Threshold selection for segmentation of dense objects in tomograms

Abstract

Tomographic reconstructions are often segmented to extract valuable quantitative information. In this paper, we consider the problem of segmenting a dense object of constant density within a continuous tomogram, by means of global thresholding. Selecting the proper threshold is a nontrivial problem, for which hardly any automatic procedures exists. We propose a new method that exploits the available projection data to accurately determine the optimal global threshold. Results from simulation experiments show that our algorithm is capable of finding a threshold that is close to the optimal threshold value. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008.