Image segmentation method and apparatus therefor

摘要

An image processing area is divided into a plurality of small areas which are allowed to overlap one another. One or a plurality of pixels in a region to be segmented and in a region not to be segmented are specified. A representative point of the region to be segmented and a reference point of the region not to be segmented are determined from the color information of each of the pixels. A discriminating plane, a plane or a curved surface that intersects the line segment connecting the representative point and the reference point a right angles is used in processing. By the processing a particular region can be segmented out of the image. Further, a shape model is made by two-dimensionally projecting from a given direction the three-dimensional structure expressed by a line drawing consisting of nodes and curves connecting the nodes based on priori property relating the structure of the region to be segmented in the image. The shape model is then roughly correlated in position with the nodes on the contour of the image. An image processing provides stripe images having widths for each of the curves that is recomposed and used to find the contour and structure of the object in detail.