A level set algorithm for minimizing the Mumford-Shah functional in image processing

We show how the piecewise-smooth Mumford-Shah segmentation problem [25] can be solved using the level set method of S. Osher and J. Sethian [26]. The obtained algorithm can be simultaneously used to denoise, segment, detect-extract edges, and perform active contours. The proposed model is also a generalization of a previous active contour model without edges, proposed by the authors in [12], and of its extension to the case with more than two segments for piecewise-constant segmentation [11]. Based on the Four Color Theorem, we can assume that in general, at most two level set functions are sufficient to detect and represent distinct objects of distinct intensities, with triple junctions, or T-junctions.