Unsupervised construction of fuzzy measures through self-organizing feature maps and its application in color image segmentation

The paper presents a framework for the se mentation of multi-dimensional images, e.g., color, satellite, multi-sensory images, based on the employment of the fuzzy integral, which undertakes the classification of the input features. The framework makes use of a self-organizing feature map, whereby the coefficients of the fuzzy measure are determined. This process is unsupervised and therefore constitutes one of the main contributions of the paper. The performance of the framework is shown by successfully realizing the segmentation of color images in two different applications. First, the features of the framework and its parameterization are analyzed by segmenting different images used as benchmark in image processing. Finally, the framework is applied in the segmentation of different images taken under difficult illumination conditions. The images serve the development of an automated cashier system, where the weak segmentation constitutes the first step for the identification of different market items. The presented framework succeeds in the segmentation of all these color images. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.