Dense iterative contextual pixel classification using Kriging

In medical applications, segmentation has become an ever more important task. One of the competitive schemes to perform such segmentation is by means of pixel classification. Simple pixel-based classification schemes can be improved by incorporating contextual label information. Various methods have been proposed to this end, e.g., iterative contextual pixel classification, iterated conditional modes, and other approaches related to Markov random fields. A problem of these methods, however, is their computational complexity, especially when dealing with high-resolution images in which relatively long range interactions may play a role. We propose a new method based on Kriging that makes it possible to include such long range interactions, while keeping the computations manageable when dealing with large medical images.