Submodularity beyond submodular energies: coupling edges in graph cuts

We propose a new family of non-submodular global energy functions that still use submodularity internally to couple edges in a graph cut. We show it is possible to develop an efficient approximation algorithm that, thanks to the internal submodularity, can use standard graph cuts as a subroutine. We demonstrate the advantages of edge coupling in a natural setting, namely image segmentation. In particular, for finestructured objects and objects with shading variation, our structured edge coupling leads to significant improvements over standard approaches.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2011
• Where: CVPR
• Authors: Stefanie Jegelka, Jeff Bilmes
• Keywords: Computer Vision, CVPR 2011, Efficient Approximation Algorithm, Graph Cuts, Standard Graph Cuts