Abstract. We present a new flexible wavefront propagation algorithm for the boundary value problem for subRiemannian (SR) geodesics in the roto-translation group SE(2) = R 2 S 1 with a metric tensor depending on a smooth external cost C : SE(2) → [δ, 1], δ > 0, computed from image data. The method consists of a first step where an SR-distance map is computed as a viscosity solution of a Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman system derived via Pontryagin's maximum principle (PMP). Subsequent backward integration, again relying on PMP, gives the SR-geodesics. For C = 1 we show that our method produces the global minimizers. Comparison with exact solutions shows a remarkable accuracy of the SR-spheres and the SR-geodesics. We present numerical computations of Maxwell points and cusp points, which we again verify for the uniform cost case C = 1. Regarding image analysis applications, trackings of elongated structures in retinal and synthetic images show that our line tracking generically deals with crossings. We show the benefits of including the SR-geometry.

We present a neuro-mathematical model for geometrical optical illusions (GOIs), a class of illusory phenomena that consists in a mismatch of geometrical properties of the visual stimulus and its associated percept. They take place in the visual areas V1/V2 whose functional architecture have been modelled in previous works by Citti and Sarti as a Lie group equipped with a sub-Riemannian (SR) metric. Here we extend their model proposing that the metric responsible for the cortical connectivity is modulated by the modelled neuro-physiological response of simple cells to the visual stimulus, hence providing a more biologically plausible model that takes into account a presence of visual stimulus. Illusory contours in our model are described as geodesics in the new metric. The model is confirmed by numerical simulations, where we compute the geodesics via SR-Fast Marching.

We consider the problem P curve of minimizing L 0 ξ 2 + κ 2 (s) ds for a curve x in R 3 with fixed boundary points and directions. Here, the total length L ≥ 0 is free, s denotes the arclength parameter, κ denotes the absolute curvature of x, and ξ > 0 is constant. We lift problem P curve on R 3 to a sub-Riemannian problem P mec on SE(3)/({0} × SO (2)). Here, for admissible boundary conditions, the spatial projections of sub-Riemannian geodesics do not exhibit cusps and they solve problem P curve . We apply the Pontryagin Maximum Principle (PMP) and prove Liouville integrability of the Hamiltonian system. We derive explicit analytic formulas for such sub-Riemannian geodesics, relying on the co-adjoint orbit structure, an underlying Cartan connection, and the matrix representation of SE(3) arising in the Cartan-matrix. These formulas allow us to extract geometrical properties of the sub-Riemannian geodesics with cuspless projection, such as planarity conditions, explicit bounds on their torsion, and their symmetries. Furthermore, they allow us to parameterize all admissible boundary conditions reachable by geodesics with cuspless spatial projection. Such projections lay in the upper half space. We prove this for most cases, and the rest is checked numerically. Finally, we employ the formulas to numerically solve the boundary value problem, and visualize the set of admissible boundary conditions.

The paper is devoted to an approach for image inpainting developed on the basis of neurogeometry of vision and sub-Riemannian geometry. Inpainting is realized by completing damaged isophotes (level lines of brightness) by optimal curves for the left-invariant sub-Riemannian problem on the group of rototranslations (motions) of a plane SE(2). The approach is considered as anthropomorphic inpainting since these curves satisfy the variational principle discovered by neurogeometry of vision. A parallel algorithm and software to restore monochrome binary or halftone images represented as series of isophotes were developed. The approach and the algorithm for computation of completing arcs are presented in detail.

In order to detect salient lines in spherical images, we consider the problem of minimizing the functional l 0 C(γ (s)) ξ 2 + k 2 g (s) ds for a curve γ on a sphere with fixed boundary points and directions. The total length l is free, s denotes the spherical arclength, and k g denotes the geodesic curvature of γ . Here the smooth external cost C ≥ δ > 0 is obtained from spherical data. We lift this problem to the sub-Riemannian (SR) problem in Lie group SO(3) and show that the spherical projection of certain SR geodesics provides a solution to our curve optimization problem. In fact, this holds only for the geodesics whose spherical projection does not exhibit a cusp. The problem is a spherical extension of a well-known contour perception model, where we extend the model by Boscain and Rossi to the general case ξ > 0, C = 1. For C = 1, we derive SR geodesics and evaluate the first cusp time. We show that these curves have a simpler expression when they are parameterized by spherical arclength rather than by sub-Riemannian arclength. For case C = 1 (data-driven SR geodesics), we solve via a SR Fast Marching method. Finally, we show an experiment of vessel tracking in a spherical image of the retina and study the effect of including the spherical geometry in analysis of vessels curvature.