Segmentation of color lip images by optimal thresholding using bacterial foraging optimization (BFO)

•We use an efficient color space called IHLS to lip segmentation.•We use a new optimization method called BFO to find optimal thresholds.•This research is part of a system for imaging and evaluating of facial surgery.•Proposed algorithm is very effective to develop systems for facial esthetic surgery.

Image segmentation is required as a very important and fundamental operation for significant analysis and interpretation of images. One of the most important applications of segmentation is for facial surgical planning. Thresholding method is so common in image segmentation, because it is simple, noise robustness and accurate. In this paper, we recognize and segment the area of lips using optimal thresholding based on bacterial foraging optimization. New color space (IHLS) is introduced in this paper, that it has good performance in facial image segmentation. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, we use three methods to measure accuracy. The proposed algorithm has less computational complexity and error and it is also efficient.