Evolutionary Cellular Automata based-approach for region detection

EVOLUTIONARY CELLULAR AUTOMATA BASED-APPROACH FOR REGION DETECTION

S. SLATNIA1, O. KAZAR1 University of Biskra, Computer Science department, 07000 Biskra, Algeria, sihem.slatnia@gmail.com kazarokba@yahoo.fr
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Abstract : We use an evolutionary process to seek a specialized powerful rules of Cellular Automata (CA) among a set of best rules for extracting regions in a given black-white image. This best set of local rules determines the future state of CA in an asynchronous way. The Genetic Algorithm (GA) is applied to search the best CA rules that can realize better the region detection. Keyword : Genetic Algorithms, Evolutionary Cellular Automata, Region Detection. 1 INTRODUCTION

We can understand the emergence like a phenomenon of producing collective behaviour by a collection of interacting elements in a complex system. The study of evolving Cellular Automata (CA) framework using evolutionary algorithms is a good example to show how evolution can create systems in which emergent computation takes place. Indeed, the actions of simple components with local information and communication give rise to coordinated global information processing [MCD96]. In this paper, we are using Genetic Algorithms (GAs) in order to evolve CA to perform computations that require global coordination [MCD96]. Indeed, we are interested into CA [GSD01, Ros05] and the region detection [Can86]. Among a variety of researchers having investigated the proprieties of CA, we cant miss to cite the works of John von Neumann [Neu66], Stephen Wolfram [Wol70], and John Conway [Gar70]. CA are discrete dynamical systems, which are widely applied in modeling systems in regions such as physics, biology, and sociology [Bar86]. CA can be interpreted like a set of rules which through an Evolutionary CA (EvCA), we can find one or several appropriate rules for a definite problem. The idea of using one packet of rules in region detection and filtering are in the merit of Rosin [Ros05]. Indeed, it is used in restoration of black-white images. Moreover, Rosin [Ros05] studied these best rules in details and showed the interest of each one. The result of its study showed that a single rule can remove isolated pixels in a noise black-white image. In this paper, we use a GA to find a single powerful rule for extracting efficiency regions in a given black-white image. Indeed, an EvCA is applied in order to determine the best local rules of the CA, using a GA on a population of CA candidates [MCD96]. After this introduction, Section 2 presents the EvCA-RD approach. Experimental results are reported in Section 3. Conclusions are drawn in the last section.

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S. SLATNIA, O.KAZAR U. Biskra 2 THE EVCA FOR REGION DETECTION (EVCA-RD)

The proposed EvCA-RD takes advantage of the calculating faculties of the CA, to transform the initial configurations defined by a binary image lattice as input discrete data in order to find its regions. The execution of a simple packet of CA local rules evolved using evolutionary process [Ros05, BMA06] produces an emergent phenomenon. In this paper, the GA is applied to search the desirable CA rules that can realize better the region detection. In order to explore all configurations in the research space, we regroup the rules in packets [SBM07, BMA06]. In our study, we must avoid the redundancy of a (rules or packets) during the process of evolution and the contradictory rules in the same packet (2 patchs with different transition). In the EvCA-RD approach, we seek the best packet of transition rules for region detection of a black-white image. The CA unit is represented by a rectangle of 9 cells. Indeed, the problem is to find the best CAs for region detection among 251 possible rules. We use a GA to find this optimal packet of rules (see Fig. 3). The following code describes the GA to determine the best packet of transition rules that able to achieve the region detection of binary images. Algorithm 1. The input data: Input Image. 2. Initialization of the GA: Construction at random of rule packets extracted from the neighbourhood model figured on the whole of the image (see Fig. 4). x Region detection method: For each CA, the process: First, searches; among the current packets; the similar rule according to its neighbourhood. Second, modifies the central pixel according to the defined transition. x Evaluation of the noise filtering result: We compute the distance between the region detection result and the ideal one considered to assess the approach. We can also evaluate the error of miss-classed pixels. 3. Reproduction: Generate a new population by applying selection, crossover and mutation. We use the region detection described above in the evaluation process. 4. The process iterates until there is no improvement in the objective function for a given stall limit consecutive generations, or for a fixed maximum of iterations [VK05]. 5. The result: optimal packet of rules. CA can be interpreted like a set of rules which through an EvCA, we can find one or several appropriate rules for a definite problem. The idea of using one packet of rules in region detection and filtering is reported in the work of Rosin [Ros05]. Especially, it can be used in restoration of black-white images. Moreover, Rosin [Ros05] studied these best rules in details and shows the interest of each one. The result of its study showed that a single rule can remove isolated pixels in a noise black-white image. In this paper, we inspire of this fact to seek a single powerful rule for extracting efficiency regions in a given black-white image. We represent the transition rule of a CA by the concatenation of the cells states of the current cell neighborhood to update (see Fig. 2). Then, we add the future cell state after updating [BMA06]. This rule (pattern) is transformed as a linear chromosome (see Fig. 1).

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Evolutionary Cellular Automata based-approach for region detection

Figure 1 : CA rule notation and the chromosome representation the CA rule.; The rule is applied when its part neighborhood coincides with a patch of the same dimension on the image. Then, we replace the central pixel of the patch by the value of the future state in the rule. The correspondence between the part neighborhood of the rule and a patch of the image is reduced according to the rotational operators (rotation to 00, 900, 1800 and 2700, reversal horizontal and vertical fiip-fiop). The rules are therefore symmetrical. Each individual of the population is represented by a chromosome which is a transition vector according to a neighborhood model (see Fig. 2). We report that for the case of the black (0) and white (1) images, the numbers of the possible combinations to construct of the research space will be decreased contrary to the general case. To make the CA deterministic, we add the following constraint: Every rule of the packet must be different from the other. To explore a vast set of configurations, the chromosome representation can be presented by two types of structure from the input image: the horizontal and the vertical. We use the horizontal one. The crossover exchanges, with given probability a genetic material between two parent chromosomes corresponding to two CA transition rules for producing two offspring. The mutation is a random change of gene in a given CA transition rule (parent). The selection process based on the region detection assessment in EvCA represents an interdisciplinary process. Let Err = nbr of pixels where (ImageRD z ImageIdealRD), which Err and nbr are the abbreviation of error and number respectively. The fitness function used to assess the region detection is given by: F = 1 - (err/L H) where L and H represent the image width and height. The Err function computes the number of the points finds non equal in the two images: the resulted image and the ideal one.

