Method and apparatus for orienting tissue samples for comparison

• US 8,824,758 B2
• Filed: 11/07/2012
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Yu, Liangyin, Liu, Ming-Chang
• Primary Examiner(s): Repko, Jason M
• Assistant Examiner(s): NAKHJAVAN, SHERVIN K
• Application Number:
  US13/671,190
• Publication Number:
  US 20140126786A1
• Time in Patent Office: 664 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 382/128
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10061 from scanning electron microscope
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30024 Cell structures in vitro; Tissue sections in vitro
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/33 using feature-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/242 by image rotation, e.g. by 90 degrees
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/695 Preprocessing, e.g. image segmentation

Abstract

Certain aspects of an apparatus and method for orienting tissue samples for comparison may include incrementally rotating orientation of a first image by a predetermined rotation angle while maintaining orientation of a second image at a fixed angle, checking alignment of the orientation of the first image with the orientation of the second image at each predetermined rotation angle by matching a plurality of points in the first image and the second image, determining whether a predetermined rotation angle is a correct rotation angle for alignment based on a count of the plurality of points being greater than a threshold value and rotating to the next predetermined rotation angle when the count of the plurality of points is less than or equal to a threshold value.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for orienting digital pathology images comprising:

incrementally rotating orientation of a first image by a predetermined rotation angle while maintaining orientation of a second image at a fixed angle;

checking alignment of the orientation of the first image with the orientation of the second image at each predetermined rotation angle by matching a plurality of points in the first image and the second image;

determining whether a predetermined rotation angle is a correct rotation angle for alignment based on a count of the plurality of points being greater than a threshold value; and

rotating to the next predetermined rotation angle when the count of the plurality of points is less than or equal to a threshold value.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein incrementally rotating comprises:

rotating the first image by positive or negative ten degrees to a next predetermined rotation angle.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising, before incrementally rotating the first image, estimating background in the first and second image.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the threshold value is 40 matching points.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving the first image as an immunohistochemistry (IHC) image and receiving the second image as a Hematoxylin &

Eosin (H&

E) image.

6. The method of claim 1, aligning the images further comprising:

segmenting the first image into a plurality of segments;

generating key-points in the plurality of segments;

cross matching the plurality of segments with the second image.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

filtering the plurality of matched segments of the first image.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

partitioning the second image using a structure-centered algorithm.

9. An apparatus for orienting digital pathology images comprising a processor configured for:

incrementally rotating a first image to a predetermined rotation angle while maintaining orientation of a second image at a fixed angle;

checking alignment of the orientation of the first image and the second image at each predetermined rotation angle by matching a plurality of points in the first image and the second image; and

determining whether a predetermined rotation angle is a correct rotation angle for alignment when a count of the plurality of points is greater than a threshold value and rotating to the next predetermined rotation when the count is less than or equal to a threshold value.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to rotate the first image by positive or negative ten degrees to a next predetermined rotation angle.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the processor is further configured for estimating background in the first and second image before incrementally rotating the first image.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the threshold value is 40 matching points.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the apparatus receives, as input, the first image as an immunohistochemistry (IHC) image and the second image as a Hematoxylin &

Eosin (H&

E) image.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, the processor is further configured to:

segment the first image into a plurality of segments;

generate key-points in the plurality of segments;

cross-match the plurality of segments with the second image.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to filter the plurality of matched segments of the first image.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to partition the second image using a structure-centered algorithm.