Continuous Medial Representations for Geometric Object Modeling in 2D and 3D

Paul Yushkevich [contact] , P. Thomas Fletcher, Sarang Joshi, Andrew Thall, Stephen M. Pizer

Abstract

We present a new generative object model that represents geometric objects by a continuous medial locus and an associated thickness field, both of which are defined by b-splines. Object boundaries are then generated by inverse Blum symmetric axis transform (SAT) of the medial locus. The 2D representation can model branching medial loci; the 3D version can model objects with a single medial surface, and the extension to branching medial surfaces is a subject of ongoing research. We describe the geometric properties of the continuous medial locus and the generated boundary and develop a set of legality constraints on the b-spline parameters. This representation is useful for image analysis and shape representation, and we present preliminary results of medical image segmentation using our model

Complete Paper

Click here to view the complete paper in PDF format.

Movies

• Narrated movie about model construction in 3D (.avi with audio, 3 min, 20mb)
• Narrated movie about fitting models to images in 3D (.avi with audio, 90 sec, 11mb)
• Movie of a spinning 3D model of the hippocampus (.avi loop, 200kb)

Bibtex Entry

@TECHREPORT{yushkevich02_continuous, 
    author = {Paul Yushkevich and P. Thomas Fletcher and Sarang Joshi and Andrew Thall and Stephen M. Pizer},   
    title = {Continuous Medial Representations for Geometric Object Modeling in {2D} and {3D}}, 
    year = 2002, 
    institution = {University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill},
    type = {{T}echnical report}  
    number = {TR02-003}
}