Amended bacterial foraging algorithm for multilevel thresholding of magnetic resonance brain images

Magnetic Resonance (MR) brain image segmentation into several tissue classes is of significant interest to visualize and quantify individual anatomical structures. Traditionally, the segmentation is performed manually in a clinical environment that is operator dependant, difficult to reproduce and computationally expensive. To overcome these drawbacks, this paper proposes a new heuristic optimization algorithm, amended bacterial foraging (ABF) algorithm for multilevel thresholding of MR brain images. The optimal thresholds are found by maximizing Kapur’s (entropy criterion) and Otsu’s (between-class variance) thresholding functions using ABF algorithm. The proposed method is evaluated on 10 axial, T₂ weighted MR brain image slices and compared with other evolutionary algorithms such as bacterial foraging (BF), particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and genetic algorithm (GA). From the experimental results, it is observed that the new method is computationally more efficient, prediction wise more accurate and shows faster convergence compared to BF, PSO and GA methods. Applying the proposed thresholding algorithm to these images can help for the best segmentation of gray matter, white matter and cerebrospinal fluid which offers the possibility of improved clinical decision making and diagnosis.     

A novel segmentation approach for noisy medical images using Intuitionistic fuzzy divergence with neighbourhood‐based membership function

Medical image segmentation demands higher segmentation accuracy especially when the images are affected by noise. This paper proposes a novel technique to segment medical images efficiently using an intuitionistic fuzzy divergence–based thresholding. A neighbourhood‐based membership function is defined here. The intuitionistic fuzzy divergence–based image thresholding technique using the neighbourhood‐based membership functions yield lesser degradation of segmentation performance in noisy environment. Its ability in handling noisy images has been validated. The algorithm is independent of any parameter selection. Moreover, it provides robustness to both additive and multiplicative noise. The proposed scheme has been applied on three types of medical image datasets in order to establish its novelty and generality. The performance of the proposed algorithm has been compared with other standard algorithms viz. Otsu's method, fuzzy C‐means clustering, and fuzzy divergence–based thresholding with respect to (1) noise‐free images and (2) ground truth images labelled by experts/clinicians. Experiments show that the proposed methodology is effective, more accurate and efficient for segmenting noisy images.     

动态迁移和椒盐变异融合生物地理学优化算法的高维多阈值分割

针对高维多阈值图像分割中存在的多阈值搜索问题,提出了一种动态迁移和椒盐变异融合的生物地理学优化算法(BBOD)。首先,构建了一种基于动态扰动的迁移算子,对候选解中没有发生迁移操作的特征值添加一个动态的扰动因子,使种群的多样性增加,从而提高全局搜索能力;然后,创建了新型的变异算子,对待变异的特征值产生一个椒盐扰动,使该值在小范围内浮动,以便提高局部搜索能力和算法的收敛速度;最后,将该算法应用到基于最小交叉熵的图像高维多阈值分割中。高维多阈值分割实验结果表明,本文提出的BBOD算法能够获得最优的阈值向量,运行速度、性能指标均优于标准的生物地理学优化(BBO)算法,基于变异的生物地理学优化(BBOM)算法、FFA(Firefly Algorithm)和CSA(Cuckoo Search Algorithm),运行速度是FFA的5倍以上。该算法更适用于基于最小交叉熵的高维多阈值优化选择。     

基于差商的油液监测铁谱图像自适应分割

针对油液监测中铁谱磨粒图像分割阈值难以选取的问题,本文提出一种基于差商的自适应铁谱图像分割算法。首先,将铁谱磨粒灰度图像转换成三维灰度直方图,并对其进行切片分析;然后,引入Newton插值多项式,将不同切片所得的频数作为切片灰度-频数曲线的插值点,基于差商构造第一类可接受函数和第二类可接受函数,结合实验数据确定两类误差,选取同时满足两类误差的最小灰度值作为分割阈值;最后,用本文方法对不同类型的磨粒图像以及添加高斯噪声和椒盐噪声后图像分别进行分割实验,并与经典的迭代阈值法、Otsu算法、最大熵法进行了比较。实验结果表明,本文方法受噪声干扰较小,误检率和漏检率整体优于其他3种算法。对分割所得的磨粒图像进行特征提取,并利用支持向量机进行识别,本文方法对3种故障磨粒识别准确率最高,达到82.86%,虽在运行时间上无明显优势,但综合性能最优,能满足油液监测过程中铁谱图像自适应分割的需求。     

基于数学形态学的新方法在脑组织分割中的应用

针对人体脑部切片图像特点,提出了一种基于数学形态学的脑组织自动分割算法.该算法首先通过形态重构获得粗糙的脑组织区域,然后运用腐蚀和膨胀运算进行边界定位分割出了脑组织,最后对连续断层图像的分割结果进行了三维重建.结果表明该算法分割准确且自动化程度高,适合于大量序列切片图像的快速自动分割.     

