A Novel Practical Decisive Row-Class Entropy-Based Technique for Multilevel Threshold Selection Using Opposition Flow Directional Algorithm

One of today’s inspiring issues is the 2D histogram-based multilevel threshold selection which is used for segmenting images into several regions. The image analysis warrants exploration of multiclass thresholding techniques using various entropy-based objective functions. In this context, the Shannon type of entropic function without inherent decision making capacity has been widely used for threshold selection in the last decade. Furthermore, a 2D histogram was constructed using local average intensity values resulting in loss of some edge information. To address these problems, this study proposes a new methodology using a novel practical decisive row-class entropy (PDRCE) based fitness function for multilevel thresholding. The PDRCE values are computed using the newly constructed 2D histogram-based on normal local variance. Further, an opposition flow directional algorithm (OFDA) is proposed to maximize the fitness function. The performance of the proposed technique is compared with five state-of-the-art 2D histogram-based entropic fitness functions. Moreover, the performance of OFDA is investigated through comparison with other global optimizers namely the genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization and artificial bee colony. An image segmentation evaluation dataset (BSDS500) is used in this experiment. It is witnessed that the proposal is more efficient than state-of-the-art methods. Our fitness function would be useful for registration, segmentation, fusion, etc.