Segmentation of MR Images using Active Contours: Methods, Challenges and Applications

In recent years, Active contours have been widely studied and applied in medical image analysis. Active contours combine underlying information with high-level prior knowledge to achieve automatic segmentation for complex objects. Their applications include edge detection, segmentation of objects, shape modelling and object boundary tracking. This paper presents the development process of active contour models and describes the classical parametric active contour models, geometric active contour models, and new hybrid active contour models based on curve evolution and energy minimization techniques. It also discusses challenges and applications of active contour models in medical image segmentation.

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