Adaptive segmentation of digital mammograms through reinforcement learning

An approach based on reinfocement learning for the automated segmentation is presented. The approach consists of two modules:segmentation module and learning module. The segmentation module uses the region-growing algorithm combined with the smooth filtering and the morphological filtering to segment mammograms. The learning module uses the segmentation output as the feedback to learn to select the optimal parameter settings of the segmentation algorithm according to the image properties using reinforcement learning techniques. The approach can adapt itself to various kinds of mammograms through training and therefore obviates the tedious and error-prone tuning of parameter settings manually. Quantitative test results show that the approach is accurate for several kinds of mammograms. Compared to previously proposed approaches,the approach is more adaptable to different mammograms.