Extracting 3D parametric curves from 2D images of Helical objects

Willcocks, C. G., Jackson, P. T.G., Nelson, C. and Obara, B. (2017) Extracting 3D parametric curves from 2D images of Helical objects. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 39(9), pp. 1757-1769. (doi: 10.1109/TPAMI.2016.2613866) (PMID:28114058)

Abstract

Helical objects occur in medicine, biology, cosmetics, nanotechnology, and engineering. Extracting a 3D parametric curve from a 2D image of a helical object has many practical applications, in particular being able to extract metrics such as tortuosity, frequency, and pitch. We present a method that is able to straighten the image object and derive a robust 3D helical curve from peaks in the object boundary. The algorithm has a small number of stable parameters that require little tuning, and the curve is validated against both synthetic and real-world data. The results show that the extracted 3D curve comes within close Hausdorff distance to the ground truth, and has near identical tortuosity for helical objects with a circular profile. Parameter insensitivity and robustness against high levels of image noise are demonstrated thoroughly and quantitatively.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by research grants from Dyson Ltd, United Kingdom (RF080296) and The Royal Society, UK (RF080232)
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Nelson, Dr Chas
• Authors: Willcocks, C. G., Jackson, P. T.G., Nelson, C., and Obara, B.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• ISSN: 0162-8828
• ISSN (Online): 1939-3539
• Published Online: 27 September 2016
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 IEEE
• First Published: First published in IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 39(9):1757-1769
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher