles using a deep learning method called PointNet++. The capability of PointNet++ to extract the global and local features of the porous structures of carbonate sand particles enables it to excel in the pattern recognition of porous granular materials. First, for the reconstruction of carbonate sand particles, a set of two-dimensional raw images obtained from X-ray microtomography scanning were handled by a series of image processing techniques such as median filter, segmentation and thresholding algorithms. In particular, a special technique previously developed by the authors was used to treat the abundant intra-particle pores and surface concavities of carbonate sand particles to avoid the problem of image over-segmentation. Second, to prepare the training datasets to be used in the PointNet++ deep learning exercise, a strategy of sampling and grouping was proposed to divide the initial point set of each sand particle into several groups. Next, PointNet++ was utilised to capture the global and local context features of the sand particles at different length scales and shown to successfully recognise and track all of the particles. Finally, a comprehensive comparison between several particle tracking methods reported in the literature was made, and the outstanding advantages of the deep learning-based particle tracking method were summarised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the Internet of things, the intelligent visual image is a high noise image. Because the fixed threshold (or block to get the threshold) used in the general fixed threshold segmentation and adaptive threshold in combination with the wavelet denoising algorithm can not achieve the target location when the transition "interference" between the targets to be segmented is too high and the brightness difference between the targets to be segmented is large. Aiming at the image features under the Internet of things, a feature location method for variable threshold segmentation image based on improved wavelet is proposed. In this paper, a variable threshold algorithm is designed, which uses the multi-scale shrinkage threshold in the new spherical coordinate domain, and uses the adaptive nonlinear shrinkage function to continuously separate image information and noise information at the threshold. At last, the simulation experiment of this method is carried out, and a large number of comparisons with similar algorithms are made. The experimental results show that under the high noise image of the Internet of things, the improved image location method in this paper has better effect. The experimental results show that under severe occlusion and high noise conditions in the Internet of Things, the proposed method has better image feature location and denoising performance. When the noise intensity increases to 60%, the PSNR of the proposed method is 28.8764 dB. When the wavelet decomposition scale is 7, the average running time of the proposed method is 25 ms, and the denoising accuracy is 73%. It can effectively improve the peak signal-to-noise ratio and denoising accuracy, and shorten the running time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilevel image thresholding is a well-known technique for image segmentation. Recently, various metaheuristic methods have been proposed for the determination of the thresholds for multilevel image segmentation. These methods are mainly based on metaphors and they have high complexity and their convergences are comparably slow. In this paper, a multilevel image thresholding approach is proposed that simplifies the thresholding problem by using a simple optimization technique instead of metaphor-based algorithms. More specifically, in this paper, Chaotic enhanced Rao (CER) algorithms are developed where eight chaotic maps namely Logistic, Sine, Sinusoidal, Gauss, Circle, Chebyshev, Singer, and Tent are used. Besides, in the developed CER algorithm, the number of thresholds is determined automatically, instead of manual determination. The performances of the developed CER algorithms are evaluated based on different statistical analysis metrics namely BDE, PRI, VOI, GCE, SSIM, FSIM, RMSE, PSNR, NK, AD, SC, MD, and NAE. The experimental works and the related evaluations are carried out on the BSDS300 dataset. The obtained experimental results demonstrate that the proposed CER algorithm outperforms the compared methods based on PRI, SSIM, FSIM, PSNR, RMSE, AD, and NAE metrics. In addition, the proposed method provides better convergence regarding speed and accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilevel thresholding segmentation of color images plays an important role in many fields. The pivotal procedure of this technique is determining the specific threshold of the images. In this paper, an improved mayfly algorithm (IMA)-based color image segmentation method is proposed. Tent mapping initializes the female mayfly population to increase population diversity. Lévy flight is introduced in the wedding dance iterative formulation to make IMA jump from the local optimal solution quickly. Two nonlinear coefficients were designed to speed up the convergence of the algorithm. To better verify the effectiveness, eight benchmark functions are used to test the performance of IMA. The average fitness value, standard deviation, and Wilcoxon rank sum test are used as evaluation metrics. The results show that IMA outperforms the comparison algorithm in terms of search accuracy. Furthermore, Kapur entropy is used as the fitness function of IMA to determine the segmentation threshold. 