Statistical methods for coupling expert knowledge and automatic image segmentation and registration

Image registration;Image segmentation;Stochastic optimization;Interactive segmentation

Kolesov, Ivan A. ; Electrical and Computer Engineering

University:Georgia Institute of Technology

Department:Electrical and Computer Engineering

关键词: Image registration;    Image segmentation;    Stochastic optimization;    Interactive segmentation;   

Others  :  https://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/1853/47739/1/kolesov_ivan_a_201305_phd.pdf

美国|英语

来源: SMARTech Repository

【 摘 要 】

The objective of the proposed research is to develop methods that couple an expert user's guidance with automatic image segmentation and registration algorithms. Often, complex processes such as fire, anatomical changes/variations in human bodies, or unpredictable human behavior produce the target images; in these cases, creating a model that precisely describes the process is not feasible. A common solution is to make simplifying assumptions when performing detection, segmentation, or registration tasks automatically. However, when these assumptions are not satisfied, the results are unsatisfactory. Hence, removing these, often times stringent, assumptions at the cost of minimal user input is considered an acceptable trade-off.Three milestones towards reaching this goal have been achieved. First, an interactive image segmentation approach was created in which the user is coupled in a closed-loop control system with a level set segmentation algorithm. The user's expert knowledge is combined with the speed of automatic segmentation. Second, a stochastic point set registration algorithm is presented. The point sets can be derived from simple user input (e.g. a thresholding operation), and time consuming correspondence labeling is not required. Furthermore, common smoothness assumptions on the non-rigid deformation field are removed. Third, a stochastic image registration algorithm is designed to capture large misalignments. For future research, several improvements of theregistration are proposed, and an iterative, landmark based segmentation approach, which couples the segmentation and registration, is envisioned.