Microbleeds detection using watershed-driven active contour

This paper presents a segmentation method which combines watershed transform and an active contour. The implementation of watershed transform on the object commonly produce over-segmentation of homogenous color region while the active contour is effectively produce a smooth segmentation. The pros and cons between these two methods will make the combination better than before. The active contour method is applied after watershed pre-segmentation process in order to segments the change of detection mask. The resulting contour is created form the incertitude on the motion induces. The original contribution consists in the use of active contour is to correct the segmented line created by watershed. To solve this problem, a distance map is applied in the over-segmented area. The specific parameter is introduced to correct the segmented line based on the evolution of the active contour equation. The proposed method improves watershed segmentation as well as produce smoother result than watershed segmentation.