Due to color image providing more information than monochrome image

color image processing is being paid more and more attention. Image segmentation is critical to image processing and pattern recognition

so all the typical approaches are presented and discussed in this paper. Basically

color image segmentation techniques are based on monochrome ones operating in different color spaces. This paper first reviewed some major color representation methods

then summarized the major color image segmentation approaches including histogram thresholding

characteristic feature clustering

region based approaches

edge detection

fuzzy techniques

neural networks

physics based method. The merits and drawbacks of the methods were discussed too. Fuzzy set theory provides a mechanism to present and manipulate uncertainty and ambiguity

which is desirable for image processing. So

the fuzzy approaches will have a promising application in the color image segmentation area.