Segmentation of Intertwining Stringlike Objects in Three Dimensional CT Image Based on Positional Information

In this paper, a method for segmenting intertwining stringlike objects (strings) in a three-dimensional (3D) X-ray computed tomography (CT) image is proposed. In the proposed method, the positional information, which is a sequence of the center points of the string, is used. The positional information is obtained by tracing the string. The string is traced by sequentially estimating the center and direction of it. The center and direction are estimated by correlating the voxel values with a solid model of the string. The voxels in the 3D CT image are segmented into the strings by clustering on the basis of distance between the voxel and the obtained positional information. The effectiveness of the proposed segmentation method is discussed by experimentally applying it to the 3D CT image of a plain knitted fabric.