10 Berkeley images are segmented. The best fitness value, peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index (SSIM), and other indexes are used to evaluate the effect of segmented images. The results show that the IMA segmentation method improves the segmentation accuracy of color images and obtains higher quality segmented images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minimum cross-entropy is widely used to find the best threshold values for image segmentation; this technique is known as MCET. However, when the number of thresholds increases, it becomes computationally expensive. Under such circumstances, employing a metaheuristic algorithm (MA) is a good choice. The Runge Kutta (RUN) optimization algorithm is MA recently proposed for solving global optimization problems. Like other MA, the RUN tends to fall into sub-optimal solutions presenting a premature convergence, especially in high-dimensional problems. This article aims to improve the RUN by merging it with opposition-based learning (OBL), creating a hybrid algorithm called RUN-OBL. By doing this hybridization, the RUN can search in two directions, and its performance is considerably improved, solving its drawbacks. One of the most significant improvements in this paper is that the RUN-OBL can handle high-dimensional search spaces escaping from local optimal solutions. The performance of the RUN-OBL is tested over different experiment series. Firstly, the RUN-OBL is tested using the CEC'17 set of benchmark functions for numerical optimization. Here, comparisons with other MA and the Friedman test were conducted. Secondly, the proposed algorithm segments digital images using the MCET. A set of benchmark images with different degrees of complexity are used. The RUN-OBL for image thresholding is tested in the third experiment series over a set of medical images (chest x-ray). A comparative study of the segmentation results is conducted to verify the efficiency of the proposal. Here different MA and other image segmentation methodologies were used. The comparisons were performed in terms of the fitness functions, peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), feature similarity index (FSIM), and structural similarity index (SSIM). Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed RUB-OBL approach is better regarding quality and consistency for segmentation purposes and the optimization of complex problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilevel thresholding is one of the most commonly used methods in image segmentation. However, the exhaustive search methods are costly in determining optimal thresholds and the conventional remora optimization algorithm (ROA) is prone to the premature convergence. This paper presents a chimp-inspired remora optimization algorithm (HCROA) to search optimal threshold levels, and the cross-entropy is employed as the objective function. In HCROA, the particles' position are adjusted by the Chimp Optimization Algorithm (ChOA) because of its good exploitation ability and sufficient diversity. With this change, HCROA achieves both the intra-group diversity intelligence and a suitable balance between exploration and exploitation. To validate its performance, a series of experiments are performed. First, we test the HCROA's segmentation accuracy by a set of natural gray-scale images with different thresholds. Second, HCROA is implemented for noisy image segmentation to evaluate its robustness. Several reference-based measurements including Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), Structural Similarity (SSIM), Feature Similarity (FSIM), Quality Index based on Local Variance (QILV), Haar wavelet-based Perceptual Similarity Index (HPSI), Wilcoxon test, and CPU time have been considered for evaluating the proposed method. Additionally, eight well-known predecessors are injected for parallel comparison. The comparison results prove that the suggested method outperforms the existing approaches in terms of accuracy, convergence speed, noise robustness, and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Segmentation is an essential processing step in computer vision. As a popular method in image segmentation, the pivotal of multilevel thresholding lies in determining specific thresholds of the image. In this paper, we introduce an enhanced Giza pyramids construction algorithm (GPC) with a gradient contour approach, termed GGPC, for solving color image segmentation problems. In the proposed GGPC algorithm, the gradient contour approach explores the fitness landscape based on population distributions to speculate promising summits, and provides an efficient guidance for further evolution. A composite suit of benchmark functions is adopted to evaluate the proposed GGPC algorithm which is shown via extensive comparisons to outperform eight state-of-the-art algorithms. To further develop the application potential, we propose an excellent GGPC-based thresholding segmentation method by multilevel Kapur entropy. The method is successfully exploited in color image segmentation with respect to different categories of benchmark images. Experiment results demonstrate that the GGPC-based segmentation method also exhibits better performance over peers, providing a more effective technique for color image segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Region growing, clustering, and thresholding are some of the segmentation techniques that are employed on images. K-means clustering is one of the proven efficient techniques in color segmentation. Finding the value of K that produces the most effective segmentation results is a crucial research issue. In this paper, we suggested an algorithm to determine the optimal K using the Gray Level Cooccurrence Matrix (GLCM). We retrieve the correlated features from the GLCM and calculate their aggregate probability of occurring given the pixel pairings. The number K is represented as spikes in this correlation. The results demonstrated our algorithm's excellent efficiency, with 98% percent accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the problem of low efficiency and insufficient accuracy of threshold solution in multithreshold sculpture image segmentation, this paper proposes a threshold segmentation algorithm for sculpture images based on sparse decomposition. In this paper, sparse decomposition is introduced to optimize the model to reduce the impact of local noise on segmentation accuracy, and an energy functional based on pixel coconstraint is built to make up for the defect that pixels cannot retain local details. At the same time, the weighted sum of elite solution sets is used to determine Neighborhood centers increase communication between groups. Experiments show that compared with other algorithms, the above method has significant advantages in convergence efficiency and accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intrinsic high parallelism and entanglement characteristics of quantum computing have made quantum image processing techniques a focus of great interest. One of the most widely used techniques in image processing is segmentation, which in one of their most basic forms can be carried out using thresholding algorithms. In this paper, a fault-tolerant quantum dual-threshold algorithm has been proposed. This algorithm has been built using only Clifford+T gates for compatibility with error