Semi-automatic video object segmentation using seeded region merging and bidirectional projection

In this paper, we propose a novel approach to semi-automatic video object segmentation. First, an interactive video object segmentation tool is presented for the user to easily define the desired video objects in the first frame, which is user-friendly, flexible and efficient due to the proposed fast seeded region merging approach and the combination of two different ways of user interaction, i.e., marker drawing and region selection. Then, a bidirectional projection approach is proposed to automatically track the video objects in the subsequent frames, which combines forward projection and backward projection to improve the segmentation efficiency, and incorporates pixel classification with region classification in backward projection to guarantee a more reliable tracking performance. Experimental results for various types of the MPEG-4 test sequences demonstrate an efficient and faithful segmentation performance of the proposed approach.