Leaf image segmentation method based on multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis

To identify singular regions of crop leaf affected by diseases, based on multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA), an image segmentation method is proposed. In the proposed method, first, we defend a new texture descriptor: local generalized Hurst exponent, recorded as LHq based on MF-DFA. And then, box-counting dimension f(LHq) is calculated for sub-images constituted by the LHq of some pixels, which come from a specific region. Consequently, series of f(LHq) of the different regions can be obtained. Finally, the singular regions are segmented according to the corresponding f(LHq). Six kinds of corn diseases leaf's images are tested in our experiments. Both the proposed method and other two segmentation methods-multifractal spectrum based and fuzzy C-means clustering have been compared in the experiments. The comparison results demonstrate that the proposed method can recognize the lesion regions more effectively and provide more robust segmentations. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.