Dynamic Particle Systems for Object Struture Extraction

A new deformable model based on the use of a particle system is introduced. By defining local behaviors for each particle, the system behaves as an active contour model embedding variable topology and regularization properties. As a classical model, the model converges to the feature that is searched for. The interest of the particle system is illustrated through two applications: the first one concerns the use of the system as a skeleton extractor based on the propagation of the particles (or agents) inside tree-shaped objects. Using this method, it is possible to generate a cartography of structures such as veins or channels. In the second illustration, the system is used to avoid the problem of initialization of a piecewise cubic B-spline network used to straighten curved text lines.