Robust level set image segmentation via a local correntropy-based K-means clustering

•We propose a level set segmentation method based on the local correntropy-based K-means (LCK) clustering.•Due to LCK clustering, our segmentation algorithm is robust to complex noise.•Segmentation accuracy is improved as compared with the state-of-the-art approaches.

It is still a challenging task to segment real-world images, since they are often distorted by unknown noise and intensity inhomogeneity. To address these problems, we propose a novel segmentation algorithm via a local correntropy-based K-means (LCK) clustering. Due to the correntropy criterion, the clustering algorithm can decrease the weights of the samples that are away from their clusters. As a result, LCK based clustering algorithm can be robust to the outliers. The proposed LCK clustering algorithm is incorporated into the region-based level set segmentation framework. The iteratively re-weighted algorithm is used to solve the LCK based level set segmentation method. Extensive experiments on synthetic and real images are provided to evaluate our method, showing significant improvements on both noise sensitivity and segmentation accuracy, as compared with the state-of-the-art approaches.