Reduced set density estimator for object segmentation based on shape probabilistic representation

In this paper, a nonparametric statistical shape model based on shape probabilistic representation is proposed for object segmentation. Given a set of training shapes, Cremers et al.’s probabilistic method is adopted to represent the shape, and then principal components analysis (PCA) on shape probabilistic representation is computed to capture the variation of the training shapes. To encode complex shape variation in training set, reduced set density estimator is used to model nonlinear shape distributions in a finite-dimensional subspace. This statistical shape prior is integrated to convex segmentation functional to guide the evolving contour to the object of interest. In addition, in contrast to the commonly used signed distance functions, PCA on shape probabilistic representation needs less number of eigenmodes to capture certain details of the training shapes. Numerical experiments show promising results and the potential of the model for object segmentation.

► A nonparametric statistical shape model for object segmentation is proposed. ► PCA on shape probabilistic representation needs less number of eigenmodes than SDF. ► RSDE can provide a high-accuracy and low-cost density estimator.