A variational PDE based level set method for a simultaneous segmentation and non-rigid registration.

A new variational PDE based level set method for a simultaneous image segmentation and non-rigid registration using prior shape and intensity information is presented. The segmentation is obtained by finding a non-rigid registration to the prior shape. The non-rigid registration consists of both a global rigid transformation and a local non-rigid deformation. In this model, a prior shape is used as an initial contour which leads to decrease the numerical calculation time. The model is tested against two chamber end systolic ultrasound images from thirteen human patients. The experimental results provide preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of the model in detecting the boundaries of the incompletely resolved objects which were plagued by noise, dropout, and artifact.