Walk the Lines 2: Contour Tracking for Detailed Segmentation

Abstract: This paper presents Walk the Lines 2 (WtL2), a unique contour tracking algorithm specifically adapted for detailed segmentation of infrared (IR) ships and various objects in RGB.1 This extends the original Walk the Lines (WtL) [12], which focused solely on detailed ship segmentation in color. These innovative WtLs can replace the standard non-maximum suppression (NMS) by using contour tracking to refine the object contour until a 1-pixel-wide closed shape can be binarized, forming a segmentable area in foreground-background scenarios. WtL2 broadens the application range of WtL beyond its original scope, adapting to IR and expanding to diverse objects within the RGB context. To achieve IR segmentation, we adapt its input, the object contour detector, to IR ships. In addition, the algorithm is enhanced to process a wide range of RGB objects, outperforming the latest generation of contour-based methods when achieving a closed object contour, offering high peak Intersection over Union (IoU) with impressive details. This positions WtL2 as a compelling method for specialized applications that require detailed segmentation or high-quality samples, potentially accelerating progress in several niche areas of image segmentation.