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An integrated two-stage approach for image segmentation via active contours

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Abstract

A novel integrated two-stage approach is proposed for image segmentation, where the edge, global and local region information of images are in turn incorporated to define the intensity fitting energy. In the first stage, the Chan-Vese model flexibly assimilates the edge indicator function in the beginning, and then the Laplace operator is introduced to regularize the level set function when minimizing the energy functional. As an edge-based and global region-based active contour, it can be inclined to rapidly produce a coarse segmentation result. In the second stage, we further segment the image by absorbing the local region fitting energy, where its initialization is acquired by the final active contour of the first stage. In addition, we present a generalized level set regularization term, which efficiently eliminates the periodically re-initialization procedure of traditional level set methods and maintains the corresponding signed distance property. Compared with the first stage, the local object details are accurately segmented in the second stage, which can acquire an accurate segmentation result. Qualitative and quantitative experimental results demonstrate the accuracy, robustness and efficiency of our approach with applications to some synthetical and real-world images.

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Acknowledgements

This research is supported by the Union Program of Science Technology of Guizhou Province, Anshun Government and Anshun University (LH20157699), the Natural Science Research Foundation of Guizhou Education Department (KY2018070), the Natural Science Foundation of China (11601010), and the Natural Science Research Foundation of Guizhou Education Department (KY2018034).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mathematics and Physics, Anshun University, Anshun, Guizhou, 561000, China

    Hui Wang & Jing Han

  2. School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Anshun University, Anshun, Guizhou, 561000, China

    Yingqiong Du

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  1. Hui Wang
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  2. Yingqiong Du
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  3. Jing Han
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Correspondence to Hui Wang.

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Wang, H., Du, Y. & Han, J. An integrated two-stage approach for image segmentation via active contours. Multimed Tools Appl 79, 21177–21195 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-020-08950-2

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