Extended set of superpixel features

Abstract

Superpixel-based image processing and analysis methods usually use a small set of superpixel features. Expanding the description of superpixels can improve the quality of processing algorithms. In the paper, a set of 25 basic superpixel features of shape, intensity, geometry, and location is proposed. The features meet the requirements of low computational complexity in the process of image superpixel segmentation and sufficiency for solving a wide class of application tasks. Applying the set, we present a modification of the well-known approach to the superpixel generation. It consists of fast primary superpixel segmentation of the image with a strict homogeneity predicate, which provides superpixels preserving the intensity information of the original image with high accuracy, and the subsequent enlargement of the superpixels with softer homogeneity predicates. The experiments show that the approach can significantly reduce the number of image elements, which helps to reduce the complexity of processing algorithms, meanwhile the expanded superpixels more accurately correspond to the image objects.