Nonlocal variational image segmentation models on graphs using the Split Bregman

Abstract Variational functionals such as Mumford-Shah and Chan-Vese methods have a major impact on various areas of image processing. After over 10 years of investigation, they are still in widespread use today. These formulations optimize contours by evolution through gradient descent, which is known for its overdependence on initialization and the tendency to produce undesirable local minima. In this paper, we propose an image segmentation model in a variational nonlocal means framework based on a weighted graph. The advantages of this model are twofold. First, the convexity global minimum (optimum) information is taken into account to achieve better segmentation results. Second, the proposed global convex energy functionals combine nonlocal regularization and local intensity fitting terms. The nonlocal total variational regularization term based on the graph is able to preserve the detailed structure of target objects. At the same time, the modified local binary fitting term introduced in the model as the local fitting term can efficiently deal with intensity inhomogeneity in images. Finally, we apply the Split Bregman method to minimize the proposed energy functional efficiently. The proposed model has been applied to segmentation of real medical and remote sensing images. Compared with other methods, the proposed model is superior in terms of both accuracy and efficient.