Blob parameter selection for image representation

A technique for optimizing parameters for image representation using blob basis functions is presented and demonstrated. The exact choice of the basis functions significantly influences the quality of the image representation. It has been previously established that using spherically symmetric volume elements (blobs) as basis functions, instead of the more traditional voxels, yields superior representations of real objects, provided that the parameters that occur in the definition of the family of blobs are appropriately tuned. The technique presented in this paper makes use of an extra degree of freedom, which has been previously ignored, in the blob parameter space. The efficacy of the resulting parameters is illustrated.