A New Harris Hawks-Cuckoo Search Optimizer for Multilevel Thresholding of Thermogram Images

A New Harris Hawks-Cuckoo Search Optimizer for Multilevel Thresholding of Thermogram Images

Leena Samantaray Sabonam Hembram Rutuparna Panda 

epartment of Electronics and Communication Engg., ABIT, Cuttack 753014, India

Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engg., VSS University of Technology, Burla 768018, India

Corresponding Author Email: 
rpanda_etc@vssut.ac.in
Page: 
541-551
|
DOI: 
https://doi.org/10.18280/ria.340503
Received: 
11 July 2020
|
Revised: 
2 September 2020
|
Accepted: 
8 September 2020
|
Available online: 
20 November 2020
| Citation

© 2020 IIETA. This article is published by IIETA and is licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

OPEN ACCESS

Abstract: 

The exploitation capability of the Harris Hawks optimization (HHO) is limited. This problem is solved here by incorporating features of Cuckoo search (CS). This paper proposes a new algorithm called Harris hawks-cuckoo search (HHO-CS) algorithm. The algorithm is validated using 23 Benchmark functions. A statistical analysis is carried out. Convergence of the proposed algorithm is studied. Nonetheless, converting color breast thermogram images into grayscale for segmentation is not effective. To overcome the problem, we suggest an RGB colour component based multilevel thresholding method for breast cancer thermogram image analysis. Here, 8 different images from the Database for Research Mastology with Infrared images are considered for the experiments. Both 1D Otsu’s between-class variance and Kapur's entropy are considered for a fair comparison. Our proposal is evaluated using the performance metrics – Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), Feature Similarity Index (FSIM), Structure Similarity Index (SSIM). The suggested method outperforms the grayscale based multilevel thresholding method proposed earlier. Moreover, our method using 1D Otsu’s fitness functions performs better than Kapur’s entropy based approach. The proposal would be useful for analysis of infrared images. Finally, the proposed HHO-CS algorithm may be useful for function optimization to solve real world engineering problems.

Keywords: 

optimizer, Harris Hawks optimization, cuckoo search, multilevel thresholding, thermogram image analysis

1. Introduction

Breast cancer is most common among women. Over 2.1 million women get affected each year, and the death rates are highly related to the breast cancer [1]. It is the second most common cancer in women after lungs cancer. Breast Cancer mostly begins in the ducts or lobules after uncontrolled growth of the cells. Breast cancer can spread to distant organs, so an early treatment is required. Cancer is a disease with multiple factors, so advanced screening of the breasts is required for analysis of the tumor formation. Breast cancer can be classified in several stages, the initial stage, which is known as DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ), the growth of cells is limited in ducts. In the next stage, the formation of tumor occurs, and also has a small group of cancer cells. When the size of the tumor grows, it spreads to lymph nodes and distant organs such as bones, liver, brain or lungs.

Advanced screening of breasts is required for analysis of tumor formation as an extra aid to a radio-physicist. There are various Medical imaging techniques used for early analysis of breast cancer, Such as Breast Ultrasound (Sonogram), Magnetic Resonance (MRI), Thermography, Mammography, Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Computed Tomography (CT), Integrated PET/CT, MRI and PET, Ultrasound and MRI.

Mammography is one of the popular diagnostic techniques used for the detection of breast cancer. Mammography involves exposure to X-ray radiation on the human body. Due to the exposure to radiation, there is a possibility of further cancer cell growth. Sometimes Mammography, Breast MRI and Breast Ultrasound show “false-positive” results, in which the person needs an additional test or even more. This could lead to another mammogram or a different test.

On the other hand, thermography is a clinical procedure where a thermal camera captures the infrared radiation of the human body at controlled room temperature and produces the digital thermal images. A body emits infrared radiation above absolute zero temperature. A thermal image shows the temperature variations of the body. The infrared radiation emitted by the surface of the body has wavelength ranges from 0.8µm to 10 µm. Thermography is a non-invasive process, no exposure to radiations and does not involve in compression of breast tissues [2]. Thermography provides information on the growth of cancer cells before the formation of a tumour. No radiation is involved as the temperature variation of the body provides vascular activity information.

Image Segmentation Partitions images into regions into homogeneous classes. For image segmentation, several techniques have been studied throughout the years. Multilevel thresholding is the easiest method in image segmentation. In color images, multilevel thresholding partitions, images into different classes based on threshold levels of each R, G, B histogram components. The thresholding based segmentation method is divided into parametric and non-parametric. Note that the parametric method calculates the probability density function of each class, whereas the nonparametric measure class variance, entropy to get the optimal threshold values [3]. Due to the computational complexity of the parametric approach, nonparametric methods are used. Various optimization techniques are used in multilevel thresholding using nonparametric approaches to get the best threshold values. Segmentation of medical images is popular in recent years as it is helpful for analysis of a particular part of the body.

In this work, a new optimization technique called Harris Hawks-Cuckoo Search (HHO-CS) is investigated. The Harris Hawks optimizer is found more popular for function optimization. However, its exploitation capability is limited, thereby not yielding to optimal or near optimal solutions. This has motivated us to incorporate the exploitation capability of the cuckoo search strategy. This is the real motivation behind the investigation of the proposed HHO-CS algorithm. Two different objective functions are used for a comparison. The suggested algorithm is used to obtain the optimal threshold values to segment colour thermogram images. The effectiveness of HHO-CS algorithm is validated with a set of 23 Benchmark functions and compared with Harris Hawks optimization [4] and Cuckoo Search algorithm [5]. For multilevel thresholding of thermogram images, experiments are performed based on Otsu’s between-class variance and Kapur's entropy as the fitness functions. Our proposed HHO-CS technique is evaluated based on the performance metrics – peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), Feature similarity index (FSIM), Structure Similarity Index (SSIM). Results of objective function values, threshold levels of RGB component are also evaluated.

