Fuzzy Superpixel-based Image Segmentation

This article presents a multi-phase image segmentation methodology based on fuzzy superpixel decomposition, aggregation and merging. First, a collection of layers of dense fuzzy superpixels is generated by the variational fuzzy decomposition algorithm. Then a layer of refined superpixels is extracted by aggregating various layers of dense fuzzy superpixels using the hierarchical normalized cuts. Finally, the refined superpixels are projected into the low dimensional feature spaces by the multidimensional scaling and the segmentation result is obtained via the mean-shift-based merging approach with the spatial bandwidth adjustment strategy. Our algorithm utilizes the superimposition of fuzzy superpixels to impose more accurate spatial constraints on the final segmentation through the fuzzy superpixel aggregation. The fuzziness of superpixels also provides spatial features to measure affinities between fuzzy superpixels and refined superpixels, and guide the merging process. Comparative experiments with the existing approaches reveal a superior performance of the proposed method.