Honours Project Report

Genetic Algorithms:
Colour Image Segmentation

Keri Woods
kwoods@cs.uct.ac.za
Supervised by: Audrey Mbogho

Department of Computer Science

University of Cape Town
2007

Abstract
Image segmentation has great importance in many image processing applications,
and yet no general image segmentation exists. Image segmentation is complicated
task, often with many parameters needing to be tuned to get good results. This
report researches and discusses the concepts of image segmentation, genetic algorithms and segmentation evaluation. Due to the flexibility of genetic algorithms and
their ability to effectively explore large search spaces, it may be viable to use them
to improve existing image segmentation methods. A region merging algorithm was
implemented and evaluated using quantitative means. These segmentation results
were compared to those of two other image segmentation methods: region growing
and watershed segmentation. Our region merging method was shown to produce
average results. A genetic algorithm was implemented in an attempt to improve
the segmentation results by evolving the segmentation parameters. A fitness function needing neither human input nor a ground truth segmentation comparison was
proposed. The results on the effect of the genetic algorithm on the performance of
the genetic algorithm are inconclusive. However, even if the genetic algorithm does
offer an improvement, it has the major drawback of running very slowly. There are
many possible way of improving this system, and it seems to be an area where much
research is needed.

Contents
Abstract

List of Figures

iv

1 Introduction

1.1

Project Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.2

Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.3

Project Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.3.1

Limited Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2 Background and Related Work

2.1

General Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.2

Image Segmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.2.1

Colour Segmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.2.2

Methods of Image Segmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.2.3

Difficulties with Image Segmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.3

Segmentation Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.4

Genetic Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.4.1

Applications of Genetic Algorithms for Image Segmentation .

2.4.2

Fitness Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2.5

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

3 System Design and Implementation

3.1

Region Merging Image Segmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

3.1.1

3.2

14

Region Merging Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Genetic Algorithm Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

3.2.1

Chromosome Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

3.2.2

Reproduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

3.2.3

Selection and Termination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

3.2.4

Fitness Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
ii

4 Experimental Design

29

4.1

Evaluation of Region Merging Image Segmentation . . . . . . . . . . 29

4.2

Effect of Genetic Algorithm on Segmentation Quality . . . . . . . . . 30

4.3

4.2.1

Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

4.2.2

Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Modification of Genetic Algorithm Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

4.3.1

Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

4.3.2

Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

5 Results

32

5.1

Region Merging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

5.2

Genetic Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.2.1

5.3

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Alteration of Genetic Algorithm Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

6 Future Work

38

7 Conclusions

39

iii

List of Figures
3.1

Module Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3.2

UML Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

3.3

Module Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

3.4

RegionList Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

3.5

Region Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

3.6

Genetic Algorithm Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

3.7

Parameter Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

3.8

Chromosome Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

5.1

Image Segmentation Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

5.2

Comparison of Segmentation Methods using RMSE . . . . . . . . . . 34

5.3

This table shows the comparison of the RMSE values using genetic
algorithms vs. traditional algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

5.4

The Effect of Scale Parameter on Segmentation Results . . . . . . . . 35

iv

Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1

Project Description

In this project we review image segmentation methods and look into the use genetic algorithms for colour image segmentation. We base the segmentation part of
our implementation on a region merging method described in Baatz and Schape[8].
For our genetic algorithm, we follow a later improvement by Feitosa et al [22] which
evolves the parameters for region merging to give visibly better results. The key
to this improvement is a well-chosen fitness function, which captures the requirements of good segmentation without needing a comparison with a ground truth
segmented image. However, Feitosas fitness function relies on manual (user-based)
segmentation to test the success or failure of the genetic algorithm. Our approach,
in contrast, does not need user feedback, making it useful to real-world, automated
segmentation applications.

1.2

Motivation

Image segmentation is an important process and its results are used in many image
processing applications. However, despite its importance, there doesnt to seem to be
any general method of image segmentation that works well on all images[42]. Image
segmentation involves a lot of uncertainty, often with many parameters that need to
be tuned to provide optimal results. For example, the Phoenix image segmentation
method has 14 adjustable parameters[12]. This large number of parameters create a
very large search space. Colour images have even more information than grey-scale
images, and this information can be used to create higher quality segmentation. It
does, however, increase the complexity of the problem. A way of handling the large
search space is to use a directed search method, such as genetic algorithms.
Genetic algorithms have many qualities that make them well suited to the problem
of image segmentation, such as the ability to forego a local optimum to reach a global
1

optimum and the ability to efficiently find an optimal solution from within a large
search space[9].
Genetic algorithms could allow an image segmentation process that usually requires
manual input to become unsupervised.
Genetic algorithms have been used to successfully colour segment images[12]. Due
to their flexibility, it seems feasible to be able to use them to come up with a general
segmentation method.

1.3

Project Scope

The main aims of this investigation are:

1. Research image segmentation
2. Research genetic algorithms, especially those used as part of an image segmentation process
3. Research segmentation evaluation
4. Implement a method of segmenting colour images
5. Implement a genetic algorithm to improve the segmentation algorithm implemented
6. Evaluate whether the use of the genetic algorithm is an improvement over the
original segmentation method
It will be advantageous if the segmentation method using the genetic algorithm is
able to segment general images and enables unsupervised colour image segmentation.

1.3.1

Limited Scope

Due to time limitations, some of the aims mentioned in the project proposal were
not met. These include:
1. Only one segmentation method was implemented and experimented with,
rather than comparing a number of different ones
2. The genetic algorithm implemented wasnt compared with those developed by
others
3. No experimentation on genetic algorithm parameters was done

The reasons for these aims not being completed include:

1. Difficulties in the implementation of the region merging segmentation, including memory leaks
2. Proposal objectives being too ambitious
3. Slow running times of the region merging-genetic algorithm system

Chapter 2
Background and Related Work
In this section, we start by looking at the concept and importance of image segmentation and mention the requirements for good image segmentation. The implication
of using colour in image segmentation is explored and methods for image segmentation are briefly discussed. Problems with existing image segmentation methods
are mentioned. The evaluation of image segmentation is briefly discussed. Genetic
algorithms are then introduced and their suitability for use in image segmentation
is examined. We explore various applications of genetic algorithms to the problem
of image segmentation. Genetic algorithm fitness functions that have been used by
others with image segmentation as discussed. Finally, the feasibility of the use of
genetic algorithms for general colour image segmentation is considered and design
issues for such an algorithm are discussed.

2.1

General Overview

Image segmentation is an important process and its results are used in many image
processing applications. However, there is no general way to successfully segment all
images[42]. Colour images have more information than grey-scale images, and this
information can be used to create higher quality segmentation. It does, however,
increase the complexity of the problem. A way of handling this complexity is to use
a directed search method, such as genetic algorithms. Genetic algorithms, which
mimic the process of evolution, have many qualities that make them well suited to
the problem of image segmentation, such as the ability to forego a local optimum
to reach a global optimum[9] and the ability too efficiently find an optimal solution
from within a large search space[6].
The main uses of genetic algorithms in image segmentation are for the modification
of parameters in existing segmentation algorithms and pixel-level segmentation[21].
Various algorithms that successfully apply genetic algorithms to image segmentation

have been developed. Though these results are promising, none of them solve this
open problem.

2.2

Image Segmentation

Image segmentation is the process of dividing an image into homogeneous regions.

This is equivalent to finding the boundaries between the regions. Segmentation is
the first step for many higher level image processing and computer vision operations, including shape recognition, medical imaging[24], locating objects in satellite
images[33], face detection[4] and road sign recognition[48].

2.2.1

Colour Segmentation

Until recently, most image segmentation has been performed on grey-scale images. Processing colour images requires much more computation than the processing of grey-scale ones, but now with the increasing speed and decreasing cost
of computation, colour image processing has been much researched in the last
decade[33][19][15][42].
Colour images contain far more information than monochrome images. Each pixel
in a colour image has information about brightness, hue and saturation. There
are many models to represent the colours, including RGB (red, green, blue), CMY
(cyan, magenta, yellow), HSV (hue, saturation, intensity), YIQ, HSI and many
others. Several colour spaces have been used for image segmentation[19] and no
general advantage of one colour space has yet been found[42].
Many of the colour image segmentation algorithms are derived from methods of
grey-scale image segmentation. However, colour creates a more complete representation of an image and exploiting this fact can result in a more reliable segmentation. Specialised techniques suited to the nature of colour information have been
devised[33][19].

