Superpixel Boundary-Based Edge Description Algorithm for SAR Image Segmentation

Although various methods can effectively segment synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, we found that the method combining superpixel and image edge information can get better results. To solve the problem that common SAR image segmentation methods often segment pixels incorrectly in edge region, a superpixel boundary-based edge description algorithm (SpBED) is proposed. First, an edge detection method with three edge detectors is used. Therefore, accurate strong edges of SAR images can be extracted, and false edges that are easy to appear in a single detection method can be effectively eliminated. Then the weak edges of the image are extracted by superpixel generation algorithm. The extracted weak edges can supplement the edge information that is difficult to extract by edge detection. Superpixel boundaries are also used to carry the strong edges, so that the strong and weak edges can be completely represented by superpixel boundaries. Finally, boundary constraint superpixel smoothing is used to reduce the effects of noise, and k-means algorithm is performed on superpixels. Since edge information is carried by superpixels, it effectively guarantees the segmentation accuracy in edge region. Compared with seven state-of-the-art algorithms, segmentation results on simulated images and real images demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed SpBED.