This paper presents a new image segmentation method based on multiple active contours guided by differential evolution, called MACDE. The segmentation method uses differential evolution over a polar coordinate system to increase the exploration and exploitation capabilities regarding the classical active contour model. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, a set of synthetic images with complex objects, Gaussian noise, and deep concavities is introduced. Subsequently, MACDE is applied on datasets of sequential computed tomography and magnetic resonance images which contain the human heart and the human left ventricle, respectively. Finally, to obtain a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the medical image segmentations compared to regions outlined by experts, a set of distance and similarity metrics has been adopted. According to the experimental results, MACDE outperforms the classical active contour model and the interactive Tseng method in terms of efficiency and robustness for obtaining the optimal control points and attains a high accuracy segmentation.
This paper presents a novel image segmentation method based on multiple active contours driven by particle swarm optimization (MACPSO). The proposed method uses particle swarm optimization over a polar coordinate system to increase the energy-minimizing capability with respect to the traditional active contour model. In the first stage, to evaluate the robustness of the proposed method, a set of synthetic images containing objects with several concavities and Gaussian noise is presented. Subsequently, MACPSO is used to segment the human heart and the human left ventricle from datasets of sequential computed tomography and magnetic resonance images, respectively. Finally, to assess the performance of the medical image segmentations with respect to regions outlined by experts and by the graph cut method objectively and quantifiably, a set of distance and similarity metrics has been adopted. The experimental results demonstrate that MACPSO outperforms the traditional active contour model in terms of segmentation accuracy and stability.
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