2.2.2

Methods of Image Segmentation

Image segmentation is an old and important problem, and there are numerous image
segmentation methods. Most of these methods were developed to be used on a
certain class of images and therefore arent general image segmentation methods[9].
Bhanu and Lee[10] divide the image segmentation algorithms into three major
categories:
1. Edge Based
5

2. Region Based
3. Clustering Based
4. Model Based1

Edge Based Techniques

Edge detection involves the detection of boundaries between different regions of
the image. These boundaries correspond to discontinuities between pixels of the
chosen feature (eg colour, texture, intensity).

Region Based Techniques

Region splitting is an image segmentation method whereby pixels are classified
into regions. Each region corresponds to a range of feature values, with thresholds
being the delimiters. The choice of these thresholds is very important, as it greatly
affects the quality of the segmentation. This method tends to excessively split
regions, resulting in over segmentation[10].
Region growing joins neighbouring pixels with similar characteristics to form
larger regions. This continues until the termination conditions are met. Most of the
region growing algorithms focus on local information, making it difficult to get good
global results. This method tends to excessively add to regions, resulting in under
segmentation[10].
Region merging recursively merges similar regions. It is similar to region growing, except that two whole regions are combined, rather than one region combining
with individual pixels[14].
Region splitting and merging tries to overcome the weaknesses of region growing and region splitting by combining the two techniques. Initially the image is
divided into arbitrary regions. Region splitting and region merging occur until the
termination conditions are met[10].
The Phoenix image segmentation algorithm is a region splitting method
for segmentation that has been widely used and tested on colour images. It uses
histogram analysis, thresholding and connected component analysis to partially segment the image. Each region then has the same process applied to it recursively,
until termination conditions are met and the image is fully segmented. The algorithm uses 17 parameters, 14 of which are adjustable[12][30].
1

This isnt discussed here as it is used to match particular objects and so isnt relevant to
general image segmentation

Clustering Based Techniques

Clustering separates the image into various classes without any prior knowledge.
This method is based on the assumption that objects within each class should have
a high degree of similarity, while those in different classes should be dissimilar. It is
considered an unsupervised image segmentation technique[33][40].

2.2.3

Difficulties with Image Segmentation

Image segmentation is easy when objects have distinct colours and are well separated, but can be a problem if there are many complex objects with less distinct colour. Gradual variation in colour[41], illumination[43], shading[49] and
textures[40] are also possible problems.
A brute force method of dealing with image segmentation would be to enumerate
all possible partitions of the image and evaluate each one. This creates an extremely
large search space, and so this method is not feasible[9].
Even once a segmentation method has been chosen, there are usually many parameters that need to be tuned to create high quality segmentation. For most methods,
it is not feasible to perform an exhaustive search of these parameters.
Despite the many methods for image segmentation, there is no general algorithm
that works well for all images. Because of the wide variety of images, a general
algorithm needs to be adaptable. Only then can a segmentation algorithm cope
with a wide variety of images[10].
Many adaptive methods have been used for image segmentation, including genetic algorithms[11], neural networks[20], self-adaptive regularisation[47], ant colony
optimization[37], fuzzy clustering[2] and simulated annealing[51].

2.3

Segmentation Evaluation

Methods of evaluating image segmentation are divided into two main categories[50]:
1. Analytical Methods
2. Empirical Methods
Analytical methods look at the actual segmentation algorithm itself, rather than
its results, while empirical methods evaluate the segmentation algorithm by looking
at its results. In this case, it is the empirical methods that we are more interested
in. Empirical methods can be further sub divided into:

1. Goodness Methods
2. Discrepancy Methods
Goodness methods evaluate the quality of the segmentation by looking at its desirable properties, and dont compare it to any other segmentation. It is this type of
method that we wish to use as a fitness function for the genetic algorithm, because
they dont need any prior knowledge of the image segmentation or ground truth
segmented image and so are advantageous for an unsupervised algorithm. Discrepancy methods compare the segmentation results to an ideally segmented image, to
see how much its segmentation differs from the target segmentation. It is this class
of method that we will use to evaluate the results of our segmentation algorithm
during experimentation.

2.4

Genetic Algorithms

Genetic algorithms are an optimization technique that can be used in image segmentation [11]. It mimics natural selection, allowing an algorithm to adapt. Solutions
are represented by a population of individual chromosomes, usually represented as
binary strings. A chromosome is made up of genes, each of which can represent a
particular characteristic. Each individual in the population is evaluated and given
a fitness score based on how well they solve the particular problem. The higher
the individuals fitness score, the greater their probability of breeding. Breeding
creates the next generation through crossover and mutation. Crossover combines
the chromosome of two individuals, creating a new individual which is unlike either
of the parents. Mutation, which occurs only a small percent of the time, randomly
alters a new individuals chromosome. Since the more optimal individuals have a
greater chance of breeding, the population tends to evolve and reach an optimal
solution[45][5][23].
Genetic algorithms have been used to solve a wide variety of problems, including
numerical and combinatorial optimisation, circuit design and cellular automata rule
design[23]. In image processing, genetic algorithms have successfully been used for
feature extraction, object recognition[44], knowledge based segmentation[36] and
image classification[18].
Image segmentation is easily and naturally formulated as on optimisation problem.
It can either be seen as finding the optimal segmentation amongst all candidate segmentations, or as finding the optimal parameters for an existing image segmentation
algorithm. In both cases, this creates an extremely large search space, indicating
the use of genetic algorithms[6].
Genetic algorithms are advantageous in that they are able to forego local optima
in an attempt to reach the global optimum[9]. This makes them far less likely to
8

get caught in a local optimum than deterministic optimization techniques, such as

local hill-climbing and gradient descent. Though more computationally expensive
than these methods, genetic algorithms are less computationally expensive than exhaustive searches and other adaptive techniques, such as simulated annealing, which
is theoretically guaranteed to find a global optimum[35]. While, genetic algorithms
cannot guarantee finding a global optimum, they usually give a good approximation.
This makes genetic algorithms a good compromise between accuracy and computational intensity.
Many image segmentation problems have large search spaces but need only an
approximate global optimum. In this case, genetic algorithms using a directed search
have proven useful[10]. A disadvantage of genetic algorithms is that they can take
a long time to converge. Though this is the case, they are still much more efficient
than performing an exhaustive search[23] [51].
Many images, particularly natural scenes, are complex and noisy. A characteristic
of genetic algorithms is their effectiveness and robustness in dealing with uncertainty,
insufficient information and noise. Combined with the fact that no matter how it is
posed, the image segmentation problem involves a very large search space, making
genetic algorithms well suited to the problem[10][3].
One of the major challenges for designing genetic algorithms is defining a fitness
function. The only information available to the population of chromosomes is the result of the fitness function evaluated every generation. This makes an appropriately
defined fitness function essential for successful genetic algorithms. In the context of
image segmentation, the fitness function should evaluate the resulting segmentation.
There is, however, no generally accepted unsupervised method of evaluating image
segmentation[44].

2.4.1

Applications of Genetic Algorithms for Image Segmentation

Farmer and Shugars[21] divide the genetic algorithms used for image segmentation
into two major classes:
1. Parameter selection, where genetic algorithms are used to modify the parameters of an existing image segmentation method to improve its output.
2. Pixel-level segmentation, where genetic algorithms are used to perform region
labelling.
Most image segmentation methods have many parameters that need to be optimised, and therefore the first method is used more often[11]. Many such methods are
9

discussed, as well as a few methods employing pixel-level segmentation. Modified

genetic algorithms and hybrid genetic algorithms have also been used for segmentation.