Automatic setae segmentation from Chaetoceros microscopic images

A novel image processing model Grayscale Surface Direction Angle Model (GSDAM) is presented and the algorithm based on GSDAM is developed to segment setae from Chaetoceros microscopic images. The proposed model combines the setae characteristics of the microscopic images with the spatial analysis of image grayscale surface to detect and segment the direction thin and long setae from the low contrast background as well as noise which may make the commonly used segmentation methods invalid. The experimental results show that our algorithm based on GSDAM outperforms the boundary‐based and region‐based segmentation methods Canny edge detector, iterative threshold selection, Otsu's thresholding, minimum error thresholding, K‐means clustering, and marker‐controlled watershed on the setae segmentation more accurately and completely. Microsc. Res. Tech. 77:684–690, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Clustered nuclei splitting via curvature information and gray‐scale distance transform

Clusters or clumps of cells or nuclei are frequently observed in two dimensional images of thick tissue sections. Correct and accurate segmentation of overlapping cells and nuclei is important for many biological and biomedical applications. Many existing algorithms split clumps through the binarization of the input images; therefore, the intensity information of the original image is lost during this process. In this paper, we present a curvature information, gray scale distance transform, and shortest path splitting line‐based algorithm which can make full use of the concavity and image intensity information to find out markers, each of which represents an individual object, and detect accurate splitting lines between objects using shortest path and junction adjustment. The proposed algorithm is tested on both synthetic and real nuclei images. Experiment results show that the performance of the proposed method is better than that of marker‐controlled watershed method and ellipse fitting method.     

Tumor detection from enhanced magnetic resonance imaging using fuzzy curvelet

Effective medical image analysis is possible by the use of technique known as segmentation. Segmentation is a very challenging task because there is not any standard segmentation method is available for any medical application. In this article, we have proposed an automatic brain MR image segmentation method. Fast discrete curvelet transform and spatial fuzzy C-mean algorithm is used for noise removal and segmentation of brain MR image. Fuzzy entropy has been used for calculating adaptive and optimal threshold to separate out the image segments. Our proposed system is exclusively based on the information contained by the image itself. No extra information and no human intervention are required in our proposed system. We have tested our proposed system on different T1, T2 and PD brain MR images.     

图像的阈值分割法设计

图像分割阈值法具有实现容易、计算量小、性能稳定等优点,因此这种方法成为图像分割领域中应用最普遍的方法。主要讨论了关于图像的单阈值分割算法的设计与实现,比较了基于迭代法和基于最大类间方差法的单阈值分割算法,设计了阈值最大类间方差的分割算法及实现程序。仿真结果表明所提出的算法有效,分割效果好。     

一种具有边缘保持特性的超声图像小波域阈值去噪新方法

超声图像去噪是医学图像处理的研究热点之一,基于小波域阈值去噪技术及阈值选取方法的分析,提出一种新的医学超声图像小波域阈值去噪方法.这种方法采用半-软阈值去噪技术和广义交叉确认函数寻找阈值,在有效去噪的同时较好地保留了图像边缘细节.首先, 把对数超声图像小波分解;然后,基于广义交叉确认函数寻找最小均方误差意义上的近似最优阈值,对所有的高频段采用半-软阈值去噪; 最后, 经小波反变换和指数变换获得去噪后的超声图像,文末对超声图像小波域阈值去噪方法作出定性比较,并对算法的去噪性能给出定量分析.仿真实验和实际测试结果表明此方法是有效的、可行的.     

