Region Merging Via Graph-Cuts

In this paper, we discuss the use of graph-cuts to merge the regions of the watershed transform optimally. Watershed is a simple, intuitive and efficient way of segmenting an image. Unfortunately it presents a few limitations such as over-segmentation and poor detection of low boundaries. Our segmentation process merges regions of the watershed over-segmentation by minimizing a specific criterion using graph-cuts optimization. Two methods will be introduced in this paper. The first is based on regions histogram and dissimilarity measures between adjacent regions. The second method deals with efficient approximation of minimal surfaces and geodesics. Experimental results show that these techniques can efficiently be used for large images segmentation when a pre-computed low level segmentation is available. We will present these methods in the context of interactive medical image segmentation.