On a nonlocal model of image segmentation

We understand an image as binary grey 'alloy' of a black and a white component and use a nonlocal phase separation model to describe image segmentation. The model consists in a degenerate nonlinear parabolic equation with a nonlocal drift term additionally to the familiar Perona-Malik model. We formulate conditions for the model parameters to guarantee global existence of a unique solution that tends exponentially in time to a unique steady state. This steady state is solution of a nonlocal nonlinear elliptic boundary value problem and allows a variational characterization. Numerical examples demonstrate the properties of the model