Multiresolution generalized N dimension PCA for ultrasound image denoising

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Ultrasound images are usually affected by speckle noise, which is a type of random multiplicative noise. Thus, reducing speckle and improving image visual quality are vital to obtaining better diagnosis. Method In this paper, a novel noise reduction method for medical ultrasound images, called multiresolution generalized N dimension PCA (MR-GND-PCA), is presented. In this method, the Gaussian pyramid and multiscale image stacks on each level are built first. GND-PCA as a multilinear subspace learning method is used for denoising. Each level is combined to achieve the final denoised image based on Laplacian pyramids. Results The proposed method is tested with synthetically speckled and real ultrasound images, and quality evaluation metrics, including MSE, SNR and PSNR, are used to evaluate its performance. Conclusion Experimental results show that the proposed method achieved the lowest noise interference and improved image quality by reducing noise and preserving the structure. Our method is also robust for the image with a much higher level of speckle noise. For clinical images, the results show that MR-GND-PCA can reduce speckle and preserve resolvable details. PMID:25096917

From SPOT 5 to Pleiades HR: evolution of the instrumental specifications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosak, A.; Latry, C.; Pascal, V.; Laubier, D.

2017-11-01

Image quality specifications should aimed to fulfil high resolution mission requirements of remote sensing satellites with a minimum cost. The most important trade-off to be taken into account is between Modulation Transfer Function, radiometric noise and sampling scheme. This compromise is the main driver during design optimisation and requirement definition in order to achieve good performances and to minimise the mission cost. For the SPOT 5 satellite, a new compromise had been chosen. The supermode principle of imagery (sampling at 2.5 meter with a pixel size of 5 meter) imp roves the resolution by a factor of four compared with the SPOT 4 satellite (10 meter resolution). This paper presents the image quality specifications of the HRG-SPOT 5 instrument. We introduce all the efforts made on the instrument to achieve good image quality and low radiometric noise, then we compare the results with the SPOT 4 instrument's performances to highlight the improvements achieved. Then, the in-orbit performance will be described. Finally, we will present the new goals of image quality specifications for the new Pleiades-HR satellite for earth observation (0.7 meter resolution) and the instrument concept.

Image quality classification for DR screening using deep learning.

PubMed

FengLi Yu; Jing Sun; Annan Li; Jun Cheng; Cheng Wan; Jiang Liu

2017-07-01

The quality of input images significantly affects the outcome of automated diabetic retinopathy (DR) screening systems. Unlike the previous methods that only consider simple low-level features such as hand-crafted geometric and structural features, in this paper we propose a novel method for retinal image quality classification (IQC) that performs computational algorithms imitating the working of the human visual system. The proposed algorithm combines unsupervised features from saliency map and supervised features coming from convolutional neural networks (CNN), which are fed to an SVM to automatically detect high quality vs poor quality retinal fundus images. We demonstrate the superior performance of our proposed algorithm on a large retinal fundus image dataset and the method could achieve higher accuracy than other methods. Although retinal images are used in this study, the methodology is applicable to the image quality assessment and enhancement of other types of medical images.

Comparison of Knowledge-based Iterative Model Reconstruction and Hybrid Reconstruction Techniques for Liver CT Evaluation of Hypervascular Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

PubMed

Park, Hyun Jeong; Lee, Jeong Min; Park, Sung Bin; Lee, Jong Beum; Jeong, Yoong Ki; Yoon, Jeong Hee

The purpose of this work was to evaluate the image quality, lesion conspicuity, and dose reduction provided by knowledge-based iterative model reconstruction (IMR) in computed tomography (CT) of the liver compared with hybrid iterative reconstruction (IR) and filtered back projection (FBP) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Fifty-six patients with 61 HCCs who underwent multiphasic reduced-dose CT (RDCT; n = 33) or standard-dose CT (SDCT; n = 28) were retrospectively evaluated. Reconstructed images with FBP, hybrid IR (iDose), IMR were evaluated for image quality using CT attenuation and image noise. Objective and subjective image quality of RDCT and SDCT sets were independently assessed by 2 observers in a blinded manner. Image quality and lesion conspicuity were better with IMR for both RDCT and SDCT than either FBP or IR (P < 0.001). Contrast-to-noise ratio of HCCs in IMR-RDCT was significantly higher on delayed phase (DP) (P < 0.001), and comparable on arterial phase, than with IR-SDCT (P = 0.501). Iterative model reconstruction RDCT was significantly superior to FBP-SDCT (P < 0.001). Compared with IR-SDCT, IMR-RDCT was comparable in image sharpness and tumor conspicuity on arterial phase, and superior in image quality, noise, and lesion conspicuity on DP. With the use of IMR, a 27% reduction of effective dose was achieved with RDCT (12.7 ± 0.6 mSv) compared with SDCT (17.4 ± 1.1 mSv) without loss of image quality (P < 0.001). Iterative model reconstruction provides better image quality and tumor conspicuity than FBP and IR with considerable noise reduction. In addition, more than comparable results were achieved with IMR-RDCT to IR-SDCT for the evaluation of HCCs.

Multi-view 3D echocardiography compounding based on feature consistency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yao, Cheng; Simpson, John M.; Schaeffter, Tobias; Penney, Graeme P.

2011-09-01

Echocardiography (echo) is a widely available method to obtain images of the heart; however, echo can suffer due to the presence of artefacts, high noise and a restricted field of view. One method to overcome these limitations is to use multiple images, using the 'best' parts from each image to produce a higher quality 'compounded' image. This paper describes our compounding algorithm which specifically aims to reduce the effect of echo artefacts as well as improving the signal-to-noise ratio, contrast and extending the field of view. Our method weights image information based on a local feature coherence/consistency between all the overlapping images. Validation has been carried out using phantom, volunteer and patient datasets consisting of up to ten multi-view 3D images. Multiple sets of phantom images were acquired, some directly from the phantom surface, and others by imaging through hard and soft tissue mimicking material to degrade the image quality. Our compounding method is compared to the original, uncompounded echocardiography images, and to two basic statistical compounding methods (mean and maximum). Results show that our method is able to take a set of ten images, degraded by soft and hard tissue artefacts, and produce a compounded image of equivalent quality to images acquired directly from the phantom. Our method on phantom, volunteer and patient data achieves almost the same signal-to-noise improvement as the mean method, while simultaneously almost achieving the same contrast improvement as the maximum method. We show a statistically significant improvement in image quality by using an increased number of images (ten compared to five), and visual inspection studies by three clinicians showed very strong preference for our compounded volumes in terms of overall high image quality, large field of view, high endocardial border definition and low cavity noise.

Automated image quality assessment for chest CT scans.

PubMed

Reeves, Anthony P; Xie, Yiting; Liu, Shuang

2018-02-01

Medical image quality needs to be maintained at standards sufficient for effective clinical reading. Automated computer analytic methods may be applied to medical images for quality assessment. For chest CT scans in a lung cancer screening context, an automated quality assessment method is presented that characterizes image noise and image intensity calibration. This is achieved by image measurements in three automatically segmented homogeneous regions of the scan: external air, trachea lumen air, and descending aorta blood. Profiles of CT scanner behavior are also computed. The method has been evaluated on both phantom and real low-dose chest CT scans and results show that repeatable noise and calibration measures may be realized by automated computer algorithms. Noise and calibration profiles show relevant differences between different scanners and protocols. Automated image quality assessment may be useful for quality control for lung cancer screening and may enable performance improvements to automated computer analysis methods. © 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Image quality assessment for CT used on small animals

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cisneros, Isabela Paredes, E-mail: iparedesc@unal.edu.co; Agulles-Pedrós, Luis, E-mail: lagullesp@unal.edu.co

Image acquisition on a CT scanner is nowadays necessary in almost any kind of medical study. Its purpose, to produce anatomical images with the best achievable quality, implies the highest diagnostic radiation exposure to patients. Image quality can be measured quantitatively based on parameters such as noise, uniformity and resolution. This measure allows the determination of optimal parameters of operation for the scanner in order to get the best diagnostic image. A human Phillips CT scanner is the first one minded for veterinary-use exclusively in Colombia. The aim of this study was to measure the CT image quality parameters usingmore » an acrylic phantom and then, using the computational tool MATLAB, determine these parameters as a function of current value and window of visualization, in order to reduce dose delivery by keeping the appropriate image quality.« less

Image quality assessment for CT used on small animals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cisneros, Isabela Paredes; Agulles-Pedrós, Luis

2016-07-01

Image acquisition on a CT scanner is nowadays necessary in almost any kind of medical study. Its purpose, to produce anatomical images with the best achievable quality, implies the highest diagnostic radiation exposure to patients. Image quality can be measured quantitatively based on parameters such as noise, uniformity and resolution. This measure allows the determination of optimal parameters of operation for the scanner in order to get the best diagnostic image. A human Phillips CT scanner is the first one minded for veterinary-use exclusively in Colombia. The aim of this study was to measure the CT image quality parameters using an acrylic phantom and then, using the computational tool MatLab, determine these parameters as a function of current value and window of visualization, in order to reduce dose delivery by keeping the appropriate image quality.

Automated retinal image quality assessment on the UK Biobank dataset for epidemiological studies.

PubMed

Welikala, R A; Fraz, M M; Foster, P J; Whincup, P H; Rudnicka, A R; Owen, C G; Strachan, D P; Barman, S A

2016-04-01

Morphological changes in the retinal vascular network are associated with future risk of many systemic and vascular diseases. However, uncertainty over the presence and nature of some of these associations exists. Analysis of data from large population based studies will help to resolve these uncertainties. The QUARTZ (QUantitative Analysis of Retinal vessel Topology and siZe) retinal image analysis system allows automated processing of large numbers of retinal images. However, an image quality assessment module is needed to achieve full automation. In this paper, we propose such an algorithm, which uses the segmented vessel map to determine the suitability of retinal images for use in the creation of vessel morphometric data suitable for epidemiological studies. This includes an effective 3-dimensional feature set and support vector machine classification. A random subset of 800 retinal images from UK Biobank (a large prospective study of 500,000 middle aged adults; where 68,151 underwent retinal imaging) was used to examine the performance of the image quality algorithm. The algorithm achieved a sensitivity of 95.33% and a specificity of 91.13% for the detection of inadequate images. The strong performance of this image quality algorithm will make rapid automated analysis of vascular morphometry feasible on the entire UK Biobank dataset (and other large retinal datasets), with minimal operator involvement, and at low cost. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impact of contact lens zone geometry and ocular optics on bifocal retinal image quality

PubMed Central

Bradley, Arthur; Nam, Jayoung; Xu, Renfeng; Harman, Leslie; Thibos, Larry

2014-01-01

Purpose To examine the separate and combined influences of zone geometry, pupil size, diffraction, apodisation and spherical aberration on the optical performance of concentric zonal bifocals. Methods Zonal bifocal pupil functions representing eye + ophthalmic correction were defined by interleaving wavefronts from separate optical zones of the bifocal. A two-zone design (a central circular inner zone surrounded by an annular outer-zone which is bounded by the pupil) and a five-zone design (a central small circular zone surrounded by four concentric annuli) were configured with programmable zone geometry, wavefront phase and pupil transmission characteristics. Using computational methods, we examined the effects of diffraction, Stiles Crawford apodisation, pupil size and spherical aberration on optical transfer functions for different target distances. Results Apodisation alters the relative weighting of each zone, and thus the balance of near and distance optical quality. When spherical aberration is included, the effective distance correction, add power and image quality depend on zone-geometry and Stiles Crawford Effect apodisation. When the outer zone width is narrow, diffraction limits the available image contrast when focused, but as pupil dilates and outer zone width increases, aberrations will limit the best achievable image quality. With two-zone designs, balancing near and distance image quality is not achieved with equal area inner and outer zones. With significant levels of spherical aberration, multi-zone designs effectively become multifocals. Conclusion Wave optics and pupil varying ocular optics significantly affect the imaging capabilities of different optical zones of concentric bifocals. With two-zone bifocal designs, diffraction, pupil apodisation spherical aberration, and zone size influence both the effective add power and the pupil size required to balance near and distance image quality. Five-zone bifocal designs achieve a high degree of pupil size independence, and thus will provide more consistent performance as pupil size varies with light level and convergence amplitude. PMID:24588552