detection and correction codes. Because fault-tolerant implementation of T gates has a much higher cost than other quantum gates, our focus has been on reducing the number of these gates. This has allowed adding noise tolerance, computational cost reduction, and fault tolerance to the state-of-the-art dual-threshold segmentation circuits. Since the dual-threshold image segmentation involves the comparison operation, as part of this work we have implemented two full comparator circuits. These circuits optimize the metrics T-count and T-depth with respect to the best circuit comparators currently available in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the problems of low accuracy and slow convergence of traditional multilevel image segmentation methods, a symmetric cross-entropy multilevel thresholding image segmentation method (MSIPOA) with multi-strategy improved pelican optimization algorithm is proposed for global optimization and image segmentation tasks. First, Sine chaotic mapping is used to improve the quality and distribution uniformity of the initial population. A spiral search mechanism incorporating a sine cosine optimization algorithm improves the algorithm's search diversity, local pioneering ability, and convergence accuracy. A levy flight strategy further improves the algorithm's ability to jump out of local minima. In this paper, 12 benchmark test functions and 8 other newer swarm intelligence algorithms are compared in terms of convergence speed and convergence accuracy to evaluate the performance of the MSIPOA algorithm. By non-parametric statistical analysis, MSIPOA shows a greater superiority over other optimization algorithms. The MSIPOA algorithm is then experimented with symmetric cross-entropy multilevel threshold image segmentation, and eight images from BSDS300 are selected as the test set to evaluate MSIPOA. According to different performance metrics and Fridman test, MSIPOA algorithm outperforms similar algorithms in global optimization and image segmentation, and the symmetric cross entropy of MSIPOA algorithm for multilevel thresholding image segmentation method can be effectively applied to multilevel thresholding image segmentation tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilevel thresholding image segmentation is one of the most widely used segmentation methods in the field of image segmentation. This paper proposes a multilevel thresholding image segmentation technique based on an improved whale optimization algorithm. The WOA has been applied to many complex optimization problems because of its excellent performance; however, it easily falls into local optimization. Therefore, firstly, a mixed-strategy-based improved whale optimization algorithm (MSWOA) is proposed using the k-point initialization algorithm, the nonlinear convergence factor, and the adaptive weight coefficient to improve the optimization ability of the algorithm. Then, the MSWOA is combined with the Otsu method and Kapur entropy to search for the optimal thresholds for multilevel thresholding gray image segmentation, respectively. The results of algorithm performance evaluation experiments on benchmark functions demonstrate that the MSWOA has higher search accuracy and faster convergence speed than other comparative algorithms and that it can effectively jump out of the local optimum. In addition, the image segmentation experimental results on benchmark images show that the MSWOA–Kapur image segmentation technique can effectively and accurately search multilevel thresholds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation is the process of separating pixels of an image into multiple classes, enabling the analysis of objects in the image. Multilevel thresholding (MTH) is a method used to perform this task, and the problem is to obtain an optimal threshold that properly segments each image. Methods such as the Kapur entropy or the Otsu method, which can be used as objective functions to determine the optimal threshold, are efficient in determining the best threshold for bi-level thresholding; however, they are not effective for MTH due to their high computational cost. This paper integrates an efficient method for MTH image segmentation called the heap-based optimizer (HBO) with opposition-based learning termed improved heap-based optimizer (IHBO) to solve the problem of high computational cost for MTH and overcome the weaknesses of the original HBO. The IHBO was proposed to improve the convergence rate and local search efficiency of search agents of the basic HBO, the IHBO is applied to solve the problem of MTH using the Otsu and Kapur methods as objective functions. The performance of the IHBO-based method was evaluated on the CEC'2020 test suite and compared against seven well-known metaheuristic algorithms including the basic HBO, salp swarm algorithm, moth flame optimization, gray wolf optimization, sine cosine algorithm, harmony search optimization, and electromagnetism optimization. The experimental results revealed that the proposed IHBO algorithm outperformed the counterparts in terms of the fitness values as well as other performance indicators, such as the structural similarity index (SSIM), feature similarity index (FSIM), peak signal-to-noise ratio. Therefore, the IHBO algorithm was found to be superior to other segmentation methods for MTH image segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classification of tumors from MRI plays very important role for diagnosing various diseases. But, it consumes an enormous amount of time for classification. Due to the similar structure of anomalous and typical tissues in the brain, it is difficult to complete the detection process successfully. Many researchers have developed new methods for detection and classification of tumors. But most of them failed at some point due to these limitations. Therefore in our work, we introduced a new machine learning algorithm for detection and classification of tumors. In addition to this, an intellectual segmentation technique known as Improved Binomial Thresholding technique is also introduced in this paper. This newly developed approach is used to differentiate the normal and abnormal slices from brain MRI. We can extract different features from the segmented image. The extracted features may be Wavelet Transform based (WT) or Scattering Wavelet Transform based (SWT). Feature selection process is achieved using a hybrid algorithm known as CS-FS (Hybrid Cuckoo Search with Fish