Patent ID: 8798365

Claim:
Image segmenting method, comprising: a computer system reading an image recorded in a computer memory, wherein the image comprises a plurality of points, each having a position in the image, a computer system determining a solution to the problem of maximum flow in a graph comprising, on the one hand, as vertices, a source, a sink and image points, and, on the other hand, arcs each having a positive or zero flow passage capacity, wherein the arcs include arcs called source arcs, linking the source to each of the points, arcs called sink arcs, linking the sink to each of the points, and arcs called inter-point arcs, linking the points to one another, wherein each point is assigned a capacity, called a through-capacity, representing the combination of the flow passage capacities of the source arc and the sink arc linking it respectively to the source and to the sink, a computer system assigning, on the basis of the determined solution, an “object” label or a “background” label to each of at least some of the points of the image, a computer system recording the image with the assigned labels in a computer memory, characterized in that it comprises, before determining a solution to the problem of maximum flow: a computer system determining points of the image, called critical points, for each of which the image points located in a predetermined window applied around the critical point verify a predetermined condition on their through-capacities, and in that the points of the graph include the determined critical points and the inter-point arcs linking the neighboring critical points to one another according to a predetermined neighboring criterion on their relative positions in the image.