A semiautomatic segmentation method based on active contour is proposed for computed tomography (CT) image series. First, to get initial contour, one image slice was segmented exactly by C-V method based on Mumford-Shah model. Next, the computer will segment the nearby slice automatically using the snake model one by one. During segmenting of image slices, former slice boundary, as next slice initial contour, may cross over next slice real boundary and never return to right position. To avoid contour skipping over, the distance variance between two slices is evaluated by an threshold, which decides whether to initiate again. Moreover, a new improved marching cubes (MC) algorithm based on 2D images series segmentation boundary is given for 3D image reconstruction. Compared with the standard method, the proposed algorithm reduces detecting time and needs less storing memory. The effectiveness and capabilities of the algorithm were illustrated by experimental results.