Converting colour thermal images into grayscale images makes it a difficult task to extract features due to poor contrast, low visual perception. Therefore, it is necessary to perform full colour image processing of the clinical images for research support. For the past few years, many optimization techniques are used to perform segmentation to get better quality segmented images. This has motivated us to investigate a method to segment colour thermogram images. Results are presented using 1D Otsu’s objective function and Kapur’s entropy.

Organization of the paper is as follows: Section 2 discusses the related work. The proposed HHO-CS algorithm is presented in Section 3. The methodology is discussed in Section 4. Results are presented in Section 5. Conclusions are given in Section 6.

2. Related Work

Díaz-Cortés et al. [6] in 2018 presented multilevel thresholding of Breast Thermal images using Dragonfly algorithm. The Segmentation of grayscale breast thermal images is performed by using the energy curve of images as an input. The colour Segmentation of satellite images using nature-inspired optimization algorithms are proposed by Bhandari et al. [7]. The performance of the algorithms was performed based on Otsu’s between-class variance and Kapur’s entropy as the objective functions. The Kapur’s entropy based objective function has better performance and the Cuckoo search algorithm was found to be more efficient for Colour segmentation of satellite images.

He and Huang [8] presented an efficient krill herd (EKH) optimization technique for multilevel thresholding of colour images using Otsu’s method, Kapur and Tsallis entropy as the objective functions. The efficient krill herd (EKH) algorithm shows better performance as compared to the krill herd algorithm (KH). Electro-magnetism optimization (EMO) algorithm based multilevel thresholding is presented by Oliva et al. [9]. The Otsu’s and Kapur's entropy criterion used as objective functions and the histogram of images are taken as the input. Oliva et al. [3] presented a hybrid Artificial Bee colony-Salp Swarm algorithm (ABC-SSA), for image segmentation. The hybrid approach performs better than ABC, SCA, SSO, SSA algorithms in a multilevel thresholding problem using Kapur’s entropy as the objective function. Multilevel thresholding of Satellite images proposed by Pare et al. [10] using optimization techniques WDO, BFO, FA, ABC, DE and PSO by taking energy curves of image as an input. The objective functions based on Kapur’s entropy, Tsallis entropy and Otsu’s method are used. The Kapur’s entropy based DE techniques produces better segmented images.

Multilevel thresholding using WDO and CS was proposed by Bhandari et al. [11] using Kapur’s entropy as the objective function. Multilevel thresholding using various Optimization techniques are reported in the studies [12-15]. Horng et al. [16] presented multilevel thresholding based on honey bee mating optimization using the cross entropy as the objective function. Bhandari et al. [17] proposed a modified artificial Bee colony (MABC) optimizer for multilevel thresholding of satellite images through maximization of Otsu’s between-class variance, Kapur’s and Tsallis entropy. The MABC algorithm produces better segmented images as compared to ABC method.

2.1 Harris Hawks Optimization

A nature-inspired Optimization algorithm called “Harris-Hawks optimization”algorithm was proposed by Heidari et al. in 2019. The Harris-hawks optimization technique is inspired by the hunting strategy of Harris-hawks and escaping of prey. The Harris-hawks catch prey by a “Surprise Pounce” or also known as“Seven kills”strategy. The Harris-hawks optimization technique also features exploration and exploitation phase [4].

2.1.1 Exploration phase

The exploration phase of HHO algorithm consists of two strategies to detect the prey (Rabbit) by perching randomly on some locations, taking an equal chance q (in each perching plan), the perch based on the position of other hawks. The location of the rabbit is known as $\begin{equation}X_{\text {rabbit }}\end{equation}$. The rabbit location for the condition q< 0.5 described in Eq. (1). When q $\begin{equation}\geq\end{equation}$ 0.5, hawks roost on random high trees inside their range of location.

$\begin{equation}

X(t+1)=\left\{\begin{array}{l}

X_{\text {rand}}-r_{1}\left|X_{\text {rend}}(t)-2 r_{2} X(t)\right|, q \geq 0.5 \\

\left(X_{\text {rabbit}}(t)-X_{m}(t)\right)-r_{3}\left(L B+r_{4}(U B-L B)\right), q<0.5

\end{array}\right.

\end{equation}$    (1) 

where, The term X(t+1) represents updated position of Hawks in each iteration, $\begin{equation}X_{\text {rabbit}}(t)\end{equation}$ is the postion of rabbit, $\begin{equation}X_{\text {rand}}(t)\end{equation}$ is the position of Hawks chosen randomly, LB is the lower bound, UB is the upper bound, and $\begin{equation}X_{m}(t)\end{equation}$ is the average position of hawks. Random numbers $\begin{equation}\mathrm{r}_{1}, \mathrm{r}_{2}, \mathrm{r}_{3}, \mathrm{r}_{4}\end{equation}$ are used to explore different regions of Search space for the Hawks. The equation for the average position of hawks is given by:

$\begin{equation}

X_{m}(t)=\frac{1}{N} \sum_{i=1}^{N} X_{i}(t)

