24 (IJCNS) International Journal of Computer and Network Security,

Vol. 2, No. 2, February 2010

Segmentation Method Based On Circular Edge

Magnitude for Classification of Textures
1
Dr. A. Nagaraja Rao , 2K. Lavanya, 3G. Aruna Kumari, 4M.N. Hima Bindu
1
Professor, Dept. of IT, Lakireddy BaliReddy College of Engg.
Mylavaram, Krishna Dt., A.P., India.
nagarajarao.a@lbrce.ac.in
2
Asst. Prof., Dept. of IT, Lakireddy BaliReddy College of Engg.
Mylavaram, Krishna Dt., A.P., India.
lavanya.kk2005@gmail.com

3
Associate Prof., Dept. of CSE, Vidya Jyothi Institute of Tech.,
Moinabad, RR Dist, A.P., India.
arunagullipalli@yahoo.com
4
Asst. Prof. Dept. of IT, Lakireddy BaliReddy College of Engg.
Mylavaram, Krishna Dt., A.P., India.
bindu.nov5@gmail.com

Abstract: Texture segmentation is one of the most important
techniques for image analysis, understanding and
interpretation. The task of texture segmentation is to partition
the image into a number of regions such that each region has
the same textural properties. The present paper proposes a new
segmentation method which is an alternative to non-maximal
suppression based on edge magnitude. The relative edge
magnitudes are calculated by considering the spatial
information of 5X5 mask with 3X3 circular neighborhood
masks. The central pixel under consideration in 5X5 mask is
whether an edge pixel or not, can be identified by manipulating
all the edge magnitudes from circular neighboring masks. The
proposed method is applied on various Brodatz textures and the
experimental results shows effective segmentation which is
useful in classification of textures.
Keywords: Texture, Segmentation, Edge, Magnitude, Non-
Maximal Suppression, Neighborhood, Circular Mask.
1. Introduction
Texture is defined as a pattern that is repeated and is
represented on the surface of an object. Segmentation is a
fundamental low-level operation on images and to separate
textures into a single texture type, first we need to preserve
spatial information for each texture. A homogeneous region
refers to a group of connected pixels in the image that share
a common feature. This feature could be brightness, color,
texture, motion etc. For instance, the manual grey level
thresholding which does not provide the spatial information
for each texture [12] could generate inappropriate
segmentation result. Depending on the number of images is
known in advance, the techniques for image segmentation
can be classified as supervised [1-3] or unsupervised [4-6].
Since in most of real applications the number of images is
generally unknown, the unsupervised approach is
considered more useful. There are three main classes of
image texture segmentation that belong to the above two
techniques. They are cluster-based, edge-based and region-
based methods [7].
The edge-based segmentation exploits spatial information
by detecting the edges in an image, which correspond to
discontinuities in the homogeneity criterion for segments.
Edges in a given depth map are defined by the points where
changes in the local surface properties exceed a given
threshold. The local surface properties mostly used are
surface normals, gradients, principal curvatures, or higher
order derivatives. Edge detection techniques used on texture
image could result in noisy and discontinuous edges and
therefore segmentation process becomes more complicated
[13]. As edge detection methods look for abrupt changes,
they are very sensitive to the noise in the range data.
Moreover, as only the measurements near the edges are used
to make major decisions, the available information is not
optimally utilized. In many situations the edges do not form
closed boundary curves and it can be difficult to make
correct grouping decisions there by resulting in over or
under segmentation. Some of the typical variations on the
edge-based segmentation techniques are reported by many
researchers [8, 10, 11].
The organization of this paper as follows: Section 2 gives
the related work and the proposed method and algorithm
described in section 3. Experimental results of texture
segmentation using the circular edge magnitude are shown
in the section 4 and section 5 gives the conclusions.
 (IJCNS) International Journal of Computer and Network Security, 25
2. Related Work
In the edge image, no zero value edge pixels are present, but
small edge values correspond to non-significant grey level
changes resulting from quantization noise, small lighting
irregularities. Simple thresholding of an edge image can be
applied to remove these small values based on an image of
