A Genetic Algorithm for the Segmentation of Known Touching Objects

Problem statement: Segmentation is the first and fundamental step in the process of computer vision and object classification. However, complicate or similar colour pattern add complexity to the segmentation of touching objects. The objective of this study was to develop a robust technique for the automatic segmentation and classification of touching plastic bottles, whose features were previously stored in a database. Approach: Our technique was based on the possibility to separate the two objects by means of a segment of straight line, whose position was determined by a genetic approach. The initial population of the genetic algorithm was heuristically determined among a large set of cutting lines, while further generations were selected based on the likelihood of the two objects with the images stored in the database. Results: Extensive testing, which was performed on random couples out of a population of 50 bottles, showed that the correct segmentation could be achieved in success rates above 90% with only a limited number of both chromosomes and iterations, thus reducing the computing time. Conclusion: These findings proved the effectiveness of our method as far as touching plastic bottles are concerned. This technique, being absolutely general, can be extended to any situation in which the properties of single objects were previously stored in a database.