ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE FOR BIOLOGICAL SHAPE-II

  • 1 January 1977
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 21  (3) , 455-464
Abstract
A discrete function representing the curvature of closed contours is derived. The function is easily computable and has properties desirable for use in shape analysis. Two curvature measures (as well as the traditional P2A) were then applied to a set of shapes extracted from leukocyte nuclei to evaluate their effectiveness as numeric descriptors of shape complexity. Bending energy, (BEN), was on the average the most sensitive indicator of complex shape, normalized mean absolute curvature (NMAC) was next, and P2A was last. Bending energy could also have important biological significance due to its possible realtion to developmental processes. Further studies on bending energy will be necessary to substantiate this possibility. Many of the discrepancies between P2A, NMAC, BEN and the study subjects are explainable by the lack of syntactic, or form, information used by the computer features. If an observer really classifies an object by decomposing it into simpler pieces, then a more sophisticate shape analysis procedure must be used.

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