Method for determining features from detections in a digital image using a bauer-fisher ratio

• US 6,757,415 B1
• Filed: 06/13/2003
• Issued: 06/29/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: iCAD Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Qualia Computing Inc. (iCAD Incorporated)
• Inventors: Mitchell, Richard A., Collins, Michael J., Bauer, Kenneth W., DeSimio, Martin P., Rogers, Steven K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Boudreau, Leo
• Assistant Examiner(s): AKHAVANNIK, HUSSEIN
• Application Number:
  US10/461,301
• Time in Patent Office: 382 Days
• Field of Search: 382/130
• US Class Current: 382/130
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/256 of results relating to different input data, e.g. multimodal recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30068 Mammography; Breast
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/36 Applying a local operator, i.e. means to operate on image points situated in the vicinity of a given point; Non-linear local filtering operations, e.g. median filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/443 by matching or filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/03 Recognition of patterns in medical or anatomical images

Abstract

A computer aided detection method and system to assist radiologists in the reading of medical images. The method and system has particular application to the area of mammography including detection of clustered microcalcifications and densities. A microcalcification detector is provided wherein individual detections are rank ordered and classified, and one of the features for classification is derived using a multilayer perceptron. A density detector is provided including an iterative, dynamic region growing module with embedded subsystem for rank ordering and classification of a best subset of candidate masks. Features are computed from a detection on an input image by providing first and second regions on the input image corresponding to areas inside and outside the detection, measurements are computed based on values derived from the two regions, a standard deviation is computed for the measurements in each region, and a feature for the detection is computed using a Bauer-Fisher ratio. A post processing stage is provided where detections are analyzed in the context of a set of images for a patient. The final output of the system is a set of indications overlaid on the input medical images.

Claims

1. A method for computing features from a detection on an input image, including the steps of:

a) providing two regions on the input image corresponding to a first area within a detection and to a second area outside of the detection;

b) computing measurements based on values derived from the two regions on the input image;

c) computing the mean of the measurements for each region;

d) computing the standard deviation of the measurements for each region;

e) computing the feature of the detection in accordance with the equation;

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the measurements comprise pixel values.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the measurements comprise Laws E5L5 values.