Measuring how much an object has a ring-like shape

Abstract

An image-based algorithmic tool for measuring how much an object's shape looks like a ring is presented. The objects whose shapes have such a structure appear in nature very often, e.g. in nanotechnology, biology, medicine, industry, etc. The method proposed has several formal desirable properties, including invariance ones. In addition, the method is easy to implement and is robust (e.g. with respect to noise).