Automated segmentation and shape characterization of volumetric data.

Characterization of complex shapes embedded within volumetric data is an important step in a wide range of applications. Standard approaches to this problem employ surface-based methods that require inefficient, time consuming, and error prone steps of surface segmentation and inflation to satisfy the uniqueness or stability of subsequent surface fitting algorithms. Here we present a novel method based on a spherical wave decomposition (SWD) of the data that overcomes several of these limitations by directly analyzing the entire data volume, obviating the segmentation, inflation, and surface fitting steps, significantly reducing the computational time and eliminating topological errors while providing a more detailed quantitative description based upon a more complete theoretical framework of volumetric data. The method is demonstrated and compared to the current state-of-the-art neuroimaging methods for segmentation and characterization of volumetric magnetic resonance imaging data of the human brain.