A Variational Level Set Method of Multiphase Segmentation for 3D Images

The variational level set method is a new modeling method for image segmentation which has been extended to multiphase segmentation of images successfully.But the generic expressions of region/phase partitioning,image models in every region,energy functional,and their extensions to applications in segmentation of high dimensional images are current research focuses in image processing based on variational method,level set method and methods using PDEs(Partial Differential Equations).The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel variational level set method for 3D image multiphase segmentation.For this goal,a generic characteristic function for region partitioning based on n-1 level set functions for n regions and their Heaviside functions is designed,and a generic energy functional includes region-based model,edge-based model and constraint term enforcing the level set functions as signed distance functions are suggested also.The corresponding PDEs of evolution of level set functions are discretized using finite difference method and semi-implicit iterations and used to multiphase segmentation for 3D images finally.