Patent ID: 6788816
Filing Date: 2004-09-07
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
A contour extraction method for delimiting, from picture image data of a picture image including an image of a body that includes an object of contour extraction, regions to which individual points of the picture image belong based on attributes of the points of the picture image and extracting a boundary between the regions as a contour, the method comprising:(a) initializing parameters which define mixed probability distributions of the attributes of the points of the picture image; (b) calculating region belonging probabilities with respect to the points of the picture image; (c) updating the parameters so that the mixed probability distributions may be increased; (d) calculating an evaluation function to be used as a scale for favorableness of estimation from the mixed probability distributions defined by the updated parameters; (e) delimiting the regions to which the points of the picture image belong based on the region belonging probabilities; (f) extracting a boundary between the delimited regions; and (g) discriminating, based on the region belonging probabilities, whether or not the points of the picture image are region internal points, which are points within a determined one of the regions, or region external points, which are points outside the determined region.