GrabCutSFM: How 3D information improves unsupervised object segmentation

In this paper, we present an unsupervised graph cut based object segmentation method using 3D information provided by Structure from Motion (SFM), called GrabCutSFM. Rather than focusing on the segmentation problem using a trained model or human intervention, our approach aims to achieve meaningful segmentation autonomously with direct application to vision based robotics. Generally, object (foreground) and background have certain discriminative geometric information in 3D space. By exploring the 3D information from multiple views, our proposed method can segment potential objects correctly and automatically compared to conventional unsupervised segmentation using only 2D visual cues. Experiments with real video data collected from indoor and outdoor environments verify the proposed approach.