Contour length terminating criterion for snake model

The snake model, that involves a recursive scheme for contour searching, is widely employed in object contour detection. In a recursive algorithm, a terminating criterion is essential to terminate the process. However, existing terminating criteria for snake cannot acquire good results for contour detection. Two commonly employed terminating criteria for snake are addressed and their limitations on stability and reliability are discussed. A novel terminating criterion, named as contour length criterion (CL-criterion), is developed and reported in this paper. This criterion measures the normalized total length of the contour at each iteration. A number of images are selected to evaluate the effect of applying the proposed terminating criterion on the snake model and the results are encouraging. Compared to existing criteria, the proposed method is more stable and reliable.