Creeping Contours: A Multilabel Image Segmentation Method for Extracting Boundary Surfaces of Parts in Volumetric Images

Abstract

In this work, we introduce a method named creeping contours for image segmentation into component parts for the purpose of extracting the boundary surfaces of these parts. Creeping contours are contours that expand following a speed function defined by the gradient and curvature at contour points, starting from an initial contour position defined either manually or automatically. Contours in the image creep simultaneously at different speeds, while labels are assigned to contour pixels by the defined creeping condition. We also demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method by segmenting 2D grayscale images and 3D volumetric computed tomography images of mechanical parts into multiple segments and generating the boundary surfaces of these parts.