Fuzzy image segmentation by potential fields

Many natural phenomena, and human knowledge about these respectively, can only be described by gradually varying or diffuse entities. This generally motivates imprecise or fuzzy information processing. However, since the transition from exact to fuzzy descriptions offers not just more degrees of freedom but often completely different structures to specify particular knowledge, it requires extended methods or tools enabling the potential user to appropriately transfer his knowledge into a machine-readable form. In terms of image processing, fuzzy techniques have become widely spread. Nevertheless, just this knowledge transfer from a human expert to a potentially available computer system is still an open issue in many cases. The present paper addresses this by means of fuzzy image segmentation against the background of biomedical image processing, where, for example the borderline between adjacent tissues often can not be specified sharply and unequivocally. Despite its particular application in the described context of plant biology, the presented approach is much more versatile and can be applied to a large variety of similar problems.