结合水平集方法和形状约束Snake模型的左心室MRI图像分割

提出结合水平集方法和形状约束Snake模型的左心室MRI图像分割算法.由于左心室存在弱边缘、与周围的组织之间存在低对比度区域,Snake模型分割左心室MRI图像时,将会出现变形曲线泄漏现象.通过对训练图像的配准、变化模式的分析,定义左心室的边界形状变化允许空间.根据心脏MRI图像的特点,使用水平集方法在平均形状周围构造形状约束能量场.在Snake模型中增加形状约束能量项后,能够有效处理变形曲线的泄漏问题.通过将演化曲线投影到形状允许空间,对其施加形状约束.心脏MRI图像的分割实验证明了模型的有效性.     

基于模糊数模型的医学超声图像分割方法

针对基于模糊推理的医学超声图像分割方法存在算法复杂度高及灵活性较差等问题,提出了一种基于模糊数模型的医学超声图像分割方法。用局部直方图间相似性匹配和自适应平滑方法对输入图像进行预处理得到相似图像和平滑图像,通过一种基于模糊数模型的模糊控制方法处理生成的相似图像和平滑图像,实现医学超声图像的分割。实验结果表明,该方法简化了处理过程,降低了算法复杂度,对医学超声图像能够进行有效分割。     

先验形状力场参数活动轮廓模型及其医学图像分割

先验形状参数活动轮廓模型是一种抗噪声干扰稳定的图像分割方法．它具有对弱边缘、凹区域进行分割的能力，同时有较大的边缘捕捉范围．通过引入一种非距离性的先验形状力场，构建一种新的能反映先验形状的参数活动轮廓模型．新的先验形状活动轮廓模型避免了曲线之间距离的计算，减少了模型的复杂性．新的方法可以较好地解决传统型参数活动轮廓模型的一些本质缺陷.实验对带噪声且为弱边缘的医学CT图像和超声图像进行分割能得到理想的边缘轮廓.     

基于区域信息的水平集医学图像分割

医学图像分割是医学诊断中非常重要的部分,针对医学图像分割往往出现边缘泄漏和不完全分割等问题,本文提出一种基于区域信息的水平集图像分割方法。该方法通过引入符号压力函数来取代传统的停止函数,可以有效地解决曲线初始位置敏感的问题,同时使得演化曲线摆脱了单方向演化的缺陷,演化曲线根据区域信息来选择演化方向.通过构造新的速度函数可以有效地控制速度大小,当演化曲线接近目标边缘时,速度值较小,可以有效避免边缘泄漏.当曲线远离目标边缘时,速度值很大,节省演化所需的时间.     

曲线演化的图像分割算法改进研究

研究提高曲线演化的图像自动检测效果问题.由于图像识别度低、准确度低,传统 Chan-vese 活动轮廓模型(C-V 模型)不能检测到远离活动轮廓线且与平均灰度值相差大的边缘.图像分割算法采用水平集演化曲线外图像的目标和背景的灰度加权平均值,通过调节权重值,使演化曲线能准确快速收敛于远离平均灰度强度的图像边缘上.该算法具备拓扑变化能力,分割速度快,能克服原 C-V 模型不能检测到边缘缺陷,加速图像分割的收敛速度,提高分割效果.     

基于Snake模型的图像分割新算法

针对目前基于Snake模型的图像分割算法普遍存在噪声鲁棒性差、适用范围受限、易发生弱边缘泄露以及轮廓曲线难以收敛到细小深凹边界的缺陷,提出了一种基于Snake模型的图像分割新算法。首先,选取新的扩散项代替具有各向同性光滑作用的拉普拉斯算子;其次,引入p-拉普拉斯泛函到平滑能量项中强化法线方向外力;最后,利用边缘保护项使外力场方向与边缘方向一致,以防止弱边缘泄漏并促使轮廓线收敛到细小深凹边界。实验结果表明,所提模型不仅克服了现有基于Snake模型的图像分割算法的缺陷,具有更好的分割效果,明显提高了抗噪性能和角点定位精度,而且耗时更少,适用于噪声图像、医学图像以及含有很多弱边缘的自然图像分割。     

基于水平集的医学图像快速分割方法

针对高噪声、低对比度的医学图像难以快速准确分割的问题,结合基于像素的传统方法和基于水平集的活动轮廓模型,提出了一种混合的医学图像分割新技术.首先依据待分割对象的先验知识交互选取感兴趣区域.然后由传统的方法和基于水平集的C-V模型结合实现感兴趣区域图像的预分割.预分割的结果直接作为窄带变分水平集模型的初始轮廓,演化曲线在很短的时间内准确收敛到待分割物体的边缘.     

