Robust Object Segmentation using Active Contours and Shape Prior

In this paper, we intend to present new method to incorporate geometric shape prior into region-based active contours in order to improve its robustness to noise and occlusions. The proposed shape prior is defined after the registration of binary images associated with level set functions of the active contour and a reference shape. The used registration method is based on phase correlation. This representation makes it possible to manage several objects simultaneously. Experimental results show the ability of the proposed geometric shape prior to constrain an evolving curve towards a target shape. We highlight, on synthetic and real images, the benefit of the method on segmentation results in presence of partial occlusions, low contrast and noise.

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