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Color image segmentation using feedforward neural networks with FCM

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Abstract

This paper proposes a hybrid technique for color image segmentation. First an input image is converted to the image of CIE L*a*b* color space. The color features “a” and “b” of CIE L*a*b* are then fed into fuzzy C-means (FCM) clustering which is an unsupervised method. The labels obtained from the clustering method FCM are used as a target of the supervised feed forward neural network. The network is trained by the Levenberg-Marquardt back-propagation algorithm, and evaluates its performance using mean square error and regression analysis. The main issues of clustering methods are determining the number of clusters and cluster validity measures. This paper presents a method namely co-occurrence matrix based algorithm for finding the number of clusters and silhouette index values that are used for cluster validation. The proposed method is tested on various color images obtained from the Berkeley database. The segmentation results from the proposed method are validated and the classification accuracy is evaluated by the parameters sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy.

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Correspondence to S. Arumugadevi.

Additional information

Recommended by Associate Editor De Xu

S. Arumugadevi received the B. Sc. degree in computer science from the M. S.University, India in 1997 and M.C.A. and M.Tech. degrees in information technology from M. S. University, India in 2001 and 2007, respectively. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate and she is working as assistant professor in the Department of Information Technology, Sri Krishna Engineering College, Chennai, India. She has 13 years of experience in the field of computer science.

Her research interests include image segmentation and soft computing.

ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9772-9727

V. Seenivasagam is presently a professor of computer science and engineering at National Engineering College (Autonomous), Kovilpatti, India, and has 25 years of experience in the field of computer science and engineering. He has published 23 papers in international journals, 9 papers in international conferences and 34 papers in national conferences in the fields of image processing and soft computing. He is the member of Board of Studies in the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering at Anna University of Technology, Tirunelveli, India.

His research interests include image processing, compiler design and soft computing.

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Arumugadevi, S., Seenivasagam, V. Color image segmentation using feedforward neural networks with FCM. Int. J. Autom. Comput. 13, 491–500 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11633-016-0975-5

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