Richard Tsai (University of Texas, Austin)

We propose an efficient algorithm for minimizing the piecewise constant Mumford-Shah functional of image segmentation. It is based on the threshold dynamics of Merriman, Bence, and Osher for evolving an interface by its mean curvature. We show that a very fast minimization can be achieved by alternating the solution of a linear parabolic partial differential equation and simple thresholding. We shall also discuss some current work in generalizing of this approach to high order geometrically based motion with possibly improved accuracy.