A fast and robust image segmentation using FCM with spatial information

Automated segmentation of images has been considered an important intermediate processing task to extract semantic meaning from pixels. In general, the fuzzy c-means approach (FCM) is highly effective for image segmentation. But for the conventional FCM image segmentation algorithm, cluster assignment is based solely on the distribution of pixel attributes in the feature space, and the spatial distribution of pixels in an image is not taken into consideration. In this paper, we present a novel FCM image segmentation scheme by utilizing local contextual information and the high inter-pixel correlation inherent. Firstly, a local spatial similarity measure model is established, and the initial clustering center and initial membership are determined adaptively based on local spatial similarity measure model. Secondly, the fuzzy membership function is modified according to the high inter-pixel correlation inherent. Finally, the image is segmented by using the modified FCM algorithm. Experimental results showed the proposed method achieves competitive segmentation results compared to other FCM-based methods, and is in general faster.