Contour segmentation in 2D ultrasound medical images with particle filtering

Object segmentation in medical images is an actively investigated research area. Segmentation techniques are a valuable tool in medical diagnostics for cancer tumours and cysts, for planning surgery operations and other medical treatment. In this paper, a Monte Carlo algorithm for extracting lesion contours in ultrasound medical images is proposed. An efficient multiple model particle filter for progressive contour growing (tracking) from a starting point is developed, accounting for convex, non-circular forms of delineated contour areas. The driving idea of the proposed particle filter consists in the incorporation of different image intensity inside and outside the contour into the filter likelihood function. The filter employs image intensity gradients as measurements and requires information about four manually selected points: a seed point, a starting point, arbitrarily selected on the contour, and two additional points, bounding the measurement formation area around the contour. The filter performance is studied by segmenting contours from a number of real and simulated ultrasound medical images. Accurate contour segmentation is achieved with the proposed approach in ultrasound images with a high level of speckle noise.     

Monte Carlo despeckling of transrectal ultrasound images of the prostate

In this paper, a novel stochastic method is developed for despeckling transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) images of the prostate. By incorporating the circular probe acquisition particularities and speckle noise statistics of TRUS images of the prostate into a likelihood-weighted Monte Carlo estimation scheme, the proposed method can better remove speckle noise while preserving image structures and details that are relevant for image screening, allowing for a better delineation of the lesion contour. Our in silico and in vivo experimental results are promising, which was confirmed by a clinical evaluation of the in vivo test cases by experienced clinicians, and indicate that our method potentially can perform better than other previously proposed methods.     

自适应滤波结合改进T-snake模型的甲状腺超声图自动分割方法

提出一种基于T-snake模型的甲状腺超声波图像分割的新方法。首先,结合基于窗口的各向异性扩散滤波方法与自适应加权中值滤波算法有效地消除甲状腺超声波图像斑点噪声;其次,以传统T-snake模型为基础,增加自适应区域能量和膨胀力对非连续边界与弱边界进行有效提取,实现甲状腺超声波图像的自动分割;最后设定模型参数,使用临床数据进行实验。结果证明,应用该方法得到自动分割结果的平均相对差异度小于5%,平均相对重叠度大于91%,验证了其可行性。     

pSnakes: A new radial active contour model and its application in the segmentation of the left ventricle from echocardiographic images

Active contours are image segmentation methods that minimize the total energy of the contour to be segmented. Among the active contour methods, the radial methods have lower computational complexity and can be applied in real time. This work aims to present a new radial active contour technique, called pSnakes, using the 1D Hilbert transform as external energy. The pSnakes method is based on the fact that the beams in ultrasound equipment diverge from a single point of the probe, thus enabling the use of polar coordinates in the segmentation. The control points or nodes of the active contour are obtained in pairs and are called twin nodes. The internal energies as well as the external one, Hilbertian energy, are redefined. The results showed that pSnakes can be used in image segmentation of short-axis echocardiogram images and that they were effective in image segmentation of the left ventricle. The echo-cardiologist's golden standard showed that the pSnakes was the best method when compared with other methods. The main contributions of this work are the use of pSnakes and Hilbertian energy, as the external energy, in image segmentation. The Hilbertian energy is calculated by the 1D Hilbert transform. Compared with traditional methods, the pSnakes method is more suitable for ultrasound images because it is not affected by variations in image contrast, such as noise. The experimental results obtained by the left ventricle segmentation of echocardiographic images demonstrated the advantages of the proposed model. The results presented in this paper are justified due to an improved performance of the Hilbert energy in the presence of speckle noise.     

基于改进Snake模型的超声乳腺肿瘤轮廓提取

二维超声影像中肿瘤轮廓特征是判断乳腺肿瘤的良恶性的重要依据。针对超声医学图像的特点,本研究对经典的Snake模型进行了改进:内部能量中加入轮廓平均长度项的控制;外部能量由基于图像统计特征的区域能量以及梯度方向势能决定,并提出了基于贪婪算法求解模型最小值的快速算法。实验结果显示本算法在噪声强度较大的模拟图像和超声医学图像中均取得了同人工分割近似的结果,而经典的Snake模型和GVF模型受噪声干扰较大。大量的实验证明本算法有效地克服了散斑噪声对分割结果的影响,可准确高效地提取超声图像中的乳腺肿瘤轮廓。     