Swarm) to minimize the dimension of extracted features. Finally, feature classification process is performed using Sparse Bayesian Extreme Learning Machine (SBELM) classifier. The proposed method is executed with the help of BRATS (Brain Tumor Image Segmentation) 2015 dataset. The result of the proposed method is evaluated on different parameters like accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity. The values of these parameters are obtained by computing four factors such as TP, TN, FN and FP. The final evaluation results showed that, our proposed SBELM classifier has attained 97.2% accuracy, which is better than the other existing method like state-of-the-art method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a new variant of the metaheuristic algorithm based on the naked mole rat (NMR) algorithm, called the Q-learning naked mole rat algorithm (QL-NMR), for substitution box construction and optimization. Unlike most competing works (which typically integrate a single chaotic map into a particular metaheuristic algorithm), QL-NMR assembles five chaotic maps (i.e., Chebyshev, logistic, circle, Singer, and sinusoidal) as part of the algorithm itself. Using a Q-learning table, QL-NMR remembers the historical performance of each chaotic map during the S-box construction process allowing just-in-time adaptive selection based on its current performance. Experimental results for 8 × 8 S-box generation demonstrate that the proposed QL-NMR gives competitive performance against other existing works, particularly in terms of nonlinearity and strict avalanche criteria. To further demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed work, we have subjected the QL-NMR for image segmentation using multilevel thresholding. The results confirm that QL-NMR gives better performance than its predecessor NMR. Finally, QL-NMR S-box also outperformed NMR S-box in image encryption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerial photography is a long-range, non-contact method of target detection technology that enables qualitative or quantitative analysis of the target. However, aerial photography images generally have certain chromatic aberration and color distortion. Therefore, effective segmentation of aerial images can further enhance the feature information and reduce the computational difficulty for subsequent image processing. In this paper, we propose an improved version of Golden Jackal Optimization, which is dubbed Helper Mechanism Based Golden Jackal Optimization (HGJO), to apply multilevel threshold segmentation to aerial images. The proposed method uses opposition-based learning to boost population diversity. And a new approach to calculate the prey escape energy is proposed to improve the convergence speed of the algorithm. In addition, the Cauchy distribution is introduced to adjust the original update scheme to enhance the exploration capability of the algorithm. Finally, a novel "helper mechanism" is designed to improve the performance for escape the local optima. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, we use the CEC2022 benchmark function test suite to perform comparison experiments. the HGJO is compared with the original GJO and five classical meta-heuristics. The experimental results show that HGJO is able to achieve competitive results in the benchmark test set. Finally, all of the algorithms are applied to the experiments of variable threshold segmentation of aerial images, and the results show that the aerial photography images segmented by HGJO beat the others. Noteworthy, the source code of HGJO is publicly available at https://github.com/Vang-z/HGJO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interaction between human and computer is becoming powerful day by day with the development of ubiquitous computing. Hand gesture recognition plays an efficient role to establish interaction between human and computer. Gesture is way of communication to understand body language. We can interact with computer using various devices like keyboard, mouse etc. This paper focus on comparing the different segmentation technique used to enhance the controling of slide show navigation without using these devices like mouse, keyboard, touch screen or laser device etc. Hand gesture recognition used to perform interaction by capturing the image, the image segmentation techniques detect the region of interst(ROI) which show the hand region. The gesture can be detected by analysing segmented hand region. All segemented regions are compared on the basis of their features. This paper show comparison of thresholding, laplacian kernel, k-means and canny edge detection segmentation technique use for recognition system to makes interaction easy, convenient and does not require any other system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the ways to detect coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) is X-rays, computerized tomography (CT). This paper aims to detect COVID-19 from CT images without any user intervention. The proposed algorithm consists of 5 stages. These stages include; the first stage aims to collect data from hospitals and internet websites, the second stage is pre-processing stage to remove noise and convert it from red green blue (RGB) to grayscale and then improve image quality, the third is the segmentation stage which included threshold and region-growing segmentation methods. The fourth stage is used to extract important characteristics, and the last stage is classification CT images using feed forward back propagation network (FFBPN) and support vector machines (SVM) and compare the results between them and see if the person is infected or healthy. This study was implemented in MATLAB software. The results showed that the noise cancellation technology using anisotropic filtering gave the best results. Region-growing method was reliable to separate COVID-19 infected from healthy regions. The FFBPN has given the best results for detecting and classifying COVID-19. The results of the proposed methodology are rapid and accurate in detecting COVID-19. The output from classifier is displayed on the Rasbperry Pi that included weather if patient is infected or not and the severity of COVID-19 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Threshold segmentation has been widely used in recent years due to its simplicity and efficiency. The method of segmenting images by the two-dimensional maximum entropy is a species of the useful