A constrained re-growing concept for object separation in sea images

Abstract

In this paper, we present a technique to separate touching objects. This technique is divided into two stages; first separation of objects is achieved by successive threshold slicing, in this process most objects are reduced in size. Then, in order to regain the approximate size and shape the separated objects are re-grown to their original forms under the guidelines of a set of rules. Pixels having the potential for re-growth are identified. The pixel is re-grown only if its re-growth does-not disturb the established separation. We therefore allow separated objects to approximately regain their shape and size by constrained re-growing while maintaining the established separation. In this paper, we apply this algorithm to Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images of sea ice floes.