A new algorithm for image segmentation via watershed transformation

A new segmentation method is presented. The watershed transformation is initially computed starting from all seeds detected as regional minima in the gradient image and a digging cost is associated to each pair of adjacent regions. Digging is performed for each pair of adjacent regions for which the cost is under a threshold, whose value is computed automatically, so originating a reduced set of seeds. Watershed transformation and digging are repeatedly applied, until no more seeds are filtered out. Then, region merging is accomplished, based on the size of adjacent regions.