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One important task in image segmentation is to find a region of interest, which is, in general, a solution of a nonlinear and nonconvex problem. The authors of Chan and Esedoglu (Aspects of total variation regularized L 1 function approximation. SIAM J. Appl. Math. 2005;65:1817–1837) proposed a convex T V − L 1 problem for finding such a region Σ and proved that when a binary input f is given, a solution u ∗ to the convex problem gives rise to other solutions 1 { u ∗ ≥ μ } for a.e. μ ∈ (0 , 1) from which they raised a question of whether or not u ∗ must be binary. The same is to ask if the two-phase Mumford–Shah model in image processing has a unique solution with a binary input. In this paper, we will discuss how to construct a non-binary solution that provides a negative answer to the question through a connection of two ideas, one from the two-phase Mumford–Shah model in image segmentation and the other from mean curvature motions discussed in some geometric problems (e.g. Alter, Caselles, Chambolle. A characterization of convex calibrable sets in R N . Math. Ann. 2005;322:329–366; Chambolle. An algorithm for mean curvature motion. Interfaces Free Boundaries 2004;6:195–218) revealing the nature of non-uniqueness in image segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]