technique of threshold segmentation. However, the efficiency and stability of this technique are still not ideal and the traditional search algorithm cannot meet the needs of engineering problems. To mitigate the above problem, swarm intelligent optimization algorithms have been employed in this field for searching the optimal threshold vector. An effective technique of lightning attachment procedure optimization (LAPO) algorithm based on a two-dimensional maximum entropy criterion is offered in this paper, and besides, a chaotic strategy is embedded into LAPO to develop a new algorithm named CLAPO. In order to confirm the benefits of the method proposed in this paper, the other seven kinds of competitive algorithms, such as Ant–lion Optimizer (ALO) and Grasshopper Optimization Algorithm (GOA), are compared. Experiments are conducted on four different kinds of images and the simulation results are presented in several indexes (such as computational time, maximum fitness, average fitness, variance of fitness and other indexes) at different threshold levels for each test image. By scrutinizing the results of the experiment, the superiority of the introduced method is demonstrated, which can meet the needs of image segmentation excellently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous improvement of computer technology information level, multimedia image processing technology is constantly updating and progressing, and it is more and more urgent to quickly perform multimedia image recognition processing. Multimedia image recognition is an important issue in image processing. Image segmentation is the basic premise for visual analysis and pattern recognition of multimedia images. The multimedia image recognition segmentation algorithm based on threshold selection is simple in calculation and has high computational efficiency, which makes it widely used in multimedia real-time image processing systems. However, due to the variety of threshold selection, it directly affects multimedia image segmentation effectiveness. In this paper, the research and discussion on some features of the multimedia image segmentation recognition algorithm based on threshold selection and its application are carried out. The segmentation effect of the maximum entropy method and the operation time of logarithmic entropy are studied. Then, the exponential entropy is used instead of the pair. The numerical entropy is improved, and the two-dimensional maximum entropy method is improved. Combined with the Otsu method, the information of the gray level of the 4 neighbourhood pixels is added. Experimental results show that the method used in this paper can effectively shorten the calculation time, highlight the edge features, and increase the threshold automatic selection accuracy and robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how to efficiently recognize flowers based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) using multiple features. Our proposed work consists of three phases including segmentation by Otsu thresholding with particle swarm optimization algorithms, feature extraction of color, shape, texture and recognition with the LeNet-5 neural network. In the feature extraction, an improved H component with the definition of WGB value is applied to extract the color feature, and a new algorithm based on local binary pattern (LBP) is proposed to enhance the accuracy of texture extraction. Besides this, we replace ReLU with Mish as activation function in the network design, and therefore increase the accuracy by 8% accuracy according to our comparison. The Oxford-102 and Oxford-17 datasets are adopted for benchmarking. The experimental results show that the combination of color features and texture features generates the highest recognition accuracy as 92.56% on Oxford-102 and 93% on Oxford-17. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emperor Penguin Optimizer (EPO) is a recently developed metaheuristic algorithm to solve general optimization problems. The main strength of EPO is twofold. Firstly, EPO has low learning curve (i.e., based on the simple analogy of huddling behavior of emperor penguins in nature (i.e., surviving strategy during Antarctic winter). Secondly, EPO offers straightforward implementation. In the EPO, the emperor penguins represent the candidate solution, huddle denotes the search space that comprises a two-dimensional L-shape polygon plane, and randomly positioned of the emperor penguins represents the feasible solution. Among all the emperor penguins, the focus is to locate an effective mover representing the global optimal solution. To-date, EPO has slowly gaining considerable momentum owing to its successful adoption in many broad range of optimization problems, that is, from medical data classification, economic load dispatch problem, engineering design problems, face recognition, multilevel thresholding for color image segmentation, high-dimensional biomedical data analysis for microarray cancer classification, automatic feature selection, event recognition and summarization, smart grid system, and traffic management system to name a few. Reflecting on recent progress, this paper thoroughly presents an in-depth study related to the current EPO's adoption in the scientific literature. In addition to highlighting new potential areas for improvements (and omission), the finding of this study can serve as guidelines for researchers and practitioners to improve the current state-of-the-arts and state-of-practices on general adoption of EPO while highlighting its new emerging areas of applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distribution grid network has problems such as long mileage, large scale, complex surrounding environment, and aging of equipment. It is the development trend of power distribution network operation and maintenance to use unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol and combine with image processing technology for intelligent detection of equipment status. Image segmentation is well-known technique for extracting defect regions of equipment from distribution network inspection images. Therefore, this paper proposes an efficient a novel multilevel thresholding segmentation method to improve the fault diagnosis process with an improved weighted mean of vectors optimization (IINFO) algorithm. The IINFO algorithm adopts various measures to improve the optimization results, including Gaussian mutation to increase the local search