by Peter Horvath, Ian Jermyn, Zoltan Kato, Josiane Zerubia
Abstract:
We present a model of a `gas of circles': regions in the image domain composed of a unknown number of circles of approximately the same radius. The model has applications to medical, biological, nanotechnological, and remote sensing imaging. The model is constructed using higher-order active contours (HOACs) in order to include non-trivial prior knowledge about region shape without constraining topology. The main theoretical contribution is an analysis of the local minima of the HOAC energy that allows us to guarantee stable circles, fix one of the model parameters, and constrain the rest. We apply the model to tree crown extraction from aerial images of plantations. Numerical experiments both confirm the theoretical analysis and show the empirical importance of the prior shape information.
Reference:
Peter Horvath, Ian Jermyn, Zoltan Kato, Josiane Zerubia, A higher-order active contour model of a `gas of circles' and its application to tree crown extraction, In Pattern Recognition, volume 42, no. 5, pp. 699-709, 2009, Elsevier.
Bibtex Entry:
@string{pattrec="Pattern Recognition"}
@string{elsevier="Elsevier"}
@Article{Horvath-etal2009,
author = {Peter Horvath and Ian Jermyn and Kato, Zoltan and
Zerubia, Josiane},
title = {A higher-order active contour model of a `gas of
circles' and its application to tree crown
extraction},
journal = pattrec,
year = 2009,
publisher = elsevier,
volume = 42,
number = 5,
pages = {699--709},
month = may,
abstract = {We present a model of a `gas of circles': regions in
the image domain composed of a unknown number of
circles of approximately the same radius. The model
has applications to medical, biological,
nanotechnological, and remote sensing imaging. The
model is constructed using higher-order active
contours (HOACs) in order to include non-trivial
prior knowledge about region shape without
constraining topology. The main theoretical
contribution is an analysis of the local minima of
the HOAC energy that allows us to guarantee stable
circles, fix one of the model parameters, and
constrain the rest. We apply the model to tree crown
extraction from aerial images of
plantations. Numerical experiments both confirm the
theoretical analysis and show the empirical
importance of the prior shape information.},
pdf = {papers/pattrec2009.pdf},
}