Point processes of cylinders, particles and flats (Q1095485)

Point processes X of cylinders, compact sets, or flats in \({\mathbb{R}}^ d\) are mathematical models for fields of sets in practical problems of image analysis and stereology. For the estimation of geometric quantities of such fields, mean value formulas for X are important. The article presents a unifying and systematic approach when integral geometric formulas for curvature measures are transformed into density formulas for geometric point processes from which many (but, of cause, not all) stereological results for mean values come out as special cases. In particular, a number of results which are known for stationary and isotropic Poisson processes of convex sets are generalized to nonisotropic processes, to non-Poisson processes, and to processes of nonconvex sets. The integral-geometric background (including recent results from translative integral geometry), the fundamentals of geometric point processes, and the resulting density formulas are presented in detail. Generalizations of the theory and applications to image analysis and stereology are mentioned shortly.