Journal Article

Links Between Image Segmentation Based on Optimum-Path Forest and Minimum Cut in Graph

Miranda, Paulo A. V., Falcão, Alexandre X.

2009

Overview

Image segmentation can be elegantly solved by optimum-path forest and minimum cut in graph. Given that both approaches exploit similar image graphs, some comparative analysis is expected between them. We clarify their differences and provide their comparative analysis from the theoretical point of view, for the case of binary segmentation (object/background) in which hard constraints (seeds) are provided interactively. Particularly, we formally prove that some optimum-path forest methods from two distinct region-based segmentation paradigms, with internal and external seeds and with only internal seeds, indeed minimize some graph-cut measures. This leads to a proof of the necessary conditions under which the optimum-path forest algorithm and the min-cut/max-flow algorithm produce exactly the same segmentation result, allowing a comparative analysis between them.

• Publisher: Springer US,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Algorithms / Applications of Mathematics / Computer Science / Image Processing and Computer Vision / Image segmentation / Mathematical Methods in Physics / Signal,Image and Speech Processing