1. US20060147114 - Image segmentation in time-series images

The basic principle of deformable models consists of the adaptation of flexible surfaces, such as triangular meshes to structures in the image. The optimal adaptation of an initial mesh is solved by energy minimization, where maintaining the shape of a geometric model is traded off against detected feature points of the surface of the structure in the image. According to the present invention, a prior shape model M(t) is combined with adaptation results S(t−1) of a previous image. Advantageously, this provides for a robust segmentation of moving or deforming objects.