An analysis technique for biological shape-III.

The motivation for a syntactic theory of shape was a belief that computer shape analysis could mimic human recognition procedures. The results described here suggest that heuristic techniques can be used to decompose and analyze complex objects. The derived decomposition algorithm gives quite good results when compared with human lobe determinations. In addition, it seems to follow closely the actual procedures used by observers in classifying shapes. The list structure output of the program clearly describes each shape element and greatly facilitates further analysis. Extensions of this work should be directed toward the development of more specific "rules" for shape decomposition, and more complete orientation information in the output list structure.