edge magnitudes [14]. A problem with simple detector is the
thickening that is evident where there should only be a
simple boundary. This can be partially rectified if edges
carry directional information by performing some form of
non-maximal suppression to suppress multiple responses in
the neighborhood of single boundaries [15]. In the proposed
method, the maximum edge magnitude in 8-connectivity is
calculated leading to the edge direction. The pixel under
consideration in 3X3 window is displayed only if its grey
level value is greater than the maximum of the two adjacent
pixels of the edge direction.
3. Proposed Segmentation Method
Edge based segmentation is one of the common approaches
to segment the image and it remains very important over
period of time. All edge based segmentation methods depend
on edges identified in an image by any edge detection
techniques. Edge based segmentation techniques differ in
strategies and the necessary priori information is
incorporated into those methods. Since the edge detection is
very difficult in texture images when compared to image
segmentation, the present study proposes the new technique
which is based on relative edge magnitude in 5X5
neighborhood using circular rotating masks and the
procedure and algorithm is described as follows.
A practical method that has chosen in the present approach
is to determine whether a central pixel is an edge pixel or
not depending on its neighboring rotating masks inside the
running window, in horizontal, vertical, right diagonal and
left diagonal directions. Note that, since the proposed
method checks the relative Difference of Edge Magnitude
(DEM) values of rotating masks using 5X5 window as
shown in Fig.1 instead of 3X3 window as applied in other
methods. This will eliminate some false edge pixels on
seemingly smooth regions. If any one of the maximum or
average or minimum of the adjacent masks of maximum
DEM value of rotating masks is less than the central pixel
grey level value, the pixel is identified as being not located
for segmentation.
The stated method is explained in the following algorithm.
Vol. 2, No. 2, February 2010
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Figure 1. (a),(b),(c) and (d) represents the rotating 3x3
masks that contain central pixel of 5x5 window in
Horizontal(H), Vertical(V),Right Diagonal(RD) and Left
Diagonal (LD) Directions.
Algorithm 1.
BEGIN.
Step 1: Read the 5x5 window from original image.
Step 2: Select circular 3X3 masks that contain the central
pixel of a 5X5 window of the image as shown in Fig.1.
Step 3: The sum of the grey levels of the circular masks are
calculated.
Step 4: The difference between the two Right Diagonal, Left
Diagonal, and Vertical and Horizontal direction’s circular
rotating masks are computed
Step 5: To find edge, Maximum of the above differences is
obtained and Central Pixel of 5X5 window is replaced by 1
iff any one of the adjacent differentiating masks
maximum/mean/ minimum grey level is greater than or
equal to Central Pixel of the current 5x5 mask, otherwise
the Central Pixel is replaced by 0.
Step 6: Repeat step 1 to step 5 by 5X5 running window
throughout the image.
Step 7: Display the resultant segmented image.
END.
4. Experimental Results
The Brodat’z Texture Images, Plastic Bubbles, Straw, Pig
Skin and Raffia, are taken to apply the proposed algorithm
and these Textures are shown in Fig.2. The segmented
texture images are shown, when all suppression parameters
like maximum, mean and minimum, in Fig.4, 5 and 6
respectively. In Fig. 3, the segmented texture images of non-
maximal suppression on 3X3 neighborhood are shown. For
any texture classification, feature extraction is most
important step. The proposed algorithm segments the
textures by extracting the linear, horizontal and vertical
edge features.
26 (IJCNS) International Journal of Computer and Network Security,
Vol. 2, No. 2, February 2010

segmentation and the results are shown in Fig.5 and Fig.6

The edge boundaries are extracted by non-maximal
suppression in 5X5 neighborhood using the proposed
algorithm and the segmented results are shown in Fig.4.
Similarly the parameters like non-average and non-
minimum are suppressed in 5X5 neighborhood for
respectively. Only the strong edge features are extracted
when non-average method is applied and over segmentation,
i.e. decomposing into more inner regions, is achieved when
non-minimal suppression is applied.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Figure 2. Original Brodatz Textures (a) Plastic Bubbles (b) Straw (c) Pig Skin (d) Raffia

(a) (b)

