Marker-based watershed transform method for fully automatic mandibular segmentation from cBct images

Abstract

Objectives: To propose a reliable and practical method for automatically segmenting the mandible from CBCT images. Methods: The marker-based watershed transform is a region-growing approach that dilates or “floods” predefined markers onto a height map whose ridges denote object boundaries. We applied this method to segment the mandible from the rest of the CBCT image. The height map was generated to enhance the sharp decreases of intensity at the mandible/tissue border and suppress noise by computing the intensity gradient image of the CBCT itself. Two sets of markers, “mandible” and “background” were automatically placed inside and outside the mandible, respectively in a novel image using i..