Parameter Modification
Most image segmentation methods have many parameters, constants and thresholds
that need to be adjusted to produce optimal segmentation results. This creates a
very large search space. Since the parameters typically interact in complex and nonlinear ways, an analytic solution is not generally possible. With a reasonable amount
of computation, genetic algorithms are able to find good approximations of a global
optimum within a large search space. They are therefore well suited to problems
involving parameter optimization. Most of the applications of genetic algorithms to
image segmentation involve the optimisation of various parameters[44][11][42][40].
Bhanu et al[11] pose image segmentation as an optimisation problem. They define a general segmentation method, whereby genetic algorithms are applied to the
parameters of various well known image segmentation methods. They advocate the
use of genetic algorithms to adapting the parameters of knows segmentation methods in order to be applicable to general images. They used outdoor colour imagery
and adapted 4 parameters of the Phoenix segmentation algorithm with genetic algorithms. They had successful results, producing high quality image segmentation
with a reasonable amount of computation. Even though they perform well on outdoor scenes, these algorithms have not been proved to be able to cope with general
images. The fact that these algorithms can be modified to adapt the parameters of
other segmentation methods makes this method very promising.
Feitosa et al[22] adopt a very similar approach and use genetic algorithms to modify
the parameters of a region merging segmentation algorithm. They use a fitness
function that measures the similarity of resulting segments to a target segmentation
provided by a user. Though computation is straight forward and intuitive, manual
segmentation is still necessary beforehand. This method can easily be adapted to
modify parameters of other segmentation methods.
Zingaretti el al[52] propose using genetic algorithms in unsupervised colour image
segmentation. This is another case of parameters of an existing image segmentation
method being tuned by genetic algorithms. A key difference in this method is
that it performs multi-pass thresholding. Different thresholds are adapted during
each pass of genetic algorithms. An important advantage of this method over the
previous one is that segmentation is performed totally unsupervised, without any
manual segmentation. It also doesnt rely on any prior information regarding the
type of image that is being processed or the task for which the segmentation results
will be used. This approach successfully segmented a wide variety of images, with
10

the exception of images that were highly textured.

Pignalberi et al[39] use genetic algorithms for the optimisation of parameters in an
image segmentation algorithm. In this case, they focused on range images, where a
pixel is coloured depending on the distance between the object and a sensor. This
method segments out surfaces of 3D objects, but could be applied to segmentation
of 2D images.
Pixel-Level Segmentation
In pixel-level segmentation, genetic algorithms are used for region labelling. A pixel
is classed in a particular region depending on its characteristics[21]. Peng el al[38]
take this approach. Each pixel in the image is represented by a chromosome, which
is a region label.
Ramos and Muge[40] reformulate image segmentation as a clustering problem and
use genetic algorithms to find the optimal clusters. The chromosomes encode which
pixels are members of which regions. The major disadvantage of this method is that
the number of clusters must be given as an input, and so cant be an unsupervised,
general approach. Chun and Yang[16] take a similar approach, but use a fuzzy
fitness function.
Modified Genetic Algorithms
Gong and Yang[25] represent the image and the segmentation results by quadtrees.
In a similar way to Zingaretti el al[52], they define a two pass system, genetic
algorithms being used for optimization in both passes. In the first pass, genetic
algorithms are used to minimise an energy function. In the optional second pass,
a parameter defining how coarse or fine the segmentation is modified by genetic
algorithms to obtain optimal segmentation results. The chromosomes encode the
quadtrees, making it inefficient to apply the usual crossover and mutation operations.
To cope with this, a new crossover method and three mutation methods are defined.
Aoyagi and Tsuji[7] use modified genetic algorithms for pixel-level segmentation.
They approach image segmentation as a feature clustering problem and like Gong
and Yang[25] use an energy function as a fitness function. They found it difficult to
get ideal segmentation using traditional genetic algorithms, and so introduced four
special types of mutation. They also propose a new method for creating individuals
of the population.
Hybrid Genetic Algorithms
Grenfenstette[26] mentions that genetic algorithms can be combined with local
search techniques, creating a high performance search algorithm. The following
11

are examples of successful implementation of hybrid genetic algorithms for image

segmentation.
Genetic algorithms have been combined with other evolutionary methods to tackle
the image segmentation problem. Bhandarkar and Zhang[9] combine genetic algorithms with simulated annealing based techniques - which mimic the physical process of cooling - to approach the problem of grey-scale image segmentation. They
do this is an attempt to get rid of the weaknesses of each class. This resulted in
better performance than traditional genetic algorithms. Zhijun et al[51] combined
genetic algorithms and simulated annealing to evolve a neural network, resulting in
less computation than if genetic algorithms were used on there own. Melkemi et
al[35] combine genetic algorithms with extremal optimization to perform pixel-level
segmentation.

2.4.2

Fitness Function

As mentioned previously, the choice of an appropriate fitness function is very important. It is the fitness function that is largely responsible for the quality of the
image segmentation obtained. The fitness function is what the algorithm "aims" to
optimise. When dealing with image segmentation, one needs a fitness function that
indicates how well the image has been segmented.
Feitosa et al [22] calculate fitness by quantifying the difference between the segmentation obtained using the individuals parameters and a target segmentation. The
target segmentation is obtained by manual segmentation, making this a discrepancy
method of evaluation. This works fine for experimental purposes - it shows that
genetic algorithms can be used to improve the quality of segmentation. However,
this fitness function makes the segmentation program of little practical use. If one
needs to segment the image beforehand, no benefit is obtained from the program.
Many other implementations also used discrepancy methods for calculating fitness,
including [29][39]. These methods arent relevant for use as a fitness function in this
implementation, as we need an unsupervised method of image segmentation.
Instead of using comparing the segmentation to a target segmentation, Zingaretti
el al[52] compare it to an edge map obtained by applying a Roberts edge operator
to the image. This makes the application more useful, but using an edge map as
"perfect" segmentation means that their program tries to obtain this segmentation.
It doesnt seem that segmentation better than that obtained with the edge operator
can be obtained, and using an edge filter is much more efficient.
As discussed previously, good image segmentation meets certain requirements:[33][9][10][27]
1. Every pixel in the image belongs to a region

12

2. A region is connected: any two pixels in a particular region can be connected

by a line that doesnt leave the region
3. Each region is homogeneous with respect to a chosen characteristic. The characteristic could be syntactic (for example, colour, intensity or texture) or based
on semantic interpretation
4. Adjacent regions cant be merged into a single homogeneous region
5. No regions overlap
One needs a fitness function that quantifies the quality of segmentation and it
would be ideal if a fitness function could evaluate the segmentation based on the
above segmentation requirements.

2.5

Conclusion

The use of genetic algorithms in image segmentation shows promising results. Genetic algorithms are a commonly used approach to optimising the parameters of
existing image segmentation algorithms The major decisions are choosing a method
of segmentation to which genetic algorithms will be applied, finding a fitness function that is a good measure of the quality of image segmentation and finding a
meaningful way to represent the chromosomes.

13

Chapter 3
System Design and Implementation
This system is composed of two modules:
1. Region Merging Module
2. Genetic Algorithm Module
The Region Merging Module performs a region merging method of image segmentation on the input image. The Genetic Algorithm Module optimises the region
merging parameters. varies the region merging parameters, in an attempt to improve the segmentation.
The Region Merging Module can be totally independent of the Genetic Algorithm
Module, with the parameters being set manually rather than letting them be altered
by the genetic algorithm. The Genetic Algorithm Module only calls the Region
Merging Module to calculate the fitness value. The interaction between the modules
is shown below in Figure 3.1:
The Region Merging Module receives and stores the input image. Whenever the
Genetic Algorithm Module requires a fitness value, it sends the segmentation parameters that it is currently working with to the Region Merging Module, requesting
a fitness value. The Region Merging Module uses these parameters, segments the
image, evaluates the fitness and sends the fitness value to the Genetic Algorithm
Module. This process is repeated until the genetic algorithm terminates. The Genetic Algorithm Module then sends the parameters that corresponded to the best
fitness value to the Region Merging Module. The Region Merging Modules uses
these parameters to segment the image and outputs the results of this segmentation.
These modules are loosely coupled, with the region merging module being able to
be replaced with a different segmentation method that needs its parameters tuned.
The fitness function can also be easily replace with different fitness function. This

14

Input Image

Send Parameters
(Request Fitness)

Region Merging
Module

Return Fitness

Genetic Algorithm
Module

Final Parameters

Output Result

Figure 3.1: Module Interaction

allows the system to be more adaptable when experimenting with the use of genetic
algorithms for image segmentation.
This system was implemented in C++, using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. Image
handling was done using the CImg Library[46], which is an open source C++ toolkit
for image processing. This library is very easy to set up, is well documented and
easy to use. It also offers much useful functionality for image processing.
A genetic algorithm library, GALib[1] was used for the implementation of the
Genetic Algorithm Module. It is well-documented, is very easy to use and offers
many different options for customising and configuring your genetic algorithm.
This implementation uses genetic algorithms modify the parameters of a region
merging algorithm. This particular region merging method was designed by Baatz
and Schape[8]. Feitosa et al [22] used genetic algorithms to modify the parameters of
this algorithm in order to optimise the segmentation obtained. This implementation
follows Feitosa et al s ideas, except uses a different fitness function. The problem
with the fitness function used by them is that it relies on manual segmentation as
measure of good segmentation, which makes the segmentation method only useful
to prove that a genetic algorithm can be used to improve segmentation. This means
that their implementation isnt useful as a segmentation application.
The article[22] didnt mention key implementation details, leaving implementation
open to interpretation.