(c) (d)
Figure 3. Segmentation results when non-maximum is suppressed in 8-connectivity. (a) Plastic Bubbles (b) Straw (c) Pig
Skin (d) Raffia.
 (IJCNS) International Journal of Computer and Network Security, 27
Vol. 2, No. 2, February 2010

(a) (b)

( c) (d)

Figure 4. Segmented Images when Non-Max is considered using proposed method. (a) Plastic Bubbles (b) Straw (c) Pig
Skin (d) Raffia.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)
Figure 5. Segmentation results when non-average is suppressed in 8-connectivity. (a) Plastic Bubbles (b) Straw (c) Pig
Skin (d) Raffia
28 (IJCNS) International Journal of Computer and Network Security,
(a)
(c)
Figure 6. Segmented Images when non-minimum is suppressed (a) Plastic Bubbles (b) Straw (c) Pig Skin (d) Raffia.
5. Conclusions
Detecting edges and then eliminating irrelevant ones and
connecting (grouping) the others are the key to a successful
edge-based segmentation. The segmentation scheme
exploited spatial information by detecting edges in an image
that correspond to discontinuities in the homogeneity
criterion for segment. As the mask size increases in texture
segmentation by non-maximum and average suppression,
noise reduces and the borders are more exact. The proposed
segmentation algorithm proposed, is simple to implement
and shows better results than the existing non-maximal
suppression algorithm.
From the Fig.4 and 5, the segmented results clearly show
the local boundaries in all textures. By the technique of
rotating mask, local boundaries in all directions are made
clearly visible. The segmentation with continuous
boundaries are more visible in Fig.4 when compared to
Fig.3, Fig.5 and Fig.6. The segmentation results of textures
Vol. 2, No. 2, February 2010
(b)
(d)
indicate the domination of linear, circular and horizontal
patterns. By the above topological patterns, one can classify
textures easily. With the proposed segmentation method the
classification of the textures based on topological structures
becomes more effective.
6. Acknowledgements
We would like to express our gratitude to the
management of LBR College of engineering for providing
facilities in the college. We are thankful to the Director, Dr.
L.S.S. Reddy, who has given motivation and constant
encouragement to complete this paper. Also we would like
to thank Dr. R. Chandrasekaran and Prof. C. Nagaraju for
their invaluable suggestions to improve the quality of this
paper.
References
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 (IJCNS) International Journal of Computer and Network Security, 29
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Vol. 2, No. 2, February 2010
Authors Profile
Agastyaraju NagarajaRao received the M.Sc.
(Computer Science) Degree from S.V.
University in 1999. He received his Ph.D.
degree in Computer Science from University of
Mysore in 2009. He is having 10 years of
teaching experience at graduate and
postgraduate level. Present he has been working with LBR college
of Engineering, Mylavarm, as a professor in Department of IT. He
has published more than 6 international journal papers, 14 national
and international conferences. His research interests include Image
Processing, Pattern Recognition, Data Mining and Texture
Segmentation. He is a life member for CSI and ISCA.
K. Lavanya completed her B.Tech. (CSE)
From JNT University. Now she is pursuing her
M.Tech. (CSE) from JNT University,
Hyderabad. Currently she is working as
Assistant Professor in department of IT, LBR
College of Engineering, Mylavaram. She has
overall 5 years of teaching experience at
graduate level. Presently she is doing her project in image
processing.
G.Aruna kumari received B.E. degree in
Electronics and Communication Engineering
from Andhra University in 1995, and also in
1999 she obtained M.Tech degree in Computer
Science and Technology from the same
university. She has 10 years of teaching
experience at graduate and postgraduate level. She is pursuing Ph.
D. (CS) from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University,
Hyderabad, in the field of image processing. Her research interests
include of image processing and pattern recognition.
M.N.Hima Bindu completed her B.Tech
(CSIT) from JNT University,Hyderabad. She is
Pursuing M.Tech. (SE) From JNT University,
Kakinada. She has been working as Assistant
Professor in department of IT, LBR College of
Engineering, Mylavaram. She has 4 years of
teaching experience at graduate level.