Over-segmentation of watershed transform




Left: Fluorescent image of a cellular nucleus Center: Gradient image Right: Fast watershed transform that shows catchment basins corresponding to irrelevant minima interior to the nucleus

How to obtain a sensible segmentation using watershed transform?
 

Left: Irrelevant minima  Center: Irrelevant watershed lines Right: The goal of watershed transform is to extract a closed boundary contour of  the object.  The fast watershed transform can be improved by reducing many interior minima to a single minimum or by merging interior watershed lines.