Multi-threshold segmentation of grayscale and color images based on Kapur entropy by bald eagle search optimization algorithm with horizontal crossover and vertical crossover

For multi-threshold segmentation of grayscale and color images, the computational complexity increases exponentially with the increase of the number of threshold levels. In this paper, we propose a new method to segment grayscale and color images with Kapur entropy as the objective function. The method introduces four strategies such as horizontal crossover and vertical crossover into the bald eagle search optimization algorithm, forming an advanced bald eagle search optimization algorithm (ABES). In the benchmark function comparison experiments at IEEE CEC 2017, ABES was compared with classical and novel algorithms, and the results proved to have stronger convergence speed, convergence accuracy, and stability than other algorithms. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the method in multi-thresholding segmentation of grayscale and color images, it is applied to low-level and high-level image multi-thresholding experiments, and the experimental results show that ABES outperforms other algorithms in the evaluation of PSNR, MSSIM, and FSIM, and ABES is a high-quality image segmentation method.