Image segmentation by region-contour cooperation for image coding

Describes a method of image segmentation for image coding based on contour detection and region-growing procedures. Contour detection allows one to find the most evident frontiers of homogeneous regions. The region-growing procedure serves to close contours and to obtain more precise segmentation. The original idea of the method is the choice of growing centres which are placed on the skeleton of non-closed regions and used in split-and-merge procedure of region growing. The method allows one to obtain staircase closure of original contours which is easy to code