<title>Image segmentation via piecewise constant regression</title>

Abstract

We introduce a novel unsupervised image segmentation technique that is based on piecewise constant (PICO) regression. Given an input image, a PICO output image for a specified feature size (scale) is computed via nonlinear regression. The regression effectively provides the constant region segmentation of the input image that has a minimum deviation from the input image. PICO regression-based segmentation avoids the problems of region merging, poor localization, region boundary ambiguity, and region fragmentation. Additionally, our segmentation method is particularly well-suited for corrupted (noisy) input data. An application to segmentation and classification of remotely sensed imagery is provided.