We propose a unified variational formulation for joint motion estimation and segmentation with explicit occlusion handling. This is done by a multi-label representation of the flow field, where each label corresponds to a parametric representation of the motion. We use a convex formulation of the multi-label Potts model with label costs and show that the asymmetric map-uniqueness criterion can be integrated into our formulation by means of convex constraints. Explicit occlusion handling eliminates errors otherwise created by the regularization. As occlusions can occur only at object boundaries, a large number of objects may be required. By using a fast primal-dual algorithm we are able to handle several hundred motion segments. Results are shown on several classical motion segmentation and optical flow examples.

Common methods for interactive texture segmentation rely on probability maps based on low dimensional features such as e.g. intensity or color, that are usually modeled using basic learning algorithms such as histograms or Gaussian Mixture Models. The use of low level features allows for fast generation of these hypotheses but limits applicability to a small class of images. We address this problem by learning complex descriptors with Random Forests and exploiting their inherent parallelism in a GPU implementation. The segmentation itself is based on a convex energy functional that uses weighted Total Variation regularization and a point-wise data term allowing for continuous foreground/background membership hypotheses. Its globally optimal solution is obtained by a fast primal-dual algorithm providing a reasonable convergence criterion. As a result, we present a versatile interactive texture segmentation framework. We show experiments with natural, artificial and medical data and demonstrate superior results compared to two recent approaches.

Interactive object extraction is an important part in any image editing software. We present a two step segmentation algorithm that first obtains a binary segmentation and then applies matting on the border regions to obtain a smooth alpha channel. The proposed segmentation algorithm is based on the minimization of the Geodesic Active Contour energy. A fast Total Variation minimization algorithm is used to find the globally optimal solution. We show how user interaction can be incorporated and outline an efficient way to exploit color information. A novel matting approach, based on energy minimization, is presented. Experimental evaluations are discussed, and the algorithm is compared to state of the art object extraction algorithms. The GPU based binaries are available online.