Antiscatter grid use in pediatric digital tomosynthesis imaging†

PubMed Central

King, Jenna M.; Reed, Martin

2011-01-01

The objective of this study was to assess the effect of antiscatter grid use on tomosynthesis image quality. We performed an observer study that rated the image quality of digital tomosynthesis scout radiographs and slice images of a Leeds TO.20 contrast‐detail test object embedded in acrylic with and without a grid. We considered 10, 15, 20 and 25 cm of acrylic to represent the wide range of patient thicknesses encountered in pediatric imaging. We also acquired and rated images without a grid at an increased patient dose. The readers counted the total number of visible details in each image as a measure of relative image quality. We observed that the antiscatter grid improves tomosynthesis image quality compared to the grid‐out case, which received image quality scores similar to grid‐in radiography. Our results suggest that, in order to achieve the best image quality in exchange for the increase in patient dose, it may often be appropriate to include an antiscatter grid for pediatric tomosynthesis imaging, particularly if the patient thickness is greater than 10 cm. PACS number: 87.57.‐s PMID:22089021

Application of furniture images selection based on neural network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yong; Gao, Wenwen; Wang, Ying

2018-05-01

In the construction of 2 million furniture image databases, aiming at the problem of low quality of database, a combination of CNN and Metric learning algorithm is proposed, which makes it possible to quickly and accurately remove duplicate and irrelevant samples in the furniture image database. Solve problems that images screening method is complex, the accuracy is not high, time-consuming is long. Deep learning algorithm achieve excellent image matching ability in actual furniture retrieval applications after improving data quality.

Basic Investigation on Medical Ultrasonic Echo Image Compression by JPEG2000 - Availability of Wavelet Transform and ROI Method

DTIC Science & Technology

2001-10-25

Table III. In spite of the same quality in ROI, it is decided that the images in the cases where QF is 1.3, 1.5 or 2.0 are not good for diagnosis. Of...but (b) is not good for diagnosis by decision of ultrasonographer. Results reveal that wavelet transform achieves higher quality of image compared

Perceptual quality prediction on authentically distorted images using a bag of features approach

PubMed Central

Ghadiyaram, Deepti; Bovik, Alan C.

2017-01-01

Current top-performing blind perceptual image quality prediction models are generally trained on legacy databases of human quality opinion scores on synthetically distorted images. Therefore, they learn image features that effectively predict human visual quality judgments of inauthentic and usually isolated (single) distortions. However, real-world images usually contain complex composite mixtures of multiple distortions. We study the perceptually relevant natural scene statistics of such authentically distorted images in different color spaces and transform domains. We propose a “bag of feature maps” approach that avoids assumptions about the type of distortion(s) contained in an image and instead focuses on capturing consistencies—or departures therefrom—of the statistics of real-world images. Using a large database of authentically distorted images, human opinions of them, and bags of features computed on them, we train a regressor to conduct image quality prediction. We demonstrate the competence of the features toward improving automatic perceptual quality prediction by testing a learned algorithm using them on a benchmark legacy database as well as on a newly introduced distortion-realistic resource called the LIVE In the Wild Image Quality Challenge Database. We extensively evaluate the perceptual quality prediction model and algorithm and show that it is able to achieve good-quality prediction power that is better than other leading models. PMID:28129417

Face Recognition for Access Control Systems Combining Image-Difference Features Based on a Probabilistic Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miwa, Shotaro; Kage, Hiroshi; Hirai, Takashi; Sumi, Kazuhiko

We propose a probabilistic face recognition algorithm for Access Control System(ACS)s. Comparing with existing ACSs using low cost IC-cards, face recognition has advantages in usability and security that it doesn't require people to hold cards over scanners and doesn't accept imposters with authorized cards. Therefore face recognition attracts more interests in security markets than IC-cards. But in security markets where low cost ACSs exist, price competition is important, and there is a limitation on the quality of available cameras and image control. Therefore ACSs using face recognition are required to handle much lower quality images, such as defocused and poor gain-controlled images than high security systems, such as immigration control. To tackle with such image quality problems we developed a face recognition algorithm based on a probabilistic model which combines a variety of image-difference features trained by Real AdaBoost with their prior probability distributions. It enables to evaluate and utilize only reliable features among trained ones during each authentication, and achieve high recognition performance rates. The field evaluation using a pseudo Access Control System installed in our office shows that the proposed system achieves a constant high recognition performance rate independent on face image qualities, that is about four times lower EER (Equal Error Rate) under a variety of image conditions than one without any prior probability distributions. On the other hand using image difference features without any prior probabilities are sensitive to image qualities. We also evaluated PCA, and it has worse, but constant performance rates because of its general optimization on overall data. Comparing with PCA, Real AdaBoost without any prior distribution performs twice better under good image conditions, but degrades to a performance as good as PCA under poor image conditions.

Medical image enhancement using resolution synthesis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wong, Tak-Shing; Bouman, Charles A.; Thibault, Jean-Baptiste; Sauer, Ken D.

2011-03-01

We introduce a post-processing approach to improve the quality of CT reconstructed images. The scheme is adapted from the resolution-synthesis (RS)1 interpolation algorithm. In this approach, we consider the input image, scanned at a particular dose level, as a degraded version of a high quality image scanned at a high dose level. Image enhancement is achieved by predicting the high quality image by classification based linear regression. To improve the robustness of our scheme, we also apply the minimum description length principle to determine the optimal number of predictors to use in the scheme, and the ridge regression to regularize the design of the predictors. Experimental results show that our scheme is effective in reducing the noise in images reconstructed from filtered back projection without significant loss of image details. Alternatively, our scheme can also be applied to reduce dose while maintaining image quality at an acceptable level.

Toward a perceptual image quality assessment of color quantized images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frackiewicz, Mariusz; Palus, Henryk

2018-04-01

Color image quantization is an important operation in the field of color image processing. In this paper, we consider new perceptual image quality metrics for assessment of quantized images. These types of metrics, e.g. DSCSI, MDSIs, MDSIm and HPSI achieve the highest correlation coefficients with MOS during tests on the six publicly available image databases. Research was limited to images distorted by two types of compression: JPG and JPG2K. Statistical analysis of correlation coefficients based on the Friedman test and post-hoc procedures showed that the differences between the four new perceptual metrics are not statistically significant.

Dual-Particle Imaging System with Neutron Spectroscopy for Safeguard Applications

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hamel, Michael C.; Weber, Thomas M.

2017-11-01

A dual-particle imager (DPI) has been designed that is capable of detecting gamma-ray and neutron signatures from shielded SNM. The system combines liquid organic and NaI(Tl) scintillators to form a combined Compton and neutron scatter camera. Effective image reconstruction of detected particles is a crucial component for maximizing the performance of the system; however, a key deficiency exists in the widely used iterative list-mode maximum-likelihood estimation-maximization (MLEM) image reconstruction technique. For MLEM a stopping condition is required to achieve a good quality solution but these conditions fail to achieve maximum image quality. Stochastic origin ensembles (SOE) imaging is a goodmore » candidate to address this problem as it uses Markov chain Monte Carlo to reach a stochastic steady-state solution. The application of SOE to the DPI is presented in this work.« less

A comparison of visual statistics for the image enhancement of FORESITE aerial images with those of major image classes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jobson, Daniel J.; Rahman, Zia-ur; Woodell, Glenn A.; Hines, Glenn D.

2006-05-01

Aerial images from the Follow-On Radar, Enhanced and Synthetic Vision Systems Integration Technology Evaluation (FORESITE) flight tests with the NASA Langley Research Center's research Boeing 757 were acquired during severe haze and haze/mixed clouds visibility conditions. These images were enhanced using the Visual Servo (VS) process that makes use of the Multiscale Retinex. The images were then quantified with visual quality metrics used internally within the VS. One of these metrics, the Visual Contrast Measure, has been computed for hundreds of FORESITE images, and for major classes of imaging-terrestrial (consumer), orbital Earth observations, orbital Mars surface imaging, NOAA aerial photographs, and underwater imaging. The metric quantifies both the degree of visual impairment of the original, un-enhanced images as well as the degree of visibility improvement achieved by the enhancement process. The large aggregate data exhibits trends relating to degree of atmospheric visibility attenuation, and its impact on the limits of enhancement performance for the various image classes. Overall results support the idea that in most cases that do not involve extreme reduction in visibility, large gains in visual contrast are routinely achieved by VS processing. Additionally, for very poor visibility imaging, lesser, but still substantial, gains in visual contrast are also routinely achieved. Further, the data suggest that these visual quality metrics can be used as external standalone metrics for establishing performance parameters.

A Comparison of Visual Statistics for the Image Enhancement of FORESITE Aerial Images with Those of Major Image Classes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Daniel J.; Rahman, Zia-ur; Woodell, Glenn A.; Hines, Glenn D.

2006-01-01

Aerial images from the Follow-On Radar, Enhanced and Synthetic Vision Systems Integration Technology Evaluation (FORESITE) flight tests with the NASA Langley Research Center's research Boeing 757 were acquired during severe haze and haze/mixed clouds visibility conditions. These images were enhanced using the Visual Servo (VS) process that makes use of the Multiscale Retinex. The images were then quantified with visual quality metrics used internally with the VS. One of these metrics, the Visual Contrast Measure, has been computed for hundreds of FORESITE images, and for major classes of imaging--terrestrial (consumer), orbital Earth observations, orbital Mars surface imaging, NOAA aerial photographs, and underwater imaging. The metric quantifies both the degree of visual impairment of the original, un-enhanced images as well as the degree of visibility improvement achieved by the enhancement process. The large aggregate data exhibits trends relating to degree of atmospheric visibility attenuation, and its impact on limits of enhancement performance for the various image classes. Overall results support the idea that in most cases that do not involve extreme reduction in visibility, large gains in visual contrast are routinely achieved by VS processing. Additionally, for very poor visibility imaging, lesser, but still substantial, gains in visual contrast are also routinely achieved. Further, the data suggest that these visual quality metrics can be used as external standalone metrics for establishing performance parameters.

Full-reference quality assessment of stereoscopic images by learning binocular receptive field properties.

PubMed

Shao, Feng; Li, Kemeng; Lin, Weisi; Jiang, Gangyi; Yu, Mei; Dai, Qionghai

2015-10-01

Quality assessment of 3D images encounters more challenges than its 2D counterparts. Directly applying 2D image quality metrics is not the solution. In this paper, we propose a new full-reference quality assessment for stereoscopic images by learning binocular receptive field properties to be more in line with human visual perception. To be more specific, in the training phase, we learn a multiscale dictionary from the training database, so that the latent structure of images can be represented as a set of basis vectors. In the quality estimation phase, we compute sparse feature similarity index based on the estimated sparse coefficient vectors by considering their phase difference and amplitude difference, and compute global luminance similarity index by considering luminance changes. The final quality score is obtained by incorporating binocular combination based on sparse energy and sparse complexity. Experimental results on five public 3D image quality assessment databases demonstrate that in comparison with the most related existing methods, the devised algorithm achieves high consistency with subjective assessment.

