International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) volume 4 Issue 9Sep 2013

ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 3214

Parameter less Active Contour Algorithm for
Segmentation and Compressing
Computer Screen based
Compound Images
K. Kalpana
#1
, G.Shopia Reena
*2

#
1 Research Scholar, computer science & BharathiarUniversity
*2
Head Of the Department of IT ,Bharathiar University
PSGR Krishnammal College for Women
Coimbatore, India




Abstract Computer Screen Image based Compound
images that contains text, graphic and natural images.
Computer screen Real-time image transmission requires
that the compression algorithm should achieve high
compression ratio, low complexity and also provide
excellent visual quality. The quality requirement of
compound image coding is because users cannot accept the
quality if text different from general image coding is not
clear enough to recognize. This paper proposes an
algorithm to classify and compress the compound images as
text, image and background blocks. Active contour
algorithm first segments a computer screen images image
into text block, back ground block and image block, and.
Compresses the text and background block with a
RunLengthEncodig lossless coding algorithm and the image
block with the standard JPEG, respectively.

Keywords Compound Images; Classification;
Segmentation; Computer Screen Images; Block based;
Compression

I. INTRODUCTION

With the widespread of digital devices
such as digital cameras, personal computers,
more and more compound images, containing
text, graphics and natural images, are available
in digital forms such as screen images, web
pages. The sensitivity of human eyes for
natural image and text is different. As the
number of connected computers and other
digital devices keeps growing, there has been a
critical need for real-time computer screen
image transmission technologies.
The analysis of the compression
numbers published in the past several years
makes one believe that we may be approaching
the point of diminishing returns in this area.
This requires rethinking of our approach to
compression. Whereas in the past the focus of
compression research has been on developing
better algorithms, the future focus is likely to
be on the methods of combining of various
algorithms to achieve the best compression
performance for the given type of images.
There are three basic segmentation schemes
for compound image compression: object-
based, layer-based, and block-based. Over the
last few years, a lot of algorithms have been
designed to compress compound images, which
typically include document imaging
application, such as scan-to-print, document
archiving, internet fax etc.

Most algorithms use the standard -layer Mixed
Raster Content (MRC) [3]representation. For
example, DjVu [1-2] uses a wavelet-based
coder (IW44) for the background and the
foreground layers, and J B2 for the mask layer.
International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) volume 4 Issue 9Sep 2013
ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 3215
The segmentation is based on hierarchical color
clustering and uses a variety of filters
.Commonly, these scanned image compression
algorithms can not achieve satisfactory
performance for computer generated compound
images.
Block-based approaches for compound
images are also studied for their low
complexity. Said et al. [7] proposed a simple
blocked-based scheme, which compresses text
blocks using J PEG-LS, picture blocks using
J PEG. block-based algorithm, the compound
image is divided in blocks of a certain size and
a classification
method is applied to the block to decide which
compression algorithm is to be used. Yanfei
Shen et al.[ 8] proposed a method divides the
computer Screen Image into 16x16 non-
overlapping blocks, and then based on the
characteristics of histogram distribution and the
number of colors, each block is classified into
three types: text/graphic, image and hybrid.
then different block is respectively compressed
by different methods.
This paper presents computer screen
based compound image segmentation using
active contour algorithm and then compression
with different algorithms for text and image
blocks. Active contour model, Is also
called snakes and it is a framework for
delineating an object .This framework attempts
to minimize an energy associated to the current
contour as a sum of an internal and external
energy. The snakes model is famous
in computer vision, and led to several
developments in the representation of 2D and
3D. In two dimensions, the active shape model
represents a distinct version of this approach,
which contains the advantage of the point
distribution model to restrict the shape range to
an explicit domain learned from a training set.
Snakes are autonomous and self-adapting in
their search for a minimal energy state. Using
external image forces, snakes can be easily
manipulated.
II. PROPOSED MODEL FOR COMPUTER
SCREEN IMAGE SEGMENTATION AND
COMPRESSION

A. System Framework

As shown in Fig.1,(a),(b) and (c) Computer
Screen Image is divided into three blocks,
which are roughly classified into three types:
text and background , pictorial blocks based on
the features of shape recognition, edge
detection of active contour model and then
compressed text and background blocks with
Run Length encoding algorithm, and pictorial
blocks with J PEG algorithm.






















Fig.1. Framework of the proposed method




Input Computer Screen Image
Active Contour Model
Text Block Background Image
Run Length Encoding Jpeg
Compress Bit Stream





International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) volume 4 Issue 9Sep 2013
ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 3216

B. Segmentation using Active Contour Model

Active contour model is also
called snake [5] and it is an active model as it
minimizes its energy functional and therefore
exhibits dynamic behaviour.
A simple elastic snake is defined by following
points
a set of n points
an internal elastic energy term
an external edge based energy term.
Active contour algorithm segments the
computer screen images as text, background
and image blocks using label connected
components. This model using the variables
radios( r ),and center ( c ) identifies the edges
of the text and images. and then segments the
text block from the background and image
blocks.
1) Energy function
In Snakes, here used the technique of
matching a deformable model to an image by
means of energy minimization. A snake [5]
initialized near the target gets refined
iteratively and is attracted towards the salient
contour. A snakes can be represented as a set
of n points in the image.

where
We can write its energy function as


1 1
snake internal image con
0 0
*
= E V s ds= (E (V(s)) + E (V(s)) + E (V(s)))ds
snakes
E
.


where represents the internal energy
of the spine (snake) due to
bending, denotes the image forces
acting on spine and serves as external
constraint forces introduced by user. The
combination of and can be
represented as , that denote the
external energy acting on the spine.\






(a).Original image






(b).Segmented image



International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) volume 4 Issue 9Sep 2013
ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 3217


(c) Compressed image
Fig 1. (a),(b) and(c)


C Compression models

1) Text and Background block coding.

