Thermographic image processing system

• US 8,121,363 B2
• Filed: 06/12/2008
• Issued: 02/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated (Kyndryl Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chiakpo, Ndubuisi, Duvalsaint, Karl J., Kim, Moon J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Perkey, W. B.
• Application Number:
  US12/137,837
• Publication Number:
  US 20090310815A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,349 Days
• Field of Search: 382/128, 382/305
• US Class Current: 382/128
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining

Abstract

The system permits sharing both thermographic image processing and visualization across a single universal platform, thus allowing for sharing of processor resources and visualization of thermographic images on a variety of imaging (client) devices without high-performance graphical display cards. In a typical embodiment, a (e.g., medical) thermographic image 2D linear registration algorithm is implemented on a Cell Broadband Engine processor, which has nine processor cores on a chip and has a 4-way SIMD unit for each core. This multi-core processor technological advancement allows for the development of a thermographic image processing system that is used for thermographic image capturing modalities. A platform is used to provide a generalized medical thermographic image capturing and processing system, which handles different types of medical thermographic image apparatuses on a single data processing platform.

Claims

1. A method for processing thermographic images, comprising:

receiving a query corresponding to a set of thermographic images;

receiving a request for at least one of the set of thermographic images, the request being based on a result of the query;

retrieving thermographic image data corresponding to the at least one of the set of thermographic images from storage, wherein the thermographic image data is retrieved from a thermographic image interface unit prior to the query;

processing the thermographic image data with a thermographic image processor; and

returning a response to the request, the response being based on the thermographic image data after the thermographic image data has been processed.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising reconstructing the at least one of the set of thermographic images.

3. The method of claim 1, the query and the request being received from at least one of a set of interconnected computers, and the response being returned to the at least one of the set of interconnected computers.

4. The method of claim 1, the thermographic image processor being a multi-core thermographic image processor.

5. The method of claim 1, the thermographic image interface unit receiving the thermographic image data via a set of thermographic image grabbers.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing the thermographic image data after the processing.

7. A system for processing thermographic images, comprising:

a module for receiving a query corresponding to a set of thermographic images;

a module for receiving a request for at least one of the set of thermographic images, the request being based on results of the query;

a module for retrieving thermographic image data corresponding to the at least one of the set of thermographic images from storage in response to the request;

a module for processing the thermographic image data with a thermographic image processor;

a module for returning a response to the request, the response being based on the thermographic image data after the thermographic image data has been processed; and

a module for receiving the thermographic image data from a thermographic image interface unit prior to the query.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising a module for reconstructing the at least one of the set of thermographic images using the thermographic image data after the thermographic image data has been processed, the response comprising reconstructed thermographic images.

9. The system of claim 7, the query and the request being received from at least one the set of interconnected computers, and the response being returned to the at least one of the set of interconnected computers.

10. The system of claim 7, the thermographic image processor being a multi-core thermographic image processor.

11. The system of claim 7, the thermographic image interface unit comprising a set of thermographic image grabbers for receiving the thermographic image data from a set of thermographic image recordation mechanisms.

12. The system of claim 7, further comprising a module for analyzing the thermographic image data after the thermographic image data has been processed.

13. At least one computer readable storage device containing at least one program product for processing thermographic images, the at least one computer readable medium comprising program code for causing at least one computer system to:

receive a query corresponding to a set of thermographic images;

receive a request for at least one of the set of thermographic images, the request being based on results of the query;

retrieve thermographic image data corresponding to the at least one of the set of thermographic images from storage in response to the request, wherein the thermographic image data is received from a thermographic image interface unit prior to the query;

process the thermographic image data with a thermographic image processor; and

return a response to the request, the response being based on the thermographic image data after the thermographic image data has been processed.

14. The at least one computer readable storage device containing the at least one program product of claim 13, the at least one computer readable medium further comprising program code for causing the at least one computer system to reconstruct the at least one of the set of thermographic images using the thermographic image data.

15. The at least one computer readable storage device containing the at least one program product of claim 13, the query and the request being received from at least one the set of interconnected computers, and the response being returned to the at least one of the set of interconnected computers.

16. The at least one computer readable storage device containing the at least one program product of claim 13, the thermographic image processor being a multi-core thermographic image processor.

17. The at least one computer readable storage device containing the at least one program product of claim 13, the thermographic image interface unit comprising a set of thermographic image grabbers for receiving the thermographic image data from a set of thermographic image recordation mechanisms.

18. The at least one computer readable storage device containing the at least one program product of claim 13, the at least one computer readable medium further comprising program code for causing the at least one computer system to analyze the thermographic image data after the thermographic image data has been processed.

19. A method for deploying at least one application for processing thermographic images, comprising;

providing a computer infrastructure being operable to;

receive a query corresponding to a set of thermographic images;

receive a request for at least one of the set of thermographic thermographic images, the request being based on results of the query;

retrieve thermographic image data corresponding to the at least one of the set of thermographic images from storage in response to the request, wherein the thermographic image data is retrieved from a thermographic image interface unit prior to the query;

process the thermographic image data with a thermographic image processor; and

return a response to the request, the response being based on the thermographic image data after the thermographic image data has been processed.

20. The method of claim 19, the computer infrastructure being further operable to reconstruct the at least one of the set of thermographic images using the thermographic image data.