Surface and subsurface inspection of food safety and quality using a line-scan Raman system

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

This paper presents a line-scan Raman platform for food safety and quality research, which can be configured for Raman chemical imaging (RCI) mode for surface inspection and spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) mode for subsurface inspection. In the RCI mode, macro-scale imaging was achieved u...

Single-shot spiral imaging at 7 T.

PubMed

Engel, Maria; Kasper, Lars; Barmet, Christoph; Schmid, Thomas; Vionnet, Laetitia; Wilm, Bertram; Pruessmann, Klaas P

2018-03-25

The purpose of this work is to explore the feasibility and performance of single-shot spiral MRI at 7 T, using an expanded signal model for reconstruction. Gradient-echo brain imaging is performed on a 7 T system using high-resolution single-shot spiral readouts and half-shot spirals that perform dual-image acquisition after a single excitation. Image reconstruction is based on an expanded signal model including the encoding effects of coil sensitivity, static off-resonance, and magnetic field dynamics. The latter are recorded concurrently with image acquisition, using NMR field probes. The resulting image resolution is assessed by point spread function analysis. Single-shot spiral imaging is achieved at a nominal resolution of 0.8 mm, using spiral-out readouts of 53-ms duration. High depiction fidelity is achieved without conspicuous blurring or distortion. Effective resolutions are assessed as 0.8, 0.94, and 0.98 mm in CSF, gray matter and white matter, respectively. High image quality is also achieved with half-shot acquisition yielding image pairs at 1.5-mm resolution. Use of an expanded signal model enables single-shot spiral imaging at 7 T with unprecedented image quality. Single-shot and half-shot spiral readouts deploy the sensitivity benefit of high field for rapid high-resolution imaging, particularly for functional MRI and arterial spin labeling. © 2018 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Automatic tube potential selection with tube current modulation in coronary CT angiography: Can it achieve consistent image quality among various individuals?

PubMed

Wang, Xiao-Ping; Zhu, Xiao-Mei; Zhu, Yin-Su; Liu, Wang-Yan; Yang, Xiao-Han; Huang, Wei-Wei; Xu, Yi; Tang, Li-Jun

2018-07-01

The present study included a total of 111 consecutive patients who had undergone coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography, using a first-generation dual-source CT with automatic tube potential selection and tube current modulation. Body weight (BW) and body mass index (BMI) were recorded prior to CT examinations. Image noise and attenuation of the proximal ascending aorta (AA) and descending aorta (DA) at the middle level of the left ventricle were measured. Correlations between BW, BMI and objective image quality were evaluated using linear regression. In addition, two subgroups based on BMI (BMI ≤25 and >25 kg/m 2 ) were analyzed. Subjective image quality, image noise, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) were all compared between those. The image noise of the AA increased with the BW and BMI (BW: r=0.453, P<0.001; BMI: r=0.545, P<0.001). The CNR and SNR of the AA were inversely correlated with BW and BMI, respectively. The image noise of the DA and the CNR and SNR of the DA exhibited a similar association to those with the BW or BMI. The BMI >25 kg/m 2 group had a significant increase in image noise (33.1±6.9 vs. 27.8±4.0 HU, P<0.05) and a significant reduction in CNR and SNR, when compared with those in the BMI ≤25 kg/m 2 group (CNR: 18.9±4.3 vs. 16.1±3.7, P<0.05; SNR: 16.0±3.8 vs. 13.6±3.2, P<0.05). Patients with a BMI of ≤25 kg/m 2 had more coronary artery segments scored as excellent, compared with patients with a BMI of >25 kg/m 2 (P=0.02). In conclusion, this method is not able to achieve a consistent objective image quality across the entire patient population. The impact of BW and BMI on objective image quality was not completely eliminated. BMI-based adjustment of the tube potential may achieve a more consistent image quality compared to automatic tube potential selection, particularly in patients with a larger body habitus.

A quality quantitative method of silicon direct bonding based on wavelet image analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tan, Xiao; Tao, Zhi; Li, Haiwang; Xu, Tiantong; Yu, Mingxing

2018-04-01

The rapid development of MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) has received significant attention from researchers in various fields and subjects. In particular, the MEMS fabrication process is elaborate and, as such, has been the focus of extensive research inquiries. However, in MEMS fabrication, component bonding is difficult to achieve and requires a complex approach. Thus, improvements in bonding quality are relatively important objectives. A higher quality bond can only be achieved with improved measurement and testing capabilities. In particular, the traditional testing methods mainly include infrared testing, tensile testing, and strength testing, despite the fact that using these methods to measure bond quality often results in low efficiency or destructive analysis. Therefore, this paper focuses on the development of a precise, nondestructive visual testing method based on wavelet image analysis that is shown to be highly effective in practice. The process of wavelet image analysis includes wavelet image denoising, wavelet image enhancement, and contrast enhancement, and as an end result, can display an image with low background noise. In addition, because the wavelet analysis software was developed with MATLAB, it can reveal the bonding boundaries and bonding rates to precisely indicate the bond quality at all locations on the wafer. This work also presents a set of orthogonal experiments that consist of three prebonding factors, the prebonding temperature, the positive pressure value and the prebonding time, which are used to analyze the prebonding quality. This method was used to quantify the quality of silicon-to-silicon wafer bonding, yielding standard treatment quantities that could be practical for large-scale use.

Image gathering and restoration - Information and visual quality

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mccormick, Judith A.; Alter-Gartenberg, Rachel; Huck, Friedrich O.

1989-01-01

A method is investigated for optimizing the end-to-end performance of image gathering and restoration for visual quality. To achieve this objective, one must inevitably confront the problems that the visual quality of restored images depends on perceptual rather than mathematical considerations and that these considerations vary with the target, the application, and the observer. The method adopted in this paper is to optimize image gathering informationally and to restore images interactively to obtain the visually preferred trade-off among fidelity resolution, sharpness, and clarity. The results demonstrate that this method leads to significant improvements in the visual quality obtained by the traditional digital processing methods. These traditional methods allow a significant loss of visual quality to occur because they treat the design of the image-gathering system and the formulation of the image-restoration algorithm as two separate tasks and fail to account for the transformations between the continuous and the discrete representations in image gathering and reconstruction.

SU-F-I-47: Optimizing Protocols for Image Quality and Dose in Abdominal CT of Large Patients

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Johnson, L; Yester, M

Purpose: Newer CT scanners are able to use scout views to adjust mA throughout the scan in order to achieve a given noise level. However, given constraints of radiologist preferences for kVp and rotation time, it may not be possible to achieve an acceptable noise level for large patients. A study was initiated to determine for which patients kVp and/or rotation time should be changed in order to achieve acceptable image quality. Methods: Patient scans were reviewed on two new Emergency Department scanners (Philips iCT) to identify patients over a large range of sizes. These iCTs were set with amore » limit of 500 mA to safeguard against a failure that might cause a CT scan to be (incorrectly) obtained at too-high mA. Scout views of these scans were assessed for both AP and LAT patient width and AP and LAT standard deviation in an ROI over the liver. Effective diameter and product of the scout standard deviations over the liver were both studied as possible metrics for identifying patients who would need kVp and/or rotation time changed. The mA used for the liver in the CT was compared to these metrics for those patients whose CT scans showed acceptable image quality. Results: Both effective diameter and product of the scout standard deviations over the liver result in similar predictions for which patients will require the kVp and/or rotation time to be changed to achieve an optimal combination of image quality and dose. Conclusion: Two mechanisms for CT technologists to determine based on scout characteristics what kVp, mA limit, and rotation time to use when DoseRight with our physicians’ preferred kVp and rotation time will not yield adequate image quality are described.« less

A Distributed Compressive Sensing Scheme for Event Capture in Wireless Visual Sensor Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hou, Meng; Xu, Sen; Wu, Weiling; Lin, Fei

2018-01-01

Image signals which acquired by wireless visual sensor network can be used for specific event capture. This event capture is realized by image processing at the sink node. A distributed compressive sensing scheme is used for the transmission of these image signals from the camera nodes to the sink node. A measurement and joint reconstruction algorithm for these image signals are proposed in this paper. Make advantage of spatial correlation between images within a sensing area, the cluster head node which as the image decoder can accurately co-reconstruct these image signals. The subjective visual quality and the reconstruction error rate are used for the evaluation of reconstructed image quality. Simulation results show that the joint reconstruction algorithm achieves higher image quality at the same image compressive rate than the independent reconstruction algorithm.

Image reconstructions from super-sampled data sets with resolution modeling in PET imaging.

PubMed

Li, Yusheng; Matej, Samuel; Metzler, Scott D

2014-12-01

Spatial resolution in positron emission tomography (PET) is still a limiting factor in many imaging applications. To improve the spatial resolution for an existing scanner with fixed crystal sizes, mechanical movements such as scanner wobbling and object shifting have been considered for PET systems. Multiple acquisitions from different positions can provide complementary information and increased spatial sampling. The objective of this paper is to explore an efficient and useful reconstruction framework to reconstruct super-resolution images from super-sampled low-resolution data sets. The authors introduce a super-sampling data acquisition model based on the physical processes with tomographic, downsampling, and shifting matrices as its building blocks. Based on the model, we extend the MLEM and Landweber algorithms to reconstruct images from super-sampled data sets. The authors also derive a backprojection-filtration-like (BPF-like) method for the super-sampling reconstruction. Furthermore, they explore variant methods for super-sampling reconstructions: the separate super-sampling resolution-modeling reconstruction and the reconstruction without downsampling to further improve image quality at the cost of more computation. The authors use simulated reconstruction of a resolution phantom to evaluate the three types of algorithms with different super-samplings at different count levels. Contrast recovery coefficient (CRC) versus background variability, as an image-quality metric, is calculated at each iteration for all reconstructions. The authors observe that all three algorithms can significantly and consistently achieve increased CRCs at fixed background variability and reduce background artifacts with super-sampled data sets at the same count levels. For the same super-sampled data sets, the MLEM method achieves better image quality than the Landweber method, which in turn achieves better image quality than the BPF-like method. The authors also demonstrate that the reconstructions from super-sampled data sets using a fine system matrix yield improved image quality compared to the reconstructions using a coarse system matrix. Super-sampling reconstructions with different count levels showed that the more spatial-resolution improvement can be obtained with higher count at a larger iteration number. The authors developed a super-sampling reconstruction framework that can reconstruct super-resolution images using the super-sampling data sets simultaneously with known acquisition motion. The super-sampling PET acquisition using the proposed algorithms provides an effective and economic way to improve image quality for PET imaging, which has an important implication in preclinical and clinical region-of-interest PET imaging applications.

Optimized algorithm for the spatial nonuniformity correction of an imaging system based on a charge-coupled device color camera.

