In this paper we propose an image segmentation algorithm that combines region merging with spectral-based techniques. An initial partitioning of the image into primitive regions is produced by applying a region merging approach which produces a chunk graph that takes in attention the image gradient magnitude. This initial partition is the input to a computationally efficient region segmentation process that produces the final segmentation. The latter process uses a multi-class partition that minimizes the normalized cut value for the region graph. We have efficiently applied the proposed approach with good visual and objective segmentation quality results.
Fernando C. Monteiro, Aurélio C. Campilho