Multicolor image segmentation using Ambrosio-Tortorelli approximation

Our research aims at image segmentation using the variational framework of Mumford and Shah, following an approximation proposed by Ambrosio and Tortorelli. This technique circumvents the use of parametric contours and implicit level-set techniques, where its solution may be regarded as a soft segmentation, with a number the levels or colors being 2
^N
. On the other hand, the implementation was based on an finite difference discretization, where two - and four - color cases are described with their corresponding numerical results.