Optimized Stochastic Resonance Signal Detection Method

• US 20100169051A1
• Filed: 02/22/2010
• Published: 07/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Syracuse University
• Original Assignee: Syracuse University
• Inventors: Peng, Renbin, Chen, Hao, Varshney, Pramod K.
• Granted Patent: US 8,214,177 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/189
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/502 for diagnosis of breast, i.e. mammography
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10116 X-ray image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30068 Mammography; Breast
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/002 Denoising; Smoothing noise processing or correction adapted to be used in an image pickup device containing and electronic image sensor H04N23/81, H04N25/60 - H04N25/67
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/20 using local operators
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/70 Denoising; Smoothing
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/26 using historical data, averaging values or statistics

Abstract

Apparatus and method for detecting micro-calcifications in mammograms using novel algorithms and stochastic resonance noise is provided, where a suitable dose of noise is added to the abnormal mammograms such that the performance of a suboptimal lesion detector is improved without altering the detector'"'"'s parameters. A stochastic resonance noise-based detection approach is presented to improve suboptimal detectors which suffer from model mismatch due to the Gaussian assumption. Furthermore, a stochastic resonance noise-based detection enhancement framework is presented to deal with more general model mismatch cases.

Claims

1. A method of increasing the probability of detecting at least one micro-calcification lesion in a mammogram, said method comprising the steps of:

a. obtaining digital mammogram data;

b. calculating stochastic resonance noise; and

c. adding said stochastic resonance noise to said digital mammogram data, thereby improving the detection of said at least one micro-calcification lesion in a mammogram.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining further comprises the step of performing coarse detection of said at least one micro-calcification lesion in a mammogram using a local maxima filter.