3D Adaptive Balloon Active Contour: method of segmentation of structures in three dimensions

Abstract

The Active Contour Model (ACM) was introduced in 1987 and allows the image segmentation of objects in digital images through edge detection, obtained from image information. This ACM consists in outlining an initial curve around or inside an object of interest. This curve is deformed, according to some forces which act on it, moving it to the edges of the object. This process is performed through successive minimizing iterations of a given energy associated to the curve. Recently, various applications have proposed changes in traditional ACMs, generating new methods, applications, benefits and performance improvements in certain applications. Due to that, these methods have also been expanded to three dimensions (3D), being called Active Contour Methods 3D (ACM 3D), as is the case of the proposed method, called Adaptive Balloon ACM 3D. This method is applied in the segmentation of 3D models and compared to the 3D Region Growing method (RG 3D). The results showed that the RG is superior to the 3D proposed method when applied in closed objects, but inferior in hollow objects, in which the proposed method is stably displayed in all applications. Therefore, one can conclude that the proposed method can be applied to the segmentation of 3D objects in a promising way.