Ellipse fitting algorithm used by ImageJ

Posted by JesperSP on Oct 20, 2010; 9:24am
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/Ellipse-fitting-algorithm-used-by-ImageJ-tp3686611.html

I'm writing a manuscript for a scientific publication about a new plugin that I've developed in ImageJ. The plugin is an extension of MTrack2 and uses a simple ellipse fitting to quantify the swimming rate of nematodes. My collaborators say we need to decribe the inner workings of this ellipse fitting algorithm in detail for the paper. I've located the source-code for the ellipse fitting at http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/developer/source/ . However, deciphering the source isn't as easy as I thought it would be. Moreover, the source doesn't explicitly mention a scientific reference to the person that developed the algorithm (but it does mention "Cramer, Mathematical Methods of Statistics, Princeton Univ. Press, 945, page 283"). I wanted to contact the original author of the source, Bob Rodieck, but from what I read it appears that he passed away http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16212696 . If anyone here is familiar with the math behind the ellipse fitting that can, I'm hoping that someone can please direct me to more information about this algorithm. Cheers, Jesper