m]]l]]s¶D]]¿÷mB]iv]b]oD]m¶¨]iv]§]iv]r]j]t¿rv]]irj]]t]]m] / | ap]]r¿]ÎNy]s¶D]]mb¶r]ix} Û]Ix]]rd]mb]} p—N]t]o%ism] in]ty]m] / || Û]Is]¡uÎc]rN]]riv]nd]p]*N]m]st¶ I always bow to Śri ̄ Śāradāmbā, the limitless ocean of the nectar of compassion, who bears a rosary, a vessel of nectar, the symbol of knowledge and a book in Her lotus hands. Dedicated to the Lotus Feet of the revered Sadguru. This thesis presents a new active mask (AM) framework and an algorithm for segmenta-tion of digital images, particularly those of punctate patterns from fluorescence microscopy. Fluorescence microscopy has greatly facilitated the task of understanding complex sys-tems at cellular and molecular levels in recent years. Segmentation, an important yet dif-ficult problem, is often the first processing step following acquisition. Our team previously demonstrated that a stochastic active contour based algorithm together with the concept of