A Level Set Approach for Segmentation of Intensity Inhomogeneous Image Based on Region Decomposition

Abstract

Medical images like magnetic resonance angiogram (MRA) images have inhomogeneous intensities. When such images are segmented using active contour models, they do not produce desired results. Hence, segmenting an image with inhomogeneous intensities is a challenge. In this paper, the problem of segmenting medical images with intensity inhomogeneity has been addressed. Here, we propose a method which uses the concept of region decomposition along with combination of region-based segmentation and edge-detector function. In this process, the input image is divided into four quadrants and checked for segmentation. If the segmentation of any sub-image is not as desired, it is further decomposed into four more sub-regions. The process continues until each sub-image is properly segmented. In the end, all the segmented parts are merged to obtain the desired segmented image. The proposed method has been implemented and desired results are obtained by the same and compared with existing results.