Physically-based active shape models: Initialization and optimization

In this paper we describe a new approach for 2-D object segmentation using an automatic method applied on images with problems as partial information, overlapping objects, many objects in a single scene, severe noise conditions and locating objects with a very high degree of deformation. We use a physically-based shape model to obtain a deformable template, which is defined on a canonical orthogonal coordinate system. The proposed methodology works starting from the output of an edge detector, which is processed to automatically obtain an approximation of the shape. The final estimation of the shapes is obtained fitting a deformable template model, which is defined on a learned surface of deformation. Results from biological images are presented. (C) 1998 Pattern Recognition Society. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.