A Multi-Objective Decision Making Approach for Solving the Image Segmentation Fusion Problem

Hierarchical Topology-Based Cluster Representation for Scalable Evolutionary Multiobjective Clustering

Evolutionary multiobjective clustering (MOC) algorithms have shown promising potential to outperform conventional single-objective clustering algorithms, especially when the number of clusters k is not set before clustering. However, the computational burden becomes a tricky problem due to the extensive search space and fitness computational time of the evolving population, especially when the data size is large. This article proposes a new, hierarchical, topology-based cluster representation for scalable MOC, which can simplify the search procedure and decrease computational overhead. A coarse-to-fine-trained topological structure that fits the spatial distribution of the data is utilized to identify a set of seed points/nodes, then a tree-based graph is built to represent clusters. During optimization, a bipartite graph partitioning strategy incorporated with the graph nodes helps in performing a cluster ensemble operation to generate offspring solutions more effectively. For the determination of the final result, which is underexplored in the existing methods, the usage of a cluster ensemble strategy is also presented, whether k is provided or not. Comparison experiments are conducted on a series of different data distributions, revealing the superiority of the proposed algorithm in terms of both clustering performance and computing efficiency.

ECSU-Net: An Embedded Clustering Sliced U-Net Coupled With Fusing Strategy for Efficient Intervertebral Disc Segmentation and Classification

Automatic vertebra segmentation from computed tomography (CT) image is the very first and a decisive stage in vertebra analysis for computer-based spinal diagnosis and therapy support system. However, automatic segmentation of vertebra remains challenging due to several reasons, including anatomic complexity of spine, unclear boundaries of the vertebrae associated with spongy and soft bones. Based on 2D U-Net, we have proposed an Embedded Clustering Sliced U-Net (ECSU-Net). ECSU-Net comprises of three modules named segmentation, intervertebral disc extraction (IDE) and fusion. The segmentation module follows an instance embedding clustering approach, where our three sliced sub-nets use axis of CT images to generate a coarse 2D segmentation along with embedding space with the same size of the input slices. Our IDE module is designed to classify vertebra and find the inter-space between two slices of segmented spine. Our fusion module takes the coarse segmentation (2D) and outputs the refined 3D results of vertebra. A novel adaptive discriminative loss (ADL) function is introduced to train the embedding space for clustering. In the fusion strategy, three modules are integrated via a learnable weight control component, which adaptively sets their contribution. We have evaluated classical and deep learning methods on Spineweb dataset-2. ECSU-Net has provided comparable performance to previous neural network based algorithms achieving the best segmentation dice score of 95.60% and classification accuracy of 96.20%, while taking less time and computation resources.

Conflict management in the fusion of complementary segmentations of deformed kidneys and nephroblastoma

The fusion of multiple segmentations aims to improve their accuracy in order to make them exploitable. However, conflicts may appear. In this paper, two conflict-management models are proposed for the fusion of complementary segmentations. This conflict-management and fusion procedure, integrated into the SAIAD project, carries out the fusion of deformed kidneys and nephroblastoma using the combination of six independent methods. These methods are based on different criteria, like the adjacent segmented slices, the variation of information, the Dice, the neighbouring labels, the pixel intensity by scanner images, and the fully connected CRFs. The performances of our fusion models was evaluated on 139 scans for three patients with nephroblastoma, and the results demonstrate its effectiveness and the improvement of the resulting segmentations.

A Generic Framework for Combining Multiple Segmentations in Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis

The Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) paradigm relies strongly on the segmentation concept, i.e., partitioning of an image into regions or objects that are then further analyzed. Segmentation is a critical step, for which a wide range of methods, parameters and input data are available. To reduce the sensitivity of the GEOBIA process to the segmentation step, here we consider that a set of segmentation maps can be derived from remote sensing data. Inspired by the ensemble paradigm that combines multiple weak classifiers to build a strong one, we propose a novel framework for combining multiple segmentation maps. The combination leads to a fine-grained partition of segments (super-pixels) that is built by intersecting individual input partitions, and each segment is assigned a segmentation confidence score that relates directly to the local consensus between the different segmentation maps. Furthermore, each input segmentation can be assigned some local or global quality score based on expert assessment or automatic analysis. These scores are then taken into account when computing the confidence map that results from the combination of the segmentation processes. This means the process is less affected by incorrect segmentation inputs either at the local scale of a region, or at the global scale of a map. In contrast to related works, the proposed framework is fully generic and does not rely on specific input data to drive the combination process. We assess its relevance through experiments conducted on ISPRS 2D Semantic Labeling. Results show that the confidence map provides valuable information that can be produced when combining segmentations, and fusion at the object level is competitive w.r.t. fusion at the pixel or decision level.