Segmentation of Complex

Images using SOM for

Clustering

Final Project for CS 7650

Instructor: Dr. Heng-Da Cheng

Manasi Datar
mpdatar@cc.usu.edu
April 22, 2004
 Presentation Outline
• Core Concepts
– Segmentation
– Segmentation and clustering
– Self-Organizing Map (SOM)
– Clustering and SOM
– Segmentation and SOM

• My Idea :)
Segmentation of complex images using SOM for
clustering
– Approach: not novel… but applied to a new domain :)
– Application: pre-processing of images for knowledge
discovery
 Segmentation
• What is it?
A process to distinguish meaningful objects in an
image from the background

• How is it done?
– threshold techniques
– edge-based methods
– region-based techniques
– connectivity-preserving relaxation-based methods
 Segmentation Techniques
• Threshold techniques
– Make decisions based on local pixel information
– Are effective when the intensity levels of the objects
fall squarely outside the range of levels in the
background
– Spatial information is ignored

• Edge-based techniques
– Center around contour detection
– Weakness: connecting together broken contour lines
– Prone to failure in the presence of blurring
 Segmentation Techniques…
contd
• Region-based Techniques
– Connected regions: grouping neighboring pixels of similar
intensity levels
– Region merging: adjacent regions are merged under some
criterion
• Overstringent criteria: fragmentation
• Lenient: blurred boundaries overlooked (overmerge)

• Connectivity-preserving Relaxation-based Techniques

– Active contour model
• start with some initial boundary shape and iteratively modify
according to some energy function
– Getting caught in a local minimum is a risk
 Segmentation and
Clustering
• Clustering
– data set as a group of clusters:
collections of data points that “belong
together”

• Segmentation as clustering
– represent an image in terms of clusters
of pixels that “belong together”
 Clustering Algorithms
Make each point a separate
cluster
Until the clustering is satisfactory
Merge the two clusters
with the smallest inter- cluster
distance
End
Agglomerative
Construct a single cluster containing
all points
Until the clustering is satisfactory
Split the cluster that yields
the two components with the
largest inter-cluster distance
End
Divisive
 Clustering for Segmentation
K-means algorithm
• A natural objective function can be obtained by assuming that we know there are
k clusters, where k is known.

• Each cluster is assumed to have a center; we write the center of the ith cluster as
ci. The i
th
element to be clustered is described by a feature vector xi

• We now assume that elements are close to the center of their cluster, yielding the
objective function

• Note: if the allocation of points to clusters is known, it is easy to compute the best
center for each cluster
 Clustering for Segmentation…
contd
K-means Algorithm
• Choose k data points to act as cluster centers
• Until the cluster centers are unchanged
– Allocate each data point to cluster whose center is nearest
– Now ensure that every cluster has at least one data point
{possible techniques for doing this include supplying empty clusters with a
point chosen at random from points far from their cluster center}

– Replace the cluster centers with the mean of the elements

in their clusters

• End
 Clustering for Segmentation

k-means algorithm example

• On the left, an image of mixed vegetables, which is segmented using k-
means to produce the images at center and on the right.
• Each pixel is replaced with the mean value of its cluster.
• In the center, a segmentation obtained using only the intensity information.
• At the right, a segmentation obtained using color information.
• Each segmentation assumes 5 clusters.
Structure of the SOM
• The SOM arranges feature vectors
according to their internal similarity,
creating a continuous topological map
of the input space.

• In this topological map, the vectors that

are similar in the input space are
grouped together, or clustered.
•
The map is a two dimensional grid of
processing elements, called neurons.

• Each processing element is connected

to each element of the input layer and
to its neighboring processing elements.

