Bayesian texture segmentation of weed and crop images using reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo methods

A Bayesian method for segmenting weed and crop textures is described and implemented. The work forms part of a project to identify weeds and crops in images so that selective crop spraying can be carried out. An image is subdivided into blocks and each block is modelled as a single texture. The number of different textures in the image is assumed unknown. A hierarchical Bayesian procedure is used where the texture labels have a Potts model (colour Ising Markov random field) prior and the pixels within a block are distributed according to a Gaussian Markov random field, with the parameters dependent on the type of texture. We simulate from the posterior distribution by using a reversible jump Metropolis-Hastings algorithm, where the number of different texture components is allowed to vary. The methodology is applied to a simulated image and then we carry out texture segmentation on the weed and crop images that motivated the work. Copyright 2003 Royal Statistical Society.