PubMed

de Lasarte, Marta; Pujol, Jaume; Arjona, Montserrat; Vilaseca, Meritxell

2007-01-10

We present an optimized linear algorithm for the spatial nonuniformity correction of a CCD color camera's imaging system and the experimental methodology developed for its implementation. We assess the influence of the algorithm's variables on the quality of the correction, that is, the dark image, the base correction image, and the reference level, and the range of application of the correction using a uniform radiance field provided by an integrator cube. The best spatial nonuniformity correction is achieved by having a nonzero dark image, by using an image with a mean digital level placed in the linear response range of the camera as the base correction image and taking the mean digital level of the image as the reference digital level. The response of the CCD color camera's imaging system to the uniform radiance field shows a high level of spatial uniformity after the optimized algorithm has been applied, which also allows us to achieve a high-quality spatial nonuniformity correction of captured images under different exposure conditions.

Patient-specific optimisation of administered activity and acquisition times for 18F-FDG PET imaging.

PubMed

Wickham, Fred; McMeekin, Helena; Burniston, Maria; McCool, Daniel; Pencharz, Deborah; Skillen, Annah; Wagner, Thomas

2017-12-01

The purpose of this study is to identify a method for optimising the administered activity and acquisition time for 18 F-FDG PET imaging, yielding images of consistent quality for patients with varying body sizes and compositions, while limiting radiation doses to patients and staff. Patients referred for FDG scans had bioimpedance measurements. They were injected with 3 MBq/kg of 18 F up to 370 MBq and scanned on a Siemens Biograph mCT at 3 or 4 min per bed position. Data were rebinned to simulate 2- and 1-min acquisitions. Subjective assessments of image quality made by an experienced physician were compared with objective measurements based on signal-to-noise ratio and noise equivalent counts (NEC). A target objective measure of image quality was identified. The activity and acquisition time required to achieve this were calculated for each subject. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify expressions for the activity and acquisition time required in terms of easily measurable patient characteristics. One hundred and eleven patients were recruited, and subjective and objective assessments of image quality were compared for 321 full and reduced time scans. NEC-per-metre was identified as the objective measure which best correlated with the subjective assessment (Spearman rank correlation coefficient 0.77) and the best discriminator for images with a subjective assessment of "definitely adequate" (area under the ROC curve 0.94). A target of 37 Mcount/m was identified. Expressions were identified in terms of patient sex, height and weight for the activity and acquisition time required to achieve this target. Including measurements of body composition in these expressions was not useful. Using these expressions would reduce the mean activity administered to this patient group by 66 MBq compared to the current protocol. Expressions have been identified for the activity and acquisition times required to achieve consistent image quality in FDG imaging with reduced patient and staff doses. These expressions might need to be adapted for other systems and reconstruction protocols.

Deep architecture neural network-based real-time image processing for image-guided radiotherapy.

PubMed

Mori, Shinichiro

2017-08-01

To develop real-time image processing for image-guided radiotherapy, we evaluated several neural network models for use with different imaging modalities, including X-ray fluoroscopic image denoising. Setup images of prostate cancer patients were acquired with two oblique X-ray fluoroscopic units. Two types of residual network were designed: a convolutional autoencoder (rCAE) and a convolutional neural network (rCNN). We changed the convolutional kernel size and number of convolutional layers for both networks, and the number of pooling and upsampling layers for rCAE. The ground-truth image was applied to the contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization (CLAHE) method of image processing. Network models were trained to keep the quality of the output image close to that of the ground-truth image from the input image without image processing. For image denoising evaluation, noisy input images were used for the training. More than 6 convolutional layers with convolutional kernels >5×5 improved image quality. However, this did not allow real-time imaging. After applying a pair of pooling and upsampling layers to both networks, rCAEs with >3 convolutions each and rCNNs with >12 convolutions with a pair of pooling and upsampling layers achieved real-time processing at 30 frames per second (fps) with acceptable image quality. Use of our suggested network achieved real-time image processing for contrast enhancement and image denoising by the use of a conventional modern personal computer. Copyright © 2017 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lightweight, compact, and high-performance 3T MR system for imaging the brain and extremities.

PubMed

Foo, Thomas K F; Laskaris, Evangelos; Vermilyea, Mark; Xu, Minfeng; Thompson, Paul; Conte, Gene; Van Epps, Christopher; Immer, Christopher; Lee, Seung-Kyun; Tan, Ek T; Graziani, Dominic; Mathieu, Jean-Baptise; Hardy, Christopher J; Schenck, John F; Fiveland, Eric; Stautner, Wolfgang; Ricci, Justin; Piel, Joseph; Park, Keith; Hua, Yihe; Bai, Ye; Kagan, Alex; Stanley, David; Weavers, Paul T; Gray, Erin; Shu, Yunhong; Frick, Matthew A; Campeau, Norbert G; Trzasko, Joshua; Huston, John; Bernstein, Matt A

2018-03-13

To build and evaluate a small-footprint, lightweight, high-performance 3T MRI scanner for advanced brain imaging with image quality that is equal to or better than conventional whole-body clinical 3T MRI scanners, while achieving substantial reductions in installation costs. A conduction-cooled magnet was developed that uses less than 12 liters of liquid helium in a gas-charged sealed system, and standard NbTi wire, and weighs approximately 2000 kg. A 42-cm inner-diameter gradient coil with asymmetric transverse axes was developed to provide patient access for head and extremity exams, while minimizing magnet-gradient interactions that adversely affect image quality. The gradient coil was designed to achieve simultaneous operation of 80-mT/m peak gradient amplitude at a slew rate of 700 T/m/s on each gradient axis using readily available 1-MVA gradient drivers. In a comparison of anatomical imaging in 16 patients using T 2 -weighted 3D fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) between the compact 3T and whole-body 3T, image quality was assessed as equivalent to or better across several metrics. The ability to fully use a high slew rate of 700 T/m/s simultaneously with 80-mT/m maximum gradient amplitude resulted in improvements in image quality across EPI, DWI, and anatomical imaging of the brain. The compact 3T MRI system has been in continuous operation at the Mayo Clinic since March 2016. To date, over 200 patient studies have been completed, including 96 comparison studies with a clinical 3T whole-body MRI. The increased gradient performance has reliably resulted in consistently improved image quality. © 2018 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Optical design of ultrashort throw liquid crystal on silicon projection system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Jiun-Woei

2017-05-01

An ultrashort throw liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) projector for home cinema, virtual reality, and automobile heads-up display has been designed and fabricated. To achieve the best performance and highest-quality image, this study aimed to design wide-angle projection optics and optimize the illumination for LCoS. Based on the telecentric lens projection system and optimized Koehler illumination, the optical parameters were calculated. The projector's optical system consisted of a conic aspheric mirror and image optics using either symmetric double Gauss or a large-angle eyepiece to achieve a full projection angle larger than 155 deg. By applying Koehler illumination, image resolution was enhanced and the modulation transfer function of the image in high spatial frequency was increased to form a high-quality illuminated image. The partial coherence analysis verified that the design was capable of 2.5 lps/mm within a 2 m×1.5 m projected image. The throw ratio was less than 0.25 in HD format.

Oriented modulation for watermarking in direct binary search halftone images.

PubMed

Guo, Jing-Ming; Su, Chang-Cheng; Liu, Yun-Fu; Lee, Hua; Lee, Jiann-Der

2012-09-01

In this paper, a halftoning-based watermarking method is presented. This method enables high pixel-depth watermark embedding, while maintaining high image quality. This technique is capable of embedding watermarks with pixel depths up to 3 bits without causing prominent degradation to the image quality. To achieve high image quality, the parallel oriented high-efficient direct binary search (DBS) halftoning is selected to be integrated with the proposed orientation modulation (OM) method. The OM method utilizes different halftone texture orientations to carry different watermark data. In the decoder, the least-mean-square-trained filters are applied for feature extraction from watermarked images in the frequency domain, and the naïve Bayes classifier is used to analyze the extracted features and ultimately to decode the watermark data. Experimental results show that the DBS-based OM encoding method maintains a high degree of image quality and realizes the processing efficiency and robustness to be adapted in printing applications.

Assessment of a New High-Performance Small-Animal X-Ray Tomograph

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vaquero, J. J.; Redondo, S.; Lage, E.; Abella, M.; Sisniega, A.; Tapias, G.; Montenegro, M. L. Soto; Desco, M.

2008-06-01

We have developed a new X-ray cone-beam tomograph for in vivo small-animal imaging using a flat panel detector (CMOS technology with a microcolumnar CsI scintillator plate) and a microfocus X-ray source. The geometrical configuration was designed to achieve a spatial resolution of about 12 lpmm with a field of view appropriate for laboratory rodents. In order to achieve high performance with regard to per-animal screening time and cost, the acquisition software takes advantage of the highest frame rate of the detector and performs on-the-fly corrections on the detector raw data. These corrections include geometrical misalignments, sensor non-uniformities, and defective elements. The resulting image is then converted to attenuation values. We measured detector modulation transfer function (MTF), detector stability, system resolution, quality of the reconstructed tomographic images and radiated dose. The system resolution was measured following the standard test method ASTM E 1695 -95. For image quality evaluation, we assessed signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) as a function of the radiated dose. Dose studies for different imaging protocols were performed by introducing TLD dosimeters in representative organs of euthanized laboratory rats. Noise figure, measured as standard deviation, was 50 HU for a dose of 10 cGy. Effective dose with standard research protocols is below 200 mGy, confirming that the system is appropriate for in vivo imaging. Maximum spatial resolution achieved was better than 50 micron. Our experimental results obtained with image quality phantoms as well as with in-vivo studies show that the proposed configuration based on a CMOS flat panel detector and a small micro-focus X-ray tube leads to a compact design that provides good image quality and low radiated dose, and it could be used as an add-on for existing PET or SPECT scanners.

Do we need a national incident reporting system for medical imaging?

PubMed

Itri, Jason N; Krishnaraj, Arun

2012-05-01

The essential role of an incident reporting system as a tool to improve safety and reliability has been described in high-risk industries such as aviation and nuclear power, with anesthesia being the first medical specialty to successfully integrate incident reporting into a comprehensive quality improvement strategy. Establishing an incident reporting system for medical imaging that effectively captures system errors and drives improvement in the delivery of imaging services is a key component of developing and evaluating national quality improvement initiatives in radiology. Such a national incident reporting system would be most effective if implemented as one piece of a comprehensive quality improvement strategy designed to enhance knowledge about safety, identify and learn from errors, raise standards and expectations for improvement, and create safer systems through implementation of safe practices. The potential benefits of a national incident reporting system for medical imaging include reduced morbidity and mortality, improved patient and referring physician satisfaction, reduced health care expenses and medical liability costs, and improved radiologist satisfaction. The purposes of this article are to highlight the positive impact of external reporting systems, discuss how similar advancements in quality and safety can be achieved with an incident reporting system for medical imaging in the United States, and describe current efforts within the imaging community toward achieving this goal. Copyright © 2012 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning to rank for blind image quality assessment.

PubMed

Gao, Fei; Tao, Dacheng; Gao, Xinbo; Li, Xuelong

2015-10-01

Blind image quality assessment (BIQA) aims to predict perceptual image quality scores without access to reference images. State-of-the-art BIQA methods typically require subjects to score a large number of images to train a robust model. However, subjective quality scores are imprecise, biased, and inconsistent, and it is challenging to obtain a large-scale database, or to extend existing databases, because of the inconvenience of collecting images, training the subjects, conducting subjective experiments, and realigning human quality evaluations. To combat these limitations, this paper explores and exploits preference image pairs (PIPs) such as the quality of image Ia is better than that of image Ib for training a robust BIQA model. The preference label, representing the relative quality of two images, is generally precise and consistent, and is not sensitive to image content, distortion type, or subject identity; such PIPs can be generated at a very low cost. The proposed BIQA method is one of learning to rank. We first formulate the problem of learning the mapping from the image features to the preference label as one of classification. In particular, we investigate the utilization of a multiple kernel learning algorithm based on group lasso to provide a solution. A simple but effective strategy to estimate perceptual image quality scores is then presented. Experiments show that the proposed BIQA method is highly effective and achieves a performance comparable with that of state-of-the-art BIQA algorithms. Moreover, the proposed method can be easily extended to new distortion categories.