15

3.1

Region Merging Image Segmentation

The idea behind region merging[8][22] is to divide the image up into many small
regions. Adjacent regions can be merged together, based on whether certain criteria
are met. This continues until no regions meet the merging criteria.
This particular method of region merging looks at the heterogeneity of the various
regions in the image when deciding whether or not regions will be merged. The
goal of the merging procedure is to minimise the weighted heterogeneity. There are
two main classes of heterogeneity: spectral heterogeneity and spatial heterogeneity.
The spectral heterogeneity measures how varied the colour within the region is.
The spatial heterogeneity measures the deviation of the region from a compact,
smooth shape. This is separated into compactness and smoothness components.
Compactness looks at the ratio of the perimeter to the square root of the area,
while smoothness looks at the ratio of the perimeter to the length of a bounding
box of the region, parallel to the image borders.
Initially, each pixel is initialised as a region. Regions are then visited in turn,
to decide whether that region will merge with another region. The order in which
regions are visited is discussed later.
When considering whether a region is going to be merged, each of the regions adjacent to the region are considered. A fusion factor between the region and each
particular adjacent region is calculated. The fusion factor takes into account the
various heterogeneity components:

F usionf actor = wcolour hcolour + (1 wcolour ) hshape

where:
hcolour is the spectral heterogeneity component
hshape is the spatial heterogeneity component
wcolour is the weight given to the spectral heterogeneity component, which gives its
relative importance in comparison to the spatial heterogeneity component

A colour heterogeneity of each of the colour channels (red, green and blue) is calculated separately, and added to get the spectral heterogeneity component (modified
from the version presented in the paper):
hcolour = c wc (nObj3 cObj3 nObj1 cObj1 nObj2 cObj2 )
where:
Obj1 is the region selected for merging
Obj2 is the region adjacent to Obj1
Obj3 is the result of merging Obj1 and Obj2
16

c is the particular colour channel being considered

c is the standard deviation of the pixels in the colour channel c

The spatial heterogeneity component is a combination of compactness and smoothness components:

hshape = wcompact hcompact + (1 wcompact hsmooth )
where:
wcompact is the weight given to the compactness component relative to the smoothness component
hcompact is the compactness component
hsmooth is the smoothness component

The formula for the compactness component is:

l

hcompact = nObj3 nObj3

(nObj1 nObj1
+ nObj2
Obj3
Obj1
where: l is the perimeter of the region

lObj2

)
nObj2

The formula for the smoothness component is:

l

hsmooth = nObj3 bObj3

(nObj1 bObj1
+ nObj2 bObj2
)
Obj3
Obj1
Obj2
where: b is the perimeter of the regions bounding box

Once the fusion factor for each adjacent region has been calculated, the region with
the minimum fusion factor is considered. If its fusion factor is less than a certain
threshold, then that adjacent region will be merged to the region being initially
considered. The threshold value used here to the square of a scale parameter. This
is known as a scale parameter, as adjusting this will result in differences in the
resulting region size. The larger the scale parameter, the more merges that will
happen, resulting in larger regions.
This process is then repeated, with another region being selected and the fusion
factor between it and its neighbouring regions being calculated. This process is
repeated until no more regions can be merged.
Baatz[8] mentions that one of the problems with their method of region merging
is that the order in which regions are visited in an attempt to merge them makes
a difference in the segmentation results. They recommend that when choosing a
sequence of starting regions that sequential merges should be distributed as far
from each other as possible.
q
q
1
1
N x2 xbar 2 =
N
In this case, =

)2 where N is the number of

N 1 i=1 i
N 1 i=1 (xi x
pixels, xi is the pixel value and x
is the average value of the pixels
1

17

They mention that an approximate solution is to handle each region in a random

sequence, but this isnt optimal. They didnt give details of the method they actually
used.
We tried to select random regions and process them, but found that processing
regions in order2 was more successful. This also provides a deterministic result,
which makes it easier for a genetic algorithm to work out. If the fitness generated by
the segmentation algorithm isnt deterministic, it is difficult for the genetic algorithm
to optimise it.

3.1.1

Region Merging Module

The system only depends on the CImg[46] class, with its accompanies cimg_library
namespace, as well as standard C++ templates and functions.
We make broad use of the Standard Template Library (STL) to create containers
for the point, edge and region data structures. In each case, we use the container
that minimises the segmentation algorithms running time.
The system is composed of:
1. class Region
2. class RegionList
3. struct Point
Their interactions can be seen in the UML diagram, shown below in Figure 3.2.
RegionList and Region are the two main classes, with Point being just a simple
struct. Along with this, various typedefs were defined:
typedef
typedef
typedef
typedef
typedef
typedef
typedef

unsigned long int Label

std::map < Label, Region > RMap
cimg_library::CImg < Label > RImage
cimg_library::CImg < Label > Image
std::multimap < Label, Region > EdgeMap
std::pair < Label, Region > EdgePair
std::list < P oint > PointList

Initially, the pixels are given region labels left to right, top to bottom. Region ordering is an
ordering of these regions, with regions that no longer exist being ignored

18

std::multimap
...
...

std::list

std::map

...
...

...
...

RegionList

Region

RImage rimage;
Image image;
RMap* regions;
unsigned int imageWidth;
unsigned int imageHeight;
float wRed;
float wGreen;
float wBlue;
float wColour;
float scale;
float wCompact;

RImage* rimage;
Image* image;
PointList* pixels;
EdgeMap* edges;
Label label;
unsigned int maxX;
unsigned int maxY;
unsigned int minX;
unsigned int minY;
Label sumR;
Label sumG;
Label sumB;
float averageR;
float averageG;
float averageB;
unsigned int area;
unsigned int perimeter;

RegionList( );
~RegionList();
getSize ();
mergeAll ();
mergeRandom ();
saveResults();
saveRegionMap();
addRegion ();
getRegion ();
removeRegion ();
getFusionFactor ();
getHCompact ();
getHSmooth ();
getHColour ();
getHShape ();
tryMerge ( );
coordToLabel ();

cimg_library::
cimg
...
...

