Shape reconstruction of partially overlapping objects in SEM images: Application to silver halide microcrystals

A method for shape reconstruction and extraction from objects that have a certain regularity but are observed in a scanning electron microscopy image with some degree of overlap is presented. The proposed algorithm first calculates the curvature at each contour point of the object in the digitized binary image in order to detect the vertexes. Reconstruction of the shape of overlapping objects is then based on geometrical considerations using the information from the vertex co-ordinates. The procedure is independent of the size and orientation of the objects. The method is applied to the shape reconstruction of partially overlapping tabular silver halide microcrystals.