Image analysis
First Claim
1. A method for the automated analysis of a digital image comprising an array of pixels, including the steps of:
- (a) identifying the locations of objects within the image which have specified intensity and size characteristics;
(b) defining regions of specified extent within the image which contain respective said objects;
(c) deriving from the data within respective said regions one or more respective closed contours comprising points of equal intensities; and
(d) estimating the curvature of at least one respective said contour within respective said regions at least to produce a measure of any concavity thereof.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method for the automated analysis of digital images, particularly for the purpose of assessing mitotic activity from images of histological slides for prognostication of breast cancer. The method includes the steps of identifying the locations of objects within the image which have intensity and size characteristics consistent with mitotic epithelial cell nuclei, taking the darkest 10% of those objects, deriving contours indicating their boundary shape, and smoothing and measuring the curvature around the boundaries using a Probability Density Association Filter (PDAF). The PDAF output is used to compute a measure of any concavity of the boundary—a good indicator of mitosis. Objects are finally classified as representing mitotic nuclei or not, as a function of boundary concavity and mean intensity, by use of a Fisher classifier trained on known examples. Other uses for the method could include the analysis of images of soil samples containing certain types of seeds or other particles.
45 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method for the automated analysis of a digital image comprising an array of pixels, including the steps of:
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(a) identifying the locations of objects within the image which have specified intensity and size characteristics;
(b) defining regions of specified extent within the image which contain respective said objects;
(c) deriving from the data within respective said regions one or more respective closed contours comprising points of equal intensities; and
(d) estimating the curvature of at least one respective said contour within respective said regions at least to produce a measure of any concavity thereof. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 25)
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19. (canceled)
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21. (canceled)
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22. A method for the automated identification of mitotic activity from a digital image of a histological specimen, including the steps of:
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(a) identifying the locations of objects within the image which have specified intensity and size characteristics associated with epithelial cell nuclei;
(b) defining regions of specified extent within the image which contain respective said objects;
(c) deriving from the data within respective said regions one or more respective closed contours comprising points of equal intensities;
(d) estimating the curvature of at least one respective said contour within respective said regions at least to produce a measure of any concavity thereof; and
(e) classifying objects as representing mitotic cell nuclei as a function of at least said measure of concavity of a contour corresponding to the respective object.
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23-24. -24. (canceled)
Specification