Label propagation through edge-preserving filters

Abstract

In this paper we investigate methods for propagating automatically generated or user-defined labels through an image using edge-preserving filters. We focus on the domain transform filter as it has been used for propagation purposes in the past. The method we present addresses some of the numerical issues that arise with using the filter directly and also improve on the results by better respecting the underlying image structure during the label propagation. Finally we also demonstrate how a filter-based approach is preferable to using global optimization for interpolating automatically generated sparse features.