\end{equation}$     (2)

where, $\begin{equation}\mathrm{X}_{\mathrm{i}}(\mathrm{t})\end{equation}$ and N represents the location of each Hawk in iteration t and number of Hawks, respectively. The transition from the Exploration Phase to Exploitation Phase occurs depending on the Perching strategy of Hawks on escaping prey (Rabbit). The initial energy $\begin{equation}\mathrm{E}_{0}\end{equation}$ The value ranges from -1 to 1 for every iteration t. When the value of $\begin{equation}\mathrm{E}_{0}\end{equation}$ decreases from 0 to -1, it signifies a weakening of the prey. In case the value of $\begin{equation}\mathrm{E}_{0}\end{equation}$ increases from 0 to 1, it signifies strengthening of the prey. The escaping energy of the Prey also a key factor in the transition, which is modelled as:

$\begin{equation}

E=2 E_{0}\left(1-\frac{t}{T}\right)

\end{equation}$     (3)

2.1.2 Exploitation phase

The Hawks perform the “Surprise Pounce” strategy to catch the prey. There is also an escaping factor ‘r’ of the prey, where the value of r is greater than 0.5 signify higher chance of escape and less than or equal to 0 signify lower chance of escape of the rabbit. There are different phases of exploitation of prey based on the escaping factor and energy of the prey. The exploitation phases are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Exploitation phases of HHO

a. Soft Besiege

The Hawks perform Soft Besiege based on Rabbit’s energy. The position of hawks for soft Besiege models as below.

$\begin{equation}

X(t+1)=\Delta X(t)-E / J X_{\text {rabbit}}(t)-X(t) /

\end{equation}$     (4)

$\begin{equation}

\Delta X(t)=X_{\text {rabbit}}(t)-X(t)

\end{equation}$     (5)

where, “J” is known as“Jump strength”of the Rabbit.

b. Hard Besiege

When the Rabbit is fagging, the hawks perform “Surprise Pounce” tactics, when the escaping factor value “r” is greater than or equal to 0.5 and the escaping energy is less than 0.5. For each iteration, the positions of hawks are updated using the equation. 

$\begin{equation}

X(t+1)=X_{\text {rabbit}}(t)-E|\Delta X(t)|

\end{equation}$     (6)

where, E is the energy.

c. Soft Besiege with progressive rapid dives

In Case of Escaping energy greater than or equal to 0.5 and the escaping factor less than 0.5 of the rabbit, the hawks perform soft besiege with progressive rapid dives. In this condition, the rabbit has sufficient energy to outflow). The Levy flight movement of Hawks depends on the zig-zag motion of the rabbit [6]. The Hawks update their position concerning the movements of the rabbit. The equations for this strategy can be described as below:

$\begin{equation}

Y=X_{\text {rabbir}}(t)-E\left|J X_{\text {rabbit}}(t)-X(t)\right|

\end{equation}$     (7)

$\begin{equation}

Z=Y+S \times L F(D)

\end{equation}$     (8)

$\begin{equation}

L F(x)=0.01 \times \frac{u \times \sigma}{|v|^{\frac{1}{\beta}}}

\end{equation}$     (9)

where,

$\begin{equation}

\begin{array}{l}

\sigma=\left(\frac{\Gamma(1+\beta) \times \sin \left(\frac{\pi \beta}{2}\right)}{\Gamma\left(\frac{1+\beta}{2}\right) \times \beta \times 2^{\left(\frac{\beta-1}{2}\right)}}\right)^{\frac{1}{\beta}} \\

X(t+1)=\left\{\begin{array}{l}

Y, F(Y)<F(X(t)) \\

Z, F(Y)<F(X(t))

\end{array}\right.

\end{array}

\end{equation}$     (10)

Note that LF is the Levy flight.

d. Hard Besiege with progressive rapid dives

When Escaping energy is less than 0.5 and escaping factor is less than 0.5, the rabbit is completely exhausted and has low-level energy, the Hawks perform hard besiege with rapid dives to catch the rabbit. In this stage, the hawks successfully catch the rabbit. The Levy flight method is also used in this phase. The equation for the position of hawks, for each iteration, is given below:

$\begin{equation}

X(t+1)==\left\{\begin{array}{ll}

Y, & \text { if } F(Y)<F(X(t)) \\

Z, & \text { if } F(Z)<F(X(t))

\end{array}\right.

\end{equation}$     (11)

$\begin{equation}

Y=X_{\text {rabbit}}(t)-E \mid J X_{\text {rabbit}}(t)-X_{m}(t)

\end{equation}$     (12)

$\begin{equation}

Z=Y+S \times L F(D)

\end{equation}$     (13)

2.2 Cuckoo search optimization

Nature-inspired Cuckoo Search optimization was proposed by Yang and Deb in 2009 [5]. The Cuckoo Search algorithm is based on the brooding parasitism of Cuckoo birds as they use another host bird’s nest for breeding. The phases of the cuckoo search algorithm are described below

1) A cuckoo bird lays one egg at a time and pass down to another bird’s nest;

2) The best nests with good quality eggs are carried over to the next generations;

3) The number of host nests is fixed, and the host bird can discover an egg with a probability of $\begin{equation}p_{a}\end{equation}$ ∈ [0,1]. Interestingly, the host bird can either throw the egg or abandon the nest immediately. The number of nests “n” and“ $\begin{equation}p_{a}\end{equation}$ ”are replaced with new solutions.

The mathematical equation, for each iteration, is modelled as below.

$\begin{equation}

x_{i}^{(t+1)}=x_{i}^{(t)}+\alpha \oplus \text {Lévy}(\lambda)

\end{equation}$     (14)

The equation for the levy flight mechanism is given below.

$\begin{equation}

\text { Lévy } \sim u=t^{-\lambda},(1<\lambda \leq 3)

\end{equation}$     (15)

where, ‘u’ is the variable and ‘$\begin{equation}\lambda\end{equation}$’ is a constant.

