Multicomponent Image Segmentation Using a Genetic Algorithm and Artificial Neural Network

Image segmentation is an essential process for image analysis. Several methods were developed to segment multicomponent images, and the success of these methods depends on several factors including (1) the characteristics of the acquired image and (2) the percentage of imperfections in the process of image acquisition. The majority of these methods require
a priori
knowledge, which is difficult to obtain. Furthermore, they assume the existence of models that can estimate its parameters and fit to the given data. However, such a parametric approach is not robust, and its performance is severely affected by the correctness of the utilized parametric model. In this letter, a new multicomponent image segmentation method is developed using a nonparametric unsupervised artificial neural network called Kohonen's self-organizing map (SOM) and hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA). SOM is used to detect the main features that are present in the image; then, HGA is used to cluster the image into homogeneous regions without any
a priori
knowledge. Experiments that are performed on different satellite images confirm the efficiency and robustness of the SOM-HGA method compared to the Iterative Self-Organizing DATA analysis technique (ISODATA).