ability and range of the optimal individual, Cauchy mutation to enhance the global search ability of its vector individual, reflective learning operators to strengthen self-learning and avoid local optimal solutions, and parallel operation to improve the utilization of computational resources. Moreover, two-dimensional Kapur cross-entropy is used as an objective function to solve the multilevel thresholding problem. The proposed method is evaluated using benchmark functions and distribution network inspection image datasets and is compared with 12 other metaheuristic algorithms. The results demonstrate that the proposed method has better performance and a higher ability to find optimal solutions compared to the other algorithms. These findings suggest that our method may be useful in improving the accuracy and efficiency of distribution network inspections and have significant potential for practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of image segmentation is partitioning an image into its constituent parts and is a significant approach for extracting interesting features from images. Over a couple of decades, many efficient image segmentation approaches have been formulated for various applications. Still, it is a challenging and complex issue, especially for color image segmentation. To moderate this difficulty, a novel multilevel thresholding approach is proposed in this paper based on the electromagnetism optimization (EMO) technique with an energy curve, named multilevel thresholding based on EMO and energy curve (MTEMOE). To compute the optimized threshold values, Otsu's variance and Kapur's entropy are deployed as fitness functions; both values should be maximized to locate optimal threshold values. In both Kapur's and Otsu's methods, the pixels of an image are classified into different classes based on the threshold level selected on the histogram. Optimal threshold levels give higher efficiency of segmentation; the EMO technique is used to find optimal thresholds in this research. The methods based on an image's histograms do not possess the spatial contextual information for finding the optimal threshold levels. To abolish this deficiency an energy curve is used instead of the histogram and this curve can establish the spatial relationship of pixels with their neighbor pixels. To study the experimental results of the proposed scheme, several color benchmark images are considered at various threshold levels and compared with other meta-heuristic algorithms: multi-verse optimization, whale optimization algorithm, and so on. The investigational results are illustrated in terms of mean square error, peak signal-to-noise ratio, the mean value of fitness reach, feature similarity, structural similarity, variation of information, and probability rand index. The results reveal that the proposed MTEMOE approach overtops other state-of-the-art algorithms to solve engineering problems in various fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation depend on fuzzy entropy (FE) and intelligent optimization is among the most widely used and popular approaches. Segmentation is an important and pre-processing step in the analysis of an image. Multilevel thresholding is efficient for color images in different multimedia applications in day-to-day life. The method of assessing optimal threshold values using conventional schemes consumes more time. To alleviate the above-mentioned problem, meta-heuristic method has been used for optimization in this area over the last few years. This paper proposes a novel image thresholding technique depend on Adaptive Flower Pollination Algorithm (AFPA) and type II fuzzy entropy (TII-FE). The thresholding methodology is assessed against competitive algorithms concerning the quality, convergence and accuracy of segmented images. The quality is computed in relation of SSIM, PSNR and MSE parameters. The results indicate that AFPA for TII-FE is effective technique for image thresholding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the traditional image segmentation, an efficient multilevel thresholding segmentation method based on improved Chimp Optimization Algorithm (IChOA) is developed in this paper. Kapur entropy is utilized as the objective function. The best threshold values for RGB images' three channels are found using IChOA. Meanwhile, several strategies are introduced including population initialization strategy combining with Gaussian chaos and opposition-based learning, the position update mechanism of particle swarm algorithm (PSO), the Gaussian-Cauchy mutation and the adaptive nonlinear strategy. These methods enable the IChOA to raise the diversity of the population and enhance both the exploration and exploitation. Additionally, the search ability, accuracy and stability of IChOA have been significantly enhanced. To prove the superiority of the IChOA based multilevel thresholding segmentation method, a comparison experiment is conducted between IChOA and 5 six meta-heuristic algorithms using 12 test functions, which fully demonstrate that IChOA can obtain high-quality solutions and almost does not suffer from premature convergence. Furthermore, by using 10 standard test images the IChOA-based multilevel thresholding image segmentation method is compared with other peers and evaluated the segmentation results using 5 evaluation indicators with the average fitness value, PSNR, SSIM, FSIM and computational time. The experimental results reveal that the presented IChOA-based multilevel thresholding image segmentation method has tremendous potential to be utilized as an image segmentation method for color images because it can be an effective swarm intelligence optimization method that can maintain a delicate balance during the segmentation process of color images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the problems of image threshold segmentation based on weak continuous constraint theory, the running time is long, and the two parameters need to be selected manually, and therefore a fast single-parameter energy function thresholding for image segmentation based on region information (FSEFTISRI) is proposed in this paper. The proposed FSEFTISRI algorithm uses simple linear iterative clustering (SLIC) technology to pre-block the image, extract the image super-pixels, and then map the image super-pixels to the interval type-2 fuzzy set (IT2FS), so as to construct the single-parameter energy function to search the optimal threshold, and