3. Proposed Harris Hawks-Cuckoo Search Optimizer

Harris Hawks Optimization technique performs good exploration tactics to catch the prey to reach a global best solution, whereas the weak exploitation capability of hawks signifies a higher chance of getting into local optima. To enhance the performance of HHO, the exploitation capability of Cuckoo search mechanism is inherited here. The location of hawks is updated by:

$\begin{equation}

\begin{array}{l}

X(t+1)= \\

\left\{\begin{array}{c}

X_{\text {rand}}(t)-r_{1}\left|X_{\text {rand}}(t)-2 r_{2} X(t)\right|+\alpha \oplus \text {Lévy}(\lambda), q \geq 0.5 \\

\left.X_{\text {rabbit}}(t)-X_{m}(t)\right)-r_{3}\left(L B+r_{4}(L B+(U B-L B))+\alpha \oplus\right. \text {Lévy}(\lambda) \\

q<0.5,|E| \geq 1

\end{array}\right.

\end{array}

\end{equation}$     (16)

Figure 2. Flow diagram of HHO-CS

The flow diagram of HHO-CS method is displayed in Figure 2.

Table 1. Parameter settings

Algorithm

Parameter

Value

HHO-CS

N

$\begin{equation}

p_{a}

\end{equation}$

$\begin{equation}

\beta

\end{equation}$

30

0.25

1.5

HHO

N

30

Table 2. Results of benchmark functions ( $\begin{equation}f_{1}\end{equation}$ - $\begin{equation}f_{13}\end{equation}$ ), with 30 dimensions

Function

 

HHO-CS

HHO

1

Avg

Std

Min

Max

8.8674E-95

4.8557E-94

4.5074E-115

2.6596E-93

1.6694E-94

6.9584E-94

1.9980E-121

3.6163E-93

2

Avg

Std

Min

Max

5.9147E-49

2.3401E-48

3.3248E-59

1.2151E-47

1.3618E-49

7.2705E-49

3.4078E-59

3.9850E-48

3

Avg

Std

Min

Max

2.6211E-72

1.4357E-71

1.2370E-98

7.8634E-71

8.4362E-76

3.3003E-75

4.5853E-99

1.5885E-74

4

Avg

Std

Min

Max

2.5076E-49

9.4690E-49

6.2383E-58

5.0141E-48

8.8527E-49

3.6383E-48

4.5837E-58

1.9624E-47

5

Avg

Std

Min

Max

0.0290

0.0524

3.9738E-5

0.2504

0.0172

0.0339

1.7375E-5

0.1741

6

Avg

Std

Min

Max

1.0566E-04

1.2169E-04

9.8245E-08

4.9675E-04

1.2869E-04

1.5884E-04

4.6149E-07

6.6066E-04

7

Avg

Std

Min

Max

1.4913E-04

2.0653E-04

1.0482E-05

8.6431E-04

1.7717E-04

1.4357E-04

3.0423E-06

6.6621E-04

8

Avg

Std

Min

Max

-1.2486E+04

45.2858

-1.2569E+04

-1.2350E+04

-1.2562E+04

40.0058

1.2569E+04

1.2350E+04

9

Avg

Std

Min

Max

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

10

Avg

Std

Min

Max

8.8818E-16

1.47E+02

8.8818E-16

8.8818E-16

8.8818E-16

1.47E+02

8.8818E-16

8.8818E-16

f 11

Avg

Std

Min

Max

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

f 12

Avg

Std

Min

Max

5.9841E-06

9.2809E-06

1.4347E-08

3.4656E-05

1.1300E-05

2.2354E-05

7.8338E-09

1.1656E-04

f 13

Avg

Std

Min

Max

7.0957E-05

1.2754E-04

2.4497E-08

6.3517E-04

8.1648E-05

9.4889E-05

5.8620E-09

3.5137E-04

Figure 3. Convergence curves of HHO-CS and HH

Table 3. Results of benchmark functions ($\begin{equation}f_{14}-f_{23}\end{equation}$)

Function

 

