A New Approach to Minimize the Energy of Deformable Contours Eusebio de la Fuente, F.M.Trespaderne and J.R.Per&n *

A new approach to solve the segmentation problem in noisy images wit.11 missing contours is presented using a deformable model. This model performs a radial search under a relaxation labeling procedure. The relaxation labelling, stated in terms of an optimization problem, is built with a concave criterion t,hat always guarantees the global optimum. The algorithm is well suited for real-time applications due to the inherent local processing of an image near the snake elements. The algorithm has been applied t,o detect the boundaries of irregular pieces of meat. in a production line of cooked ham.