Method of analyzing an image

摘要

An image is segmented by subjecting the image to an iterative thresholding operation, and a hierarchical representation of clusters is obtained by analyzing the results of each of the iterative thresholding steps to find clusters of adjacent image elements. A type class is assigned to a leaf cluster of the hierarchical representation and the assigned class is propagated towards the top of the hierarchical representation. Then a mask is generated marking the locations of image elements contained in the top ancestral clusters of a specific type.

主权项

1. A method of analyzing an image represented by a digital image representation of image elements, the method comprising the steps of:
segmenting the image by subjecting the digital image representation to an iterative thresholding operation until a stopping criterion is reached; finding clusters of adjacent voxels of the image elements by analyzing results of each iteration of the iterative thresholding operation; building a hierarchical representation of the image by establishing relations between the clusters found in the results of each iteration of the iterative thresholding operation;assigning a type class to a leaf cluster of the hierarchical representation;
propagating the type class towards a top of the hierarchical representation using propagation rules; and generating a mask marking locations of the image elements of the type class by merging the locations of the image elements contained in the clusters that were assigned to the type class through propagation.