Region();
~Region();
void addEdge ();
unsigned int getArea ();
Label getLabel ();
float getAverageR ();
float getAverageG ();
float getAverageB ();
unsigned int getPerimeter ();
unsigned int getPerimeterCombined ();
unsigned int getPerimeterBB ();
unsigned int getPerimeterBBCombined ();
float getStdDev ();
float getStdDevCombined ();
void splice ( );
EdgeMap* getEdges ();
PointList* getPixels ();
void removeAllEdgesTo ( );
void changeAllEdgesTo ( );

Point
int x
int y
Point( int a, int b)

Figure 3.2: UML Diagram

19

Input Image

Send Parameters
(Request Fitness)

Region Merging
Module

Return Fitness

Genetic Algorithm
Module

Final Parameters

Output Result

Figure 3.3: Module Interaction

RegionList Class
The RegionList class represents the collection of all the regions in the segmented
or partially segmented image. The structure of the class is shown in Figure 3.4.
The main components of this class are:
1. RImage rimage
2. Image image
3. RMap* regions
The Image object, represents the original image, represented in RGB colour space.
Image is a type of CImg object and allows access to the red, green and blue components of each pixel. The RImage object (region map) is also a type of CImg image
object, with the same dimensions as the original image.
The segmentation algorithm working on a collection of regions must often select
and adjust a specific region. In this case, the STL map data structure is the natural
choice (RMap). As a container, a map has the advantage of a logarithmic size
complexity for key-based insertions, deletions, and searching. To allow keyed access
to our collection of regions, we assign a unique integer (Label) to each region based
on its initial position in the starting image. Subsequently, when merging two regions,
the target region will keeps its key and adjusts all neighbouring regions to reflect
this change. In this way, all possible changes to the region collection, like adding,
removing, or altering region contents, and searching for a region, run in logarithmic
complexity in the size of collection.
20

RegionList
RImage rimage;
Image image;
RMap* regions;
unsigned int imageWidth;
unsigned int imageHeight;
float wRed;
float wGreen;
float wBlue;
float wColour;
float scale;
float wCompact;

RegionList( const char* filename, float r, float g, float b, float col, float s, float com );
~RegionList();
int getSize ();
void mergeAll ();
bool mergeRandom ();
void saveResults( const char* filename );
void saveRegionMap( const char* filename );
void addRegion ( const Label& label, const Point& p );
Region* getRegion ( const Label& label );
void removeRegion ( const Label& label );
float getFusionFactor ( Region* region1, Region* region2 );
float getHCompact ( Region* region1, Region* region2 );
float getHSmooth ( Region* region1, Region* region2 );
float getHColour ( Region* region1, Region* region2 );
float getHShape ( float hCompact, float hSmooth );
bool tryMerge ( Region* r );
Label coordToLabel( unsigned int x, unsigned int y );

Figure 3.4: RegionList Class

21

Region
RImage* rimage;
Image* image;
PointList* pixels;
EdgeMap* edges;
Label label;
unsigned int maxX;
unsigned int maxY;
unsigned int minX;
unsigned int minY;
Label sumR;
Label sumG;
Label sumB;
float averageR;
float averageG;
float averageB;
unsigned int area;
unsigned int perimeter;

Region( Label lbl, const Point& p, RImage* regionImage, Image* originalImage );

~Region();
void addEdge ( Label lbl, Region* otherRegion );
unsigned int getArea ();
Label getLabel ();
float getAverageR ();
float getAverageG ();
float getAverageB ();
unsigned int getPerimeter ();
unsigned int getPerimeterCombined ( const Region* otherRegion );
unsigned int getPerimeterBB ();
unsigned int getPerimeterBBCombined ( const Region* otherRegion );
float getStdDev ( unsigned int channel );
float getStdDevCombined ( const Region* otherRegion, unsigned int channel );
void splice ( Region* otherRegion );
EdgeMap* getEdges ();
PointList* getPixels ();
void removeAllEdgesTo ( Label lbl );
void changeAllEdgesTo ( Label lblOldRegion, Region* newRegion );

Figure 3.5: Region Class

The image height and width are stored, as they are accessed very frequently and
their storage prevents numerous function calls to the Image and RImage objects. All
the other attributes are segmentation parameters and are passed in as arguments to
the constructor. These are either set manually or are set by the genetic algorithm.

Region Class
The Region class represents a region in a segmented or partially segmented image.
The structure of the class is shown in Figure 3.5.
The main components of the Region class are:
1. PointList* pixels

22

2. EdgeMap* edges
3. Label label
Pixels represent the pixels making up the image. They are Points, stored as a list
(PointList). A list was used because insertion by pushing on to the front of the
list runs in constant time. Deletion of pixels only occurs when all the pixels in the
region are deleted3 are deleted, so at each pixel delete takes constant time. (Deletion
runs in linear time if the algorithm wasnt already iterating through the list.)
Edges are stored as a multimap (EdgeMap). A boundary pixel in a region can
point to one or more other regions. However, edges are stored separately from pixels,
since actual pixel positions are unimportant when using edges to check connectivity.
Insertion and find are both logarithmic time operations on a multimap. When
erasing, all the elements with the same key are deleted. This is an logarithmic time
operation, plus linear time is required for deleting n equal elements.
Regions are assigned unique integer values (Label) based on their initial positions
in the image.
Pointers to both the original image and the region map are included as this class
needs access to them. All the other attributes are stored, and updated every time
the region is altered. These values are needed for the fusion factor calculation. It
is worth using a little extra memory to store these values and save the numerous
computations that would be required otherwise.

3.2

Genetic Algorithm Module

The Genetic Algorithm Module is a simple module, with much of the functionality
being provided by the GALib library[1]. Its basic behaviour and interaction with
the Region Merging Module is shown in Figure 3.6.
The genetic algorithm is represented by a GASimpleGA object, provided by GALib.
This class is used for genetic algorithms with non-overlapping populations, and inherits from the general GAGeneticAlgorithm class.

3.2.1

Chromosome Structure

Each chromosome is represented by a GABin2DecGenome object (again provided

by GALib) and inherits from the general GAGenome class. This type of genome
stores its genes in binary, but converts them into decimal values to be used in the
fitness calculation.
3

Regions are only every merged or destroyed

23

Genetic Algorithm Module

Initialize
Population

Region Merging Module

request fitnes
Select Indiviuals
for Mating

return fitness

Mate individulal
to produce offspring

Mutate Offspring

Insert Offspring
into Population

Are stopping
criteria satisfied

Select Indiviuals
for Mating

Figure 3.6: Genetic Algorithm Module

24

scale
wColour
wCompact
wRed
wGreen
wBlue

Range

Precision

0-100
0-1
0-1
0-1
0-1
0-1

0.1
0.01
0.01
0.1
0.1
0.1

No. of
Values
1000
100
100
10
10
10

No. of
Bits
10
7
7
4
4
4

Figure 3.7: Parameter Details

In the Genetic Algorithm Module, a chromosome represents the various segmentation parameters of the region merging algorithm. These are:
1. Scale parameter
2. Weight given to the spectral heterogeneity
3. Weight given to the compactness component relative to the smoothness component
4. Weight of the red channel
5. Weight of the green channel
6. Weight of the blue channel
Each of these is encoded in binary, as a separate gene. The scale parameter can
vary from 0 to 100, while all the other parameters are vary from 0 to 1. The scale
parameter and the weight of the various colour bands each have a precision of 0.1,
while spectral and compactness weights have a precision of 0.01. All the weight
parameters are encoded as positive integers, with the maximum value of 1 divided
by the particular precision factor (0.01 0r 0.1). To access the actual fractional
values of the weights, one converts the parameter from binary to decimal and then
multiplies it by the precision factor.
To encode each gene in binary, one looks at the number of possible values that
parameter can take on. For example, the scale parameter can take on (10010)+1 =
1001 different values. The binary representation of that gene therefore has to be
able to encode 1001 different values. 1001 is then encoded using the same number
of bits that would be used to encoded the smallest power of 2 greater than 1001.
This is 1024 = 210 , and so log2 1024 = 10 bits is used to encode this.
As can be see from figure, there are about 1000100100101010 = 1010 different
parameter combinations! It would be infeasible to try each of these combinations to
find the ideal combination of them, indicating the use of a genetic algorithm.
The only other complication is that the sum of the weights of the colour bands
needs to add up to 1, so their values are normalised. To get the normalised value
25

Scale

wColour

wCompact

wRed

wGreen

wBlue

10 bits

7 bits

7 bits

4 bits

4 bits

4 bits

Figure 3.8: Chromosome Structure

of of band i, one takes the weight of band i and divides it by the sum of all three
band weights.

3.2.2

Reproduction

In this implementation, one point crossover is used. In one point crossover, a random
position on the chromosome is select and the two individuals exchange the genes
on one side of that point. The mutation used is flip mutation, which is the typical
mutation operation used on binary strings: bits in the chromosome are flipped with
a given probability.
Elitism is used, with the best individual in each generation being carried over to
the next generation.

