The determination of optimum segmentation parameters using genetic algorithms: Application to different segmentation algorithms and transmission electron microscopy tomography reconstructed volumes

Abstract

A method for optimizing an automatic selection of values for parameters that feed segmentation algorithms is proposed. Evolutionary optimization techniques in combination with a fitness function based on a mutual information parameter have been used to find the optimal parameter values of region growing, fuzzy c-means and graph cut segmentation algorithms. To validate the method, the segmentation of two transmission electron microscopy tomography reconstructed volumes of a carbon black-reinforced rubber and a polylactic acid and clay nanocomposite is carried out (i) using evolutionary optimization techniques and (ii) manually by experts. The results confirm that the use of evolutionary optimization techniques, such as genetic algorithms, reduces the computational operation cost needed for a total grid search of segmentation parameters, reducing the probability of reaching a false optimum, and improving the segmentation quality.