?Simplifying curve skeletons in volume images?

The curve skeleton of a 3D solid object provides a useful tool for shape
analysis tasks. In this paper, we use a recent skeletonization algorithm
based on voxel classification that originates a nearly thin, i.e., at most
two-voxel thick, curve skeleton. We introduce a novel way to compress the
nearly thin curve skeleton to one-voxel thickness, as well as an efficient
pruning algorithm able to remove unnecessary skeleton branches without
causing excessive loss of information. To this purpose, the pruning
condition is based on the distribution of significant elements along
skeleton branches. The definition of significance depends on the adopted
skeletonization algorithm. In our case, it is derived from the voxel
classification used during skeletonization.