Post-processing of the linear sampling method by means of deformable models

The linear sampling method is a qualitative procedure for the visualization of both impenetrable and inhomogeneous scatterers, which requires the regularized solution of a linear ill- posed integral equation of the first kind. An open issue in this technique is the one of determining the optimal scatterer profile from the visualization maps in an automatic manner. In the present paper this problem is addressed in two steps. First, linear sampling is optimized by using a new regularization algorithm for the solution of the integral equation, which provides more accurate maps for different levels of the noise affecting the data. Then an edge detection technique based on active contours is applied to the optimized maps. Our computation exploits a recently introduced implementation of the linear sampling method which enhances both the accuracy and the numerical effectiveness of the approach.