• The connections between the layers

(weights) represent the strength of the
connection.
 Working of the SOM
• The training algorithm is based on competitive learning
– only winning processing elements are allowed to adjust weights or learn

• After presenting an input vector, the processing elements’ response, or

activation, is calculated by multiplying the input vector by a set of weights

• The processing element with the highest activation is declared winner

• The winning processing element and its neighbors are allowed to adjust
their weights, while the remaining ones are left unchanged

• The neighborhood is the group of processing elements adjacent to the

winning neuron
– During training the size of the neighborhood is reduced to stabilize the
effect of the input vectors in the topological map

• The result of the training is a centroid (representative vector) for each

cluster that minimizes the quantization error
– The quantization error is defined as the square root of the sum of the
squared difference of individual input patterns and calculated centroids
 SOM Demo

I meant to show this in Matlab, but

unfortunately; this laptop does not
have it installed:(

So, here is a Java version instead…

demo
 SOM for Clustering

Input Topologic
imag al map
e
 SOM for clustering

• Properties of SOM
– Classification
– Visualization

• Can be used as a clustering tool :)

• Will help in gaining useful information

form segmenting complex images.
  My Idea 

• Segmentation of Landsat-7 TM images using

SOM
• Landsat information
– images freely available online
• Main reference:
Automatic Segmentation of Magnetic
Resonance Images (MRIs) of the Human Brain
using Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs) by
Evangelou
 Proposed Mechanism
Landsat 7 image
(raw data)

Rectified
Corrections SOM
Landsat 7 image

Conventional
Classifier Classified image

Post
Classified image
processing

Comparison and Assessment

 Some Results…

Original Image Segmented Image

 In Conclusion…
• Results
– Comparison based on
• Time complexity
• Effectiveness

• SOM will be helpful in identifying intensity

patterns that exist in image data

• Knowledge of such patterns will prove

useful interpretation of such images
 References
• Evangelou, I.E.: Automatic Segmentation of Magnetic Resonance Images
Evangelou, I.E.: Automatic Segmentation of Magnetic Resonance Images
(MRIs) of the Human Brain using Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs). MS Thesis,
Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY, USA (1999).

• Fayyad, U.M.; Piatetsky-Shapiro, G.; Smyth, P. and R. Uthurusamy, R., (Eds.).

Advances in Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. AAAI Press, the MIT Press,
CA, USA (1996).

• Rangsanseri, Y; et al.: Multispectral Image Segmentation using ART1/ART2

Neural Networks. 22nd Asian Conference on Remote Sensing, Singapore
(2001)

• Solaiman, B; Mouchot, M.C.: A Comparative Study of Conventional and Neural

Network Classification of Multispectral Data. IGARSS94, Pasadena, USA. (1994)

• Vesanto, J.: Data Mining Techniques Based on the Self-Organizing Map. MSc
Thesis, Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland (1997)

• Goldberg, M.; Shlien, S.: A clustering scheme for multi-spectral images. IEEE
Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics SMC 8. (1978)

• Theiler, J.; Gisler, G.: A contiguity-enhanced k-means clustering algorithm for

unsupervised Multispectral image segmentation. Proc SPIE 3159. (1997)

• Landsat project info: http://geo.arc.nasa.gov/sge/landsat/landsat.html

 References
• Jain, A. K.; Dubes, R. C.: Algorithms for Clustering Data. Prentice-Hall Inc.,
Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA. (1988)

• Haykin, S.: Neural Networks – A Comprehensive Foundation, Pearson Education

(Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (2001)

• Brown, D. A.; Craw I.; Lewthwaite, J.: Towards Core Image Processing with Self-
Organizing Maps. (2001)

• Su, M.: Clustering Analysis, Department of Computer Science and Information

Engineering, National Central University (2003) {available at:
http://selab.csie.ncu.edu.tw/~muchun/course/cluster/Clustering-crisp.pdf}

• Mather P.: Computer Processing of Remotely Sensed Images, John Wiley &
Sons, Inc. New York, NY, USA (1999)

• Paola, J. D.; Schowenderdt, R. A.: A review and analysis of back propagation

neural networks for classification of remotely sensed multi-spectral imagery,
International Journal of Remote Sensing. (1995)

• Landsat data:
http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/Browse/Cities/L7_CitiesGallery.html

• SOM toolbox for Matlab: http://www.cis.hut.fi/projects/somtoolbox/

 !!! Thank you for your patience !!!

Your comments and suggestions are valuable… please send