一种改进的基于小波去噪和区域生长的彩色图像分割算法

彩色图像分割是彩色图像处理中的重要问题。传统的彩色图像分割都是基于灰度分割算法,而忽略了彩色的空间域视觉效果及噪声污染问题。文章提出一种新的基于小波去噪和种子区域生长的一种改进方法：首先,应用小波去噪技术,强化图像边缘特征,抑制噪声,提高原始图像的信噪比;其次,将RGB彩色图像转化到HIS空间进行边缘检测,对图像进行抖动处理以减少彩色图像中的颜色数目,然后对不同分量进行序列阀值分割;最后对分割结果再进行一种新的基于区域生长的颜色相似性的聚合。仿真结果表明该算法更加符合人眼的视觉特性。     

Performance evaluation of image segmentation algorithms on microscopic image data

In our paper, we present a performance evaluation of image segmentation algorithms on microscopic image data. In spite of the existence of many algorithms for image data partitioning, there is no universal and ‘the best’ method yet. Moreover, images of microscopic samples can be of various character and quality which can negatively influence the performance of image segmentation algorithms. Thus, the issue of selecting suitable method for a given set of image data is of big interest. We carried out a large number of experiments with a variety of segmentation methods to evaluate the behaviour of individual approaches on the testing set of microscopic images (cross‐section images taken in three different modalities from the field of art restoration). The segmentation results were assessed by several indices used for measuring the output quality of image segmentation algorithms. In the end, the benefit of segmentation combination approach is studied and applicability of achieved results on another representatives of microscopic data category – biological samples – is shown.     

基于ITK的医学影像分割算法研究

医学图像分割是医学影像领域非常重要的研究和应用课题。医学图像分割是图像分析、图像融合、图像分类检索以及医学图像专家库的应用基础。ITK（insight segmentation and registration toolkit）是美国国家卫生院专门开发的用于图像分割与配准的算法平台,专门针对医学影像领域,其中包含了丰富的图像分割的算法和操作。水平集（level-set）和区域增长法是分割领域最为成熟的分割算法。研究了水平集和区域生长算法的基本理论和算法基础,以及在图像分割上的应用和实现,分析了这两种算法的特点和应用范围。     

基于广义反向粒子群与引力搜索混合算法的多阈值图像分割

提出了基于粒子群优化(PSO)与引力搜索(GSA)混合算法(PSOGSA)的多阈值图像分割方法来解决图像阈值搜寻过程中单一优化算法局部搜索能力不强的问题。提出了图像阈值分割领域中的广义反向学习策略,在阈值寻优过程中提高群体多样性,增强了全局搜索能力;采用了全局最优解的正态变异策略,扩展了全局最优的搜索区域,避免了算法的早熟收敛。在此基础上,实现了基于广义反向粒子群与引力搜索混合算法的多阈值图像分割方法。最后,使用本方法对复杂多目标图像进行了多阈值分割实验,并与引力搜索算法和萤火虫算法进行了比较。实验结果表明,本文方法的分割精度优于引力搜索算法与萤火虫算法,其分割目标函数值在连续运行时的标准差降低了90%以上,是一种精度高、稳定性强的多阈值图像分割方法。     

基于谱残差视觉显著性的带钢表面缺陷检测

针对带钢表面缺陷检测实时性要求高,采集的图像易受光照环境影响且缺陷特征弱等因素影响,提出一种基于谱残差视觉注意模型的带钢表面缺陷在线检测算法。首先,提出改进同态滤波方法对图像预处理,去除光照不均匀的影响,改善后续的分割结果。然后,构建谱残差视觉注意模型,通过对数频谱曲线差分得到缺陷显著图像。最后,提出加权马氏距离方法对显著图像阈值化增强,并利用连通区域标记法,标记出原带钢图像的缺陷位置。对提出的算法进行了实验验证,结果显示:该算法检测速度快,单幅图像平均检测耗时仅37.6ms,满足带钢在线实时检测要求。在同一缺陷数据库与灰度投影法,多尺度Gabor边缘检测法和隐马尔可夫树模型法进行了性能对比,结果表明:本文算法对带钢常见8类缺陷类型,平均检测率达到了95.3%,且漏检率和误检率较低,有效性高于对比算法。     

