Piecewise recognition of bone skeleton profiles via an iterative Hough transform approach without re-voting

Many bone shapes in the human skeleton are characterized by profiles that can be associated to equations of algebraic curves. Fixing the parameters in the curve equation, by means of a classical pattern recognition procedure like the Hough transform technique, it is then possible to associate an equation to a specific bone profile. However, most skeleton districts are more accurately described by piecewise defined curves. This paper utilizes an iterative approach of the Hough transform without re-voting, to provide an efficient procedure for describing the profile of a bone in the human skeleton as a collection of different but continuously attached curves.