Method for segmenting objects in images
First Claim
1. A method for identifying an attribute of an object represented in an image comprising data defining a predetermined spatial granulation for resolving the object, where the object is in contact with another object, the method comprising:
- identifying the data whose values indicate they correspond to locations completely within the object;
determining a first contribution to the attribute provided by the data;
identifying additional data whose values indicate they correspond to locations that are partially within the object;
interpolating second contributions to the attribute from the values of the additional data; and
finding the attribute of the object from the first contribution and second contributions.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method for identifying an attribute of an object represented in an image comprising data defining a predetermined spatial granulation for resolving the object, where the object is in contact with another object. In an embodiment, the method comprises identifying data whose values indicate they correspond to locations completely within the object, determining a contribution to the attribute provided by the data, and identifying additional data whose values indicate they are not completely within the object. The method next interpolates second contributions to the attribute from the values of the additional data and finds the attribute of the object from the first contribution and second contributions. The attribute may be, for example, a volume, and the values may correspond, for example, to intensity.
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Citations
143 Claims
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1. A method for identifying an attribute of an object represented in an image comprising data defining a predetermined spatial granulation for resolving the object, where the object is in contact with another object, the method comprising:
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identifying the data whose values indicate they correspond to locations completely within the object; determining a first contribution to the attribute provided by the data; identifying additional data whose values indicate they correspond to locations that are partially within the object; interpolating second contributions to the attribute from the values of the additional data; and finding the attribute of the object from the first contribution and second contributions. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method for identifying an object in an image, the object in contact with another object, the method comprising:
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identifying one or more partial voxels located at an edge of the object and encompassing a portion of the object and a portion of said another object; and estimating an amount of the object encompassed by the one or more partial voxels using a first value of an attribute the one or more partial voxels. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for identifying a volume of an object in an image comprising voxels, the image including another object touching the object, the method comprising:
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growing a region of one or more voxels in the image completely within the object; continuing to grow the region by identifying one or more additional voxels, each additional voxel having an attribute whose value is different than a characteristic value of the attribute for either the object or said another object and having a neighborhood of adjacent voxels determined to be within the region. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method for identifying an attribute of an object represented in an image comprising data, each datum corresponding to a region of the object as imaged and thereby defining a predetermined spatial granulation for resolving the image of the object, where the object is in contact with another object in the image data, the method comprising:
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calculating a first characteristic of the data contained completely within the object; calculating a second characteristic of data contained completely within said another object; interpolating third characteristics of data corresponding to an area of the image generated from the data that overlaps both the object and said another object; and using the third characteristics to determine contributions of the data overlapping the object and said another object in order to resolve a value of the attribute of the object beyond a resolution provided by the spatial granulation of the data. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method for measuring the volume of an object in an image, the object meeting another object, the method comprising:
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growing a test object starting at a seed voxel within the object; computing the volume of the test object based on a set of voxels having values of a common attribute close to a value of the seed voxel; and stopping the growth of the test object when a rate of expansion exceeds a predetermined value. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. A method for locating one or more edges of an object in an image, the object bordering another object, the method comprising:
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iteratively determining a volume of a test object, the test object comprising a connected set of voxels containing a seed voxel within the first object and having values of a common attribute within a range of a value of the seed voxel, the range updated for each iteration; and computing a rate of growth of the test object between successive iterations; stopping iteratively determining the volume of the test object at an effusion iteration when the rate of growth exceeds a predetermined value. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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45. A method for identifying a set of voxels forming an object in an image, the object bordered by another object, the method comprising:
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growing a test object starting at a seed voxel within the object; computing the volume of the test object based on a set of voxels having values of a common attribute close to a value of the seed voxel; and stopping the growth of the test object when a rate of expansion exceeds a predetermined value. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47, 48, 49, 50)
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51. A method for measuring the volume of an object in an image comprising voxels, the object meeting other objects in the image at on or more borders, the method comprising:
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identifying an attribute of the object whose value is different from values of a same or similar attribute of the other objects; initializing a contour at one of the an borders of the object; and deforming the contour to pass substantially through a region of voxels characteristically similar to the object, thereby forming another border and defining a space between said one of the borders and said another border that includes the region. - View Dependent Claims (52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67)
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68. A method for locating an outer border of an object in an image comprising voxels, the object meeting other objects in the image at one or more borders, the method comprising:
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identifying an attribute of the object whose value is different from values of a same or similar attribute of the other objects; initializing a contour at one of the borders of the object; and deforming the contour to pass substantially through a region of voxels characteristically similar to the object. - View Dependent Claims (69, 70, 71, 72)
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73. A method for identifying a set of voxels forming an object in an image, the object meeting other objects at one or more borders, the method comprising:
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identifying an attribute of the objects whose value varies among the objects; initializing a contour at one of the borders of one of said other objects; and deforming the contour until substantially every point of the contour is adjacent to a set of voxels having an attribute whose one or more values are dissimilar to the value of the attribute of the object. - View Dependent Claims (74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81)
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82. A computer-readable medium having thereon computer-executable instructions for performing a method for measuring the volume of an object in an image comprising voxels, the object meeting other objects in the image at on or more borders, the computer-executable instructions including:
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instructions for identifying an attribute of the object whose value is different from values of a same or similar attribute of the other objects; instructions for initializing a contour at one of the an borders of the object; and instructions for deforming the contour to pass substantially through a region of voxels characteristically similar to the object, thereby forming another border and defining a space between said one of the borders and said another border that includes the region. - View Dependent Claims (83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98)
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99. A method for measuring the volume of an object in an image comprising voxels, the object bordering other objects in the image, the method comprising:
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identifying an attribute of the object whose value is different from values of a same or similar attribute of the other objects; initializing a contour of the object that employs the attribute; expanding the contour using the attribute until the contour passes substantially through a region of voxels characteristically similar to the object, thereby forming first and second borders of the object and defining a space between the first and second borders that includes the region. - View Dependent Claims (100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122)
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123. A method for identifying an attribute of an object represented by imaging data, where the object contains a volume, the method comprising:
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determining inner and outer edges of the object using one or more values of one or more attributes of the imaging data comprising the contained volume; extracting the object using the inner and outer edges of the object; determining a value of the volume for the object by growing the volume from a hollow contained by the object to the extracted object. - View Dependent Claims (124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132)
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133. A method of resolving first and second edges of an object in imaging data, the method comprising,
determining characteristic values of at least one attribute of areas of the imaging data inside and outside of the object; -
searching for changes in the value of the attribute that mark an edge of the object; generating a histogram between first and second edges of the object in the imaging data; and extracting the object from the imaging data based on values of the attribute taken from the histogram. - View Dependent Claims (134, 135, 136, 137)
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138. A method for identifying a volume bordered by an object at a boundary, the object and volume represented by imaging data, the method comprising:
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initializing a contour within the object; detecting the boundary of the object by growing a first region from the contour; expanding a second region in one or more directions from within the volume; stopping expansion of the second region in a direction when growth in the direction comes in contact with the first region of the object; and determining a value of the volume from the second region after the second region stops expanding in each of the one or more directions. - View Dependent Claims (139, 140, 141, 142, 143)
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Specification