Image segmentation with adaptive region growing based on a polynomial surface model

A new method for segmenting intensity images into smooth surface segments is presented. The main idea is to divide the image into flat, planar, convex, concave, and saddle patches that coincide as well as possible with meaningful object features in the image. Therefore, we propose an adaptive region growing algorithm based on low-degree polynomial fitting. The algorithm uses a new adaptive thresholding technique with the L∞ fitting cost as a segmentation criterion. The polynomial degree and the fitting error are automatically adapted during the region growing process. The main contribution is that the algorithm detects outliers and edges, distinguishes between strong and smooth intensity transitions and finds surface segments that are bent in a certain way. As a result, the surface segments corresponding to meaningful object features and the contours separating the surface segments coincide with real-image object edges. Moreover, the curvature-based surface shape information facilitates many tasks in image analysis, such as object recognition performed on the polynomial representation. The polynomial representation provides good image approximation while preserving all the necessary details of the objects in the reconstructed images. The method outperforms existing techniques when segmenting images of objects with diffuse reflecting surfaces

Plane-extraction from depth-data using a Gaussian mixture regression model

We propose a novel algorithm for unsupervised extraction of piecewise planar models from depth-data. Among other applications, such models are a good way of enabling autonomous agents (robots, cars, drones, etc.) to effectively perceive their surroundings and to navigate in three dimensions. We propose to do this by fitting the data with a piecewise-linear Gaussian mixture regression model whose components are skewed over planes, making them flat in appearance rather than being ellipsoidal, by embedding an outlier-trimming process that is formally incorporated into the proposed expectation-maximization algorithm, and by selectively fusing contiguous, coplanar components. Part of our motivation is an attempt to estimate more accurate plane-extraction by allowing each model component to make use of all available data through probabilistic clustering. The algorithm is thoroughly evaluated against a standard benchmark and is shown to rank among the best of the existing state-of-the-art methods.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

Superquadrics for segmentation and modeling range data

We present a novel approach to reliable and efficient recovery of part-descriptions in terms of superquadric models from range data. We show that superquadrics can directly be recovered from unsegmented data, thus avoiding any presegmentation steps (e.g., in terms of surfaces). The approach is based on the recover-andselect paradigm. We present several experiments on real and synthetic range images, where we demonstrate the stability of the results with respect to viewpoint and noise

Low-cost interactive active monocular range finder

This paper describes a low-cost interactive active monocular range finder and illustrates the effect of introducing interactivity to the range acquisition process. The range finder consists of only one camera and a laser pointer, to which three LEDs are attached. When a user scans the laser along surfaces of objects, the camera captures the image of spots (one from the laser, and the others from LEDs), and triangulation is carried out using the camera\u27s viewing direction and the optical axis of the laser. The user interaction allows the range finder to acquire range data in which the sampling rate varies across the object depending on the underlying surface structures. Moreover, the processes of separating objects from the background and/or finding parts in the object can be achieved using the operator\u27s knowledge of the objects

Segmentation and Restoration of Images on Surfaces by Parametric Active Contours with Topology Changes

In this article, a new method for segmentation and restoration of images on two-dimensional surfaces is given. Active contour models for image segmentation are extended to images on surfaces. The evolving curves on the surfaces are mathematically described using a parametric approach. For image restoration, a diffusion equation with Neumann boundary conditions is solved in a postprocessing step in the individual regions. Numerical schemes are presented which allow to efficiently compute segmentations and denoised versions of images on surfaces. Also topology changes of the evolving curves are detected and performed using a fast sub-routine. Finally, several experiments are presented where the developed methods are applied on different artificial and real images defined on different surfaces

Joint Prediction of Depths, Normals and Surface Curvature from RGB Images using CNNs

Understanding the 3D structure of a scene is of vital importance, when it comes to developing fully autonomous robots. To this end, we present a novel deep learning based framework that estimates depth, surface normals and surface curvature by only using a single RGB image. To the best of our knowledge this is the first work to estimate surface curvature from colour using a machine learning approach. Additionally, we demonstrate that by tuning the network to infer well designed features, such as surface curvature, we can achieve improved performance at estimating depth and normals.This indicates that network guidance is still a useful aspect of designing and training a neural network. We run extensive experiments where the network is trained to infer different tasks while the model capacity is kept constant resulting in different feature maps based on the tasks at hand. We outperform the previous state-of-the-art benchmarks which jointly estimate depths and surface normals while predicting surface curvature in parallel

Crack Front Segmentation and Facet Coarsening in Mixed-Mode Fracture

A planar crack generically segments into an array of "daughter cracks" shaped as tilted facets when loaded with both a tensile stress normal to the crack plane (mode I) and a shear stress parallel to the crack front (mode III). We investigate facet propagation and coarsening using in-situ microscopy observations of fracture surfaces at different stages of quasi-static mixed-mode crack propagation and phase-field simulations. The results demonstrate that the bifurcation from propagating planar to segmented crack front is strongly subcritical, reconciling previous theoretical predictions of linear stability analysis with experimental observations. They further show that facet coarsening is a self- similar process driven by a spatial period-doubling instability of facet arrays with a growth rate dependent on mode mixity. Those results have important implications for understanding the failure of a wide range of materials