K means clustering on RGB image

                        I assume the readers of this post have enough knowledge on K means clustering method and it’s not going to take much of your time to revisit it again.

Let’s start with a simple example, consider a RGB image as shown below.

Let’s choose the number of clusters = 2. Basically we are going to separate the background (first cluster) and the flower (second cluster).

In the second step, let’s choose two random RGB pixel values.

Since the initial pixel values are completely random, we can clearly see that both the initial cluster points are on the flower and not on the background.

The pixel value of the cluster 1 (R1,G1,B1)=[255,191,59]

The pixel value of the cluster 2 (R2,G2,B2) = [255,245,11]

In the third step, find the Euclidean distance between the initial points and all the pixels in the image matrix.

We will see how to calculate the Euclidean distance between the initial points and the pixel value at (1,1) . The pixel value at (1,1) is [24,64,186]

Repeat the above procedure for all the pixel values.

The next step is finding the minimum value among the two clusters and fetch their corresponding cluster index. With reference to the pixel position at (1,1), the minimum value is 292.6072 and it belongs to the cluster 1. So update the matrix ‘ClusterMap’ with 1 at the position (1,1).

Similarly, find the index of the minimum value and update the ‘ClusterMap’ matrix for all the pixel positions.

The visual analysis of the first iteration shows that the clustering is not good and it still needs to be improved.

It’s time to look for new cluster points. Let’s see how to find new cluster points to perform better segmentation.

In order to obtain the new cluster points, compute the mean of the pixel values with respect to each cluster. Once we obtain the mean value for the Red, Green and Blue channels separately, find the difference between the new values and the current values.

In our chosen example,

The new values for the Red, Green and Blue channels are (R1_new,G1_new,B1_new)=[ 93.2942  106.6650  143.5914] for the first cluster

And (R2_new,G2_new,B2_new)=[ 252.1034  224.2628    3.8519] for the second cluster

The difference between the new and the current values with respect to different color channels are

[  161.7058   84.3350   84.5914] for first cluster (R1-R1_new,G1-G1_new,B1-B1_new)

 [  2.8966   20.7372    7.1481] for the second cluster (R2-R2_new,G2-G2_new,B2-B2_new)

If the difference is more than the threshold value then assign the new values to the current values and continue from the third step i.e calculating the Euclidean distance else stop the process and display the clustered image.

In our example, after the fifth iteration the difference between the new and the current values of the

  1^st cluster [0.1615    0.1734    0.5675] and 2^nd cluster [0.4701    0.5028    0.0364]  indicates that the values are less than 1 for each color channel individually.

The final segmented images are shown below.

MATLAB CODE:

%K means clustering

%Author: Aaron Angel

clear all

close all

clc

%READ A RGB IMAGE

A = imread('flower8.jpg');

figure,subplot(121),imagesc(A);title('RGB Image');hold on;

A = double(A);

%CARTESIAN GRID FOR THE 2D IMAGE

[Xp,Yp] = meshgrid(1:size(A,2),1:size(A,1));

%NUMBER OF CLUSTERS

num_clusters = 4;

%THRESHOLD VALUE FOR EACH CHANNEL

Tval = 1;

%GLOBAL THRESHOLD VALUE

Global_Tval = 3;

%RANDOM IMAGE POSITIONS

RX = randi(size(A,1),1,num_clusters);

RY = randi(size(A,2),1,num_clusters);

%PREALLOCATE THE VECTORS

RGB_val = zeros([num_clusters,3]);

RGB_new = zeros([num_clusters,3]);

%FETCH THE RGB PIXEL VALUE OF THE RANDOM IMAGE POSITIONS

for j = 1:num_clusters

   RGB_val(j,:) = A(RX(j),RY(j),:); 

end

myvox = zeros([size(A,1) size(A,2) num_clusters]);

flag = 1;

Rcomp = A(:,:,1); %RED CHANNEL

Gcomp = A(:,:,2); %GREEN CHANNEL

Bcomp = A(:,:,3); %BLUE CHANNEL

it=0;

while flag==1

 

 %EUCLIDEAN DISTANCE BETWEEN THE RANDOM RGB PIXEL VALUE

 %AND THE PIXEL VALUES IN THE IMAGE

 for j = 1: num_clusters

     myvox(:,:,j) = sqrt((A(:,:,1)-RGB_val(j,1)).^2+(A(:,:,2)-RGB_val(j,2)).^2+(A(:,:,3)-RGB_val(j,3)).^2);

 end

%FIND THE MINIMUM VALUE(Y) AND THE CORRESPONDING CLUSTER NUMBERS(ClusterMap)

[Y,ClusterMap] = min(myvox,[],3);

%MEAN VALUE PIXEL VALUES IN EACH CHANNEL WITH RESPECT TO THE CLUSTERS

for j = 1:num_clusters

  

   RGB_new(j,1) = mean(Rcomp(ClusterMap(:)==j));

   RGB_new(j,2) = mean(Gcomp(ClusterMap(:)==j));

   RGB_new(j,3) = mean(Bcomp(ClusterMap(:)==j));

end

%DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE NEW VALUE AND THE OLD VALUE

DiffVal = abs(RGB_val-RGB_new);

%IF THE DIFFERENCE IS LESS,STOP THE ITERATION ELSE

%ASSIGN THE NEW VALUE AND CONTINUE

if(sum(DiffVal(:)) < Global_Tval)

    flag = 0;

else

  if(sum(DiffVal(:,1))>Tval)

    RGB_val(:,1) = RGB_new(:,1);

  end

  if(sum(DiffVal(:,2))>Tval)

    RGB_val(:,2) = RGB_new(:,2);

  end

  if(sum(DiffVal(:,3))>Tval)

     RGB_val(:,3) = RGB_new(:,3);

  end

end

%NUMBER OF ITERATIONS

it=it+1

end;

subplot(122),imagesc(ClusterMap);title('Clusters');colormap(jet);

%DISPLAY THE SEGMENTED IMAGE BASED ON COLORS

m=2;

n = round(num_clusters/m);

for k=1:num_clusters

F = repmat(logical(ClusterMap==k),1,1,3).*double(A);

figure(2),subplot(n,m,k),imagesc(uint8(F));hold on;

end

EXPLANATION:

In this example, the number of clusters are 4, so the yellow, pink and blue flowers are defined as clusters separately while the remaining details are combined as one cluster.

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