Edge/region-based segmentation and reconstruction of underwater acoustic images by Markov random fields

This paper describes a technique for the reconstruction and segmentation of three-dimensional acoustical images using a coupled Random Fields able to actively integrate confidence information associated with acquired data. Beamforming, a method widely applied in acoustic imaging, is used to build a three-dimensional image, associated point by point with another kind of information representing the reliability (i.e. “confidence”) of such an image. Unfortunately, this kind of images is plagued by several problems due to the nature of the signal and to the related sensing system, thus heavily affecting data quality. Specifically, speckle noise and the broad directivity characteristic of the sensor lead to very degraded images. In the proposed algorithm, range and confidence images are modelled as Markov Random Fields whose associated probability distributions are specified by a single energy functional. A three-fold process has been applied able to reconstruct, segment, and restore the involved acoustic images exploiting both types of data. Our approach showed better performances with respect to other MRF-based methods as well as classical methods disregarding reliability information. Optimal (in the Maximum A-Posteriori probability sense) estimates of the 3D and confidence images are obtained by minimizing the energy functional by using simulated annealing