小波多尺度水平集算法与心脏超声图像鲁棒分割

由于斑点噪声的存在,超声图像的灰度分布是非高斯的,传统的基于高斯模型的图像分割方法不能解决心脏超声图像分割问题。但小波分解后的高阶低频小波系数近似服从高斯分布,利用这个特点,论文提出一种新颖的小波多分辨率框架下的水平集曲线演化算法。首先对超声心脏图像做小波分解,得到各层的低频图像。从小波分解的顶层低频图像开始,利用边界和区域复合约束动态轮廓线模型(ActiveContourModel)寻找左心室内边界;然后通过插值将结果向下一尺度低频图像传递,并利用尺度间形状约束和边界约束复合ACM进一步细化曲线,使其符合局部图像特征,如此逐层重复直至原始图像。由于采用了小波多尺度框架和尺度间形状约束,算法具有曲线演化结果稳健鲁棒、不易陷入局部极小和发生边界泄漏等优点,非常适合心脏超声图像噪声高、对比度低、边界灰度梯度不显著的特点。在实际临床三维超声图像上的实验表明,算法分割结果和人工分割结果很接近。     

基于边缘信赖度和形状相似性的超声图像分割方案

为了对低信噪比的超声图像进行有效分割,提出了一种新的超声图像分割方案,该方案由各向异性扩散方程和蛇模型组成。首先通过对蛇模型算法进行改进,并利用预先知道的形状信息,提出了一种基于形状相似性的参数自调整蛇模型;同时还对各向异性扩散方程进行了修正,提出了基于边缘信赖度的改进算法,以提高各向异性扩散方程的去噪能力。实验结果表明,该方法不但缓解了由于超声图像信噪比过低而影响分割的问题,同时实现了蛇模型的参数自适应设置,可见是一种有效的图像分割算法。     

基于图划分的形状统计主动轮廓模型心脏MR图像分割

为有效分析心脏功能,高精度分割左、右心室是必要的.心脏MR图像中存在图像灰度不均,左、右心室及周围其它组织灰度接近,存在弱边缘、边缘断裂及噪声造成边缘模糊等现象,给精确分割左、右心室轮廓带来困难.本文在基于图划分的主动轮廓方法基础上,通过对训练形状进行配准及变化模式分析,定义左、右心室轮廓形状变化允许空间,提出基于图划分的形状统计主动轮廓模型来分割心脏MR图像.该方法通过图划分理论将图像分割问题转化为最优化问题,所以能够得到全局最优解,具有较大的捕捉范围.还引入形状统计来引导曲线的演化,有效处理曲线演化时存在的边缘泄漏问题,提高分割精度.实验结果表明,本文方法较以往方法具有更高的分割精度和更好的稳定性,为临床应用提供一种较可行的方法.     

Fast Global Minimization of the Active Contour/Snake Model

The active contour/snake model is one of the most successful variational models in image segmentation. It consists of evolving a contour in images toward the boundaries of objects. Its success is based on strong mathematical properties and efficient numerical schemes based on the level set method. The only drawback of this model is the existence of local minima in the active contour energy, which makes the initial guess critical to get satisfactory results. In this paper, we propose to solve this problem by determining a global minimum of the active contour model. Our approach is based on the unification of image segmentation and image denoising tasks into a global minimization framework. More precisely, we propose to unify three well-known image variational models, namely the snake model, the Rudin–Osher–Fatemi denoising model and the Mumford–Shah segmentation model. We will establish theorems with proofs to determine the existence of a global minimum of the active contour model. From a numerical point of view, we propose a new practical way to solve the active contour propagation problem toward object boundaries through a dual formulation of the minimization problem. The dual formulation, easy to implement, allows us a fast global minimization of the snake energy. It avoids the usual drawback in the level set approach that consists of initializing the active contour in a distance function and re-initializing it periodically during the evolution, which is time-consuming. We apply our segmentation algorithms on synthetic and real-world images, such as texture images and medical images, to emphasize the performances of our model compared with other segmentation models. Research supported by NIH U54RR021813, NSF DMS-0312222, NSF ACI-0321917 and NSF DMI-0327077.     

