Topological active volumes for segmentation and shape reconstruction of medical images

This paper presents a new methodology for automatic 3D segmentation and shape reconstruction of bones from tomographic cross-sections. This methodology uses the Topological Active Volumes model. The model is based on deformable models, it is able to integrate the most representative characteristics of the region-based and boundary-based segmentation models and it also provides information about the topological properties of the inside of detected objects. This model has the ability to perform topological local changes in its structure during the adjustment phase in order to: obtain a specific adjustment to object's local singularities, find several objects in the scene and identify and delimit holes in detected structures.