Coastline extraction from SAR images using spatial fuzzy clustering and the active contour method

Coastline extraction from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data is difficult because of the presence of speckle noise and strong signal returns from the wind-roughened and wave-modulated sea surface. High resolution and weather change independent of SAR data lead to better monitoring of coastal sea. Therefore, SAR coastline extraction has taken up much interest. The active contour method is an efficient algorithm for the edge detection task; however, applying this method to high-resolution images is time-consuming. The current article presents an efficient approach to extracting coastlines from high-resolution SAR images. First, fuzzy clustering with spatial constraints is applied to the input SAR image. This clustering method is robust for noise and shows good performance with noisy images. Next, binarization is carried out using Otsu’s method on the fuzzification results. Third, morphological filters are used on the binary image to eliminate spurious segments after binarization. To extract the coastline, an active contour level set method is used on the initial contours and is applied to the input SAR image to refine the segmentation. Because the proposed approach is based on an active contour model, it does not require preprocessing for SAR speckle reduction. Another advantage of the proposed method is the ability to extract the coastline at full resolution of the input SAR image without degrading the resolution. The proposed approach does not require manual initialization for the level set method and the proposed initialization speeds up the level set evolution. Experimental results on low- and high-resolution SAR images showed good performance for coastline extraction. A criterion based on neighbourhood pixels for the coastline is proposed for the quantitative expression of the accuracy of the method.     

结合全局概率密度差异与局部灰度拟合的超声图像分割

由于超声图像具有高噪声、低对比度、边缘模糊不清等特点, 超声图像的分割成为图像处理领域中一个难度较高、亟待解决的问题. 本文提出了一种结合全局概率密度差异与局部灰度拟合的主动轮廓模型对超声图像进行分割的方法. 该方法分别在原始超声图像与预处理图像上利用了图像的全局和局部信息. 在原始图像上, 利用各区域的灰度分布, 并结合超声图像的背景知识对图像的全局信息建模. 为了考虑图像的局部信息, 首先对图像进行预处理, 在预处理图像上, 利用局部灰度拟合模型对图像中的局部信息进行建模. 通过分别在不同图像上对全局和局部信息建模的方式, 本方法将利用Speckle噪声与去除Speckle噪声的分割思想结合在一起. 本文提出的方法分别在模拟和临床超声图像上进行了实验. 实验结果证明, 该方法对图像中的噪声具有较好的适应性, 并对初始条件不敏感, 可以准确地对超声图像进行分割.     

带H1正则项的C-V模型

C-V模型(CHAN T F, VESE L A. Active contours without edges. IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 2001, 10(2): 266-277)是一个著名的基于区域的图像分割模型。它对活动轮廓的初始化和噪声不敏感,但分割的图像的范围不够广泛。因此,运用理论分析与实验相结合的方法,在C-V模型中添加H1正则项,对其进行了改进,提出了一个新颖的图像分割的能量泛函,并推导出了以偏微分方程形式表示的基于区域的自适应插值拟合的活动轮廓模型。实验表明：该模型能够分割某些原来C-V模型不适用的图像,它对初始轮廓的大小、位置的敏感性较小,抗噪性较强。     

Multiregion level-set partitioning of synthetic aperture radar images

The purpose of this study is to investigate synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image segmentation into a given but arbitrary number of gamma homogeneous regions via active contours and level sets. The segmentation of SAR images is a difficult problem due to the presence of speckle which can be modeled as strong, multiplicative noise. The proposed algorithm consists of evolving simple closed planar curves within an explicit correspondence between the interiors of curves and regions of segmentation to minimize a criterion containing a term of conformity of data to a speckle model of noise and a term of regularization. Results are shown on both synthetic and real images.     

基于优化活动轮廓模型的SAR影像海陆分割方法研究*

SAR（合成孔径雷达）影像具有很强的乘性斑噪,给图像分割带来了困难。本文利用Gamma分布拟合SAR影像,并将其用于构造基于区域信息的能量泛函,提出了一种基于活动轮廓模型的SAR影像海陆自动分割方法。该方法在能量泛函中同时融合了边缘信息和区域信息,既有利于边界精确定位又有利于降低乘性斑噪的影响,利用活动轮廓演化模型,通过变分水平集方法推动活动轮廓曲线向海岸线演化,在最小化特定的能量泛函的约束下,使活动轮廓与海岸线重合,达到影像分割的目的。同时针对该模型提出了优化方法提高其计算效率,使本文提出的分割算法更加实用。     

