Processes, products and systems for enhancing images of blood vessels
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A process for enhancing blood vessel images within images of a region under skin of a part of a living body, said process comprising the steps of:
- saving unenhanced image data representing the image of the region under the skin of the part of the living body;
copying said unenhanced image data to create a copy of said unenhanced image data;
transforming said copy of said unenhanced image data to produce transformed image data;
smoothing a substantial portion of said transformed image data to produce smoothed image data;
retransforming said smoothed image data;
inverting said retransformed smoothed image data to generate inverted image data, wherein said inverted image data comprises enhanced images of blood vessels; and
adding at least a portion of said inverted image data to at least a portion of said saved unenhanced image data to generate a result image in which said enhanced images of blood vessels are shown within the image of the region under skin of the part of the living body.
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Abstract
Processes, program products, and systems for enhancing images. The process includes the steps of padding image data to produce padded image data, transforming the padded image data to produce transformed image data, smoothing a substantial portion of the transformed image data, re-transforming the transformed image data to produce smoothed image data, inverting the smoothed image data to generate inverted image data, and adding the inverted image data to unenhanced image data to generate a result image
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Citations
52 Claims
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1. A process for enhancing blood vessel images within images of a region under skin of a part of a living body, said process comprising the steps of:
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saving unenhanced image data representing the image of the region under the skin of the part of the living body;
copying said unenhanced image data to create a copy of said unenhanced image data;
transforming said copy of said unenhanced image data to produce transformed image data;
smoothing a substantial portion of said transformed image data to produce smoothed image data;
retransforming said smoothed image data;
inverting said retransformed smoothed image data to generate inverted image data, wherein said inverted image data comprises enhanced images of blood vessels; and
adding at least a portion of said inverted image data to at least a portion of said saved unenhanced image data to generate a result image in which said enhanced images of blood vessels are shown within the image of the region under skin of the part of the living body. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A computer program product for enhancing blood vessel images within images of a region under skin of a part of a living body, said computer program product comprising:
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program means for creating a copy of saved unenhanced image data corresponding to said image of the region under skin of the part of the living body;
a digital transformer for transforming said copy of said saved unenhanced image data to produce transformed image data;
a smoothing operator for smoothing a substantial portion of said transformed image data to produce smoothed image data;
a retransformer for retransforming said smoothed image data;
a digital inverter for inverting said retransformed smoothed image data to generate inverted image data, wherein said inverted image data comprises enhanced images of blood vessels; and
an adding function for adding at least a portion of said inverted image data to at least a portion of said unenhanced image data to generate a result image in which said enhanced images of blood vessels are shown within the image of the region under the skin of the part of the living body. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. An image enhancement and display system for enhancing blood vessel images within images of a region under skin of a part of a living body, said system comprising:
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a computing unit having a memory and a signal input for accepting a signal corresponding to unenhanced image data and saving said unenhanced image data into said memory;
a computer program product stored in said memory and executable by said computing unit, said computer program product comprising;
program means for creating a copy of said unenhanced image data stored in memory;
a digital transformer for transforming image data to produce transformed image data;
a smoothing operator for smoothing a substantial portion of said transformed image data to produce smoothed image data;
a retransformer for retransforming said smoothed image data;
a digital inverter for inverting said retransformed smoothed image data to generate inverted image data, said wherein said inverted image data comprises enhanced images of blood vessels;
an adding function for adding at least a portion of said inverted image data to at least a portion of said unenhanced image data to generate result image data in which said enhanced images of blood vessels are shown within the image of the region under the skin of the part of the living body; and
output means for outputting said result image data;
first transmitting means for accepting said result image data from said output means and transmitting a signal corresponding to said result image data; and
a display device adapted to accept said signal from said transmitting means and to display a result image based upon said accepted signal. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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45. A system for capturing images of a region under skin of a part of a living body, enhancing blood vessel images within captured images, and displaying enhanced result images in substantially real time, said system comprising:
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an infrared emitter configured to illuminate the region under the skin with waves of infrared fight;
an infrared detector configured to accept waves of infrared light reflected from the region under the skin, said infrared detector comprising an output for outputting a signal corresponding to unenhanced image data;
a computing unit comprising an input for accepting said unenhanced image data, a memory, means for enhancing and outputting result images in which enhanced images of blood vessels are shown within the images of the region under the skin of the part of the living body, and an output for outputting said enhanced images; and
a display device for inputting said enhanced images from output of said computing unit and displaying said enhanced images in substantially real time. - View Dependent Claims (44, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
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Specification