Describe the main steps of region splitting and merging segmentation algorithm.
Steps:
- Split into four disjoint quadrants any region Ri for which Q(Ri) = FALSE.
- When no further splitting is possible, merge any adjacent regions Rj and Rk for which Q(Rj∪Rk)=TRUE.
- Stop when no further merging is possible.
Algorithm for successive region splitting
Set ProcessList = IMAGE
Repeat
Extract the first element of ProcessList
If the region is uniform then add to RegionList
Else split the region into 4 sub-regions and add these to ProcessList
Until ( all regions removed from ProcessList)
Algorithm for successive region merging
Put all regions on ProcessList
Repeat
Extract each region from ProcessList
Traverse remainder of list to find similar region (homogeneity criterion)
If they are neighbours then
merge the regions and recalculate property values;
until (no merges are possible)