  Background: Dermoscopy is one of the major imaging modalities used in the
diagnosis of melanoma and other pigmented skin lesions. Due to the difficulty
and subjectivity of human interpretation, computerized analysis of dermoscopy
images has become an important research area. One of the most important steps
in dermoscopy image analysis is the automated detection of lesion borders.
Methods: In this article, we present a systematic overview of the recent border
detection methods in the literature paying particular attention to
computational issues and evaluation aspects. Conclusion: Common problems with
the existing approaches include the acquisition, size, and diagnostic
distribution of the test image set, the evaluation of the results, and the
inadequate description of the employed methods. Border determination by
dermatologists appears to depend upon higher-level knowledge, therefore it is
likely that the incorporation of domain knowledge in automated methods will
enable them to perform better, especially in sets of images with a variety of
diagnoses.
