Segmentation vs raster_to_polygon

Question

So, I am looking into raster segmentation methods and I started having a few doubts about what I know abouth their technicalities.

I was wandering if there is a way to connect raster-to-polygon functions with raster segmentation. To be more specific, if you are an R user for example there isn't a library that does raster segmentation using region growth but you can create a function that does region growth and then use the raster_to_polygon function, right?

TL;DR: Is there a connection between raster to polygon conversions and raster segmentation? Can you explain why?

Answer 1

Raster to polygon conversion is just this, a conversion between formats. The result of this conversion will create as many polygons as groups of different pixel values. That is why you usually need to group your values first or you could end up with huge vector files. Most of the programs won't even do the conversion if your raster has decimal values. If your raster is qualitative (i.e. land cover classes) you are good to go but if you have a continuous gradient of data you will need to reclassify it first.

Segmentation techniques are statistical tools that group pixel values according to some thresholds you give for similarity and proximity. Also, you can run these tools using multiple bands. These tools don't convert your raster to polygons but you could use the results of this segmentation to create the classes for your Raster to polygon conversion.