adaptively select the penalty parameters in the energy function through the class uncertainty theory. On a non-destructive testing (NDT) database and Berkeley segmentation datasets and benchmarks (BSDS), the proposed FSEFTISRI is compared with five related algorithms. The average misclassification error (ME) of the proposed FSEFTISRI algorithm on NDT and BSDS are 0.0466 and 0.0039, respectively. The results show that the proposed FSEFTISRI has acquired more satisfactory results in visual effect and evaluation index, and the running time of the proposed FSEFTISRI algorithm is shorter, which shows the effectiveness of the proposed FSEFTISRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation is the prime factor to elicit the detailed investigation of an image. The desired information from an image can be easily obtained through the intuitive technique called thresholding. In this technique, detailed analysis of different classes of an image is realised through Multilevel Thresholding (MLT). Accurate and ideal threshold values achieved by non-parametric objective functions such as Tsallis and Renyi are briefed in this paper. The non-additive property of Tsallis and entropic threshold selection property of Renyi drive to search the global threshold value precisely. Higher the segmentation level more is the computational time for exploration of optimal threshold with Tsallis and Renyi. This challenge is countered by MLT based Tsallis and Renyi, aided with Exchange Market Algorithm (EMA). Several research on nature- inspired algorithms such as Bacterial Foraging (BF), Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) are carried out. For the first time, this paper proposes a powerful metaheuristic EMA technique for image segmentation, which implements the strategies of shareholders in stable and unstable mode to earn profit. The cognizance of the shareholders is extracted to attain the desired goal to reach the global threshold avoiding premature convergence. Empirical outcome of the results indicate that outstanding tuning search is achieved by EMA compared to extensive search techniques such as PSO, BF and GA. Exploration and exploitation assessment by metrics such as stability, computational efficiency, Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), uniformity measure and Wilcoxon rank sum test affirm the Tsallis and Renyi based EMA surpass the existing techniques to analyse the real-world images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilevel thresholding-based image segmentation plays a vital role in image processing. It significantly impacts many applications, such as remote sensing, pattern recognition, and medical image diagnosis. Premature convergence due to stuck into the local optima is the main challenge of any evolutionary algorithm-based multilevel image thresholding. Most of the evolutionary algorithms use their stochastic property to comprehensively utilize the search space, which strongly influences premature convergence. This paper presents a novel chaotic symbiotic organisms search (CSOS) optimization for multilevel image segmentation that maintains a strategic distance from premature convergence and improves the performance of conventional symbiotic organisms search (SOS) optimization in multilevel image segmentation. We have analyzed the performance of the proposed CSOS using state-of-the-art entropies such as Kapur's, Tsallis', Renyi's, and Masi's entropy as objective functions. The experiments on standard used color images are presented to establish the practicality of the proposed algorithm. The results show that the CSOS algorithm with Masi's entropy is more effective and has wide adaptability to the high-dimensional optimization problems than the other recently proposed algorithms considered in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation is an important part of image understanding and one of the most difficult problems in image processing. For image segmentation processing, this paper proposes an image segmentation algorithm for multilevel thresholding based on novelty harmony search algorithm. Firstly, the central harmony and central congestion distance are introduced to reduce local aggregation of initial points and expand the search range. Secondly, the new harmony generation strategy is constructed, which is based on dominant harmony learning experience. Then the search space constraints and parameters adaptive adjustment are adopted to improve the search efficiency. Finally, the harmony memory updating rules are designed to enhance the diversity of population. The image segmentation effect is evaluated by the between-class variance, peak signal-to-noise ratio and mean structural similarity. A series of experiments have been carried out to analyze the segmentation effect of the proposed NHS algorithm based on the Berkeley segmentation database. Compared with the basic harmony search algorithm, improved harmony search algorithm, global best harmony search algorithm, particle swarm optimization algorithm and artificial bee colony algorithm, the experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. In particular the proposed algorithm is superior to other methods when the threshold number increases. The influence of noise and artifact on image segmentation is also discussed and analyzed. It illustrates that the image can be segmented in the Gaussian noise, mixed noise and strip line artifact conditions based on the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presently image segmentation remains the most crucial stage in the image processing system. The main idea of image segmentation is to partition or divide a random image into several partitions depending on the problem to solve. In this paper, we will be presenting a new method of skin cancer detection based on Otsu's thresholding algorithm and marker-controlled watershed method. This hybridization process is first of all started by segmenting the input image using fuzzy c-means algorithm which is a clustering method that gives the possibility to a pixel to belong to one or more clusters. After that, we will apply multi-Otsu which is a thresholding algorithm that separates the pixels of an image into a variety of classes depending on the intensity of the gray levels. The next step of this proposed method is the marker-controlled watershed algorithm that divides the image into homogenous areas or regions by using edge-detection concepts including mathematical morphology. The