Overlay of multiframe SEM images including nonlinear field distortions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Babin, S.; Borisov, S.; Ivonin, I.; Nakazawa, S.; Yamazaki, Y.

2018-03-01

To reduce charging and shrinkage, CD-SEMs utilize low electron energies and multiframe imaging. This results in every next frame being altered due to stage and beam instability, as well as due to charging. Regular averaging of the frames blurs the edges; this directly effects the extracted values of critical dimensions. A technique was developed to overlay multiframe images without the loss of quality. This method takes into account drift, rotation, and magnification corrections, as well as nonlinear distortions due to wafer charging. A significant improvement in the signal to noise ratio and overall image quality without degradation of the feature's edge quality was achieved. The developed software is capable of working with regular and large size images up to 32K pixels in each direction.

Time-resolved 3D pulmonary perfusion MRI: comparison of different k-space acquisition strategies at 1.5 and 3 T.

PubMed

Attenberger, Ulrike I; Ingrisch, Michael; Dietrich, Olaf; Herrmann, Karin; Nikolaou, Konstantin; Reiser, Maximilian F; Schönberg, Stefan O; Fink, Christian

2009-09-01

Time-resolved pulmonary perfusion MRI requires both high temporal and spatial resolution, which can be achieved by using several nonconventional k-space acquisition techniques. The aim of this study is to compare the image quality of time-resolved 3D pulmonary perfusion MRI with different k-space acquisition techniques in healthy volunteers at 1.5 and 3 T. Ten healthy volunteers underwent contrast-enhanced time-resolved 3D pulmonary MRI on 1.5 and 3 T using the following k-space acquisition techniques: (a) generalized autocalibrating partial parallel acquisition (GRAPPA) with an internal acquisition of reference lines (IRS), (b) GRAPPA with a single "external" acquisition of reference lines (ERS) before the measurement, and (c) a combination of GRAPPA with an internal acquisition of reference lines and view sharing (VS). The spatial resolution was kept constant at both field strengths to exclusively evaluate the influences of the temporal resolution achieved with the different k-space sampling techniques on image quality. The temporal resolutions were 2.11 seconds IRS, 1.31 seconds ERS, and 1.07 VS at 1.5 T and 2.04 seconds IRS, 1.30 seconds ERS, and 1.19 seconds VS at 3 T.Image quality was rated by 2 independent radiologists with regard to signal intensity, perfusion homogeneity, artifacts (eg, wrap around, noise), and visualization of pulmonary vessels using a 3 point scale (1 = nondiagnostic, 2 = moderate, 3 = good). Furthermore, the signal-to-noise ratio in the lungs was assessed. At 1.5 T the lowest image quality (sum score: 154) was observed for the ERS technique and the highest quality for the VS technique (sum score: 201). In contrast, at 3 T images acquired with VS were hampered by strong artifacts and image quality was rated significantly inferior (sum score: 137) compared with IRS (sum score: 180) and ERS (sum score: 174). Comparing 1.5 and 3 T, in particular the overall rating of the IRS technique (sum score: 180) was very similar at both field strengths. At 1.5 T the peak signal-to-noise ratio of the ERS was significantly lower in comparison to the IRS and the VS technique (14.6 vs. 26.7 and 39.6 respectively, P < 0.004). Using the IRS sampling algorithm comparable image quality and SNR can be achieved at 1.5 and 3 T. At 1.5 T VS offers the best possible solution for the conflicting requirements between a further increased temporal resolution and image quality. In consequence the gain of increased scanning efficiency from advanced k[r]-space sampling acquisition techniques can be exploited for a further improvement of image quality of pulmonary perfusion MRI.

Deblurring adaptive optics retinal images using deep convolutional neural networks.

PubMed

Fei, Xiao; Zhao, Junlei; Zhao, Haoxin; Yun, Dai; Zhang, Yudong

2017-12-01

The adaptive optics (AO) can be used to compensate for ocular aberrations to achieve near diffraction limited high-resolution retinal images. However, many factors such as the limited aberration measurement and correction accuracy with AO, intraocular scatter, imaging noise and so on will degrade the quality of retinal images. Image post processing is an indispensable and economical method to make up for the limitation of AO retinal imaging procedure. In this paper, we proposed a deep learning method to restore the degraded retinal images for the first time. The method directly learned an end-to-end mapping between the blurred and restored retinal images. The mapping was represented as a deep convolutional neural network that was trained to output high-quality images directly from blurry inputs without any preprocessing. This network was validated on synthetically generated retinal images as well as real AO retinal images. The assessment of the restored retinal images demonstrated that the image quality had been significantly improved.

Deblurring adaptive optics retinal images using deep convolutional neural networks

PubMed Central

Fei, Xiao; Zhao, Junlei; Zhao, Haoxin; Yun, Dai; Zhang, Yudong

2017-01-01

The adaptive optics (AO) can be used to compensate for ocular aberrations to achieve near diffraction limited high-resolution retinal images. However, many factors such as the limited aberration measurement and correction accuracy with AO, intraocular scatter, imaging noise and so on will degrade the quality of retinal images. Image post processing is an indispensable and economical method to make up for the limitation of AO retinal imaging procedure. In this paper, we proposed a deep learning method to restore the degraded retinal images for the first time. The method directly learned an end-to-end mapping between the blurred and restored retinal images. The mapping was represented as a deep convolutional neural network that was trained to output high-quality images directly from blurry inputs without any preprocessing. This network was validated on synthetically generated retinal images as well as real AO retinal images. The assessment of the restored retinal images demonstrated that the image quality had been significantly improved. PMID:29296496

Learning random networks for compression of still and moving images

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gelenbe, Erol; Sungur, Mert; Cramer, Christopher

1994-01-01

Image compression for both still and moving images is an extremely important area of investigation, with numerous applications to videoconferencing, interactive education, home entertainment, and potential applications to earth observations, medical imaging, digital libraries, and many other areas. We describe work on a neural network methodology to compress/decompress still and moving images. We use the 'point-process' type neural network model which is closer to biophysical reality than standard models, and yet is mathematically much more tractable. We currently achieve compression ratios of the order of 120:1 for moving grey-level images, based on a combination of motion detection and compression. The observed signal-to-noise ratio varies from values above 25 to more than 35. The method is computationally fast so that compression and decompression can be carried out in real-time. It uses the adaptive capabilities of a set of neural networks so as to select varying compression ratios in real-time as a function of quality achieved. It also uses a motion detector which will avoid retransmitting portions of the image which have varied little from the previous frame. Further improvements can be achieved by using on-line learning during compression, and by appropriate compensation of nonlinearities in the compression/decompression scheme. We expect to go well beyond the 250:1 compression level for color images with good quality levels.

[Examination of patient dose reduction in cardiovasucular X-ray systems with a metal filter].

PubMed

Yasuda, Mitsuyoshi; Kato, Kyouichi; Tanabe, Nobuaki; Sakiyama, Koushi; Uchiyama, Yushi; Suzuki, Yoshiaki; Suzuki, Hiroshi; Nakazawa, Yasuo

2012-01-01

In interventional X-ray for cardiology of flat panel digital detector (FPD), the phenomenon that exposure dose was suddenly increased when a subject thickness was thickened was recognized. At that time, variable metal built-in filters in FPD were all off. Therefore, we examined whether dose reduction was possible without affecting a clinical image using metal filter (filter) which we have been conventionally using for dose reduction. About 45% dose reduction was achieved when we measured an exposure dose at 30 cm of acrylic thickness in the presence of a filter. In addition, we measured signal to noise ratio/contrast to noise ratio/a resolution limit by the visual evaluation, and there was no influence by filter usage. In the clinical examination, visual evaluation of image quality of coronary angiography (40 cases) using a 5-point evaluation scale by a physician was performed. As a result, filter usage did not influence the image quality (p=NS). Therefore, reduction of sudden increase of exposure dose was achieved without influencing an image quality by adding filter to FPD.

Recognizable or Not: Towards Image Semantic Quality Assessment for Compression

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Dong; Wang, Dandan; Li, Houqiang

2017-12-01

Traditionally, image compression was optimized for the pixel-wise fidelity or the perceptual quality of the compressed images given a bit-rate budget. But recently, compressed images are more and more utilized for automatic semantic analysis tasks such as recognition and retrieval. For these tasks, we argue that the optimization target of compression is no longer perceptual quality, but the utility of the compressed images in the given automatic semantic analysis task. Accordingly, we propose to evaluate the quality of the compressed images neither at pixel level nor at perceptual level, but at semantic level. In this paper, we make preliminary efforts towards image semantic quality assessment (ISQA), focusing on the task of optical character recognition (OCR) from compressed images. We propose a full-reference ISQA measure by comparing the features extracted from text regions of original and compressed images. We then propose to integrate the ISQA measure into an image compression scheme. Experimental results show that our proposed ISQA measure is much better than PSNR and SSIM in evaluating the semantic quality of compressed images; accordingly, adopting our ISQA measure to optimize compression for OCR leads to significant bit-rate saving compared to using PSNR or SSIM. Moreover, we perform subjective test about text recognition from compressed images, and observe that our ISQA measure has high consistency with subjective recognizability. Our work explores new dimensions in image quality assessment, and demonstrates promising direction to achieve higher compression ratio for specific semantic analysis tasks.

SU-D-206-01: Employing a Novel Consensus Optimization Strategy to Achieve Iterative Cone Beam CT Reconstruction On a Multi-GPU Platform

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Li, B; Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong; Tian, Z

Purpose: While compressed sensing-based cone-beam CT (CBCT) iterative reconstruction techniques have demonstrated tremendous capability of reconstructing high-quality images from undersampled noisy data, its long computation time still hinders wide application in routine clinic. The purpose of this study is to develop a reconstruction framework that employs modern consensus optimization techniques to achieve CBCT reconstruction on a multi-GPU platform for improved computational efficiency. Methods: Total projection data were evenly distributed to multiple GPUs. Each GPU performed reconstruction using its own projection data with a conventional total variation regularization approach to ensure image quality. In addition, the solutions from GPUs were subjectmore » to a consistency constraint that they should be identical. We solved the optimization problem with all the constraints considered rigorously using an alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) algorithm. The reconstruction framework was implemented using OpenCL on a platform with two Nvidia GTX590 GPU cards, each with two GPUs. We studied the performance of our method and demonstrated its advantages through a simulation case with a NCAT phantom and an experimental case with a Catphan phantom. Result: Compared with the CBCT images reconstructed using conventional FDK method with full projection datasets, our proposed method achieved comparable image quality with about one third projection numbers. The computation time on the multi-GPU platform was ∼55 s and ∼ 35 s in the two cases respectively, achieving a speedup factor of ∼ 3.0 compared with single GPU reconstruction. Conclusion: We have developed a consensus ADMM-based CBCT reconstruction method which enabled performing reconstruction on a multi-GPU platform. The achieved efficiency made this method clinically attractive.« less

Superharmonic imaging with chirp coded excitation: filtering spectrally overlapped harmonics.

