Separating Ellipsoids

Hi everyone, I have an image processing question. I have a bunch of binary ellipsoids and some of them touch each other (forming what looks like a "8"). Can anyone suggest a method to separate the two ellipsoids?

Thanks in advance

[Geoff]

Do you want to actually separate them (by making them smaller), or simply identify them as two independent shapes? You say 'ellipsoid' - that is a 3-dimensional shape. Do you mean 'ellipse', or are you processing 3D images? Are the shapes all similar in size? Sorry, I just asked way more questions than you asked! =P

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

You need to use watershed()

[Rainer]

Great, it works!

Answer 2

[Rainer]

You are right, i meant ellipse (2D). The area of the ellipses are impt to me so eroding the image won't work. The shapes are somewhat similar in size but the orientation is random (i.e. the two connected ellipses can lay every which way) The imfindcircles function in 2012a is what I need....but for ellipses! Any ideas?