Segmentation of 3D holographic images using bivariate jointly distributed region snake

In this paper, we describe the bivariate jointly distributed region snake method in segmentation of microorganisms in Single Exposure On- Line (SEOL) holographic microscopy images. 3D images of the microorganisms are digitally reconstructed and numerically focused from any arbitrary depth from a single recorded digital hologram without mechanical scanning. Living organisms are non-rigid and they vary in shape and size. Moreover, they often do not exhibit clear edges in digitally reconstructed SEOL holographic images. Thus, conventional segmentation techniques based on the edge map may fail to segment these images. However, SEOL holographic microscopy provides both magnitude and phase information of the sample specimen, which could be helpful in the segmentation process. In this paper, we present a statistical framework based on the joint probability distribution of magnitude and phase information of SEOL holographic microscopy images and maximum likelihood estimation of image probability density function parameters. An optimization criterion is computed by maximizing the likelihood function of the target support hypothesis. In addition, a simple stochastic algorithm has been adapted for carrying out the optimization, while several boosting techniques have been employed to enhance its performance. Finally, the proposed method is applied for segmentation of biological microorganisms in SEOL holographic images and the experimental results are presented.