System and method to aid diagnoses using cross-referenced knowledge and image databases
First Claim
1. A system to aid a user in a visual diagnostic process, comprising:
- a computer system;
an image database, accessible by said computer system;
a knowledge database, accessible by said computer system, cross-referenced to said image database, for the purpose of assisting in the diagnostic process, said knowledge database including a plurality of findings-diagnosis links representing relationships between findings and diagnoses;
a user-interface attached to said computer system to solicit, from the user, a plurality of descriptive characteristics of a sample requiring diagnosis;
a diagnostic engine operating in said computer system, responsive to said descriptive characteristics, wherein said characteristics of the sample are employed by said engine to automatically identify, using the findings-diagnosis links, a subset including a plurality of possible diagnoses that are consistent with the characteristics; and
using the subset of diagnoses, automatically reorganizing an information space of said image database for concurrent presentation on said user-interface of a plurality of images representing the subset of possible diagnoses for user review via the user-interface.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention is a method and apparatus for increasing the usefulness of visual knowledge in a number of applications. It distills the relationships between characteristics and hypotheses into database form, thereby organizing visual information in a manner suitable to aid the user in the investigation of the various hypotheses (medical diagnosis, pill identification, plant/animal identification, cause of death, cause of accident, etc.). The invention sidesteps unresolved issues around knowledge engineering by not automating a decision making process. Rather, the present invention utilizes a relational database to dynamically respond to textual and visual findings as an aid to assist a user reaching a reasoned conclusion based upon information available by direct observation and comparison with stored image and textual data.
34 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A system to aid a user in a visual diagnostic process, comprising:
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a computer system; an image database, accessible by said computer system; a knowledge database, accessible by said computer system, cross-referenced to said image database, for the purpose of assisting in the diagnostic process, said knowledge database including a plurality of findings-diagnosis links representing relationships between findings and diagnoses; a user-interface attached to said computer system to solicit, from the user, a plurality of descriptive characteristics of a sample requiring diagnosis; a diagnostic engine operating in said computer system, responsive to said descriptive characteristics, wherein said characteristics of the sample are employed by said engine to automatically identify, using the findings-diagnosis links, a subset including a plurality of possible diagnoses that are consistent with the characteristics; and using the subset of diagnoses, automatically reorganizing an information space of said image database for concurrent presentation on said user-interface of a plurality of images representing the subset of possible diagnoses for user review via the user-interface. - View Dependent Claims (2)
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3. A method for aiding a visual diagnostic process, including:
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creating an image database from a collection of images pertaining to a particular subject matter, said image database residing on a mass storage device operatively associated with a computer; creating a knowledge database with other data related to the particular subject matter, wherein said knowledge database includes a plurality of findings-diagnosis links representing relationships between findings and diagnoses and is cross-referenced to said image database, for the purpose of assisting in the diagnostic process; collecting from a user, through a user-interface adapted to the particular subject matter, a plurality of descriptive characteristics of a sample requiring diagnoses; a diagnostic engine, in response to said descriptive characteristics, using findings-diagnosis links, automatically generating, from a plurality of possible diagnoses included within the knowledge database, a subset including a plurality of possible diagnoses consistent with the descriptive characteristics collected from the user; and using the subset of possible diagnoses, automatically reorganizing an information space of said image database for concurrent presentation of a plurality of images related to the plurality of possible diagnoses for user review via the user-interface. - View Dependent Claims (4)
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5. A computer system for reducing diagnostic uncertainty using cross-referenced knowledge and image databases, comprising:
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a user-interface to solicit a plurality of characteristics of diagnoses from a user; a diagnostic engine operating under the programmatic control of the computer system and having access to the knowledge database, the knowledge database including a plurality of findings-diagnosis links representing relationships between findings and diagnoses, wherein said characteristics of diagnoses are employed to automatically identify, from the diagnoses for which data is stored in the knowledge database, a subset including a plurality of possible diagnoses from the knowledge database that are consistent with the characteristics; and using the subset of possible diagnoses identified from the findings-diagnosis links, automatically reorganizing an information space of the image database for presentation to the user, including concurrent presentation of a plurality of images on said user-interface for user review, the plurality of images being representative of at least two possible diagnoses. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method for controlling a computer to accomplish a diagnosis, comprising:
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creating an image database from a collection of images pertaining to a particular subject matter, the image database being accessible by the computer; crating a knowledge database including a plurality of findings-diagnosis links representing relationships between findings and diagnoses, said knowledge database including cross-references to said image database, for the purpose of assisting in the diagnostic process, the knowledge database also being accessible by the computer; receiving, through a user-interface adapted to the particular subject matter, a plurality of descriptive characteristics of a sample requiring diagnosis; the computer operating a diagnostic engine, responsive to said descriptive characteristics, the diagnostic engine using the findings-diagnosis links to automatically generate, from a plurality of possible diagnoses included within the knowledge database, a subset including a plurality of possible diagnoses consistent with the descriptive characteristics collected from the user; and automatically reorganizing an information space of said image database for concurrent display of a plurality of images related to the subset of possible diagnoses for user review via the user-interface. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification