Diffusion bridges for stochastic Hamiltonian systems and shape evolutions

Abstract: Stochastically evolving geometric systems are studied in shape analysis and computational anatomy for modelling random evolutions of human organ shapes. The notion of geodesic paths between shapes is central to shape analysis and has a natural generalisation as diffusion bridges in a stochastic setting. Simulation of such bridges is key to solve inference and registration problems in shape analysis. We demonstrate how to apply state-of-the-art diffusion bridge simulation methods to recently introduced stochastic shape deformation models thereby substantially expanding the applicability of such models. We exemplify these methods by estimating template shapes from observed shape configurations while simultaneously learning model parameters.