Diagnosis Support System Providing Guidance to a User by Automated Retrieval of Similar Cancer Images with User Feedback
First Claim
1. A diagnosis support system for a user, comprising:
- a database containing high-resolution standardized database images that have been clustered into clusters, each cluster having a cluster feature vector computed by image features in regions in said database images in said cluster, using an overlapping clustering algorithm that allows database images to be assigned to more than one cluster; and
a query-by-example image retrieval application that applies a similarity measure between a query feature vector computed by image features in regions in a query image, and said cluster feature vectors;
wherein said feature vectors are automatically computed by quantitatively describing image signatures for said images by;
image segmentation into regions; and
feature extraction of image features in said regions to compute said feature vectors;
wherein said query-by-example image retrieval application returns a list of database images similar to said query image, ranked by similarity.
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Abstract
The present invention is a diagnosis support system providing automated guidance to a user by automated retrieval of similar disease images and user feedback. High resolution standardized labeled and unlabeled, annotated and non-annotated images of diseased tissue in a database are clustered, preferably with expert feedback. An image retrieval application automatically computes image signatures for a query image and a representative image from each cluster, by segmenting the images into regions and extracting image features in the regions to produce feature vectors, and then comparing the feature vectors using a similarity measure. Preferably the features of the image signatures are extended beyond shape, color and texture of regions, by features specific to the disease. Optionally, the most discriminative features are used in creating the image signatures. A list of the most similar images is returned in response to a query. Keyword query is also supported.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A diagnosis support system for a user, comprising:
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a database containing high-resolution standardized database images that have been clustered into clusters, each cluster having a cluster feature vector computed by image features in regions in said database images in said cluster, using an overlapping clustering algorithm that allows database images to be assigned to more than one cluster; and a query-by-example image retrieval application that applies a similarity measure between a query feature vector computed by image features in regions in a query image, and said cluster feature vectors; wherein said feature vectors are automatically computed by quantitatively describing image signatures for said images by; image segmentation into regions; and feature extraction of image features in said regions to compute said feature vectors; wherein said query-by-example image retrieval application returns a list of database images similar to said query image, ranked by similarity. - 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 process for providing diagnosis support to a user, comprising:
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providing a database containing high-resolution standardized database images, wherein at least some of said database images are unlabeled; presenting a query image; automatically computing feature vectors by image features in regions in said images by quantitatively describing image signatures for said images, by; segmenting said images into regions; and extracting features from said regions to produce feature vectors; clustering said database images into clusters, each cluster having a cluster feature vector computed by image features in regions in said database images in said cluster; retrieving database images similar to said query image by applying a similarity measure between said feature vector for said query image and said cluster feature vectors; and returning a list of images similar to said query image, ranked by similarity. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23)
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Specification