. Run length-encoding stands out from
other methods of compression. Advantage of
run length encoding, it does not try to reduce
the average symbol size and it doesn't replace
strings with dictionary references.
RLE replaces a string of repeated
symbols with a single symbol and a count (run
length) indicating the number of times the
symbol is repeated. Run-length encoding
performs lossless data compression and is well
suited to palette-based bitmapped images such
as computer icons. RLE algorithm is used to
compress the text and background blocks in the
input computer screen image.

2) Image Block coding

The objective of J PEG image
compression is simple: to store the data
necessary to reconstruct a digital image using
as little space as possible while maintaining
enough visual detail. so that storing the image
is actually worthwhile. J PEG typically achieves
10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in
image quality. In digital photography
or computer screenshots J PEG the file type
most often produced. Here the image block is
compressed using the J PEG algorithm.


III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

The performance of the system was
analyzed with several executions with the
test images. The main objective of the tests
was to evaluate the performance of the
proposed system on compound image
compression for computer screen images.
The system was compared with
compression ratio, time and PSNR values.
All the experiments were conducted using
a Pentium V dual processor with 512 MB
RAM.

A. Results

The proposed active contour
algorithm is compared with J PEG (IJ G
J PEG 6b), J PEG-2000 (J asper 1.6 [19]),
DjVu (DjVu Shop 2.0),and histogram
based method and To assess the
performance of the proposed models the
three standard performance metrics
used are

(i) Compression Radio
(ii) Peak Signal to Noise Radio
(iii)Compression Time and
Decompression Time.

B. Compression Ratio

The compression ratio (CR) is
calculated using the below formula, which is
shown in equation (4).

International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) volume 4 Issue 9Sep 2013
ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 3218
CR =1 (Compressed
size / Original size)*100 (4).

From the results , it can be seen that the
proposed algorithm produces good
compression ratio for all the test screen images
as shown in the table.

The Table .1 shows the compression ratio of
the proposed methods.
TABLE 1
COMPRESSION RATIO (%)
Images JPEG JP2K histogram proposed
Based system
Screen1 39.32 40.21 45.15 45.77
Screen2 38.77 42.08 46.39 46.01
Screen3 38.52 44.12 49.22 49.24
Screen4 39.47 43.89 47.25 46.92
Screen5 39.21 45.51 49.09 49.21



C. Compression and Decompression Time

The following Table 2 shows the result
of compression and decompression time for all
the test screen images. The compression and
decompression time are the time taken for
encoding and decoding an image.

TABLE 2
Compression Time and Decompression time(sec)
Images JPEG JP2K histogram proposed
Based system
CT DT CT DT CT DT CT DT

Screen1 0.74 0.92 0.69 0.93 0.68 0.89 0.88 0.91
Screen2 0.89 0.32 0.85 0.31 0.830.77 0.87 0.85
Screen3 0.81 0.68 0.87 0.60 0.84 0.62 0.88 0.83
Screen4 0.77 0.91 0.68 0.87 0.69 0.64 0.65 0.61
Screen5 0.72 0.89 0.670.83 0.70 0.83 0.67 0.63


D. Peak Signal to Noise Ratio

The Peak Signal To Noise Ratio is
calculated using the formula, Two of the error
metrics used to compare the various image
compression techniques are the Mean Square
Error (MSE) and the Peak Signal to Noise
Ratio (PSNR). The mathematical formulae for
the two are


MSE =


PSNR = 20 * log10 (255/sqrt(MSE))


where I(x,y) is the original image, I'(x,y) is the
approximated version (which is actually the
decompressed image) and M,N are the
dimensions of the images. The PSNR is used to
judge the quality of decompressed image with
that of the original image.
The Table .3 shows compares the PSNR value
of the proposed methods.

TABLE 3
Peak Signal to Noise Ratio
Images JPEG JP2K histogram proposed
Based system
Screen1 40.38 44.61 48.23 49.01
Screen2 43.91 45.92 48.16 49.82
Screen3 41.48 44.98 47.92 48.34
Screen4 40.85 43.89 45.91 46.45
Screen5 40.72 45.82 49.01 49.83

The compression performance and subjective
image quality of our proposed method can
better than J PEG, J P2k and histogram based
method. .

IV. CONCLUSION

This paper provides the active contour
algorithm to classify and compress the
compound images as text, image and
background blocks and then Run Length
Encoding algorithm applied to text and
background block for compression and image
block is compressed by J PEG compression
algorithm.
International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) volume 4 Issue 9Sep 2013
ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 3219
Remote computer screen management
used in cloud computing and virtual network
computing. Computer screen segmentation and
compression method incorporates in to transmit
huge amount of screen images in real time over
the bandwidth-limited network.Test images are
shown below Fig .2




a. Screen1



b. Screen2



c. Screen3


d. Screen4


e. Screen5

Fig.2. Test Screen images (a),(b),(c),(d),and(e).

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