Improved watershed algorithm for dowels image segmentation

Watershed algorithm is applied widely to image segmentation for its fast computing and high accuracy in locating the weak edges of adjacent regions. But classical watershed segmentation is sensitive to noise and can leads to serious over-segmentation. Aiming at the limitation of watershed segmentation, this paper presented an algorithm of watershed transformation based on opening-closing operation and distance transform. It improved the classical watershed segmentation algorithm based on distance transform, overcoming over-segmentation. The experiment result demonstrated that this method for segmentation inherits the advantage of watershed algorithm based on distance transform that it successfully segment out each dowel in the image bringing convenience to computer vision and auto-counting of dowels. It also overcame over-segmentation existed in traditional watershed segmentation preserving the original edges of each dowel in the image completely.