Image Segmentation Using a Local GMM in a Variational Framework

In this paper, we propose a new variational framework to solve the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) based methods for image segmentation by employing the convex relaxation approach. After relaxing the indicator function in GMM, flexible spatial regularization can be adopted and efficient segmentation can be achieved. To demonstrate the superiority of the proposed framework, the global, local intensity information and the spatial smoothness are integrated into a new model, and it can work well on images with inhomogeneous intensity and noise. Compared to classical GMM, numerical experiments have demonstrated that our algorithm can achieve promising segmentation performance for images degraded by intensity inhomogeneity and noise.