Force Feedback to Assist Active Contour Modelling for Tracheal Stenosis Segmentation

Abstract

Manual segmentation of structures for diagnosis and treatment of various diseases is a very time-consuming procedure. Therefore, some level of automation during the segmentation is desired, as it often significantly reduces the segmentation time. A typical solution is to allow manual interaction to steer the segmentation process, which is known as semiautomatic segmentation. In 2D, such interaction is usually achieved with click-and-drag operations, but in 3D a more sophisticated interface is called for. In this paper, we propose a semi-automatic Active Contour Modelling for the delineation of medical structures in 3D, tomographic images. Interaction is implemented with the employment of a 3D haptic device, which is used to steer the contour deformation towards the correct boundaries. In this way, valuable haptic feedback is provided about the 3D surface and its deformation. Experiments on simulated and real tracheal CT data showed that the proposed technique is an intuitive and effective segmentation mechanism.