Hierarchical shape representation for use in anatomical object recognition
Glynn P. Robinson, Alan C. F. Colchester, Lewis D. Griffin · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1992
An efficient scheme for representation of the shape of anatomical and pathological structures is required for intelligent computer interpretation of medical images. We present an approach to the extraction and representation of shape which, unlike previous shape representations, does not require complete boundary descriptions. It is based on the `Delaunay triangulation' and its dual the `Voronoi diagram.' Our method of using this dual leads to both a skeleton description and a boundary description. The basic step in the algorithm is that of deciding whether to treat any pair of neighboring points as adjacent (lying next to each other on the same boundary) or opposite (lying on opposing sides of a skeleton separating two boundaries). The duality of the skeleton and boundary descriptions produced means that the splitting of one object into two separate objects, or the merging of two objects into one, can be easily accomplished.