Multiresolution genetic clustering algorithm for texture segmentation

This work plans to approach the texture segmentation problem by incorporating genetic algorithm and K-means clustering method within a multiresolution structure. As the algorithm descends the multiresolution structure, the coarse segmentation results are propagated down to the lower levels so as to reduce the inherent class–position uncertainty and to improve the segmentation accuracy. The procedure is described as follows. In the first step, a quad-tree structure of multiple resolutions is constructed. Sampling windows of different sizes are utilized to partition the underlying image into blocks at different resolution levels and texture features are extracted from each block. Based on the texture features, a hybrid genetic algorithm is employed to perform the segmentation. While the select and mutate operators of the traditional genetic algorithm are adopted in this work, the crossover operator is replaced with K-means clustering method. In the final step, the boundaries and the segmentation result of the current resolution level are propagated down to the next level to act as contextual constraints and the initial configuration of the next level, respectively. q 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.