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Improving a firefly meta-heuristic for multilevel image segmentation using Tsallis entropy

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Abstract

In this paper we show that the non-extensive Tsallis entropy, when used as kernel in the bio-inspired firefly algorithm for multi-thresholding in image segmentation, is more efficient than using the traditional cross-entropy presented in the literature. The firefly algorithm is a swarm-based meta-heuristic, inspired by fireflies-seeking behavior following their luminescence. We show that the use of more convex kernels, as those based on non-extensive entropy, is more effective at \(5\,\%\) of significance level than the cross-entropy counterpart when applied in synthetic spaces for searching thresholds in global minimum.

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Notes

  1. We define the composed distribution, also called direct product of \(P=(p_{1},\ldots ,p_{n})\) and \(Q=(q_{1},\ldots ,q_{m})\), as \(P*Q=\{p_{i}q_{j}\}_{i,j}\), with \(1\le i\le n\) and \(1\le j\le m\)

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Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the CNPq and CAPES, the Brazilian agencies for Scientific Financing, as well as to FEI (Ignatian Educational Foundation), a Brazilian Jesuit Faculty of Science Computing and Engineering, for the support of this work.

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Correspondence to Paulo S. Rodrigues.

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Rodrigues, P.S., Wachs-Lopes, G.A., Erdmann, H.R. et al. Improving a firefly meta-heuristic for multilevel image segmentation using Tsallis entropy. Pattern Anal Applic 20, 1–20 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10044-015-0450-x

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