3.2.3

Selection and Termination

Roulette wheel selection is used to select individuals to take part in reproduction. In

roulette wheel selection, an individuals probability of taking part in reproduction
is proportional to their fitness. In this case, the fitness values are normalised: in
this fitness evaluation (see the following section later), a low fitness corresponds to a
good quality segmentation. The fitness values values are adjusted so that individuals
with low fitness value end up with a high adjusted fitness, which corresponds to a
high probability of taking place in reproduction.
Termination takes place when the maximum number of generations is reached.
This was chosen to be the termination criterion because then one can be sure that
the genetic algorithm will terminate. On the other hand, if convergence was used
as the termination criterion, it could continue for very many generations with the
population never converging. Also, because of the large amount of computation
required for each fitness computation - an image has to be both segmented and
evaluated - one wants to make sure not too many generations are evolved. The
image segmentation parameters dont have to be exact to get a good segmentation
result, so it isnt worth waiting for the population to converge.

26

3.2.4

Fitness Function

As mentioned previously, one would like a fitness function that evaluates the following requirements of good image segmentation:
1. Every pixel in the image belongs to a region
2. A region is connected
3. Each region is homogeneous
4. Adjacent regions cant be merged into a single homogeneous region
5. No regions overlap
Requirements 1, 2 and 5 are always obtained when using this region merging technique, therefore the important characteristics to quantify is that each region is homogeneous and that adjacent regions cant be merged into one homogeneous region.
Various different fitness function were. Liu[31] proposed goodness method to be
used for the quantitative evaluation of the performance of image segmentation, which
could be used as a fitness measure. The evaluation function F on segmented image
I is defined as:

F (I) =

1
1000N 2

R e2
Ri=1 Ai i

where: N 2 is the size of the image R is the total number of regions Ai is the area
of region i ei is the colour error, Euclidean distances in colour space between the
values of the pixels in region i in the original image and the values of the pixels in
the segmented image, defined as:
q

Ai
ei = j=1
(C1jR C2jR )2 + (C1jG C2jG )2 + (C1jB C2jB )2

where: R, G and B are the colour channels C1j is the colour of pixel j in the
original image C2j is the assigned colour of the same pixel in the segmented image
Lower values of F (I) correspond to better segmentation. F evaluates the results

both locally and globally. R is global measure and penalises over-segmentation.

e2
The Ai i portion is a local measure which penalises small regions or regions with a
large colour error.
Borsotti et al [13] propose an improvement, which was implemented:

Q(I) =

1
1000N 2

e2

R(Ai ) 2
i
RR
i=1 [ 1+logAi + ( Ai ) ]

27

We propose an alternative fitness function4 , aiming to minimise weighted colour

heterogeneity. The colour heterogeneity is based on Feitosas[22] concept.
E(I) = ((R
i=1 Hi ) + 1) R
where:
E(I) is the fitness evaluation of segmented image I
R is the number of regions in the image
Hi is the colour heterogeneity of the ith region:
Hi = Ai (R + G + B )
where: Ai is the area of region i
j is the standard deviation of colour channel j
Hi is the weighted colour heterogeneity of region i. It is weighted by the size of the
region so that larger regions contribute more to the overall heterogeneity. The colour
heterogeneity of all the regions are added together to get the total heterogeneity of
the image. 1 is added to this as when each region has area of 1, the standard
deviation of that image is zero. When the regions are initialised, they are have
an area of 1 pixel, and so would each have a standard deviation of zero. If the 1
wasnt added, the fitness of the initial segmentation would be 0, meaning its the
ideal segmentation, which of course isnt the case.
The sum of the colour heterogeneities as multiplied by R to penalise small regions.
This is done because smaller regions tend to have a smaller standard deviation, for
example a single pixel has a standard deviation of 1.
When evaluating this method against the segmentation requirements, one can see
that it is a good measure of the fact that each region is homogeneous. The fact
that adjacent regions cant be merged isnt evaluated directly in this measure, but
multiplying by the number of regions indirectly evaluates this: if two adjacent regions
are very similar and are merged, their combined standard deviation doesnt increase
much (ie Ai i + Aj j ) is not much greater than (Ai + Aj ) (i + j )), the
total colour heterogeneity is multiplied by 1 less5 . This results in a lower fitness
value. This indirectly implies that if fitness is at a minimum, adjacent regions cant
be merged into a homogeneous regions, otherwise the fitness value would decrease which is not possible if the fitness value is the minimum one.
4
5

Once again, a low fitness value corresponds to good segmentation

Because the number of regions decreases

28

Chapter 4
Experimental Design
The main areas that need to be tested are:
1. Evaluation of region merging image segmentation
2. Segmentation improvement provided by genetic algorithms
3. Improvement of genetic algorithm by altering genetic algorithm parameters

4.1

Evaluation of Region Merging Image Segmentation

Various images from the Berkeley Image Dataset[34] will be chosen to be segmented.
These represent a wide range of images, from those that are easy to segment to
those that are much more difficult to segment, such as a camouflaged animal. These
results will be evaluated subjectively. For example, it can be seen whether or not a
camouflaged animal is segmented out.
Dorin Comaniciu[17] has images on his website with the corresponding successfully
segmented images. These segmented images will be used as ground truths when
evaluating our system. It would have been better if images manually segmented
by humans were used as the ground truth, as they represent "ideal" segmentation.
However, no manually segmented images in the correct format were found. The
region merging algorithm will be run on each of the images to produce the resulting
segmented images. One needs to find an objective way of evaluating the performance
of this segmentation in comparison to the ground truth images.
This evaluation will be done using ImageMagicks[32] compare function, using the
MSE (mean squared error) option. The difference between the values of each pixel of
the ground truth segmentation and the corresponding pixel in the segmented image
that is being evaluated. This value is then squared, to get rid of negative values
29

and penalise more heavily where the pixel value difference is large. These values are
then summed over the whole image to get the MSE. The root of this is taken to get
, the RMSE (root mean squared error). This value is then divided by the number
of pixels in the image to obtain the normalised RMSE, an evaluation measure that
is size independent.
This same procedure will be repeated with the region growing and watershed algorithms implemented by Marco Gallotta. The results of all three of these image
segmentation algorithms will be compared.

4.2

Effect of Genetic Algorithm on Segmentation

Quality

4.2.1

Hypothesis

The use of the genetic algorithm will improve the quality of the image segmentation.

4.2.2

Method

Each image to be evaluated will be segmented using the region merging algorithm.
The segmentation parameters will be tweaked to attempt to obtain the best results.
The best results will be evaluated using a normalised RMSE, as discussed above,
and recorded. Due to the fact that the results from genetic algorithms arent deterministic, the images will be segmented five number times1 by the genetic algorithm
version. Each run will be evaluated and the average score for each image recorded.
The average score for each algorithm type will calculated and the results will be
compared.
The population size used in the genetic algorithm should be made as large as
computation time allows. The other genetic algorithm parameters should be tweaked
to try and obtain the best possible results. Note of the values used should be made,
so that the experiment can be repeated2 .
1

5 was an arbitrary choice. The more times the segmentation is run, the more accurate the
results, so it should be repeated as many times as is feasible
2
It may be preferable to perform the next part of the experimentation first, examining the effect
of modifying the parameters of the genetic algorithm, to determine the optimal parameters

30

4.3
4.3.1

Modification of Genetic Algorithm Parameters

Purpose

The main purpose of this section of the experimentation is to see what effect changing
the genetic algorithm parameters and other factors - such as reproduction operators
and termination criteria - will have on the quality of the segmentation results. This
knowledge can then be used to find the optimal settings for the genetic algorithm.

