A novel scheme for the detection of object boundaries is presented. The technique is based on active contours evolving in time according to intrinsic geometric measures of the image. The evolving contours naturally split and merge, allowing the simultaneous detection of several objects and both interior and exterior boundaries. The proposed approach is based on the relation between active contours and the computation of geodesics or minimal distance curves. The minimal distance curve lays in a Riemannian space whose metric is defined by the image content. This geodesic approach for object segmentation allows to connect classical "snakes" based on energy minimization and geometric active contours based on the theory of curve evolution. Previous models of geometric active contours are improved, allowing stable boundary detection when their gradients suffer from large variations, including gaps. Formal results concerning existence, uniqueness, stability, and correctness of the evolution are presented as well. The scheme was implemented using an efficient algorithm for curve evolution. Experimental results of applying the scheme to real images including objects with holes and medical data imagery demonstrate its power. The results may be extended to 3D object segmentation as well.

A method is introduced to decrease the computational labor of the standard level set method for propagating interfaces. The fast approach uses only points close to the curve at every time step. We describe this new algorithm and compare its efficiency and accuracy with the standard level set approach. 1 A Fast Level Set Implementation The level set technique was introduced in [9] to track moving interfaces in a wide variety of problems. It relies on the relation between propagating interfaces and propagating shocks. The equation for a front propagating with curvature dependent speed is linked to a viscous hyperbolic conservation law for the propagating gradients of the fronts. The central idea is to follow the evolution of a function OE whose zero--level set always corresponds to the position of the propagating interface. The motion for this evolving function OE is determined from a partial differential equation in one higher dimension which permits cusps, sharp corners, and changes i...

In this note, we analyze the geometric active contour models proposed in [10, 31] from a curve evolution point of view and propose some modifications based on gradient flows relative to certain new metrics. This leads to a novel snake paradigm in which the feature of interest may be considered to lie at the bottom of a potential well. Thus the snake is attracted very naturally and efficiently to the desired feature. Moreover, we consider some 3-D active surface models based on these ideas. Key words: Active vision, shape and object representation, object recognition, active contours, snakes, visual tracking, edge detection, segmentation, gradient flows, Riemannian metrics, geometric heat equations, curve and surface evolution. Gradient Flows and Geometric Active Contour Models Abstract In this note, we analyze the geometric active contour models proposed in [10, 31] from a curve evolution point of view and propose some modifications based on gradient flows relative to certain new m...

We present a novel geometric approach for solving the stereo problem for an arbitrary number of images (greater than or equal to 2). It is based upon the denition of a variational principle that must be satisfied by the surfaces of the objects in the scene and their images. The Euler-Lagrange equations which are deduced from the variational principle provide a set of PDE's which are used to deform an initial set of surfaces which then move towards the objects to be detected. The level set implementation of these PDE's potentially provides an efficient and robust way of achieving the surface evolution and to deal automatically with changes in the surface topology during the deformation, i.e. to deal with multiple objects. Results of an implementation of our theory also dealing with occlusion and vibility are presented on synthetic and real images.

In this paper, we analyze geometric active contour models from a curve evolution point of view and propose some modifications based on gradient flows relative to certain new feature-based Riemannian metrics. This leads to a novel edge-detection paradigm in which the feature of interest may be considered to lie at the bottom of a potential well. Thus an edge-seeking curve is attracted very naturally and efficiently to the desired feature. Comparison with the Allen-Cahn model clarifies some of the choices made in these models, and suggests inhomogeneous models which may in return be useful in phase transitions. We also consider some 3-D active surface models based on these ideas. The justification of this model rests on the careful study of the viscosity solutions of evolution equations derived from a level-set approach. Key words: Active vision, antiphase boundary, visual tracking, edge detection, segmentation, gradient flows, Riemannian metrics, viscosity solutions, geometric heat equ...

In this paper we consider a fundamental visualization problem which arises in computer vision, computer graphics and numerical simulation. The problem is to find a curve in two dimensions, or a surface in three dimensions which can be regarded as the shape represented by a set of unorganized points, and/or curves, and/or surface patches. We do not assume any knowledge of the ordering, connectivity or topology of the data sets or of the true shape. Only the location of each point or general Hausdorff distance to the data set is known. The key idea in our approach is to find an implicit nonparametric representation of the curve or surface on a fixed rectangular grid. With this representation of surfaces we can easily (a) find the closest point and distance from any point to the surface (useful in illumination and many other applications), (b) find the intersection curve of two surfaces which is guaranteed to lie on both surfaces in our representation, and (c) perform any Boolean operatio...

Abstract — In this note, we employ the new geometric active contour models formulated in [25] and [26] for edge detection and segmentation of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), and ultrasound medical imagery. Our method is based on defining feature-based metrics on a given image which in turn leads to a novel snake paradigm in which the feature of interest may be considered to lie at the bottom of a potential well. Thus, the snake is attracted very quickly and efficiently to the desired feature. Index Terms — Active contours, active vision, edge detection, gradient flows, segmentation, snakes. I.

We present a novel geometric approach for solving the stereo problem for an arbitrary number of images (greater than or equal to 2). It is based upon the denition of a variational principle that must be satised by the surfaces of the objects in the scene and their images. The Euler-Lagrange equations which are deduced from the variational principle provide a set of PDE's which are used to deform an initial set of surfaces which then move towards the objects to be detected. The level set implementation of these PDE's potentially provides an efficient and robust way of achieving the surface evolution and to deal automatically with changes in the surface topology during the deformation, i.e. to deal with multiple objects. Results of an implementation of our theory also dealing with occlusion and vibility are presented on synthetic and real images.

Several geometric active contour models have been proposed for segmentation in computer vision and image analysis. The essential idea is to evolve a curve (in 2D) or a surface (in 3D) under constraints from image forces so that it clings to features of interest in an intensity image. Recent variations on this theme take into account properties of enclosed regions and allow for multiple curves or surfaces to be simultaneously represented. However, it is still unclear how to apply these techniques to images of narrow elongated structures, such as blood vessels, where intensity contrast may be low and reliable region statistics cannot be computed. To address this problem we derive the gradient flows which maximize the rate of increase of flux of an appropriate vector field through a curve (in 2D) or a surface (in 3D). The key idea is to exploit the direction of the vector field along with its magnitude. The calculations lead to a simple and elegant interpretation which is essentially parameter free and has the same form in both dimensions. We illustrate its advantages with several level-set based segmentations of 2D and 3D angiography images of blood vessels.

A number of active contour models have been proposed which unify the curve evolution framework with classical energy minimization techniques for segmentation, such as snakes. The essential idea is to evolve a curve (in 2D) or a surface (in 3D) under constraints from image forces so that it clings to features of interest in an intensity image. Recently the evolution equation has been derived from first principles as the gradient flow that minimizes a modified length functional, tailored to features such as edges. However, because the flow may be slow to converge in practice, a constant (hyperbolic) term is added to keep the curve/surface moving in the desired direction. In this paper, we derive a modification of this term based on the gradient flow derived from a weighted area functional, with image dependent weighting factor. When combined with the earlier modified length gradient flow we obtain a pde which offers a number of advantages, as illustrated by several examples of shape segm...