HHO-CS

HHO

f 14

Avg

Std

Min

Max

1.5585

1.2876

0.9980

5.9288

1.3280

0.9466

0.9980

5.9288

f 15

Avg

Std

Min

Max

3.4236E-04

2.9925E-05

3.0756E-04

4.4702E-04

3.8963E-04

2.6287E-04

3.0771E-04

1.8000E-03

f 16

Avg

Std

Min

Max

-1.0316

6.78E-16

-1.0316

-1.0316

-1.0316

6.78E-16

-1.0316

-1.0316

f 17

Avg

Std

Min

Max

0.3979

2.54E-06

0.3979

0.3979

0.3979

2.54E-06

0.3979

0.3979

f 18

Avg

Std

Min

Max

3

0

3

3

3

0

3

3

f 19

Avg

Std

Min

Max

-3.6028

1.4095

-3.8628

-3.8599

-3.8590

0.0061

-3.8628

-3.8333

f 20

Avg

Std

Min

Max

-3.1250

0.0726

-3.2605

-2.9690

-3.0913

0.0988

-3.2836

-2.8111

f 21

Avg

Std

Min

Max

-5.5267

1.4608

-10.0063

-5.0028

-5.1375

1.0277

-10.0464

-2.6226

f 22

Avg

Std

Min

Max

-5.2484

0.9042

-10.0360

-5.0679

-5.2495

0.9097

-10.0658

-5.0685

f 23

Avg

Std

Min

Max

-5.4583

1.2722

-10.4055

-5.1106

-5.3041

0.9876

-10.5332

-5.1076

Benchmark Function Optimization

To test the effectiveness of HHO-CS, HHO, and CS algorithms, a set of 23 standard benchmark functions including unimodal, multimodal, multimodal with fixed dimension functions ( $\begin{equation}f_{1}-f_{23}\end{equation}$ ) are taken for a minimization problem. The unimodal functions are used to test the exploitation capability of optimizers and the multimodal functions are used to test the exploration ability. The unimodal functions also signify the ability to reach the global best while the performance of the multimodal functions shows the local optima avoidance. The dimension size is set to 30. The population size N is 30 and the maximum iteration is 500. All the algorithms are run in MATLAB R2018 having an Intel Core i5-8265U CPU clocked at 1.60GHz with 4GB RAM, with windows 10 operating system. The parameter settings are shown in Table 1. The results of an Average (Avg), Standard deviation (Std), Minima (Min) and Maxima (Max) of 30 runs of each benchmark functions are shown in Table 2&3. The boldface letters indicate the best results. The convergence curves are shown in Figure 3.

In summary, the proposed HHO-CS algorithm performs better than the HHO for the multimodal test functions. However, the performance of our method is similar to that of the HHO for some of the functions. Nevertheless, the suggested algorithm ensures a better convergence, because of its enhanced exploitation capability.

4. Methodology

Multilevel thresholding of color thermogram images is solved using the RGB histogram as the input, considering that the color images contain more information, better visual perception of the human eye with contrary to grayscale images, where we cannot see the temperature variations. The multilevel thresholding technique is used to get better results.

4.1 Otsu’s between class variance

The bi-level and multilevel thresholding of images based on the between class variance was first proposed by Otsu [18]. Bi-level thresholding and multilevel thresholding separate images into classes when the maximum variance is calculated. This method considers histogram of an image as an input. The probability distribution of intensity levels of R, G, B channel is obtained. The optimal threshold values are obtained for each channel of the colour image. The mathematical representation is given below

$\begin{equation}

\sigma^{2}=\sum_{k=1}^{n t} \sigma_{k}=\sum_{k=1}^{n t} \omega_{k}\left(\mu_{k}-\mu_{\tau}\right)^{2}

\end{equation}$     (17)

$\begin{equation}

\mu_{\star}=\sum_{i=t h k}^{t h_{k+1}-1} \frac{k P E_{i}}{\omega_{i}\left(t h_{i}\right)}

\end{equation}$     (18)

where,

$\begin{equation}

\omega_{k}=\sum_{i=t h k}^{t h k+1-1} P E_{i}

\end{equation}$     (19)

$\begin{equation}

f_{\text {otsu}}(t h)=\max \left(\sigma^{2}(t h)\right), 0 \leq \text { th } \leq \mathrm{L}-1

\end{equation}$     (20)

where, $\begin{equation}\sigma^{2}\end{equation}$ is the variance, µ is the mean.

4.2 Kapur’s entropy

Kapur’s entropy method measures the entropy of different classes of an image. To segment colour images, the Kapur’s entropy maximizes the entropy and obtain optimal threshold values of each R, G, B channel. The probability distribution of intensity levels of each R, G, B channel is used to measure the entropy criterion. Segmentation of Colour images performed by maximizing Kapur’s entropy, which is taken as the objective function [19]. The mathematical formulations for Kapur’s entropy are

$\begin{equation}

f_{\text {Kapur}}(t h)=\max \left(\sum_{k=1}^{n t} H_{k}\right)

\end{equation}$    (21)

where, entropy of each class is calculated by

$\begin{equation}

H_{k}=\sum_{i=t h k}^{t h k+1-1} \frac{P E_{i}}{\omega_{k}} \ln \left(\frac{P E_{i}}{\omega_{k}}\right)

\end{equation}$     (22)

In summary, the proposed Harris Hawks-Cuckoo Search Optimizer (Eq. (16)) is used to optimize the fitness functions shown in Eq. (20) (Otsu’s method) and Eq. (21) (Kapur’s method). It is reiterated that the optimum threshold values are obtained through the maximization.

5. Results and Discussions

The multilevel colour thermogram image thresholding method is implemented using both Otsu’s between-class variance and Kapur’s entropy as the fitness functions. The proposed HHO-CS, CS and HHO algorithms are implemented to get optimal results. The multilevel colour thermogram image thresholding method is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Multilevel thresholding of thermal images

The benchmark images are displayed in Figure 5. The experiments are based on a set of 8 different images acquired from the Database for Research Mastology with Infrared images [20]. The images are captured using a FLIR SC-620 Thermal Camera. The selected images and their respective histogram plots are described in Figure 5. For experimental purposes, images with size 341 x 256 are taken.

The population size and the maximum number of iterations of each algorithm are set to 30 and 500, respectively. The Lower bound (LB) and upper bound (UB) of the algorithm is set to 0 to 255. The performance of the algorithms is evaluated, which is composed of 20 runs of the same algorithm using a specific image and calculating the average of objective function values, PSNR, SSIM and FSIM [21-24].

Figure 5. Benchmark images and their respective histograms

5.1 Benchmark images

The Peak Signal to noise ratio (PSNR) is a widely used performance metric for measuring the quality of the original image with the reconstructed images. Structure Similarity Index (SSIM) and Feature Similarity index (FSIM) quality metric measure the similarity between the original image and the output segmented image. SSIM specify quality degradation due to data processing. All experiments are performed on MATLAB R2018a with 4GB RAM on an Intel core i5 CPU clocked at 1.6 GHz frequency.

