Characterization of graph-based hierarchical watersheds: theory and algorithms

Deise Santana Maia (1) , Jean Cousty (1) , Laurent Najman (1) , Benjamin Perret (1)

1 LIGM - Laboratoire d'Informatique Gaspard-Monge

Watershed is a well established clustering and segmentation method. In this article, we aim to achieve a better theoretical understanding of the hierarchical version of the watershed operator. More precisely, we propose a characterization of hierarchical watersheds in the framework of edge-weighted graphs. The proposed characterization leads to an efficient algorithm to recognize hierarchical watersheds.

Domaines: Traitement des images [eess.IV]

Deise Santana Maia, Jean Cousty, Laurent Najman, Benjamin Perret. Characterization of graph-based hierarchical watersheds: theory and algorithms. International Journal of Mathematical Imaging and Vision, 2020, Special Issue on Discrete Geometry for Computer Imagery 2019, 62 (5), pp.627-658. ⟨10.1007/s10851-019-00936-6⟩. ⟨hal-02280023v2⟩