Visual Texture Classification and Segmentation by Genetic Programming

While there is a considerable history of work on visual texture, the definition of texture is still imprecise. However, it is generally agreed that a texture is spatially homogeneous and contains repeated visual patterns. In synthetic textures, such as horizontal lines, vertical lines or a checkerboard, the basic structure is repeated exactly. In natural textures, such as grass, wood, sand or rocks, there is some random variation in size, shape, intensity or colour in the repetitions of the basic structure. Figure 10.1 shows some examples of artificial (a,b) and natural (c,d) textures. Texture information is potentially very useful in computer vision applications such as image/video retrieval, automated industrial inspection and robot navigation. However, currently deployed systems do not use texture, primarily because current algorithms result in unacceptably long computation times. Fast and accurate texture recognition could have a major impact on the design of future vision systems.