The multiresolution intensity axis of symmetry and its application to image segmentation

A new shape description for grey-scale images called the intensity axis of symmetry (lAS) and an associated curvature-based description called vertex curves are presented. Both of these shape description methods focus on properties of the level curves of the image and combine this information across intensities to obtain representations which capture properties of both the spatial and intensity shape of an image. Methods to calculate and to display both image shape descriptions are described. To provide the necessary coherence across the spatial and intensity dimensions while computing the IAS, the boundary-based ·active contour method of Kassis extended to obtain a surface-based functional called the active surface. To illustrate the effectiveness of the IAS for image shape description, an interactive image segmentation program which identifies and displays image regions associated with individual components of the IAS is demonstrated. These regions often correspond to sensible anatomical structures in medical images. An analysis of the multiresolution behavior of the IAS reve~ls that it is possible to impose a quasi-hierarchy on IAS sheets by focusing on the multiresolution properties of much simpler geometric structures: vertex curves approximated by watershed boundaries.

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