A Novel Imperialist Competitive Algorithm for Multithreshold Image Segmentation

Multithreshold image segmentation plays a very important role in computer vision and pattern recognition. However, the computational complexity of multithreshold image segmentation increases exponentially with the increasing number of thresholds. Thus, in this paper, a novel imperialist competitive algorithm is proposed to solve the multithreshold image segmentation problem. Firstly, a new strategy of revolution and assimilation is adopted to improve the search efficiency of the algorithm. Secondly, imperialist self-learning and reserve country set are introduced to enhance the search of outstanding individuals in the population. Combining with the reserve country set, a novel imperialist competition strategy is proposed to remove the poorer individuals and improve the overall quality of the population. Finally, the sensitivity of the algorithm parameters is analyzed. Ten standard test pictures are selected to test. The experimental results show that the novel imperialist competitive algorithm has faster convergence speed, higher quality, and higher stability in solving multithreshold segmentation problems than methods from literature.