PubMed

Harput, Sevan; McLaughlan, James; Cowell, David M J; Freear, Steven

2014-11-01

Superharmonic imaging improves the spatial resolution by using the higher order harmonics generated in tissue. The superharmonic component is formed by combining the third, fourth, and fifth harmonics, which have low energy content and therefore poor SNR. This study uses coded excitation to increase the excitation energy. The SNR improvement is achieved on the receiver side by performing pulse compression with harmonic matched filters. The use of coded signals also introduces new filtering capabilities that are not possible with pulsed excitation. This is especially important when using wideband signals. For narrowband signals, the spectral boundaries of the harmonics are clearly separated and thus easy to filter; however, the available imaging bandwidth is underused. Wideband excitation is preferable for harmonic imaging applications to preserve axial resolution, but it generates spectrally overlapping harmonics that are not possible to filter in time and frequency domains. After pulse compression, this overlap increases the range side lobes, which appear as imaging artifacts and reduce the Bmode image quality. In this study, the isolation of higher order harmonics was achieved in another domain by using the fan chirp transform (FChT). To show the effect of excitation bandwidth in superharmonic imaging, measurements were performed by using linear frequency modulated chirp excitation with varying bandwidths of 10% to 50%. Superharmonic imaging was performed on a wire phantom using a wideband chirp excitation. Results were presented with and without applying the FChT filtering technique by comparing the spatial resolution and side lobe levels. Wideband excitation signals achieved a better resolution as expected, however range side lobes as high as -23 dB were observed for the superharmonic component of chirp excitation with 50% fractional bandwidth. The proposed filtering technique achieved >50 dB range side lobe suppression and improved the image quality without affecting the axial resolution.

[Research and realization of signal processing algorithms based on FPGA in digital ophthalmic ultrasonography imaging].

PubMed

Fang, Simin; Zhou, Sheng; Wang, Xiaochun; Ye, Qingsheng; Tian, Ling; Ji, Jianjun; Wang, Yanqun

2015-01-01

To design and improve signal processing algorithms of ophthalmic ultrasonography based on FPGA. Achieved three signal processing modules: full parallel distributed dynamic filter, digital quadrature demodulation, logarithmic compression, using Verilog HDL hardware language in Quartus II. Compared to the original system, the hardware cost is reduced, the whole image shows clearer and more information of the deep eyeball contained in the image, the depth of detection increases from 5 cm to 6 cm. The new algorithms meet the design requirements and achieve the system's optimization that they can effectively improve the image quality of existing equipment.

A method of object recognition for single pixel imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Boxuan; Zhang, Wenwen

2018-01-01

Computational ghost imaging(CGI), utilizing a single-pixel detector, has been extensively used in many fields. However, in order to achieve a high-quality reconstructed image, a large number of iterations are needed, which limits the flexibility of using CGI in practical situations, especially in the field of object recognition. In this paper, we purpose a method utilizing the feature matching to identify the number objects. In the given system, approximately 90% of accuracy of recognition rates can be achieved, which provides a new idea for the application of single pixel imaging in the field of object recognition

Method for inserting noise in digital mammography to simulate reduction in radiation dose

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borges, Lucas R.; de Oliveira, Helder C. R.; Nunes, Polyana F.; Vieira, Marcelo A. C.

2015-03-01

The quality of clinical x-ray images is closely related to the radiation dose used in the imaging study. The general principle for selecting the radiation is ALARA ("as low as reasonably achievable"). The practical optimization, however, remains challenging. It is well known that reducing the radiation dose increases the quantum noise, which could compromise the image quality. In order to conduct studies about dose reduction in mammography, it would be necessary to acquire repeated clinical images, from the same patient, with different dose levels. However, such practice would be unethical due to radiation related risks. One solution is to simulate the effects of dose reduction in clinical images. This work proposes a new method, based on the Anscombe transformation, which simulates dose reduction in digital mammography by inserting quantum noise into clinical mammograms acquired with the standard radiation dose. Thus, it is possible to simulate different levels of radiation doses without exposing the patient to new levels of radiation. Results showed that the achieved quality of simulated images generated with our method is the same as when using other methods found in the literature, with the novelty of using the Anscombe transformation for converting signal-independent Gaussian noise into signal-dependent quantum noise.

Lessions learned in WISE image quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kendall, Martha; Duval, Valerie G.; Larsen, Mark F.; Heinrichsen, Ingolf H.; Esplin, Roy W.; Shannon, Mark; Wright, Edward L.

2010-08-01

The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission launched in December of 2009 is a true success story. The mission is performing beyond expectations on-orbit and maintained cost and schedule throughout. How does such a thing happen? A team constantly focused on mission success is a key factor. Mission success is more than a program meeting its ultimate science goals; it is also meeting schedule and cost goals to avoid cancellation. The WISE program can attribute some of its success in achieving the image quality needed to meet science goals to lessons learned along the way. A requirement was missed in early decomposition, the absence of which would have adversely affected end-to-end system image quality. Fortunately, the ability of the cross-organizational team to focus on fixing the problem without pointing fingers or waiting for paperwork was crucial in achieving a timely solution. Asking layman questions early in the program could have revealed requirement flowdown misunderstandings between spacecraft control stability and image processing needs. Such is the lesson learned with the WISE spacecraft Attitude Determination & Control Subsystem (ADCS) jitter control and the image data reductions needs. Spacecraft motion can affect image quality in numerous ways. Something as seemingly benign as different terminology being used by teammates in separate groups working on data reduction, spacecraft ADCS, the instrument, mission operations, and the science proved to be a risk to system image quality. While the spacecraft was meeting the allocated jitter requirement , the drift rate variation need was not being met. This missing need was noticed about a year before launch and with a dedicated team effort, an adjustment was made to the spacecraft ADCS control. WISE is meeting all image quality requirements on-orbit thanks to a diligent team noticing something was missing before it was too late and applying their best effort to find a solution.

Noise removal in extended depth of field microscope images through nonlinear signal processing.

PubMed

Zahreddine, Ramzi N; Cormack, Robert H; Cogswell, Carol J

2013-04-01

Extended depth of field (EDF) microscopy, achieved through computational optics, allows for real-time 3D imaging of live cell dynamics. EDF is achieved through a combination of point spread function engineering and digital image processing. A linear Wiener filter has been conventionally used to deconvolve the image, but it suffers from high frequency noise amplification and processing artifacts. A nonlinear processing scheme is proposed which extends the depth of field while minimizing background noise. The nonlinear filter is generated via a training algorithm and an iterative optimizer. Biological microscope images processed with the nonlinear filter show a significant improvement in image quality and signal-to-noise ratio over the conventional linear filter.

A denoising algorithm for CT image using low-rank sparse coding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lei, Yang; Xu, Dong; Zhou, Zhengyang; Wang, Tonghe; Dong, Xue; Liu, Tian; Dhabaan, Anees; Curran, Walter J.; Yang, Xiaofeng

2018-03-01

We propose a denoising method of CT image based on low-rank sparse coding. The proposed method constructs an adaptive dictionary of image patches and estimates the sparse coding regularization parameters using the Bayesian interpretation. A low-rank approximation approach is used to simultaneously construct the dictionary and achieve sparse representation through clustering similar image patches. A variable-splitting scheme and a quadratic optimization are used to reconstruct CT image based on achieved sparse coefficients. We tested this denoising technology using phantom, brain and abdominal CT images. The experimental results showed that the proposed method delivers state-of-art denoising performance, both in terms of objective criteria and visual quality.

Automatic motion correction of clinical shoulder MR images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manduca, Armando; McGee, Kiaran P.; Welch, Edward B.; Felmlee, Joel P.; Ehman, Richard L.

1999-05-01

A technique for the automatic correction of motion artifacts in MR images was developed. The algorithm uses only the raw (complex) data from the MR scanner, and requires no knowledge of the patient motion during the acquisition. It operates by searching over the space of possible patient motions and determining the motion which, when used to correct the image, optimizes the image quality. The performance of this algorithm was tested in coronal images of the rotator cuff in a series of 144 patients. A four observer comparison of the autocorrelated images with the uncorrected images demonstrated that motion artifacts were significantly reduced in 48% of the cases. The improvements in image quality were similar to those achieved with a previously reported navigator echo-based adaptive motion correction. The results demonstrate that autocorrelation is a practical technique for retrospectively reducing motion artifacts in a demanding clinical MRI application. It achieves performance comparable to a navigator based correction technique, which is significant because autocorrection does not require an imaging sequence that has been modified to explicitly track motion during acquisition. The approach is flexible and should be readily extensible to other types of MR acquisitions that are corrupted by global motion.

Computer-aided diagnosis based on enhancement of degraded fundus photographs.

PubMed

Jin, Kai; Zhou, Mei; Wang, Shaoze; Lou, Lixia; Xu, Yufeng; Ye, Juan; Qian, Dahong

2018-05-01

Retinal imaging is an important and effective tool for detecting retinal diseases. However, degraded images caused by the aberrations of the eye can disguise lesions, so that a diseased eye can be mistakenly diagnosed as normal. In this work, we propose a new image enhancement method to improve the quality of degraded images. A new method is used to enhance degraded-quality fundus images. In this method, the image is converted from the input RGB colour space to LAB colour space and then each normalized component is enhanced using contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization. Human visual system (HVS)-based fundus image quality assessment, combined with diagnosis by experts, is used to evaluate the enhancement. The study included 191 degraded-quality fundus photographs of 143 subjects with optic media opacity. Objective quality assessment of image enhancement (range: 0-1) indicated that our method improved colour retinal image quality from an average of 0.0773 (variance 0.0801) to an average of 0.3973 (variance 0.0756). Following enhancement, area under curves (AUC) were 0.996 for the glaucoma classifier, 0.989 for the diabetic retinopathy (DR) classifier, 0.975 for the age-related macular degeneration (AMD) classifier and 0.979 for the other retinal diseases classifier. The relatively simple method for enhancing degraded-quality fundus images achieves superior image enhancement, as demonstrated in a qualitative HVS-based image quality assessment. This retinal image enhancement may, therefore, be employed to assist ophthalmologists in more efficient screening of retinal diseases and the development of computer-aided diagnosis. © 2017 Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica Foundation. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

TU-EF-204-02: Hiigh Quality and Sub-MSv Cerebral CT Perfusion Imaging

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Li, Ke; Niu, Kai; Wu, Yijing

2015-06-15

Purpose: CT Perfusion (CTP) imaging is of great importance in acute ischemic stroke management due to its potential to detect hypoperfused yet salvageable tissue and distinguish it from definitely unsalvageable tissue. However, current CTP imaging suffers from poor image quality and high radiation dose (up to 5 mSv). The purpose of this work was to demonstrate that technical innovations such as Prior Image Constrained Compressed Sensing (PICCS) have the potential to address these challenges and achieve high quality and sub-mSv CTP imaging. Methods: (1) A spatial-temporal 4D cascaded system model was developed to indentify the bottlenecks in the current CTPmore » technology; (2) A task-based framework was developed to optimize the CTP system parameters; (3) Guided by (1) and (2), PICCS was customized for the reconstruction of CTP source images. Digital anthropomorphic perfusion phantoms, animal studies, and preliminary human subject studies were used to validate and evaluate the potentials of using these innovations to advance the CTP technology. Results: The 4D cascaded model was validated in both phantom and canine stroke models. Based upon this cascaded model, it has been discovered that, as long as the spatial resolution and noise properties of the 4D source CT images are given, the 3D MTF and NPS of the final CTP maps can be analytically derived for a given set of processing methods and parameters. The cascaded model analysis also identified that the most critical technical factor in CTP is how to acquire and reconstruct high quality source images; it has very little to do with the denoising techniques often used after parametric perfusion calculations. This explained why PICCS resulted in a five-fold dose reduction or substantial improvement in image quality. Conclusion: Technical innovations generated promising results towards achieving high quality and sub-mSv CTP imaging for reliable and safe assessment of acute ischemic strokes. K. Li, K. Niu, Y. Wu: Nothing to disclose. G.-H. Chen: Research funded, GE Healthcare; Research funded, Siemens AX.« less

Semantic focusing allows fully automated single-layer slide scanning of cervical cytology slides.