proposed technique was applied and experienced using several images of different types of skin cancer that were collected and gathered from the web and also from the Kaggle dataset. To assess the worth of the achieved results, we used several evaluation metrics like dice coefficient, sensitivity, specificity as well as Jaccard similarity that all have shown good and satisfactory results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation is a critical step in digital image processing applications. One of the most preferred methods for image segmentation is multilevel thresholding, in which a set of threshold values is determined to divide an image into different classes. However, the computational complexity increases when the required thresholds are high. Therefore, this paper introduces a modified Coronavirus Optimization algorithm for image segmentation. In the proposed algorithm, the chaotic map concept is added to the initialization step of the naive algorithm to increase the diversity of solutions. A hybrid of the two commonly used methods, Otsu's and Kapur's entropy, is applied to form a new fitness function to determine the optimum threshold values. The proposed algorithm is evaluated using two different datasets, including six benchmarks and six satellite images. Various evaluation metrics are used to measure the quality of the segmented images using the proposed algorithm, such as mean square error, peak signal-to-noise ratio, Structural Similarity Index, Feature Similarity Index, and Normalized Correlation Coefficient. Additionally, the best fitness values are calculated to demonstrate the proposed method's ability to find the optimum solution. The obtained results are compared to eleven powerful and recent metaheuristics and prove the superiority of the proposed algorithm in the image segmentation problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The separation of an object from other objects or the background by selecting the optimal threshold values remains a challenge in the field of image segmentation. Threshold segmentation is one of the most popular image segmentation techniques. The traditional methods for finding the optimum threshold are computationally expensive, tedious, and may be inaccurate. Hence, this paper proposes an Improved Whale Optimization Algorithm (IWOA) based on Kapur's entropy for solving multi-threshold segmentation of the gray level image. Also, IWOA supports its performance using linearly convergence increasing and local minima avoidance technique (LCMA), and ranking-based updating method (RUM). LCMA technique accelerates the convergence speed of the solutions toward the optimal solution and tries to avoid the local minima problem that may fall within the optimization process. To do that, it updates randomly the positions of the worst solutions to be near to the best solution and at the same time randomly within the search space according to a certain probability to avoid stuck into local minima. Because of the randomization process used in LCMA for updating the solutions toward the best solutions, a huge number of the solutions around the best are skipped. Therefore, the RUM is used to replace the unbeneficial solution with a novel updating scheme to cover this problem. We compare IWOA with another seven algorithms using a set of well-known test images. We use several performance measures, such as fitness values, Peak Signal to Noise Ratio, Structured Similarity Index Metric, Standard Deviation, and CPU time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apical Lesions, one of the most common oral diseases, can be effectively detected in daily dental examinations by a periapical radiograph (PA). In the current popular endodontic treatment, most dentists spend a lot of time manually marking the lesion area. In order to reduce the burden on dentists, this paper proposes a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based regional analysis model for spical lesions for periapical radiographs. In this study, the database was provided by dentists with more than three years of practical experience, meeting the criteria for clinical practical application. The contributions of this work are (1) an advanced adaptive threshold preprocessing technique for image segmentation, which can achieve an accuracy rate of more than 96%; (2) a better and more intuitive apical lesions symptom enhancement technique; and (3) a model for apical lesions detection with an accuracy as high as 96.21%. Compared with existing state-of-the-art technology, the proposed model has improved the accuracy by more than 5%. The proposed model has successfully improved the automatic diagnosis of apical lesions. With the help of automation, dentists can focus more on technical and medical diagnoses, such as treatment, tooth cleaning, or medical communication. This proposal has been certified by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) with the certification number 202002030B0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a novel iterative approach for interactive single or multiple foreground co-segmentation using semantic information. A quadratic cost function based on a graph model is proposed. The cost function includes a ‘smoothness’ and a ‘label-information’ terms. The ‘label-information’ term propagates the feature-level and contextual information. This information is updated based on the features and neighborhood patterns of all the images after each iteration. The approach can be easily implemented with a few scribbles on a few random images. The paper also proposes a model called Neighborhood Pattern Model (NPM) for contextual information. Along with feature level information, NPM helps to give semantic meanings to the labels (i.e., foreground(s) and background). Moreover, in the case of insufficient features (i.e., same features for different labels), NPM can be effective to distinct the labels. Experimental results on two benchmark datasets, iCoseg and FlickrMFC, illustrate the better performance of the proposed approach over the current state-of-the-art co-segmentation methods.Workflow of the proposed algorithm. The left images are samples of the ’Hot-Balloons’ group in iCoseg dataset [1]. It is the only image of the group which is scribbled by user. Green and red scribbles indicate label1 (i.e., background) and label2 (i.e., foreground), respectively. The final results are illustrated in the right [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]