Oriented Boundary Graph: A Framework to Design and Implement 3D Segmentation Algorithms

In this paper we show the interest of a topological model to represent 3D segmented image which is a good compromise between the complete but time consuming representations and the partial but not expressive enough ones. We show that this model, called Oriented Boundary Graph, provides an effective framework for both volumic image analysis and segmentation. The Oriented Boundary Graph provides an efficient implementation of a set of primitives suitable for the design complex segmentation algorithms and to implement the computation of the segmented image characteristics needed by such algorithms. We first present the framework and give the time complexity of its main primitives. Then, we give some examples of the use of this framework in order to efficiently design non-trivial image analysis operations and image segmentation algorithms. Those examples are applied on 3D CT-scan data.