Implicit surface segmentation by minimal paths, applications in 3D medical images

Abstract

In this paper we introduce a novel edge-based, implicit approach for single object segmentation in 3D images. From a couple of curves, traced by the user on the object to be segmented, we implicitly generate a surface that contains the set of minimal paths joining them. These paths are minimal with respect to a cost function that takes lower values on the object to be extracted, hence they are within a small distance from it. Unlike other variational approaches, our method is not concerned with local minima traps. Our algorithm has been successfully applied to 3D medical images and synthetic images.