A dual active contour can use two snakes to seek an energy minimum which lies between their initial positions. This relieves problems associated with initialisation. The contraction force is removed by the inclusion of local shape information within the snakes and the parameters required to control their evolution can be combined within a single regularisation parameter. An adaptive driving force is used to move the snakes which reduces the sensitivity to parameters. These developments are demonstrated to provide a performance superior to that of a conventional single snake approach.
Steve R. Gunn, Mark S. Nixon