5.2 Experiment 1: Based on Otsu’s between class variance

Optimal threshold values are obtained using HHO-CS algorithm and presented in Table 4. Objective function values and PSNR values obtained from HHO-CS and HHO algorithms using Otsu’s between class variance are displayed in Table 5. Remarkable differences are found. It is observed that the suggested HHO-CS method outperforms as compared to HHO. Similarly, a significant improvement over the HHO algorithm is seen with respect to the PSNR values. The reason could be the enhanced exploitation capability of HHO-CS method to get the best solutions. For instance, an improvement of 3% in PSNR value is seen in the test image sample TH1 with threshold level K=4 (see Table 5). The SSIM and FSIM values obtained from HHO-CS and HHO algorithms using Otsu’s between-class variance are shown in Table 6. Interestingly, the suggested technique has shown better values (for SSIM and FSIM) than HHO.

Table 4. Threshold values obtained using HHO-CS algorithm

Image 

HHO-CS

 

 

R

G

B

TH1

137,239

110,210

82,163

3

141,176,230

60,153,182

62,130,149

4

44,58,113,145

44,102,160,230

46,86,135,250

5

145,191,196,197,254

61,87,168,173,255

83,98,152,196,236

TH2

2

138,236

82,88

81,190

3

108,212,228

62,60,140

51,86,118

4

101,155,176,255

93,130,167,228

46,94,185,198

5

112,180,183,224,255

83,96,126,200,247

82,128,137,239,254

TH3

2

125,229

102,238

83,86

3

136,147,180

81,151,215

63,110,196

4

140,188,212,249

59,91,140,243

63,104,195,248

5

32,153,155,190,249

83,96,97,103,231

60,76,86,164,196

TH4

2

148,203

95,174

77,90

3

100,189,222

56,130,217

52,107,108

4

104,164,194,250

110,148,175,251

80,114,190,215

5

106,111,184,249,254

64,69,88,123,217

58,88,64,65,104

TH5

2

137,138

101,209

75,88

3

113,141,201

60,134,141

47,63,126

4

155,162,172,254

112,146,147,219

84,94,202,215

5

130,165,192,217,253

86,166,174,187,218

76,96,176,209,220

TH6

2

128,137

47,100

85,147

3

117,134,206

56,131,209

71,138,166

4

130,143,170,254

118,120,126,216

60,117,202,244

5

66,185,195,199,245

94,107,119,148,208

55,84,93,162,247

TH7

2

139,184

93,97

56,85

3

115,124,214

63,136,158

59,61,129

4

219,237,241,251

110,167,184,232

91,120,243,246

5

114,118,142,250,255

78,138,186,191,240

29,68,92,133,207

TH8

2

125,139

100,126

92,130

3

97,190,243

43,64,131

54,83,169

4

125,156,162,253

126,134,218,233

94,95,131,213

5

141,156,159,213,247

93,115,182,238,253

21,63,98,241,247

Table 5. Comparison of objective function and PSNR values obtained from HHO-CS and HHO algorithms using Otsu’s between-class variance

 

 

OBJECTIVE FUNCTION

PSNR

Images  

K  

HHO-CS

HHO

HHO-CS

HHO

TH1

2

3

4

5

1.3864 E+04

1.4623 E+04

1.7680 E+04

1.9050 E+04

1.3829E+04

1.4581E+04

1.7483E+04

1.8744E+04

55.0114

62.7343

69.6979

74.3875

53.4132

62.5010

67.6563

73.3842

TH2

2

3

4

5

1.5874 E+04

1.6509 E+04

1.9470 E+04

2.0844 E+04

1.5860E+04

1.6499E+04

1.8832E+04

1.9810E+04

55.3194

62.4648

66.3321

72.0098

54.1919

61.3768

65.7321

71.8845

TH3

2

3

4

5

1.2160 E+04

1.3104 E+04

1.8422 E+04

2.0441 E+04

1.2133E+04

1.3012E+04

1.7919E+04

1.8662E+04

55.3793

62.1599

65.2385

68.4839

53.9000

60.9659

64.2440

66.8464

TH4

2

3

4

5

1.6818 E+04

1.7437 E+04

2.1086 E+04

2.2654 E+04

1.6807E+04

1.7369E+04

1.9552E+04

2.1593E+04

56.1415

58.5895

64.3450

66.0842

54.938

55.1351

60.9177

64.0399

TH5

2

3

4

5

1.2864 E+04

1.3962 E+04

1.8368 E+04

2.0739 E+04

1.2858E+04

1.3833E+04

1.7688E+04

1.9943E+04

56.2041

57.7679

59.3859

62.8876

55.5316

56.0270

58.7054

61.4830

TH6

2

3

4

5

1.4484 E+04

1.5325 E+04

2.0903 E+04

2.2077 E+04

1.4467E+04

1.5185E+04

2.0314E+04

2.1627E+04

56.5041

58.1370

64.2811

66.2539

55.0818

57.5004

63.2488

65.4236

TH7

2

3

4

5

1.8836 E+04

1.9405 E+04

2.2614 E+04

2.5290 E+04

1.8825E+04

1.9340E+04

2.1881E+04

2.3362E+04

57.6207

63.8870

65.7686

66.2036

55.0971

62.9271

63.9271

65.7404

TH8

2

3

4

5

1.4799 E+04

1.5705 E+04

2.1482 E+04

2.2905 E+04

1.4757E+04

1.5658E+04

2.1221E+04

2.2280E+04

57.6318

64.2626

67.8773

69.2639

56.5587

64.2060

67.5404

68.6456

Table 6. Comparison of SSIM and FSIM values obtained from HHO-CS and HHO algorithms using Otsu’s between class variance

 

 

