The integration of directional information and local region information for accurate image segmentation

Abstract: The original local binary fitting (LBF) model is sensitive to contour initialization and thus easily obtains an inaccurate result due to improper initialization. This paper presents a new method that not only can arrive at sub-pixel accuracy, but also allows for more flexible initialization of the contour. Two important terms play main role in our new method. One is an image gradient alignment term (IGA) which uses the directional information of the image gradient, the other is a local intensity fitting term (LIF) which makes use of local region information. The integration of the above two terms prevents our method from being sensitive to contour initialization. In addition, a global intensity fitting term (GIF) multiplied by a stopping function is included, which can speed up our algorithm while do not influence the accuracy of the segmentation result. Using the simple central difference, the gradient descend flow equation for the level set function can be easily and efficiently implemented. The results on several synthetic and real images demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of our method. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]