A Continuous Labeling for Multiphase Graph Cut Image Partitioning

This study investigates a variational multiphase image segmentation method which combines the advantages of graph cut discrete optimization and multiphase piecewise constant image representation. The continuous region parameters serve both image representation and graph cut labeling. The algorithm iterates two consecutive steps: an original closed-form update of the region parameters and partition update by graph cut labeling using the region parameters. The number of regions/labels can decrease from an initial value, thereby relaxing the assumption that the number of regions is known beforehand. The advantages of the method over others are shown in several comparative experiments using synthetic and real images of intensity and motion.