SSIM

FSIM

Images

K

HHO-CS

HHO

HHO-CS

HHO

TH1

2

3

4

5

0.7342

0.7829

0.8280

0.8604

0.6967

0.7355

0.8181

0.8523

0.7515

0.8029

0.8140

0.8396

0.7486

0.7992

0.8110

0.8347

TH2

2

3

4

5

0.7114

0.8079

0.8501

0.9109

0.6912

0.7904

0.8483

0.8976

0.7586

0.7946

0.8267

0.8438

0.7170

0.7781

0.8231

0.8362

TH3

2

3

4

5

0.7281

0.7964

0.8248

0.8787

0.7060

0.7784

0.8174

0.8653

0.7676

0.8025

0.8238

0.8449

0.7468

0.7970

0.8258

0.8418

TH4

2

3

4

5

0.6699

0.8010

0.8324

0.8963

0.6662

0.7934

0.8292

0.8714

0.7840

0.8170

0.8344

0.8570

0.7698

0.8106

0.8210

0.8359

TH5

2

3

4

5

0.7401

0.8007

0.8591

0.8729

0.7238

0.7952

0.8470

0.8667

0.7419

0.7739

0.8255

0.8996

0.7361

0.7680

0.8137

0.8811

TH6

2

3

4

5

0.7287

0.7728

0.8421

0.8899

0.7207

0.7702

0.8388

0.8890

0.7676

0.8272

0.8310

0.8485

0.7533

0.8158

0.8237

0.8442

TH7

2

3

4

5

0.7009

0.7765

0.8461

0.8914

0.6941

0.7507

0.8422

0.8884

0.7920

0.8189

0.8335

0.8628

0.7823

0.8153

0.8266

0.8445

TH8

2

3

4

5

0.7194

0.8192

0.8476

0.8777

0.6839

0.8119

0.8426

0.8701

0.7921

0.8213

0.8418

0.8550

0.7907

0.8177

0.8356

0.8521

5.3 Results of HHO-CS algorithm using Otsu’ between-class variance

Segmented results of HHO-CS algorithm using Otsu’s method is shown in Figure 6. Both the low contrast and high contrast visual features are retained. The quality of the output is implicit. The proposed method may attract radio physicists to use it as an additional tool for diagnosis.

Figure 6. Results of HHO-CS algorithm using Otsu’s method

5.4 Experiment 2: Based on Kapur’s entropy

Optimal threshold values, obtained using HHO-CS algorithm, are displayed in Table 7. Objective function values and PSNR values obtained from HHO-CS and HHO methods using Kapur’s entropy are presented in Table 8. Profound differences are seen. It is observed that the suggested HHO-CS method performs better than the HHO. Similarly, a significant improvement over the HHO algorithm is seen with respect to the PSNR values. The reason could be the enhanced exploitation capability of HHO-CS algorithm to achieve the best solutions. Our method has shown consistently better PSNR values than HHO (see Table 8). The SSIM and FSIM values obtained from HHO-CS and HHO algorithms using Kapur’s entropy are shown in Table 9. Interestingly, our method has shown better values (for the SSIM and FSIM) than the HHO.

Table 7. Threshold values of HHO-CS

Images

K

HHO-CS

 

 

R

G

B

TH1

2

227,234

42,179

233,252

3

190,229,255

125,145,200

51,71,189

4

132,137,187,247

15,104,136,210

32,42,141,233

5

98,115,202,203,212

3,75,102,115,186

25,112,158,188,232

TH2

2

239,255

106,206

25,191

3

208,235,255

16,132,247

35,88,238

4

166,200,218,250

141,216,245,251

38,68,199,228

5

116,153,168,190,250

98,103,177,200,215

42,60,80,176,198

TH3

2

221,227

230,239

186,255

3

126,230,244

87,137,154

21,33,131

4

129,156,204,223

80,84,187,227

126,190,222,227

5

104,138,143,228,255

54,82,130,169,223

16,36,58,205,238

TH4

2

227,255

47,120

169,255

3

137,158,236

82,121,254

62,120,190

4

136,194,209,224

51,57,80,249

41,46,144,182

5

164,166,239,245,254

5,51,59,114,118

85,164,176,187,207

TH5

2

236,249

87,254

44,148

3

189,203,255

31,229,244

191,219,233

4

188,202,219,253

115,147,239,250

3,40,132,252

5

99,160,176,197,250

49,82,124,231,250

70,85,109,133,226

TH6

2

212,229

45,117

119,245

3

137,168,203

115,129,218

3,73,153

4

105,123,200,250

77,92,138,250

74,133,136,252

5

147,196,209,230,252

19,35,66,133,164

36,69,188,222,243

TH7

2

250,252

179,242

178,243

3

215,220,254

3,102,158

126,150,157

4

104,184,237,246

33,49,156,208

5,68,117,245

5

150,151,200,209,251

25,159,180,196,229

9,31,34,106,191

TH8

2

233,249

251,252

30,163

3

219,225,233

14,142,219

69,100,124

4

179,198,211,242

35,63,83,129

3,131,181,246

5

89,139,166,202,234

26,79,102,114,251

27,34,74,149,159

Table 8. Comparison of objective function values and PSNR obtained from HHO-CS and HHO algorithms using Kapur’s entropy

 

 

