USER-ASSISTED SEGMENTATION FOR MEDICAL IMAGES

Medical images are an important area of application for image segmentation methods. However, despite considerable research into automatic segmentation methods, many difficult medical images are still processed using manual or manually-assisted methods. This is because automatic methods still do not yield reliable results in many cases and often require tweaking parameters to achieve satisfactory performance. This chapter describes a new technique combining manual and automatic techniques to approach this problem. In our method, users start the segmentation by drawing a rough sketch around the area of interest. Then this sketch is automatically adapted to the desired contour. Our technique allows users to refine the desired solution iteratively using simple strokes in a localized manner. In this way it is possible to correct imperfections and overcome algorithmic limitations while taking advantage of the expeditious convergence afforded by conventional image processing methods. Our experiments show that users are able to produce good quality results in an expedite fashion using few, simple and easy interactions. By doing away with the need for parameter tweaking users can segment images which would otherwise be difficult to process via “purely automatic” methods in a simple and controlled manner.