A generalized Mumford-Shah model for roof-edge detection

In this paper we have generalized the Mumford-Shah (MS) model to detect roof edges. It is found that many previous models cannot detect edges with low contrast. We have studied a variety of different models of energy minimization a la Mumford-Shah approach for image segmentation. The model proposed in this paper is better than the classical piecewise constant approximation since it can detect the low contrast edges of objects. The validity of the new model is demonstrated by experimental results.