One-dimensional Active Contour Models for Raman Spectrum Baseline Correction

Raman spectroscopy is a powerful and non-invasive method for analysis of chemicals and detection of unknown substances. However, Raman signal is so weak that background noise can distort the actual Raman signal. These baseline shifts that exist in the Raman spectrum might deteriorate analytical results. In this paper, a modified version of active contour models in one-dimensional space has been proposed for the baseline correction of Raman spectra. Our technique, inspired by principles of physics and heuristic optimization methods, iteratively deforms an initialized curve toward the desired baseline. The performance of the proposed algorithm was evaluated and compared with similar techniques using simulated Raman spectra. The results showed that the 1D active contour model outperforms many iterative baseline correction methods. The proposed algorithm was successfully applied to experimental Raman spectral data, and the results indicate that the baseline of Raman spectra can be automatically subtracted.