• Journal of KIISE:Computing Practices and Letters
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.712-717
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• 2003

A novel multi-snake is proposed for efficient extraction of multi-object contours from a natural scene. An NTGST(noise-tolerant generalized symmetry transform) is used as a context-free attention operator to detect and locate multiple objects from a complex background and then the snake points are automatically initialized nearby the contour of each detected object using symmetry map of the NTGST before multiple snakes are introduced. These procedures solve the knotty subjects of automatic snake initialization and simultaneous extraction of multi-object contours in conventional snake algorithms. Because the snake points are initialized nearby the actual contour of each object, as close as possible, contours with high convexity and/or concavity can be easily extracted. The experimental results show that the proposed method can efficiently extract multi-object contours from a noisy and complex background of natural scenes.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartA
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• v.14A no.2
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• pp.77-84
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• 2007

The intima media thickness(IMT) of the carotid artery from B mode ultrasound images has recently been proposed as the most useful index of individual atherosclerosis and can be used to predict major cardiovascular events. Ultrasonic measurements of the IMT are conventionally obtained by manually tracing interfaces between tissue layers. The drawbacks of this method are the inter and intra observer variability and its inefficiency. In this paper, we present a multiresolution snake method combined with the dynamic programming, which overcomes the various noises and sensitivity to initialization of conventional snake. First, an image pyramid is constructed using the Gaussian pyramid that maintains global edge information with smoothing in the images, and then the boundaries are automatically detected in the lowest resolution level by minimizing a cost function based on dynamic programming. The cost function includes cost terms which are representing image features and geometrical continuity of the vessel interfaces. Since the detected boundaries are selected as initial contour of the snake for the next level, this automated approach solves the problem of the initialization. Moreover, the proposed snake improves the problem of converging th the local minima by defining the external energy based on multiple image features. In this paper, our method has been validated by computing the correlation between manual and automatic measurements. This automated detection method has obtained more accurate and reproducible results than conventional edge detection by considering multiple image features.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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• v.15B no.4
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• pp.269-274
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• 2008

In this paper, we propose a new stereo correspondence method for generating excellent external energy for snake-based object segmentation methods in stereo images. Our method first generates an edge-based disparity map by performing stereo correspondence between multi-level edge maps of the stereo image pair. Only edges of similar strength are considered for matching. To filter the disparity map for edges of the object of interest, the method estimates the object's disparity value by matching the pattern of edges of the region of interest in the left image against candidate patterns in the right image. The filtered edge map is then used to generate external energy for the snake. The proposed method has been tested on two snake models and results show a noticeable enhancement on performance of the snake when compared with other methods.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.697-704
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• 2003

In this paper, the visual tracking system for arbitrary shaped moving object is proposed. The established tracking system can be divided into model based method that needs previous model for target object and image based method that uses image feature. In the model based method, the reliable tracking is possible, but simplification of the shape is necessary and the application is restricted to definite target mod el. On the other hand, in the image based method, the process speed can be increased, but the shape information is lost and the tracking system is sensitive to image noise. The proposed tracking system is composed of the extraction process that recognizes the existence of moving object and tracking process that extracts dynamic characteristics and shape information of the target objects. Specially, active contour model is used to effectively track the object that is undergoing shape change. In initializatio n process of the contour model, the semi-automatic operation can be avoided and the convergence speed of the contour can be increased by the proposed effective initialization method. Also, for the efficient solution of the correspondence problem in multiple objects tracking, the variation function that uses the variation of position structure in image frame and snake energy level is proposed. In order to verify the validity and effectiveness of the proposed tracking system, real time tracking experiment for multiple moving objects is implemented.