Capture Illusory Contours: A Level Set Based Approach

Illusory contours are intrinsic phenomena in human vision. Many methods have been proposed to identify illusory contours. In this paper, we present a level set based variational model to capture a typical class of illusory contours such as Kanizsa triangle. The model consists of two parts: the first part drives the zero level set to the inside desired solid boundaries and keeps it sticking to the L-junctions while the second one employs the Euler’s Elastica to complete the missing boundaries in a curvature continuity and short length way which has been shown to conform with human perception. The illusory contour is just the limit zero level curve. The listed experiments, including classical ones such as Kanizsa triangle and square, validate our model.