PubMed

Lahrmann, Bernd; Valous, Nektarios A; Eisenmann, Urs; Wentzensen, Nicolas; Grabe, Niels

2013-01-01

Liquid-based cytology (LBC) in conjunction with Whole-Slide Imaging (WSI) enables the objective and sensitive and quantitative evaluation of biomarkers in cytology. However, the complex three-dimensional distribution of cells on LBC slides requires manual focusing, long scanning-times, and multi-layer scanning. Here, we present a solution that overcomes these limitations in two steps: first, we make sure that focus points are only set on cells. Secondly, we check the total slide focus quality. From a first analysis we detected that superficial dust can be separated from the cell layer (thin layer of cells on the glass slide) itself. Then we analyzed 2,295 individual focus points from 51 LBC slides stained for p16 and Ki67. Using the number of edges in a focus point image, specific color values and size-inclusion filters, focus points detecting cells could be distinguished from focus points on artifacts (accuracy 98.6%). Sharpness as total focus quality of a virtual LBC slide is computed from 5 sharpness features. We trained a multi-parameter SVM classifier on 1,600 images. On an independent validation set of 3,232 cell images we achieved an accuracy of 94.8% for classifying images as focused. Our results show that single-layer scanning of LBC slides is possible and how it can be achieved. We assembled focus point analysis and sharpness classification into a fully automatic, iterative workflow, free of user intervention, which performs repetitive slide scanning as necessary. On 400 LBC slides we achieved a scanning-time of 13.9±10.1 min with 29.1±15.5 focus points. In summary, the integration of semantic focus information into whole-slide imaging allows automatic high-quality imaging of LBC slides and subsequent biomarker analysis.

dipIQ: Blind Image Quality Assessment by Learning-to-Rank Discriminable Image Pairs.

PubMed

Ma, Kede; Liu, Wentao; Liu, Tongliang; Wang, Zhou; Tao, Dacheng

2017-05-26

Objective assessment of image quality is fundamentally important in many image processing tasks. In this work, we focus on learning blind image quality assessment (BIQA) models which predict the quality of a digital image with no access to its original pristine-quality counterpart as reference. One of the biggest challenges in learning BIQA models is the conflict between the gigantic image space (which is in the dimension of the number of image pixels) and the extremely limited reliable ground truth data for training. Such data are typically collected via subjective testing, which is cumbersome, slow, and expensive. Here we first show that a vast amount of reliable training data in the form of quality-discriminable image pairs (DIP) can be obtained automatically at low cost by exploiting largescale databases with diverse image content. We then learn an opinion-unaware BIQA (OU-BIQA, meaning that no subjective opinions are used for training) model using RankNet, a pairwise learning-to-rank (L2R) algorithm, from millions of DIPs, each associated with a perceptual uncertainty level, leading to a DIP inferred quality (dipIQ) index. Extensive experiments on four benchmark IQA databases demonstrate that dipIQ outperforms state-of-the-art OU-BIQA models. The robustness of dipIQ is also significantly improved as confirmed by the group MAximum Differentiation (gMAD) competition method. Furthermore, we extend the proposed framework by learning models with ListNet (a listwise L2R algorithm) on quality-discriminable image lists (DIL). The resulting DIL Inferred Quality (dilIQ) index achieves an additional performance gain.

An Automated Blur Detection Method for Histological Whole Slide Imaging

PubMed Central

Moles Lopez, Xavier; D'Andrea, Etienne; Barbot, Paul; Bridoux, Anne-Sophie; Rorive, Sandrine; Salmon, Isabelle; Debeir, Olivier; Decaestecker, Christine

2013-01-01

Whole slide scanners are novel devices that enable high-resolution imaging of an entire histological slide. Furthermore, the imaging is achieved in only a few minutes, which enables image rendering of large-scale studies involving multiple immunohistochemistry biomarkers. Although whole slide imaging has improved considerably, locally poor focusing causes blurred regions of the image. These artifacts may strongly affect the quality of subsequent analyses, making a slide review process mandatory. This tedious and time-consuming task requires the scanner operator to carefully assess the virtual slide and to manually select new focus points. We propose a statistical learning method that provides early image quality feedback and automatically identifies regions of the image that require additional focus points. PMID:24349343

Experimental single-chip color HDTV image acquisition system with 8M-pixel CMOS image sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shimamoto, Hiroshi; Yamashita, Takayuki; Funatsu, Ryohei; Mitani, Kohji; Nojiri, Yuji

2006-02-01

We have developed an experimental single-chip color HDTV image acquisition system using 8M-pixel CMOS image sensor. The sensor has 3840 × 2160 effective pixels and is progressively scanned at 60 frames per second. We describe the color filter array and interpolation method to improve image quality with a high-pixel-count single-chip sensor. We also describe an experimental image acquisition system we used to measured spatial frequency characteristics in the horizontal direction. The results indicate good prospects for achieving a high quality single chip HDTV camera that reduces pseudo signals and maintains high spatial frequency characteristics within the frequency band for HDTV.

Filter methods to preserve local contrast and to avoid artifacts in gamut mapping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meili, Marcel; Küpper, Dennis; Barańczuk, Zofia; Caluori, Ursina; Simon, Klaus

2010-01-01

Contrary to high dynamic range imaging, the preservation of details and the avoidance of artifacts is not explicitly considered in popular color management systems. An effective way to overcome these difficulties is image filtering. In this paper we investigate several image filter concepts for detail preservation as part of a practical gamut mapping strategy. In particular we define four concepts including various image filters and check their performance with a psycho-visual test. Additionally, we compare our performance evaluation to two image quality measures with emphasis on local contrast. Surprisingly, the most simple filter concept performs highly efficient and achieves an image quality which is comparable to the more established but slower methods.

Paediatric cerebrovascular CT angiography-towards better image quality.

PubMed

Thust, Stefanie C; Chong, Wui Khean Kling; Gunny, Roxana; Mazumder, Asif; Poitelea, Marius; Welsh, Anna; Ederies, Ash; Mankad, Kshitij

2014-12-01

Paediatric cerebrovascular CT angiography (CTA) can be challenging to perform due to variable cardiovascular physiology between different age groups and the risk of movement artefact. This analysis aimed to determine what proportion of CTA at our institution was of diagnostic quality and identify technical factors which could be improved. a retrospective analysis of 20 cases was performed at a national paediatric neurovascular centre assessing image quality with a subjective scoring system and Hounsfield Unit (HU) measurements. Demographic data, contrast dose, flow rate and triggering times were recorded for each patient. Using a qualitative scoring system, 75% of studies were found to be of diagnostic quality (n=9 'good', n=6 'satisfactory') and 25% (n=5) were 'poor'. Those judged subjectively to be poor had arterial contrast density measured at less than 250 HU. Increased arterial opacification was achieved for cases performed with an increased flow rate (2.5-4 mL/s) and higher intravenous contrast dose (2 mL/kg). Triggering was found to be well timed in nine cases, early in four cases and late in seven cases. Of the scans triggered early, 75% were poor. Of the scans triggered late, less (29%) were poor. High flow rates (>2.5 mL/s) were a key factor for achieving high quality paediatric cerebrovascular CTA imaging. However, appropriate triggering by starting the scan immediately on contrast opacification of the monitoring vessel plays an important role and could maintain image quality when flow rates were lower. Early triggering appeared more detrimental than late.

Restoration of low-dose digital breast tomosynthesis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borges, Lucas R.; Azzari, Lucio; Bakic, Predrag R.; Maidment, Andrew D. A.; Vieira, Marcelo A. C.; Foi, Alessandro

2018-06-01

In breast cancer screening, the radiation dose must be kept to the minimum necessary to achieve the desired diagnostic objective, thus minimizing risks associated with cancer induction. However, decreasing the radiation dose also degrades the image quality. In this work we restore digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) projections acquired at low radiation doses with the goal of achieving a quality comparable to that obtained from current standard full-dose imaging protocols. A multiframe denoising algorithm was applied to low-dose projections, which are filtered jointly. Furthermore, a weighted average was used to inject a varying portion of the noisy signal back into the denoised one, in order to attain a signal-to-noise ratio comparable to that of standard full-dose projections. The entire restoration framework leverages a signal-dependent noise model with quantum gain which varies both upon the projection angle and on the pixel position. A clinical DBT system and a 3D anthropomorphic breast phantom were used to validate the proposed method, both on DBT projections and slices from the 3D reconstructed volume. The framework is shown to attain the standard full-dose image quality from data acquired at 50% lower radiation dose, whereas progressive loss of relevant details compromises the image quality if the dosage is further decreased.

Paediatric x-ray radiation dose reduction and image quality analysis.

PubMed

Martin, L; Ruddlesden, R; Makepeace, C; Robinson, L; Mistry, T; Starritt, H

2013-09-01

Collaboration of multiple staff groups has resulted in significant reduction in the risk of radiation-induced cancer from radiographic x-ray exposure during childhood. In this study at an acute NHS hospital trust, a preliminary audit identified initial exposure factors. These were compared with European and UK guidance, leading to the introduction of new factors that were in compliance with European guidance on x-ray tube potentials. Image quality was assessed using standard anatomical criteria scoring, and visual grading characteristics analysis assessed the impact on image quality of changes in exposure factors. This analysis determined the acceptability of gradual radiation dose reduction below the European and UK guidance levels. Chest and pelvis exposures were optimised, achieving dose reduction for each age group, with 7%-55% decrease in critical organ dose. Clinicians confirmed diagnostic image quality throughout the iterative process. Analysis of images acquired with preliminary and final exposure factors indicated an average visual grading analysis result of 0.5, demonstrating equivalent image quality. The optimisation process and final radiation doses are reported for Carestream computed radiography to aid other hospitals in minimising radiation risks to children.

Simulation Study of Effects of the Blind Deconvolution on Ultrasound Image

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Xingwu; You, Junchen

2018-03-01

Ultrasonic image restoration is an essential subject in Medical Ultrasound Imaging. However, without enough and precise system knowledge, some traditional image restoration methods based on the system prior knowledge often fail to improve the image quality. In this paper, we use the simulated ultrasound image to find the effectiveness of the blind deconvolution method for ultrasound image restoration. Experimental results demonstrate that the blind deconvolution method can be applied to the ultrasound image restoration and achieve the satisfactory restoration results without the precise prior knowledge, compared with the traditional image restoration method. And with the inaccurate small initial PSF, the results shows blind deconvolution could improve the overall image quality of ultrasound images, like much better SNR and image resolution, and also show the time consumption of these methods. it has no significant increasing on GPU platform.