4.3.2

Method

Various settings can be modified, such as:

1. Population size
2. Chance of mutation taking place
3. Termination criteria
4. Number of individuals passing unchanged to the next generation
5. Crossover operators used
6. Mutation operators used
7. Selection method
8. Whether elitism is used and how many individuals are passed unchanged to
the next generation
The setting to be examined is chosen. If it is a numerical value, it will be tested
at equally spaced intervals throughout its range or part of its range, otherwise the
various options are tried. It is very important that only one of these factors is
changed at a time, so that one knows what is causing the change in the segmentation
quality (if any change).
The segmentation will be performed 53 times will each option or value, and the....
measure calculated. The average of these values will be taken as the result at that
particular value or option. If the parameter being set is numerical, the results will
be graphed and analysed, if not the various options will be compared. Conclusions
will be made about what options produce the best segmentation results.

again an arbitrary choice

31

Chapter 5
Results
5.1

Region Merging

The segmentation program outputs two result images. The first is the segmented
image, with each region being shown in the average colour of all its pixels. The
second is the region map, where each region is given a different value, and therefore
a different shade in the image. This is done to make the distinction between regions
clearer. If two adjacent regions have the same or very similar average values, the
fact that they werent merged (and probably should have been) wouldnt show up
in the segmented image. An example of the results are shown in Figure 5.1.
The results of the comparison of the region merging implementation with the region
growing and watershed algorithms is shown in Figure 5.2.
As can by seen, this implementation had rather average results. The watershed
method performed the best, and ran much faster than either of the other algorithms.

5.2

Genetic Algorithm

Two different fitness functions were implemented. Q(I), as defined previously, could
be subjectively seen to perform badly, appearing to produce worse segmentation
results than the original region merging algorithm. No further evaluation using this
fitness function was performed.
E(I) subjectively seemed to perform better than the original region merging algorithm. To confirm or refute this, further evaluation was performed. This evaluation
was objective, being deterministic and calculated by the computer.
The results obtained are shown below in Figure 5.3:
As can be seen, the genetic algorithm only showed an improvement over the original
region merging implementation for one of the images. Reasons for this could include
32

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 5.1: Image Segmentation Example

(a) Original Image
(b) Segmented Image
(c) Image Map

33

Watershed
Region
Merging
Region
Growing

House
5597

Hand
3095

Woman
4296

5076

3324.65

4959

4622

3558

3699

Figure 5.2: Comparison of Segmentation Methods using RMSE

Non GA
GA1
GA2
GA3
GA4
GA5
GA avg

House
5076
4655
5195
4787
5249
4852
4947

Hand
3324
3490
3408
3435
3613
3414
3472

Woman
4959
6575
5437
5172
4938
5067
5437

Figure 5.3: This table shows the comparison of the RMSE values using genetic
algorithms vs. traditional algorithms
a poorly chosen fitness function, using a population size that is too small to offer
enough variation for the individuals to evolve or not running the genetic algorithm
for enough generations for the population to evolve sufficiently.
It may seem totally infeasible to find the ideal parameter combination for the
region merging algorithm. However, the fact that there are 1010 , different parameter
combinations is deceptive. From experimenting with varying the parameters, it
was found1 that the only parameter that made a significant different was the scale
parameter. Even the scale parameter only had any great effect on the segmentation
when altered by a large amount. A feasible solution would be to give each colour
channel an equal weighting, setting wRed, wGreen and wBlue all to 0.33; letting
compactness and smoothness have the same influence, setting wCompact to 0.5.
The effect of changing the scale parameter is shown below in Figure 5.4.
The effect of changing the scale parameter by 10 isnt that great. Suppose, to be
on the safe side, we allow the scale parameter to vary by increments of 5. This
means that there are only 20 different combinations of parameters to try - which
should be slightly faster than running 2 generations of a genetic algorithm with a
population size of 10.
With a bit of prior knowledge, one doesnt even have to try all of this limited range
of scale factor. If the various objects in the image appear distinct (such as the flowers
shown below), one can set the scale parameter high. This high scale parameter will
mean that more region merging occurs. This means that small colour variations,
such as shadows or reflections, within an object hopefully wont be recognised as
separate objects, while the separate objects are distinct enough from each other not
to be merged together. However, if one is looking to distinguish objects of similar
1

These are just general observations, and havent been formally tested

34

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 5.4: The Effect of Scale Parameter on Segmentation Results

(a) Original Image
(b) Scale parameter 30
(c) Scale parameter 70

35

colour, such as the camouflaged crocodile, one needs to set the scale parameter
much lower. The negative aspect of doing this, however, is that it means that the
segmentation isnt unsupervised and does require user interaction.
A major problem in using this region merging- genetic algorithm system is that
it is very slow to run. When processing a 481 by 321 pixel image, using a genetic
algorithm with a population size of 10 and running 20 generations, the take taken is
about an hour2 . This makes getting results a rather tedious process, especially since
because of the random nature of genetic algorithms, one needs to take the average
performance over a few trials when evaluating the performance of the segmentation.
Marco Gallotta came up with a solution to this problem and ran this algorithm on
a grid.

5.2.1

Conclusion

It can be concluded that we are unable to reject the hypothesis that the use of
a genetic algorithm would improve the quality of the image segmentation. The
genetic algorithm could provide an improvement in segmentation quality, though
this hasnt been shown. Because of the time taken to run the genetic algorithm, its
full potential hasnt been explored.
Although there is a chance it could offer an improvement in segmentation quality,
the major drawback is that running the genetic algorithm is extremely slow. This
can be improved by running it on a grid, but not many people have access to a grid,
and so in most cases this isnt a feasible solution. Other options would be to limit
the range through which the parameters are allowed two vary or to provide a totally
different underlying image segmentation algorithm. An example of an algorithm that
could be used would by the watershed segmentation algorithm. In the experiments
done with Marco Gallottas implementation of this algorithm, it was found to run
far quicker than either the region growing or region merging methods.

5.3

Alteration of Genetic Algorithm Parameters

It was not feasible to run these experiments due to the extremely long execution
time of the region merging segmentation with the genetic algorithm3 . Not only does
one have to wait a long time to get results for the performance of various parameter
settings, but it makes it totally infeasible to increase the maximum number of generations or increase the population size. This is unfortunate, as one predicts that the
segmentation performance would increase the as the number of generations increase
2
3

Running on a laptop with a Core Duo 1.8 GHz with 1gig RAM
It takes exactly an hour to run the algorithm for 20 generations, each with ten individuals

36

(because there is more time to evolve) and also increase with increasing population
size (a larger population provides larger variation, which makes finding an optimum
solution more likely).

37

Chapter 6
Future Work
Improvements on the system could include using different merging criteria (instead
of the fusion factor) or using a different colour space. As mentioned the fitness
function is very important to a genetic algorithm. Various fitness functions were
suggested, though only one was experimented with. These fitness functions, as
well as others could be experimented with. A fitness function is just a function,
so there is the possibility that genetic programming1 could be used to evolve a
fitness function. Manually segmented images could be used as ground truths and a
discrepancy measure could be used as a fitness function. If this training set of images
is a good representation of the type of images that one wishes to segment, this could
be successful. The evolved fitness function could be used in a program, such as the
one implemented in this paper to provide unsupervised image segmentation. The
main challenge of doing this would be to provide suitable terminal and function sets.

for a description of genetic programming see [28]

38

Chapter 7
Conclusions
We successfully implemented region merging segmentation method. We improved
on this by using a genetic algorithm to modify the segmentation parameters. In
the process of doing this, we discovered the importance of a well chosen fitness
function and a novel fitness function was defined. A major advantage of this fitness
function is that it requires no comparison with a manually segmented image. This
has a major advantage over many other fitness functions requiring such input, this
method useful to real-world, automated segmentation applications.
The effect of the genetic algorithm on the image segmentation results is inconclusive, its major drawback is that it is extremely slow to run. This means that the
small improvement in segmentation quality probably isnt worth the extra computation time. A way of getting around this drawback is to run the genetic algorithm
on a grid.
A major problem with the development of a general image segmentation method
is that different applications and different users require different results from image
segmentation. In reality, there is no ideal segmentation and the quality of the
segmentation depends on required use of the output.

