Segmentation is often an essential intermediate step in image analysis. A volume segmentation characterizes the underlying volume image in terms of geometric information--segments, faces between segments, curves in which several faces meet--as well as a topology on these objects. Existing algorithms encode this information in designated data structures, but require that these data structures fit entirely in Random Access Memory (RAM). Today, 3D images with several billion voxels are acquired, e.g. in structural neurobiology. Since these large volumes can no longer be processed with existing methods, we present a new algorithm which performs geometry and topology extraction with a runtime linear in the number of voxels and log-linear in the number of faces and curves. The parallelizable algorithm proceeds in a block-wise fashion and constructs a consistent representation of the entire volume image on the hard drive, making the structure of very large volume segmentations accessible to image analysis. The parallelized C++ source code, free command line tools and MATLAB mex files are avilable from this http URL
In this paper we define the 3d topological map and give an optimal algorithm which computes it from a segmented image. This data structure encodes totally all the information given by the segmentation. More, it allows to continue segmentation either algorithmically or interactively. We propose an original approach which uses several levels of maps. This allows us to propose a reasonable and implementable solution where other approaches don't allow suitable solutions. Moreover our solution has been implemented and the theoretical results translate very well in practical applications. This paper deals with the modeling of n-dimensional objects, more precisely with the modeling of subdivisions of n-dimensional topological spaces. We here study the notions of: n-dimensional generalized map (or n-G-map), for the modeling of the topology of any subdivision of any n-dimensional topological space (orientable or not orientable, with or without boundaries); n-dimensional map (or n-map), for the modeling of the topology of any subdivision of any orientable n-dimensional topological space, without boundaries. These two notions extend the notion of topological map, which has been used for the modeling of the topology of any subdivision of any surface. We study in this paper some properties of the n-G-maps and the n-maps (orientability, duality, relationships between n-G-maps and n-maps …), and we define also operations for constructing any n-G-map. Split-and-merge algorithms define a class of image segmentation methods. Topological maps are a mathematical model that represents image subdivisions in 2D and 3D. This paper discusses a split-and-merge method for 3D image data based on the topological map model This model allows representations of states of segmentations and of merge and split operations. Indeed, it can be used as data structure for dynamic changes of segmentation. The paper details such an algorithmic approach and analyzes its time complexity. A general introduction into combinatorial and topological maps is given to support the understanding of the proposed algorithms. In this paper, we define the three-dimensional topological map, a model which represents both the topological and geometrical information of a three-dimensional labeled image. Since this model describes the image's topology in a minimal way, we can use it to define efficient image processing algorithms. The topological map is the last level of map hierarchy. Each level represents the region boundaries of the image and is defined from the previous level in the hierarchy, thus giving a simple constructive definition. This model is an extension of the similar model defined for 2D images. Progressive definition based on successive map levels allows us to extend this model to higher dimension. Moreover, with progressive definition, we can study each level separately. This simplifies the study of disconnection cases and the proofs of topological map properties. Finally, we provide an incremental extraction algorithm which extracts any map of the hierarchy in a single image scan. Moreover, we show that this algorithm is very efficient by giving the results of our experiments made on artificial images. In boundary representation, a geometric object is represented by the union of a ‘topological’ model, which describes the topology of the modelled object, and an ‘embedding’ model, which describes the embedding of the object, for instance in three-dimensional Euclidean space. In recent years, numerous topological models have been developed for boundary representation, and there have been important developments with respect to dimension and orientability. In the main, two types of topological models can be distinguished. ‘Incidence graphs’ are graphs or hypergraphs, where the nodes generally represent the cells of the modelled subdivision (vertex, edge, face, etc.), and the edges represent the adjacency and incidence relations between these cells. ‘Ordered’ models use a single type of basic element (more or less explicitly defined), on which ‘element functions’ act; the cells of the modelled subdivision are implicitly defined in this type of model. In this paper some of the most representative ordered topological models are compared using the concepts of the n-dimensional generalized map and the n-dimensional map. The main result is that ordered topological models are (roughly speaking) equivalent with respect to the class of objects which can be modelled (i.e. with respect to dimension and orientability). Abstract The interactive use of graphic paintboxes has raised a new concept in image synthesis that is sometimes called 2 1 2 D synthesis. It mainly consists of modeling scenes made of possibly overlapping 2D objects, ordered with respect to depth. There exist different approaches to realize such a model. In this paper, we briefly sketch a model based on a partition of the image into elementary regions and the representation of 2D objects by a set of contours. Then we describe precisely the algorithms and data structures in relation to the fundamental operation defined in this model: the insertion of a new contour in a previously defined contour set. We propose the GeoMap abstract data type as a unified representation for image segmentation purposes. It manages both topology (based on XPMaps) and pixel-based information, and its interface is carefully designed to support a variety of automatic and interactive segmentation methods. We have successfully used the abstract concept of a GeoMap as a foundation for the implementation of well-known segmentation methods.