小波与双边滤波的医学超声图像去噪

目的：医学超声图像中的斑点噪声降低了图像质量并且限制了超声图像自动化诊断技术的发展。针对斑点噪声问题,提出了一种新型的基于小波和双边滤波的去噪算法。方法：首先,根据医学超声图像在小波域内的统计特性,在通用小波阈值函数的基础之上,改进了小波阈值函数。其次,将无噪信号的小波系数和斑点噪声的小波系数分别建模为广义拉普拉斯分布模型和高斯分布模型,利用贝叶斯最大后验估计方法得到了新型的小波收缩算法,利用小波阈值法对小波域内的高频信号分量进行去噪。最后,对小波域内的低频信号分量进行双边滤波处理,然后利用小波逆变换便得到去噪后的图像。结果：在仿真实验中,通过与其它7种去噪算法作对比,观察峰值信噪比(PSNR)等图像质量评价指标,结果表明本文算法的去噪效果优于其他相关算法。临床超声图像的实验结果进一步验证了本文算法的去噪性能。结论：本文提出了一种新型的去噪算法,实验表明本文算法能够很好地抑制斑点噪声,并且能保留图像病灶边缘等细节。     

基于改进符号压力函数的变分水平集图像分割算法

为了更好地解决含有弱边界、灰度不均匀的图像在分割时出现的轮廓线错误移动而导致分割结果错误的问题,结合图像的统计信息,构造出一种新的符号压力(SPF)函数,提出了一种基于改进的压力符号函数的变分水平集图像分割算法。首先,利用新的压力符号函数代替边缘函数,构造了新的活动轮廓模型;其次,该算法保持了测地线活动轮廓(GAC)模型和chan-vese(C-V) 模型的优点,使水平集函数演化到目标的边界上;最后,对一些弱边界、灰度不均匀的图像进行仿真实验,结果表明提出的算法能够精准地分割目标,并且具有一定的抗噪性。     

Segmentation of blurred objects by classification of isolabel contours

Segmentation of objects with blurred boundaries is an important and challenging problem, especially in the field of medical image analysis. A new approach to segmentation of homogeneous blurred objects in grayscale images is described in this paper. The proposed algorithm is based on building of an isolabel-contour map of the image and classification of closed isolabel contours by the SVM. Each closed isolabel contour is described by the feature vector that can include intensity-based features of the image area enclosed by the contour, as well as geometrical features of the contour shape. The image labeling procedure for construction of the training base becomes very fast and convenient because it is reduced to clicking on isolabel contours delineating the objects of interest on the isolabel-contour map. The proposed algorithm was applied to the problem of brain lesion segmentation in MRI and demonstrated performance figures above 98% on real data, both in sensitivity and in specificity.     

Self-organizing neural networks for image segmentation based on multiphase active contour

Image segmentation is a process of segregating foreground object from background object in an image. This paper proposes a method to perform image segmentation for the color and textured images with a two-step approach. In the first step, self-organizing neurons based on neural networks are used for clustering the input image, and in the second step, multiphase active contour model is used to get various segments of an image. The contours are initialized in the active contour model with the help of the self-organizing maps obtained as a result of first step. From the results, it is inferred that the proposed method provides better segmentation result for all types of images.

     

一种基于Hausdorff 度量的多传感器图像配准方法

描述了一种基于Hausdorff 度量的合成孔径雷达和光学图像配准方法。首先用基于低帽滤波的方法提取待配准图像的闭合轮廓。然后对较长的轮廓进行Hausdorff 度量初匹配, 并对初匹配的结果使用轮廓中心的相对距离比直方图聚束检测法进行一致性检测。最后, 在得到正确的闭合轮廓对后, 使用最小二乘法计算图像的变换参数。考虑到雷达图像的相干斑噪声以及多传感器图像成像时间造成的变形, 多传感器图像提取的轮廓会有一定的差别。而Hausdorff 度量对误差有很好的容忍性, 因此本方法可以对多传感器图像进行配准。     

