Active image: A shape and topology preserving segmentation method using B-spline free form deformations

Unlike most conventional active contour models that drive the initial contours to match the object boundaries, we propose an “active image” segmentation method that deforms the image to match the initial contours, and hence can simultaneously segment multiple objects. The deformation field is modeled by B-spline free form deformations (FFD). Penalizing the bending energy of B-spline FFD enables us to preserve both the local shape and the topology of objects of interest. Preliminary results on both synthetic and real world images show that the proposed method is able to overcome low contrast, occlusion, and other defects by using simple segmentation criteria.