Coupling Graph Cuts and Level Sets

"This paper presents an efficient algorithm for solving one sort of region-based active contour models, i.e. the active contours without edges model. We develop the link between traditional level-set based segmentation models and graph based discrete formulation by converting the original PDE based energy function to its discrete form, and show that it can be solved via graph cuts optimization conveniently. We also propose an efficient algorithm to regulate the smoothness of the interfaces, which plays a similar roll as the re-initialization of the signed distance function in solving level sets. Our new algorithm outperforms the traditional PDE driven level set methods in several ways. Firstly, it is significantly faster by taking advantage of the dynamic graph cuts algorithm. Secondly, it is numerically stable and it avoids some original drawbacks in solving PDEs. Furthermore, the new algorithm is less sensitive to the initialization. The experimental results show that the perf...

• Type: Technical Report
• Authors: Xiang Zeng, Wei Chen, and Qunsheng Peng
• Keywords: Graph Cuts, Level Set Methods, Segmentation