Image segmentation using fuzzy clustering incorporating spatial information

Abstract

Effective image segmentation cannot be achieved for a fuzzy clustering algorithm based on using only pixel intensity, pixel locations or a combination of the two. Often if both pixel intensity and pixel location are combined, one feature tends to minimize the effect of other, thus degrading the resulting segmentation. This paper directly addresses this problem by introducing a new algorithm called image segmentation using fuzzy clustering incorporating spatial information (FCSI), which merges the segmented results independently generated by fuzzy clustering-based on pixel intensity and the location of pixels. Qualitative results show the superiority of the FCSI algorithm compared with the fuzzy c-means (FCM) algorithm for all three alternatives, clustering using only pixel intensity, pixel locations and a combination of the two