Figure 2 : Construction of the neighborhood model from an input image.

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Figure 3 : A best packet of CA rules find by GA.; 3 EXPERIMENTAL; RESULTS

We present both synthetic and real results (see Figs. 4,6,8 and 10) of the EvCA-RD. These following experiments are performed by using MATLAB on a Pentium 4, CPU 1:70 GHz with 256 MB. The EvCA-RD using the powerful rule number 15 extracts better (see Fig. 2) the regions in all the experimental results performed on a class of binary images. Consequently, for a region detection of a class of binary images, only one powerful rule is able to give better results, what of the substantial gains give in the cost and in the qualities. The best packet is used for the region detection. In the first image (see Figure. 4), It can be seen that different regions of image saturn are better extracted by the best packet (see Figure. 3). The same result is presented in a region detection of image car (see Figure. 6). In Figure 4, we use a synthetic image containing different geometric shapes. It can be seen that different regions are better extracted by EvCA-RD using the best packet.

Figure 4 : Region detection of Saturn (128128). (a) input image (b) best packet result, (c) result using the colors.

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Evolutionary Cellular Automata based-approach for region detection

Figure 5 : The error obtained of the Saturn experience.

Figure 6 : Region detection of car (171171). (a) input image (b) best packet result, (c) result using the colors.

Figure 7 : The error obtained of the car experience. Each graph of Figure 8, presents the error evaluation of the EvCA-RD of the experiments presented in 3. For each rule, we get the fitness value of EvCA-RD result. These graphs show clearly that the best packet give the better fitness result. These results and robustness of this packet compared to the others still the same in different experiments made on black-white images.

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Iteration 1

Iteration 2

Iteration 3

Iteration 4

Iteration 5

Iteration 6

Iteration 8 Iteration 7

Figure 8 : Evaluation values of the experiments reported in Figure 3. Concerning the complexity, the implementation has made without the specialized hardware that are available [TM87, HH04], the running time of the CA using the powerful rule is better than the time of the CA using the best packet. 80 IMAGE09 Biskra

Evolutionary Cellular Automata based-approach for region detection 4 CONCLUSION

In this paper, our proposed model of CA applied in region detection provides insights on how evolutionary processes can be used to discover local patterns that give rise to optimal region detection of a given binary image. Indeed, one of such local structural properties was identified via the GA allowed us to analyze the evolutionary emergence of sophisticated computation. In this paper, we have demonstrated that the region detection can be interpreted like an evolutionary phenomenon of a set of CA, controlled by best packet of CA applied on a category of image. Indeed, the image can be modeled by a CA which we can implement easily. The EvCA-RD shows the degree of specialization aspect of CA of region detection. Indeed, the robustness of the best packet shows that each rule has its fitness value. Thus, we can say that for a given global computation task, the GA evolve a best packet of rules which each one has its robustness value. The emergence phenomenon is clearly appeared in the fact that one rule is able to detect regions in a given class of image. This result illustrates that in a given task each rule has a degree of adaptation. 5 BIBLIOGRAPHIE Y. Bar-Yam, Dynamics of Complex Systems. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, [Bar86] 1997.

[BMA06] M. Batouche, S. Meshoul and A. Abbassene, On Solving Region Detection by Emergence, IEA/AIE,pp. 800808, 2006. [Gar70] M. Gardner, The fantastic combinations of John Conways new solitaire game life. Scientific American, pages 120-123, 1970. [GSD01] N. Ganguly, B.K. Sikdar, A. Deutsch, G. Canright, P.P. Chaudhuri, A Survey on Cellular Automata , Project BISON (IST-2001-38923), 2001. [MCD96] M. Mitchell, James P. Crutchfield, and R. Das, Evolving Cellular Automata with GAs: A Review of Recent Work , in Proc. of the first Inter. Conf. on Ev. Comp. and its Appl. (EvCA96) Moscow, 1996. [Neu66] Press, 1966. J. von Neumann, Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata. University of Illinois

[Ros05] P.L. Rosin, Training Cellular Automata for Image Processing , Proc. Scandanavian Conference on Image Analysis, LNCS 3540, pp. 195-204, 2005. [SBM07] S. Slatnia, M. Matouche and K.E. Melkemi, (2007). Evolutionary Cellular Automata Based-Approch for Edge Detection, WILF 2007, LNAI 4578, pp 404-411. [TM87] T. Tofioli and N. Margolus, Cellular Automata Machines. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1987. [HH04] M. Halbach and R. Hofimann, Implementing cellular automata in fpga logic. In Proc. 18th Int. Parallel and Distributed Processing Symp. , pp. 258a-258a, 2004. [VK05] V. Vezhnevets, and V. Konouchine, GrowCut-interactive multi-label N-D image segmentation by cellular automata, Graphicon2005.

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S. SLATNIA, O.KAZAR U. Biskra [Wol70] S. Wolfram, Cellular Automata and Complexity. Addison-Wesley, 1994. 4. M. Gardner, The fantastic combinations of John Conways new solitaire game life. Scientific American, pages 120-123, 1970.

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