Computation of a probabilistic statistical shape model in a maximum-a-posteriori framework.

OBJECTIVES When analyzing shapes and shape variabilities, the first step is bringing those shapes into correspondence. This is a fundamental problem even when solved by manually determining exact correspondences such as landmarks. We developed a method to represent a mean shape and a variability model for a training data set based on probabilistic correspondence computed between the observations. METHODS First, the observations are matched on each other with an affine transformation found by the Expectation-Maximization Iterative-Closest-Points (EM-ICP) registration. We then propose a maximum-a-posteriori (MAP) framework in order to compute the statistical shape model (SSM) parameters which result in an optimal adaptation of the model to the observations. The optimization of the MAP explanation is realized with respect to the observation parameters and the generative model parameters in a global criterion and leads to very efficient and closed-form solutions for (almost) all parameters. RESULTS We compared our probabilistic SSM to a SSM based on one-to-one correspondences and the PCA (classical SSM). Experiments on synthetic data served to test the performances on non-convex shapes (15 training shapes) which have proved difficult in terms of proper correspondence determination. We then computed the SSMs for real putamen data (21 training shapes). The evaluation was done by measuring the generalization ability as well as the specificity of both SSMs and showed that especially shape detail differences are better modeled by the probabilistic SSM (Hausdorff distance in generalization ability Re approximately 25% smaller). CONCLUSIONS The experimental outcome shows the efficiency and advantages of the new approach as the probabilistic SSM performs better in modeling shape details and differences.