Apparatus and method for detecting objects in computed tomography data using erosion and dilation of objects
First Claim
1. A method of detecting objects represented in computed tomography (CT) data for a region comprising:
- identifying a plurality of volume elements in the CT data, each volume element being associated with a density value;
analyzing the CT data to identify object surface volume elements represented by the CT data;
after identifying the object surface volume elements, removing the object surface volume elements from the CT data such that multiple objects represented by the CT data in close proximity to each other are separated from each other;
after removing the object surface volume elements from the CT data, combining remaining volume elements of the CT data into multiple individual separated objects;
after combining the remaining volume elements into multiple individual separated objects, labeling each of the multiple individual separated objects as an individual object;
after labeling the individual separated objects, adding replacement object surface volume elements to each of the individual separated objects to restore the individual separated objects to their original sizes.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for detecting objects in computed tomography (CT) data are disclosed. Erosion of the data can be performed by identifying a neighborhood of voxels surrounding a voxel of interest. If the number of voxels having densities below a predetermined threshold exceeds a predetermined number, then it is assumed that the voxel of interest is a surface voxel of an object and is removed from the object. A connectivity process is then applied to remaining voxels to combine them into objects. A dilation function can then be performed on the eroded object to replace surface voxels removed by erosion. This morphological connected components labeling (CCL) approach separates adjacent objects in the data such that they can be individually labeled and analyzed.
-
Citations
9 Claims
-
1. A method of detecting objects represented in computed tomography (CT) data for a region comprising:
-
identifying a plurality of volume elements in the CT data, each volume element being associated with a density value; analyzing the CT data to identify object surface volume elements represented by the CT data; after identifying the object surface volume elements, removing the object surface volume elements from the CT data such that multiple objects represented by the CT data in close proximity to each other are separated from each other; after removing the object surface volume elements from the CT data, combining remaining volume elements of the CT data into multiple individual separated objects; after combining the remaining volume elements into multiple individual separated objects, labeling each of the multiple individual separated objects as an individual object; after labeling the individual separated objects, adding replacement object surface volume elements to each of the individual separated objects to restore the individual separated objects to their original sizes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
-
-
4. An apparatus for detecting objects represented in computed tomography (CT) data for a region comprising:
-
means for identifying a plurality of volume elements in the CT data, each volume element being associated with a density value; means for analyzing the CT data to identify objet surface volume elements represented by the CT data; means for removing the object surface volume elements from the CT data after the object surface volume elements are identified such that multiple objects represented by the CT data in close proximity to each other are separated from each other; means for combining remaining volume elements of the CT data into multiple individual separated objects after the object surface volume elements are removed from the CT data; means for labeling each of the multiple individual separated objects as an individual object after the remaining volume elements have been combined into multiple individual separated objects; and means for adding replacement object surface volume elements to each of the individual separated objects to restore the individual separated objects to their original sizes after the multiple individual separated objects are labeled. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6)
-
-
7. A computed tomography (CT) scanning system for identifying objects in a region comprising:
-
means for acquiring CT data representing the region; means for identifying a plurality of volume elements in the CT data, each volume element being associated with a density value; means for analyzing the CT data to identify object surface volume elements represented by the CT data; means for removing the object surface volume elements from the CT data after the object surface volume elements are identified such that multiple objects represented by the CT data in close proximity to each other are separated from each other; means for combining remaining volume elements of the CT data into multiple individual separated objects after the object surface volume elements are removed from the CT data; means for labeling each of the multiple individual separated objects as an individual object after the remaining volume elements have been combined into multiple individual separated objects; and means for adding replacement object surface volume elements to each of the individual separated objects to restore the individual separated objects to their original sizes after the multiple individual separated objects are labeled. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9)
-
Specification