Automatic landmark identification using a new method of non-rigid correspondence

Abstract

A method for corresponding the boundaries of two shapes is presented. The algorithm locates a matching pair of sparse polygonal approximations, one for each of a pair of boundaries, by minimising a cost function using a greedy algorithm. The cost function expresses the dissimilarity in both the shape and representation error (with respect to the defining boundary) of the sparse polygons. Results are presented for three classes of shape which exhibit various types of non-rigid deformation. The algorithm is also applied to an automatic landmark identification task for the construction of statistical shape models.