An unsupervised texture segmentation algorithm with feature space reduction and knowledge feedback

This paper presents an unsupervised texture segmentation algorithm based on feature extraction using multichannel Gabor filtering. It is shown that feature contrast, a criterion derived for Gabor filter parameter selection, is well suited for feature coordinate weighting in order to reduce the feature space dimension. The central idea of the proposed segmentation algorithm is to decompose the actual segmented image into disjunct areas called scrap images and use them after lowpass filtering as additional features for repeated k-means clustering and minimum distance classification. This yields a classification of texture regions with an improved degree of homogeneity while preserving precise texture boundaries.