Active Shape Structural ModelDissertationzum Erlangung des akademischen GradesDoktoringenieur (Dr.-Ing.)angenommen durch die Fakult¨at fur¨ Informatikder Otto-von-Guericke-Universit¨at MagdeburgvonM.Sc. Stephan Al-Zubigeboren am 3. M¨arz 1973 in SyrienGutachter:Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dietz T¨onniesProf. Dr. Siegfried StiehlProf. Dr. Xiaoyi JiangOrt und Datum des Promotionskolloquiums:Magdeburg, 18. November 2004iiTo my mother. . .iiiAcknowledgmentsI would like to thank very much Fitsum Admasu and Beate Traor´e for reviewing mythesis and their continuous support during my writing. I also like to thank my bestfriends Ahmed Ghoneim and specially Moftah Al-Zobi for their help and support.ivAbstract of the DissertationbyStephan Al-ZubiAbstractThis thesis proposes a new shape model called the Active Shape Structural Model(ASSM). The ASSM combines both statistical and structural a-priori knowledge aboutshape variation. The statistical a-priori knowledge models co-variations between two ormore parts of the shape structure (e.g. co-deformation, joint articulation). The struc-tural a-priori knowledge specifies which structural parts can be statistically related.The a-priori knowledge enables the ASSM to model a larger class of problems thanstructural or statistical models alone. Pure statistical models would have to use a com-plexdistributionfunctiontomodelshapesconsistingofarticulatedpartslikethehumanbody.