39

Bibliography
[1] Galib: A c++ library of genetic algorithm components. WWW.
[2] P. D. Acton, L. S. Pilowsky, H. F. Kung, and P. J. Ell. Automatic segmentation of dynamic neuroreceptor single-photon emission tomography images using
fuzzy clustering. European Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 26(6):581590, June
1999.
[3] B. Ahrens. Genetic algorithm optimization of superresolution parameters. In
Proceedings of the 2005 conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation,
GECCO, pages 20832088, June 2005.
[4] A. Albiol, L. Torres, and E.J. Delp. An unsupervised color image segmentation
algorithm for facedetection applications. In Proceedings of 2001 International
Conference on Image Processing, volume 2, pages 681684, October 2001.
[5] M. Alfonseca. Genetic algorithms. In Proceedings of the international conference
on APL, pages 16, 1991.
[6] P. Andrey. Selectionist relaxation: Genetic algorithms applied to image segmentation. In Image and Vision Computing, volume 17, pages 175187, 1999.
[7] M. Aoyagi and K. Tsuji. A modified genetic algorithm for image segmentation
based on feature clustering. In International Symposium on Information Theory
and its Applications, 2004.
[8] M. Baatz and A. Schape.
Multiresolution segmentation - an optimization approach for high quality multi-scale image segmentation. In
Strobl/Blaschke/Griesebner (editors): Angewandte Geographische Infomationsverarbeitung XII, pages 1223.
[9] S.M. Bhandarkar and H. Zhang. Image segmentation using evolutionary computation. In IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, volume 3, pages
121, April 1999.
[10] B. Bhanu and S. Lee. Genetic Learning for Adaptive Image Segmentation.
Springer, 1994.

40

[11] B. Bhanu, S. Lee, and J. Ming. Adaptive image segmentation using a genetic
algorithm. In IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, volume 25,
pages 15431567, December 1995.
[12] B. Bhanu and J. Peng. Adaptive integrated image segmentation and object
recognition. In IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part C,
volume 30, pages 427441, November 2000.
[13] M. Borsotti, P. Campadelli, and R. Schettini. Quantitative evaluation of color
image segmentation results. Pattern Recogn. Lett., 19(8):741747, 1998.
[14] A. Bouman. Ee637 digital image processing i course notes. Purdue University
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Video and Image Processing
Program, January 2007.
[15] H. Chen, W. Chien, and S. Wang. Contrast-based color image segmentation.
IEEE Signal Processing Letters, 11(7):641644, July 2004.
[16] D.N. Chun and H.S. Yang. Robust image segmentation using genetic algorithm
with a fuzzy measure. In Pattern Recognition 29(7), pages 11951211, 1996.
[17] D. Comaniciu. Color image segmentation results. WWW, 2007.
[18] J. M. Daida, T. F. Bersano-Begey, and J. F. Vesechy. Computer-assisted design
of image classification algorithms: Dynamic and static fitness evaluations in
a scaffold genetic programming environment. In Genetic Programming 1996:
Proceedings of the First Annual Conference, July 1996.
[19] K. S. Deshmukh and G. N. Shinde. An adaptive color image segmentation.
Electronic Letters on Computer Vision and Image Analysis, 5(4):1223, 2005.
[20] G. Dong and M. Xie. Color clustering and learning for image segmentation
based on neural networks. In IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, volume 16, pages 925936, July 2005.
[21] M.E. Farmer and D. Shugars. Application of genetic algorithms for wrapperbased image segmentation and classification. In IEEE Congress on Evolutionary
Computation, pages 13001307, July 2006.
[22] R.Q. Feitosa, G.A.O.P. Costa, and T.B. Cazes. A genetic approach for the
automatic adaptation of segmentation parameters. In OBIA06, 2006.
[23] S. Forrest. Genetic algorithms. ACM Computing Surveys, 28(1):7780, March
1996.

41

[24] P. Ghosh and M. Mitchell. Segmentation of medical images using a genetic

algorithm. In GECCO 06: Proceedings of the 8th annual conference on Genetic
and evolutionary computation, pages 11711178, New York, NY, USA, 2006.
ACM Press.
[25] M. Gong and Y.H. Yang. Genetic-based multiresolution color image segmentation. In Vision Interface 2001, pages 141148, June 2001.
[26] J.J. Grefenstette. Genetic algorithms and machine learning. In COLT, pages
34, 1993.
[27] C. Hampton, T. Persons, C. Wyatt, and Y. Zhang. Survey of image segmentation, 1998.
[28] J.R. Koza. Genetic Programming. MIT Press, 1992.
[29] L.F. Tian L. Tang and B.L. Steward. Color image segmentation with genetic
algorithm for in-field weed sensing. Accepted for publication by Information
and Electrical Technologies Division of ASAE.
[30] K.I. Laws. The phoenix image segmentation system: Description and evaluation. In SRI AICenter, 1982.
[31] J. Liu. A multiresolution method for distributed parameter estimation. SIAM
Journal on Scientific Computing, 14(2):389405, 1993.
[32] ImageMagick Studio LLC. Imagemagick: Convert, edit, and compose images.
WWW, 1999.
[33] L. Lucchese and S. K. Mitra. Color image segmentation: A state-of-the-art survey. In Proceedings of Indian National Science Academy (INSA-A), volume 67,
pages 207221, March 2001.
[34] D. Martin, C. Fowlkes, D. Tal, and J. Malik. A database of human segmented
natural images and its application to evaluating segmentation algorithms and
measuring ecological statistics. In Proc. 8th Intl Conf. Computer Vision, volume 2, pages 416423, July 2001.
[35] K. E. Melkemi, M. Batouche, and S. Foufou. A multiagent system approach for
image segmentation using genetic algorithms and external optimization heuristics. Pattern Recongition Letters, 26:12301238, 2006.
[36] K. Otobe, K. Tanaka, and M. Hirafuji. Knowledge acquisition on image processing based on genetic algorithms. In Proceedings of the IASTED International
Conference on Signal and Image Processing, October 1998.

42

[37] S. Ouadfel and M. Batouche. MRF-based image segmentation using ant colony
system. Electronic Letters on Computer Vision and Image Analysis, 2(2):1224,
2003.
[38] H. Peng, F. Long, Z. Chi, and W. Su. A hierarchical distributed genetic algorithm for image segmentation. In Proceedings of the 2000 Congress on Evolutionary Computation, volume 1, pages 272276, 2000.
[39] G. Pignalberi, R. Cucchiara, L. Cinque, and S. Levialdi. Tuning range image segmentation by genetic algorithm. EURASIP Journal on Applied Signal
Processing, 8:780790, 2003.
[40] V. Ramos and F. Muge. Image colour segmentation by genetic algorithms. In
Proceedings of the 11th Portuguese Conference on Pattern Recognition, May
2000.
[41] S. J. Sangwine and R. E. N. Horne. The Colour Image Processing Handbook.
Springer, 1998.
[42] W. Skarbek and A. Koschan. Colour image segmentation - a survey, 1994.
[43] I. Stainvas and D. Lowe. A generative model for separating illumination and
reflectance from images. Journal of Machine Learning, 4:14991519, 2003.
[44] D. L. Swets, B. Punch, and J. Weng. Genetic algorithms for object recognition
in a complex scene. In Proceedings of the 1995 International Conference on
Image Processing (ICIP95), 1995.
[45] S.M. Thede. An introduction to genetic algorithms. In Journal of Computing
Sciences in Colleges, volume 20, pages 115123, October 2004.
[46] David Tschumperl. C++ template image processing library. WWW, 2000.
[47] W. Vanzella and V. Torre. A versatile segmentation procedure. In IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part B, volume 36, pages 366378,
April 2006.
[48] S. Vitabile, G. Pilato, and F. Sorbello. Road signs recognition using a dynamic
pixel aggregation technique in the hsv color space. In Proceedings of the 11th
Internation Conference on Image Analysis and Processing (ICIAP01), 2001.
[49] S. Wesolkowski, S. Tominaga, and R.D. Dony. Shading and highlight invariant
color image segmentation. SPIE, 4300:229240, 2001.
[50] Y.J. Zhang. A survey on evaluation methods for image segmentation. In Pattern
Recognition, volume 29, pages 13351346, 1996.

43

[51] L. Zhijun, Z. Fei, W. Danqing, and C. Mianyun. Simulated annealing and

genetic algorithms based for image segmentation with partially evolved hopfield neural network. International Journal of Computer Science and Network
Security, 6(7A):132136, July 2006.
[52] P. Zingaretti, G. Tascini, and L. Regini. Optimising the colour image segmentation. In VIII Convegno dellAssociazione Italiana per lIntelligenza Artificiale,
September 2002.

44