Skip to main content

Segmentation of Partially Overlapping Convex Objects Using Branch and Bound Algorithm

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNIP,volume 10118))

Abstract

This paper presents a novel method for the segmentation of partially overlapping convex shape objects in silhouette images. The proposed method involves two main steps: contour evidence extraction and contour estimation. Contour evidence extraction starts by recovering contour segments from a binarized image using concave contour point detection. The contour segments which belong to the same objects are grouped by utilizing a criterion defining the convexity, symmetry and ellipticity of the resulting object. The grouping is formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem and solved using the well-known branch and bound algorithm. Finally, the contour estimation is implemented through a non-linear ellipse fitting problem in which partially observed objects are modeled in the form of ellipse-shape objects. The experiments on a dataset of consisting of nanoparticles demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms four current state-of-art approaches in overlapping convex objects segmentation. The method relies only on edge information and can be applied to any segmentation problems where the objects are partially overlapping and have an approximately convex shape.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Park, C., Huang, J.Z., Ji, J.X., Ding, Y.: Segmentation, inference and classification of partially overlapping nanoparticles. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. 35, 669–681 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Zhang, W.H., Jiang, X., Liu, Y.M.: A method for recognizing overlapping elliptical bubbles in bubble image. Pattern Recogn. Lett. 33, 1543–1548 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Kothari, S., Chaudry, Q., Wang, M.: Automated cell counting and cluster segmentation using concavity detection and ellipse fitting techniques. In: IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging, pp. 795–798 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Fisker, R., Carstensen, J., Hansen, M., Bødker, F., Mørup, S.: Estimation of nanoparticle size distributions by image analysis. J. Nanopart. Res. 2, 267–277 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Shu, J., Fu, H., Qiu, G., Kaye, P., Ilyas, M.: Segmenting overlapping cell nuclei in digital histopathology images. In: 35th International Conference on Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), pp. 5445–5448 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Cheng, J., Rajapakse, J.: Segmentation of clustered nuclei with shape markers and marking function. IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 56, 741–748 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Jung, C., Kim, C.: Segmenting clustered nuclei using h-minima transform-based marker extraction and contour parameterization. IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 57, 2600–2604 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Zhang, Q., Pless, R.: Segmenting multiple familiar objects under mutual occlusion. In: IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), pp. 197–200 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Ali, S., Madabhushi, A.: An integrated region-, boundary-, shape-based active contour for multiple object overlap resolution in histological imagery. IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging 31, 1448–1460 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Bai, X., Sun, C., Zhou, F.: Splitting touching cells based on concave points and ellipse fitting. Pattern Recogn. 42, 2434–2446 (2009)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  11. Zafari, S., Eerola, T., Sampo, J., Kälviäinen, H., Haario, H.: Segmentation of partially overlapping nanoparticles using concave points. In: Bebis, G., et al. (eds.) ISVC 2015. LNCS, vol. 9474, pp. 187–197. Springer, Heidelberg (2015)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  12. Zafari, S., Eerola, T., Sampo, J., Kälviäinen, H., Haario, H.: Segmentation of overlapping elliptical objects in silhouette images. IEEE Trans. Image Process. 24, 5942–5952 (2015)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  13. Doig, A.G., Land, A.H.: An automatic method for solving discrete programming problems. Econometrica 28, 497–520 (1960)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  14. Principles, E., Clausen, J.: Branch and bound algorithms (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Koontz, W.L.G., Narendra, P.M., Fukunaga, K.: A branch and bound clustering algorithm. IEEE Trans. Comput. 24, 908–915 (1975)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  16. Lempitsky, V., Blake, A., Rother, C.: Image Segmentation by Branch-and-Mincut. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  17. Otsu, N.: A threshold selection method from gray-level histograms. Automatica 11, 23–27 (1975)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Canny, J.: A computational approach to edge detection. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. 8, 679–698 (1986)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. He, X., Yung, N.: Curvature scale space corner detector with adaptive threshold and dynamic region of support. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Pattern Recognition, pp. 791–794 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Wu, X., Kemeny, J.: A segmentation method for multi-connected particle delineation. In: IEEE Workshop on Applications of Computer Vision, pp. 240–247 (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Wang, W.: Binary image segmentation of aggregates based on polygonal approximation and classification of concavities. Pattern Recogn. 31, 1503–1524 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Loy, G., Zelinsky, A.: Fast radial symmetry for detecting points of interest. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. 25, 959–973 (2003)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  23. Fitzgibbon, A., Pilu, M., Fisher, R.B.: Direct least square fitting of ellipses. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. 21, 476–480 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Choi, S.S., Cha, S.H., Tappert, C.C.: A survey of binary similarity and distance measures. J. Syst. Cybern. Inform. 8, 43–48 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Zafari, S., Eerola, T., Sampo, J., Kälviäinen, H., Haario, H.: Segmentation of overlapping objects (2016). http://www2.it.lut.fi/project/comphi1/index.shtml. Accessed Aug 2016

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sahar Zafari .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this paper

Cite this paper

Zafari, S., Eerola, T., Sampo, J., Kälviäinen, H., Haario, H. (2017). Segmentation of Partially Overlapping Convex Objects Using Branch and Bound Algorithm. In: Chen, CS., Lu, J., Ma, KK. (eds) Computer Vision – ACCV 2016 Workshops. ACCV 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10118. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54526-4_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54526-4_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-54525-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-54526-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics