Disagreement Loop and Path Creation/Annihilation Algorithms for Binary Planar Markov Fields with Applications to Image Segmentation

We introduce a class of Gibbs-Markov random fields built on regular tessellations that can be understood as discrete counterparts of Arak-Surgailis polygonal fields. We focus first on consistent polygonal fields, for which we show consistency, Markovianity and solvability by means of dynamic representations. Next, we develop disagreement loop as well as path creation and annihilation dynamics for their general Gibbsian modifications, which cover most lattice-based Gibbs-Markov random fields subject to certain mild conditions. Applications to foreground-background image segmentation problems are discussed. Copyright (c) 2010 Board of the Foundation of the Scandinavian Journal of Statistics.