Topographic cellular active contour techniques: theory,implementations and comparisons

This paper overviews some massively parallel topographic cellular computational approaches proposed for contour localization and tracking. When implemented on a focal plane cellular array microprocessor, these algorithms offer real‐time object contour localization and tracking—even at very high frame rates. Three specific methods (Constrained Wave Computing, Pixel Level Snakes and Moving Patch Method) will be described and compared along with their associated hardware–software architectures. Computational complexity, implementation, and performance related issues are discussed on a common platform (ACE‐BOX with the ACEx CNN‐UM chips). In conclusion, a novel architecture is proposed incorporating the best solutions learned from this comparative study. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.