Some Remarks on the Equivalence between 2D and 3D Classical Snakes and Geodesic Active Contours

Recently, Caselles et al. have shown the equivalence between a classical snake problem of Kass et al. and a geodesic active contour model. The PDE derived from the geodesic problem gives an evolution equation for active contours which is very powerfull for image segmentation since changes of topology are allowed using the level set implementation. However in Caselles' paper the equivalence with classical snake is only shown for 2D images and 1D curves, by using concepts of Hamiltonian theory which have no meanings for active surfaces. This paper propose to examine the notion of equivalence and to revisite Caselles et al. arguments. Then a notion equivalence is introduced and shown for classical snakes and geodesic active contours in the 2D (active contour) and 3D (active surface) case.     

Template-driven segmentation of confocal microscopy images

High quality 3D visualization of anatomic structures is necessary for many applications. The anatomic structures first need to be segmented. A variety of segmentation algorithms have been developed for this purpose. For confocal microscopy images, the noise introduced during the specimen preparation process, such as the procedure of penetration or staining, may cause images to be of low contrast in some regions. This property will make segmentation difficult. Also, the segmented structures may have rugged surfaces in 3D visualization. In this paper, we present a hybrid method that is suitable for segmentation of confocal microscopy images. A rough segmentation result is obtained from the atlas-based segmentation via affine registration. The boundaries of the segmentation result are close to the object boundaries, and are regarded as the initial contours of the active contour models. After convergence of the snake algorithm, the resulting contours in regions of low contrast are locally refined by parametric bicubic surfaces to alleviate the problem of incorrect convergence. The proposed method increases the accuracy of the snake algorithm because of better initial contours. Besides, it can provide smoother segmented results in 3D visualization.     

基于改进自仿射映射系统与参数活动轮廓的医学图像分割算法

Snake模型分割图像时要求初始化轮廓线位于目标图像特征附近,且处理弱边界与深度凹陷区域的能力较弱,对此提出一种基于改进自仿射映射系统与参数活动轮廓的医学图像分割算法。首先,使用高斯滤波器对给定图像进行平滑处理并计算其小波系数;然后,在每个小波尺度的子矩阵中定义一些自仿射映射;之后,将不同小波尺度对应的子力叠加以获得自仿射力;最终,基于动态力公式引导snake模型变形。基于医学图像的仿真实验结果表明,本算法对于医学图像的分割性能较好,有效地提高了snake模型对弱边界与深度凹陷区域的处理能力。     

自适应正则化活动轮廓模型

针对Chan-Vese模型含有许多参数,分割时需要人为调整参数,耗费大量的人力和时间的问题,提出了一个自适应正则化活动轮廓模型。首先,对Chan-Vese模型的数据项进行简化;其次,使用改进的边界加权H¹正则化代替长度项;最后,形成了一个新的不含任何参数的活动轮廓模型。在分割实验中,该模型对初始轮廓的大小、位置不敏感,具有较强的抗噪性,分割6幅图像的平均时间和迭代次数分别为1.5834 s、19次。实验结果表明,所提模型无需人工调整参数,能够分割强噪声图像和灰度不均图像,并且具有较快的分割速度。     

Multiscale Active Contours

We propose a new multiscale image segmentation model, based on the active contour/snake model and the Polyakov action. The concept of scale, general issue in physics and signal processing, is introduced in the active contour model, which is a well-known image segmentation model that consists of evolving a contour in images toward the boundaries of objects. The Polyakov action, introduced in image processing by Sochen-Kimmel-Malladi in Sochen et al. (1998), provides an efficient mathematical framework to define a multiscale segmentation model because it generalizes the concept of harmonic maps embedded in higher-dimensional Riemannian manifolds such as multiscale images. Our multiscale segmentation model, unlike classical multiscale segmentations which work scale by scale to speed up the segmentation process, uses all scales simultaneously, i.e. the whole scale space, to introduce the geometry of multiscale images in the segmentation process. The extracted multiscale structures will be useful to efficiently improve the robustness and the performance of standard shape analysis techniques such as shape recognition and shape registration. Another advantage of our method is to use not only the Gaussian scale space but also many other multiscale spaces such as the Perona-Malik scale space, the curvature scale space or the Beltrami scale space. Finally, this multiscale segmentation technique is coupled with a multiscale edge detecting function based on the gradient vector flow model, which is able to extract convex and concave object boundaries independent of the initial condition. We apply our multiscale segmentation model on a synthetic image and a medical image.     

