Snakes with Tangent-Based Control and Energies for Bioimage Analysis

We propose a novel active contour for the analysis of filament-like structures and boundaries—features that traditional snakes based on closed curves have difficulties to delineate. Our method relies on a parametric representation of an open curve involving Hermite-spline basis functions. This allows us to impose constraints both on the contour and on its derivatives. The proposed parameterization enables tangential controls and facilitates the design of an energy term that considers oriented features. In this way, our technique can be used to detect edges as well as ridges. The use of the Hermite-spline basis is well suited to a semi-interactive implementation. We developed an ImageJ plugin, and present experimental results on real biological data.