结合全局与局部信息活动轮廓的非同质图像分割

目的 通过对现有基于区域的活动轮廓模型能量泛函的Euler-Lagrange方程进行变形,建立其与K-means方法的等价关系,提出一种新的基于K-means活动轮廓模型,该模型能有效分割灰度非同质图像。方法 结合图像全局和局部信息,根据交互熵的特性,提出新的局部自适应权重,它根据像素点所在邻域的局部统计信息自适应地确定各个像素点的分割阈值,排除灰度非同质分割目标的影响。结果 采用Jaccard相似系数-JS(Jaccard similarity)和Dice相似系数-DSC(Dice similarity coefficient)两个指标对自然以及合成图像的分割结果进行定量分析,与传统及最新经典的活动轮廓模型相比,新模型JS和DSC的值最接近1,且迭代次数不多于50次。提出的模型具有较高的计算效率和准确率。结论 通过大量实验发现,新模型结合图像全局和局部信息,利用交互熵特性得到自适应权重,对初始曲线位置具有稳定性,且对灰度非同质图像具有较好地分割效果。本文算法主要适用于分割含有噪声及灰度非同质的医学图像,而且分割结果对初始轮廓具有鲁棒性。     

基于改进Snake模型的超声乳腺肿瘤轮廓提取

二维超声影像中肿瘤轮廓特征是判断乳腺肿瘤的良恶性的重要依据。针对超声医学图像的特点,本研究对经典的Snake模型进行了改进:内部能量中加入轮廓平均长度项的控制;外部能量由基于图像统计特征的区域能量以及梯度方向势能决定,并提出了基于贪婪算法求解模型最小值的快速算法。实验结果显示本算法在噪声强度较大的模拟图像和超声医学图像中均取得了同人工分割近似的结果,而经典的Snake模型和GVF模型受噪声干扰较大。大量的实验证明本算法有效地克服了散斑噪声对分割结果的影响,可准确高效地提取超声图像中的乳腺肿瘤轮廓。     

基于多尺度特征融合的SAR图像分割

由于存在相干斑噪声的影响,给SAR图像分割造成很大的困难,提出一种基于多尺度特征融合的SAR图像分割方法。该方法利用快速离散curvelet变换提取图像的纹理特征,利用平稳小波变换提取图像的统计特征,将两种多尺度特征融合成高维的特征向量,采用模糊C均值聚类的方法进行分割。在仿真SAR图像和真实SAR图像的分割实验结果表明,提出的方法优于单独采用小波变换进行SAR图像分割的方法,在消除均质区内碎块的同时,使得边界更为精准和平滑。     

A novel multi-scale level set method for SAR image segmentation based on a statistical model

To overcome the problems of large data volumes and strong speckle noise in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, a multi-scale level set approach for SAR image segmentation is proposed in this article. Because the multi-scale analysis of SAR images preserves their highest resolution features while additionally making use of sets of images at lower resolutions to improve specific functions, the proposed method is useful for removing the influence of speckle and, at the same time, preserving important structural information. The Gamma distribution is one of the most commonly used models employed to represent the statistical characteristics of speckle noise in a SAR image and it is introduced to define the energy functional. Moreover, based on the multi-scale level set framework, an improved multi-layer approach is introduced for multi-region segmentation. To obtain a fast and more accurate result, a novel threshold segmentation result is used to represent the initial segmentation curve. The experiments with synthetic and real SAR images demonstrate the effectiveness of the new method.     

Utilisation of contour criteria in micro-segmentation of SAR images

The segmentation of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) images is greatly complicated by the presence of coherent speckle. To carry out this process a hierarchical segmentation algorithm based on stepwise optimization is used. It starts with each individual pixel as a segment and then sequentially merges the segment pair that minimizes the criterion. In a hypothesis testing approach, we show how the stepwise merging criterion is derived from the probability model of image regions. The Ward criterion is derived from the Gaussian additive noise model. A new criterion is derived from the multiplicative speckle noise model of SAR images. The first merging steps produce micro-regions. With standard merging criteria, the high noise level of SAR images results in the production of micro-regions that have unreliable mean and variance values and irregular shapes. If the micro-segments are not correctly delimited then the following steps will merge segments from different fields. In examining the evolution of the initial segments, we see that the merging should take into account spatial aspects. In particular, the segment contours should have good shapes. We present three measures based on contour shapes, using the perimeter, the area and the boundary length of segments. These measures are combined with the SAR criterion in order to guide correctly the segment merging process. The new criterion produces good micro-segmentation of SAR images. The criterion is also used in the following merges to produce larger segments. This is illustrated by synthetic and real image results.