3D AUTOCUT: a 3D segmentation algorithm

based on cellular automata

E. C. Neto and P. C. Cortez and V. E. Rodrigues and Tarique
S. Cavalcante and Igor R. S. Valente

An improved 3D cellular automaton segmentation algorithm is proposed

in this letter. The puporse of this letter is to create a tri-directional
automaton in order to segment 3D volumes. The improvement in this
letter is that it is created a force in the RGB space i norder to improve the
result od the 3D algorithm. Experiments on several synthetic voulmes
have shown that the proposed method achieves better segmentation
results and efficiency than the other methods.

Introduction: Image analysis is one field in the Computer Vision area,

and aims to extract meaningful information from the images. Among the
several steps of a Computer Vision system, the segmentation is one of the
most important steps, which the area of aimed object is obtained [1].
The image segmentation is a process in which the image is divided
into regions or homogeneous parts that can represent one or more objects
of interest, according to some criterion of uniformity [2, 3]. However,
this task is still highly complex for computational systems, especially
to overcome two of the most apparent problems: quantification and
qualification of information represented in many different ways, such as
intensity [4], edges [5], contours [6] and grayscale texture [7].
Some researchers has suggested some 3D image segmentation
algorithms, multilevel banded graph cuts for image segmentation [8]. T.
Srinark and C. Kambhamettu developed an approach on multiresolution
surfaces [9]. Rebouas Filho developed an 3d adaptative active contour
method for 3D image segmentation [10]. Y. Boykov and M.P. Jolly
use graph cuts for interactive organ segmentation [11]. On the other
hand, P.W. de Bruin et.al. proposed an approached based on connected
orthogonal contours for interactive 3D segmentation [12]. M. Meng
proposed an unsupervised algorithm for co-segmentation of a set of 3D
shapes [13]. Almeida et. al [14] created an active rays in order to generate Fig. 1. Proposed method flowchart.
a mesh to segment objects.
The novel segmentation algorithm in this letter contains a 3D
segmentation method based on cellular automata which is tested on
different synthetic images. The proposed method is compared to two
algorithms from the literature, the basic 3D algorithm of Region Growing
[15] and the algorithm from Almeida et. al [14].

Proposed Method: In the Fig. 1 a flowchart of the steps of the proposed

method is illustrated. First, the acquisition step consists in obtaining the
image from a file, or from a dataset, in this paper the images are obtained
from synthetic images. Afterwards, 2D preprocessing of each 3D volume
image is performed. In this 2D pre-processing, the original image passes
through three filters, after this pre-processing, these images are grouped
together forming an image in the RGB space. After the pre-processing
is performed the initialization of the labels, seeds, which will progress
to the permanent state. After initialization, the seeds evolve interactively
until they stabilize.
The tests are processes that seek the preliminary verification of the
efficiency of the method in the segmentation of the image. The volumes
used on the test are shown on Fig; 2. Four images with the size of
300x300x300 voxels were created with these volumes inside. The choice
of these volumes is due to the different characteristics that they have. The
volume in blue consists of the volume to be segmented and the volume in
red consists of the volume referring to the initial seeds.
The next step in the method is to pre-process 2D images of the volume.
The purpose of this preprocessing for the method is to generate the
forces of each voxel and thereby make the method more efficient. In pre-
processing the image is processed by three different filter types, which are
the Gaussian filter, the distance transform and the histogram adjustment.
After the step of the individual 2D pre-processing of each image,
the result composes a new set of images, at which point a new image
is generated in the RGB color space. This new image in the RGB
space will constitute the forces of each voxel at the moment of the
interactive segmentation and based on these forces will be processed the
segmentation of the object to be segmented.
The next step is the seed initialization and labeling of the voxels to be
segmented. Initialization of the seed volumes were generated manually
Fig. 2 The synthetic 3D images used for the tests with the initial seeds, a)
cylinder, b) sphere, c) cube and d) double cones.
and automatically, where a spherical volume of 10 voxels radius was
generated.
The last step of the method is interactive segmentation and volume
growth. From the initial volume, a neighborhood of the labeled voxels is
analyzed and based on the force relationship and the state of the label,
the voxel remains with the same label or exchange for a new label. The
volumes starts as a small sphere and finishes by involving the target
volume, which in the Fig. 1 is a double cone.
According to Delves et al. [16], a first step to evaluate a segmented
image consists of comparing the regions detected in the segmented image
with those in the reference image. This comparison is based on the fitting
process, by matching the ground thruth region with the segmented region.
There will be a region that matches both, ground thruth and segmented,
this region is named fitted region. The best fit region can be evaluated by
criteria of dice similarity coefficient, which is given by:
2|Iseg Igt |
Dice(Iseg , Igt ) = (1)
|Iseg | |Igt |
where Igt is the ground thruth image and the Iseg is the segmented image
by the proposed algorithm.

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 25th April 2017 Vol. 00 No. 00

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Table 1: Efficiency comparisons corresponding to volumes segmentation 14 T. M. de Almeida, T. da Silveira Cavalcante, and P. C. Cortez,
Three-dimensional radial active contour model: A 3-d to 1-d image
Proposed Method Region Growing Almeida [14]
segmentation technique, IEEE Latin America Transactions, vol. 15,
Cylinder 0,963 0,954 0,936 no. 2, pp. 365373, Feb 2017.
Cube 0,961 0,945 0,889 15 R. C. Gonzalez, R. E. Woods, and S. I. Eddins, Digital Image
Double Cone 0,923 0,901 0,896 Processing, 3rd ed. Knoxville: Gatesmark Publishing, 2009.
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Table 1 shows the efficiency comparisons corresponding to 2149, 1992.
experiments in Fig. 2. The left-hand side is the type of the object and
the top side of each set of data is the algorithm.
From Table 1, the proposed model has the clear advantages in the
terms of the segmentation efficiency. The proposed method has the
highest rate compared to the others algorithms.

Conclusion: This letter proposes a new technique of segmentation of

images in three dimensions based on cellular automata. In this technique
forces are generated in the RGB space. In this way, the calculations
of force functions can be varied, consequently, the computational
performance for segmentation of 3D structures in general are optimized.
The proposed method achieves the better segmentation results and
efficiency than the active rays [14] and Region Growing [15] methods;
furthermore, it is insensitive to initial volume.

Edson C. Neto (Federal University of Cear - Brazil)

Paulo C. Cortez (Federal University of Cear - Brazil)
Valberto E. Rodrigues (Federal University of Cear - Brazil)
Tarique S. Cavalcante (Federal University of Cear - Brazil)
Igor R. S. Valente (Federal University of Cear - Brazil)
E-mail:
edsoncavalcanti@hotmail.com

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