A Critical Overview of Image Segmentation Techniques Based on Transition Region

Image segmentation is the key step from image processing to image analysis, and is an important technique of image engineering (Zhang, 2009). It refers to the general procedures and processes for dividing an image into regions with each has some particular characteristics and extracting the target region of interest. Since there is no general theory for image segmentation itself, yet, the image segmentation has always been in-depth study of attention. A large variations of theories and technologies have been applied to solve the image segmentation problem (Zhang, 2006). According to a study based on EI Compendex, the first segmentation algorithm is proposed in 1962, the number of literatures on image segmentation has reached 77,000 half-century late (Zhang, 2015b). According to the increasing tendency, it is estimated that this number should be around 100,000 now. Image segmentation based on transition region is a special or distinctive type of techniques that are different from traditional boundary-based or region-based techniques. Its strategy is first detecting a transition region between object regions and background regions, then segmenting image into object region and background region based on the properties of transition region. The first technique using transition region is often referred to effective average gradient (EAG) that in fact is just the name of the core parameter of this technique. EAG has raised more than a quarter of a century ago (Zhang, 1989). Journal paper (Zhang, 1991) introduced this technique in detail, and journal paper (Zhang, 1996) further extended this technique to more general situations. Since then, there are many subsequent related researches and applications, and a series of papers in the literature citing (Zhang, 1991) and/or (Zhang, 1996) are published worldwide (Zhang, 2015a). Using Google Scholar, a number of papers citing (Zhang, 1991) and/or (Zhang, 1996) are searched and selected, a study on the statistics of these papers is conducted, an analysis of these papers is performed, and discussions on these results are provided.