OBJECTIVE FUNCTION

PSNR

Image

K

HHO-CS

HHO

HHO-CS

HHO

TH1

2

3

4

5

25.3967

36.4699

42.8620

50.2350

23.8390

34.0063

39.4868

48.4930

48.8151

53.1784

55.0468

59.3109

48.3047

52.8795

54.5950

58.2001

TH2

2

3

4

5

25.8282

32.0311

40.5143

50.2481

25.6571

31.2724

40.2226

48.3490

53.1854

58.6532

62.7254  65.2311

52.9000

58.1990

62.0969

65.6008

TH3

2

3

4

5

26.7611

33.3907

41.5988

51.4126

26.6938

32.1520

40.8171

50.8451

50.1649

52.0191

56.6610

60.1033

48.5777

51.0425

56.1281

59.7543

TH4

2

3

4

5

26.8261

32.5919

37.2682

46.2737

23.7504

31.6829

37.0698

46.1896

53.8566

56.3193

61.9640

65.6875

52.0168

55.2586

61.7853

65.5550

TH5

2

3

4

5

27.6672

34.4082

40.0538

48.3672

27.1914

34.3798

39.3762

47.7147

50.1393

54.0606

58.6640

60.4075

48.6514

53.9827

57.6439

59.3283

TH6

2

3

4

5

26.9100

35.6760

44.2570

50.4478

23.9546

33.8006

40.7154

50.3543

50.3106

53.5330

62.0879

63.5159

46.0928

51.0713

55.1715

63.5070

TH7

2

3

4

5

25.7328

32.2351

41.8437

45.9847

25.5387

32.1220

41.7025

45.5572

50.1983

53.8161

58.3176

60.1012

50.1500

53.1795

57.5759

59.5965

TH8

2

3

4

5

25.8521

33.2082

40.5836

49.3672

25.4122

32.3197

39.5286

49.3606

48.1895

53.7797

58.8640

63.8921

47.3364

53.6042

57.9005

63.8803

Table 9. Comparison of SSIM and FSIM values from HHO-CS and HHO algorithms using Kapur’s entropy

 

 

SSIM

FSIM

Image

K

 HHO-CS

HHO

HHO-CS

HHO

TH1

2

3

4

5

0.6241

0.6707

0.8155

0.8571

0.5798

0.6643

0.8028

0.8317

0.6870

0.7283

0.7510

0.7849

0.6632

0.7103

0.7496

0.7835

TH2

2

3

4

5

0.5481

0.7343

0.7836

0.8283

0.4899

0.6783

0.7482

0.8315

0.7122

0.7438

0.7630

0.7782

0.7084

0.7417

0.7583

0.7992

TH3

2

3

4

5

0.5980

0.7112

0.7358

0.8388

0.5208

0.6878

0.7033

0.8058

0.6772

0.7294

0.7668

0.7705

0.6623

0.7228

0.7655

0.7765

TH4

2

3

4

5

0.5191

0.7289

0.7478

0.8016

0.5160

0.6951

0.7266

0.7959

0.7124

0.7456

0.7621

0.7926

0.7100

0.7425

0.7617

0.7878

TH5

2

3

4

5

0.6818

0.7089

0.7416

0.8283

0.5718

0.6686

0.7132

0.8208

0.6790

0.7141

0.7284

0.7311

0.6773

0.6978

0.7165

0.7298

TH6

2

3

4

5

0.4988

0.6538

0.7238

0.7364

0.4164

0.5617

0.6815

0.7157

0.7221

0.7579

0.7994

0.8185

0.6941

0.7565

0.7879

0.8237

TH7

2

3

4

5

0.4523

0.6513

0.7897

0.7911

0.4510

0.5336

0.6850

0.7208

0.7920

0.8193

0.8335

0.8628

0.7823

0.8189

0.8266

0.8445

TH8

2

3

4

5

0.4331

0.6004

0.7162

0.7819

0.3654

0.4711

0.5864

0.6146

0.7909

0.8213

0.8418

0.8550

0.7921

0.8177

0.8356

0.8521

Figure 7. Results of HHO-CS algorithm using Kapur’s entropy

Segmented results of HHO-CS algorithm using Kapur’s entropy is shown in Figure 7. Both the low contrast and high contrast visual features are retained.

From this study, it is believed that the 1D Otsu’s between class variance method outperforms 1D Kapur’s entropy based technique. Because, infrared images, mostly have low contrast features. Therefore, between class variance helps us to compute optimal threshold values for separating different classes. It seems that the between class variance information is more than the entropy information in thermograms. In summary, the suggested multilevel colour image thresholding technique is useful for thermogram image analysis. 

6. Conclusions

Unlike early multilevel thresholding method reported in the breast thermogram analysis, based on the gray-level images, the suggested method uses R, G, B colour components. The suggested technique is useful for the breast thermogram analysis. Results using the colour images may assist the clinicians, as an extra support, in the breast thermogram analysis. Nevertheless, the proposed HHO-CS optimizer helps us to compute optimal values for colour image thresholding. The exploitation capability of the HHO is enhanced, because the exploitation feature of CS is integrated in the system. Profound differences are observed while studying the convergence curves presented in this paper. The suggested HHO-CS performs better than both the HHO and CS optimizers. The speed of convergence is implicit (see Figure 3). The method has shown its ability to extract both the low and high resolution visual features, because all three colour components are used. The quality of the visual results is explicit (from Figure 6, 7). From Tables 4-6, it is observed that the RGB components based thresholding method using Otsu’s objective function is better than the Kapur’s entropy based approach; the reason is that the former fitness function could preserve more details. Therefore, the suggested RGB component based method using Otsu’s between class variance may be suitable for pathological investigations. To figure out other merits, our method is faster and more accurate. It is re-iterated that the proposed technique may attract the use of low cost and portable infrared cameras for analysis of breast thermograms. The proposal would be useful for analysis of other infrared images together with a clinical study. It is also believed that the suggested HHO-CS optimizer would be useful for function optimization to solve real world engineering problems.

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