基于Hough检测和C-V模型的航拍绝缘子 自动协同分割方法*

绝缘子分割是通过图像处理技术实现其运行状态自动检测及故障诊断的重要前提。针对航拍图像具有背景复杂、分辨率较低、数量多和伪目标多等特点,使用传统分割方法会产生大量的用户交互导致分割效果不佳。本文把协同分割引入到绝缘子航拍图像处理中,提出一种Hough检测修复结合自动初始化轮廓C-V模型的航拍绝缘子图像协同分割方法。本方法利用航拍绝缘子图像帧之间的关系作为先验信息以达到更高的分割精度。首先对航拍图像进行去除文本预处理;然后对预处理过的图像进行Hough检测修复以处理输电线与绝缘子粘连问题并用SLIC进行超像素分割;最后利用广义霍夫变换实现C-V模型初始轮廓的选取并进行基于图像间的C-V模型的绝缘子协同分割。实验结果表明,本文分割方法的准确率明显比其他算法高,能够有效地区分目标和背景并去除杆塔、输电线等伪目标,自动化性能良好,为无人机航拍绝缘子的状态检测及故障诊断奠定基础。     

金属表面缺陷自适应分割算法

金属表面缺陷的种类多、环境复杂度高,现有的金属表面缺陷分割算法有效性低、适用范围窄,为此提出一种金属表面缺陷自适应分割算法。该算法首先从8个方向对金属表面的灰度图像进行转换,根据多幅图像灰度波动状况,自适应地改变邻域灰度差分割算法中的阈值与步长对相应的图像进行分割,最后利用PCA算法将多幅图像压缩至单幅图像。实验结果表明,与现有的分割算法相比,该算法不仅适用于多种类型的金属表面缺陷部分的分割,而且分割准确度高。     

Feature enhancement framework for brain tumor segmentation and classification

Automatic medical image analysis is one of the key tasks being used by the medical community for disease diagnosis and treatment planning. Statistical methods are the major algorithms used and consist of few steps including preprocessing, feature extraction, segmentation, and classification. Performance of such statistical methods is an important factor for their successful adaptation. The results of these algorithms depend on the quality of images fed to the processing pipeline: better the images, higher the results. Preprocessing is the pipeline phase that attempts to improve the quality of images before applying the chosen statistical method. In this work, popular preprocessing techniques are investigated from different perspectives where these preprocessing techniques are grouped into three main categories: noise removal, contrast enhancement, and edge detection. All possible combinations of these techniques are formed and applied on different image sets which are then passed to a predefined pipeline of feature extraction, segmentation, and classification. Classification results are calculated using three different measures: accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity while segmentation results are calculated using dice similarity score. Statistics of five high scoring combinations are reported for each data set. Experimental results show that application of proper preprocessing techniques could improve the classification and segmentation results to a greater extent. However, the combinations of these techniques depend on the characteristics and type of data set used.     

Deep learning model integrating features and novel classifiers fusion for brain tumor segmentation

Automatic and precise segmentation and classification of tumor area in medical images is still a challenging task in medical research. Most of the conventional neural network based models usefully connected or convolutional neural networks to perform segmentation and classification. In this research, we present deep learning models using long short term memory (LSTM) and convolutional neural networks (ConvNet) for accurate brain tumor delineation from benchmark medical images. The two different models, that is, ConvNet and LSTM networks are trained using the same data set and combined to form an ensemble to improve the results. We used publicly available MICCAI BRATS 2015 brain cancer data set consisting of MRI images of four modalities T1, T2, T1c, and FLAIR. To enhance the quality of input images, multiple combinations of preprocessing methods such as noise removal, histogram equalization, and edge enhancement are formulated and best performer combination is applied. To cope with the class imbalance problem, class weighting is used in proposed models. The trained models are tested on validation data set taken from the same image set and results obtained from each model are reported. The individual score (accuracy) of ConvNet is found 75% whereas for LSTM based network produced 80% and ensemble fusion produced 82.29% accuracy.     

Morphological gradient based adapted selective filter for removal of Rician noise from magnetic resonance images

Feature/edge-preserving noise removal techniques have a strong potential in several application domains including medical image processing. Magnetic resonance (MR) images have a tendency to gain Rician noise during acquisition. In this article, we have presented genetic algorithms based adapted selective non-local means (GASNLM) filter-based scheme for noise suppression of MR images while preserving the image features as much as possible. We have applied GASNLM filter with optimal parameter values for different frequency image regions to remove the noise. Filter parameter values are optimized by genetic algorithm (GA). A change in NLM filter known as selective weight matrix is also proposed to preserve the image features. The results prove soundness of the method. We have compared results with many well known and latest techniques, and the improvements are discussed.