Computer-assisted extraction of boundaries from images
Ramin Samadani, Cecilia S. Han · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1993
This paper describes a technique for interactive, computer-assisted boundary tracking from two-dimensional images. Once the boundaries of an object are known, it is possible to extract any number of features to be used for subsequent search or retrieval based on image content. The technique combines manual inputs from the user with machine inputs, generated from edge detection algorithms, for assisting in the extraction of the boundaries. This allows for the quick extraction of boundaries by combining the capabilities of the user and the computer. The user is adept at quickly locating an object of interest and at drawing a very rough outline of the object. The computer is adept at quickly making a large number of calculations that refine the rough outline generated by the user. The performance of the technique was tested using both computer simulations and real images. The performance of the technique degrades gracefully in the presence of noise.