SEGMENTATION OF MIDDLE-EAR IMAGES BASED ON ACTIVE CONTOUR MODEL
Chunlan Jiang · 2007
Objective To set up effective active contour models to segment middle-ear images. Methods Traditional gradient force, gradient plus pressure force and gradient vector flow (GVF) force were used in active contour models to segment malleus, incus, eardrum and some shared surface images. The segmentation results were compared. Results Both the gradient force and the GVF force resulted in satisfactory results when the initial contours were close to the boundary. The GVF force also brought satisfactory results when the initial contours were far from the boundary while the gradient force failed. The gradient plus pressure force brought satisfactory results in the eardrum images segmentation while the gradient force and the GVF force failed. Conclusion Both the gradient force and the GVF force can result in satisfactory results in simple images segmentation. The GVF force does better than the other two forces in the segmentation of complex images with concaves. The gradient plus pressure force does better in preventing the model from crossing the slim images.