An ultrasonic diagnostic device includes an automatic contour extracting
unit that contains an initial contour extracting unit for roughly
extracting an initial contour of an object to be examined from an
ultrasound image by performing a predetermined operation (such as
equalization, binarization, and degeneration) on the ultrasound image.
The automatic contour extracting unit also contains a dynamic contour
extracting unit for accurately extracting a final contour of the object
by using the extracted initial contour as an initial value and by
applying an active contour model, such as the SNAKES model, to the object
within the ultrasound image.