Segmentation of the left ventricle in cardiac cine MRI using a shape-constrained snake model

Segmentation of the left ventricle (LV) is a hot topic in cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) images analysis. In this paper, we present an automatic LV myocardial boundary segmentation method using the parametric active contour model (or snake model). By convolving the gradient map of an image, a fast external force named gradient vector convolution (GVC) is presented for the snake model. A circle-based energy is incorporated into the GVC snake model to extract the endocardium. With this prior constraint, the snake contour can conquer the unexpected local minimum stemming from artifacts and papillary muscle, etc. After the endocardium is detected, the original edge map around and within the endocardium is directly set to zero. This modified edge map is used to generate a new GVC force filed, which automatically pushes the snake contour directly to the epicardium by employing the endocardium result as initialization. Meanwhile, a novel shape-similarity based energy is proposed to prevent the snake contour from being strapped in faulty edges and to preserve weak boundaries. Both qualitative and quantitative evaluations on our dataset and the publicly available database (e.g. MICCAI 2009) demonstrate the good performance of our algorithm.     

融合凹点检测与仿射变换的活动轮廓模型

目的 针对基于矢量场的活动轮廓模型,如经典的梯度矢量流（GVF）模型、矢量场卷积（VFC）模型等,在提取凹形物体时矢量场常出现平衡点,不能较好地收敛到凹陷区域、尤其是深而窄的凹形及复杂凹陷区域的问题。提出一种融合凹点检测与仿射变换的活动轮廓模型。方法 首先利用活动轮廓模型进行曲线演化,得到演化后轮廓曲线上各点的坐标并求出各点的法线方向;然后基于凹点检测的方法,判断各点的凹凸性,利用梯度判断法,检测出未收敛到目标边界的凹点;其次对各凹点进行法向方向的仿射变换。在接近且不越过目标边界的情况下求出可变换的最大距离,变换后的点穿越了平衡点区域,让变换后的点代替原来的点形成新的轮廓曲线;最后为保证提取边界的精确性,将变换后的轮廓曲线再次演化并最终收敛到目标边界。结果 通过对具有凹陷区域的合成图像进行分割,计算提出模型分割结果的平均Jaccard相似系数（JS）值为95.51%,相比目前先进的GVF模型,VFC模型和自适应扩散流（ADF）模型分别提高了15.08%,12.09%和10.70%,整体效果上优于几种先进的模型。然后又对单/多目标真实图像及含噪的图像进行分割,证实提出模型分割性能的鲁棒性。结论 提出的模型有效地避免了凹形区域内的平衡点问题,可以对深凹形及复杂凹形图像进行有效分割,并且提高了分割精度。此外,该模型能融合到任何基于矢量场的活动轮廓模型中,具有广泛的普适性。     

基于改进的GVF模型的CT图像分割方法

活动轮廓模型被广泛应用于医学图像分割之中．文中针对CT图像的分割方法进行了探讨，提出了一种基于GVF模型的改进的活动轮廓分割法。改进方法采用轮廓中心法及引入一作用力的方法，克服了GVF模型不能处理深度凹陷区域的问题．实验结果表明，改进后的分割方法较原Snake模型及GVF模型的效果更好．     

应用B样条活动曲线模型实现超声图像的分割

声图像由于质量较差无法实现全自动的分割方法.提出了一个新的超声图像的半自动分割方法.该方法把用户交互作为一个重要因素结合到传统的B样条活动曲线模型中.这种半自动的分割方法仅需少量的用户交互,特点是:通过用户交互,规范B样条活动曲线模型,约束曲线的活动形状和范围;引入新的规则使B样条活动曲线迅速移动到用户指定的正确边界处;并且通过观察被用户接受的边界实时地训练模型.该方法是一个快速、有效的超声图像分割方法,尤其适用于连续多个相关超声图像的处理,现已成功地运用到肝肿瘤手术仿真系统当中.