PLÉIADES Project: Assessment of Georeferencing Accuracy, Image Quality, Pansharpening Performence and Dsm/dtm Quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Topan, Hüseyin; Cam, Ali; Özendi, Mustafa; Oruç, Murat; Jacobsen, Karsten; Taşkanat, Talha

2016-06-01

Pléiades 1A and 1B are twin optical satellites of Optical and Radar Federated Earth Observation (ORFEO) program jointly running by France and Italy. They are the first satellites of Europe with sub-meter resolution. Airbus DS (formerly Astrium Geo) runs a MyGIC (formerly Pléiades Users Group) program to validate Pléiades images worldwide for various application purposes. The authors conduct three projects, one is within this program, the second is supported by BEU Scientific Research Project Program, and the third is supported by TÜBİTAK. Assessment of georeferencing accuracy, image quality, pansharpening performance and Digital Surface Model/Digital Terrain Model (DSM/DTM) quality subjects are investigated in these projects. For these purposes, triplet panchromatic (50 cm Ground Sampling Distance (GSD)) and VNIR (2 m GSD) Pléiades 1A images were investigated over Zonguldak test site (Turkey) which is urbanised, mountainous and covered by dense forest. The georeferencing accuracy was estimated with a standard deviation in X and Y (SX, SY) in the range of 0.45m by bias corrected Rational Polynomial Coefficient (RPC) orientation, using ~170 Ground Control Points (GCPs). 3D standard deviation of ±0.44m in X, ±0.51m in Y, and ±1.82m in Z directions have been reached in spite of the very narrow angle of convergence by bias corrected RPC orientation. The image quality was also investigated with respect to effective resolution, Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) and blur coefficient. The effective resolution was estimated with factor slightly below 1.0, meaning that the image quality corresponds to the nominal resolution of 50cm. The blur coefficients were achieved between 0.39-0.46 for triplet panchromatic images, indicating a satisfying image quality. SNR is in the range of other comparable space borne images which may be caused by de-noising of Pléiades images. The pansharpened images were generated by various methods, and are validated by most common statistical metrics and also visual interpretation. The generated DSM and DTM were achieved with ±1.6m standard deviation in Z (SZ) in relation to a reference DTM.

[The future of bedside chest radiography: Comparative study of mobile flat-panels and needle-image plate storage phosphor systems].

PubMed

Bremicker, K; Gosch, D; Kahn, T; Borte, G

2015-11-01

Chest radiography is the most common diagnostic modality in intensive care units with new mobile flat-panels gaining more attention and availability in addition to the already used storage phosphor plates. Comparison of the image quality of mobile flat-panels and needle-image plate storage phosphor system in terms of bedside chest radiography. Retrospective analysis of 84 bedside chest radiographs of 42 intensive care patients (20 women, 22 men, average age: 65 years). All images were acquired during daily routine. For each patient, two images were analyzed, one from each system mentioned above. Two blinded radiologists evaluated the image quality based on ten criteria (e.g., diaphragm, heart contour, tracheal bifurcation, thoracic spine, lung structure, consolidations, foreign material, and overall impression) using a 5-point visibility scale (1 = excellent, 5 = not usable). There was no significant difference between the image quality of the two systems (p < 0.05). Overall some anatomical structures such as the diaphragm, heart, pulmonary consolidations and foreign material were considered of higher diagnostic quality compared to others, e.g., tracheal bifurcation and thoracic spine. Mobile flat-panels achieve an image quality which is as good as those of needle-image plate storage phosphor systems. In addition, they allow immediate evaluation of the image quality but in return are much more expensive in terms of purchase and maintenance.

Topological charge number multiplexing for JTC multiple-image encryption

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Qi; Shen, Xueju; Dou, Shuaifeng; Lin, Chao; Wang, Long

2018-04-01

We propose a method of topological charge number multiplexing based on the JTC encryption system to achieve multiple-image encryption. Using this method, multi-image can be encrypted into single ciphertext, and the original images can be recovered according to the authority level. The number of encrypted images is increased, moreover, the quality of decrypted images is improved. Results of computer simulation and initial experiment identify the validity of our proposed method.

"3D fusion" echocardiography improves 3D left ventricular assessment: comparison with 2D contrast echocardiography.

PubMed

Augustine, Daniel; Yaqub, Mohammad; Szmigielski, Cezary; Lima, Eduardo; Petersen, Steffen E; Becher, Harald; Noble, J Alison; Leeson, Paul

2015-02-01

Three-dimensional fusion echocardiography (3DFE) is a novel postprocessing approach that utilizes imaging data acquired from multiple 3D acquisitions. We assessed image quality, endocardial border definition, and cardiac wall motion in patients using 3DFE compared to standard 3D images (3D) and results obtained with contrast echocardiography (2DC). Twenty-four patients (mean age 66.9 ± 13 years, 17 males, 7 females) undergoing 2DC had three, noncontrast, 3D apical volumes acquired at rest. Images were fused using an automated image fusion approach. Quality of the 3DFE was compared to both 3D and 2DC based on contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and endocardial border definition. We then compared clinical wall-motion score index (WMSI) calculated from 3DFE and 3D to those obtained from 2DC images. Fused 3D volumes had significantly improved CNR (8.92 ± 1.35 vs. 6.59 ± 1.19, P < 0.0005) and segmental image quality (2.42 ± 0.99 vs. 1.93 ± 1.18, P < 0.005) compared to unfused 3D acquisitions. Levels achieved were closer to scores for 2D contrast images (CNR: 9.04 ± 2.21, P = 0.6; segmental image quality: 2.91 ± 0.37, P < 0.005). WMSI calculated from fused 3D volumes did not differ significantly from those obtained from 2D contrast echocardiography (1.06 ± 0.09 vs. 1.07 ± 0.15, P = 0.69), whereas unfused images produced significantly more variable results (1.19 ± 0.30). This was confirmed by a better intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC 0.72; 95% CI 0.32-0.88) relative to comparisons with unfused images (ICC 0.56; 95% CI 0.02-0.81). 3DFE significantly improves left ventricular image quality compared to unfused 3D in a patient population and allows noncontrast assessment of wall motion that approaches that achieved with 2D contrast echocardiography. © 2014, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Aspheric glass lens modeling and machining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, R. Barry; Mandina, Michael

2005-08-01

The incorporation of aspheric lenses in complex lens system can provide significant image quality improvement, reduction of the number of lens elements, smaller size, and lower weight. Recently, it has become practical to manufacture aspheric glass lenses using diamond-grinding methods. The evolution of the manufacturing technology is discussed for a specific aspheric glass lens. When a prototype all-glass lens system (80 mm efl, F/2.5) was fabricated and tested, it was observed that the image quality was significantly less than was predicted by the optical design software. The cause of the degradation was identified as the large aspheric element in the lens. Identification was possible by precision mapping of the spatial coordinates of the lens surface and then transforming this data into an appropriate optical surface defined by derived grid sag data. The resulting optical analysis yielded a modeled image consistent with that observed when testing the prototype lens system in the laboratory. This insight into a localized slope-error problem allowed improvements in the fabrication process to be implemented. The second fabrication attempt, the resulting aspheric lens provided remarkable improvement in the observed image quality, although still falling somewhat short of the desired image quality goal. In parallel with the fabrication enhancement effort, optical modeling of the surface was undertaken to determine how much surface error and error types were allowable to achieve the desired image quality goal. With this knowledge, final improvements were made to the fabrication process. The third prototype lens achieved the goal of optical performance. Rapid development of the aspheric glass lens was made possible by the interactive relationship between the optical designer, diamond-grinding personnel, and the metrology personnel. With rare exceptions, the subsequent production lenses were optical acceptable and afforded reasonable manufacturing costs.

The image enhancement and region of interest extraction of lobster-eye X-ray dangerous material inspection system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhan, Qi; Wang, Xin; Mu, Baozhong; Xu, Jie; Xie, Qing; Li, Yaran; Chen, Yifan; He, Yanan

2016-10-01

Dangerous materials inspection is an important technique to confirm dangerous materials crimes. It has significant impact on the prohibition of dangerous materials-related crimes and the spread of dangerous materials. Lobster-Eye Optical Imaging System is a kind of dangerous materials detection device which mainly takes advantage of backscatter X-ray. The strength of the system is its applicability to access only one side of an object, and to detect dangerous materials without disturbing the surroundings of the target material. The device uses Compton scattered x-rays to create computerized outlines of suspected objects during security detection process. Due to the grid structure of the bionic object glass, which imitate the eye of a lobster, grids contribute to the main image noise during the imaging process. At the same time, when used to inspect structured or dense materials, the image is plagued by superposition artifacts and limited by attenuation and noise. With the goal of achieving high quality images which could be used for dangerous materials detection and further analysis, we developed effective image process methods applied to the system. The first aspect of the image process is the denoising and enhancing edge contrast process, during the process, we apply deconvolution algorithm to remove the grids and other noises. After image processing, we achieve high signal-to-noise ratio image. The second part is to reconstruct image from low dose X-ray exposure condition. We developed a kind of interpolation method to achieve the goal. The last aspect is the region of interest (ROI) extraction process, which could be used to help identifying dangerous materials mixed with complex backgrounds. The methods demonstrated in the paper have the potential to improve the sensitivity and quality of x-ray backscatter system imaging.

Sensorless adaptive optics for isoSTED nanoscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Antonello, Jacopo; Hao, Xiang; Allgeyer, Edward S.; Bewersdorf, Joerg; Rittscher, Jens; Booth, Martin J.

2018-02-01

The presence of aberrations is a major concern when using fluorescence microscopy to image deep inside tissue. Aberrations due to refractive index mismatch and heterogeneity of the specimen under investigation cause severe reduction in the amount of fluorescence emission that is collected by the microscope. Furthermore, aberrations adversely affect the resolution, leading to loss of fine detail in the acquired images. These phenomena are particularly troublesome for super-resolution microscopy techniques such as isotropic stimulated-emission-depletion microscopy (isoSTED), which relies on accurate control of the shape and co-alignment of multiple excitation and depletion foci to operate as expected and to achieve the super-resolution effect. Aberrations can be suppressed by implementing sensorless adaptive optics techniques, whereby aberration correction is achieved by maximising a certain image quality metric. In confocal microscopy for example, one can employ the total image brightness as an image quality metric. Aberration correction is subsequently achieved by iteratively changing the settings of a wavefront corrector device until the metric is maximised. This simplistic approach has limited applicability to isoSTED microscopy where, due to the complex interplay between the excitation and depletion foci, maximising the total image brightness can lead to introducing aberrations in the depletion foci. In this work we first consider the effects that different aberration modes have on isoSTED microscopes. We then propose an iterative, wavelet-based aberration correction algorithm and evaluate its benefits.

Free-breathing echo-planar imaging based diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging of the liver with prospective acquisition correction.

PubMed

Asbach, Patrick; Hein, Patrick A; Stemmer, Alto; Wagner, Moritz; Huppertz, Alexander; Hamm, Bernd; Taupitz, Matthias; Klessen, Christian

2008-01-01

To evaluate soft tissue contrast and image quality of a respiratory-triggered echo-planar imaging based diffusion-weighted sequence (EPI-DWI) with different b values for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the liver. Forty patients were examined. Quantitative and qualitative evaluation of contrast was performed. Severity of artifacts and overall image quality in comparison with a T2w turbo spin-echo (T2-TSE) sequence were scored. The liver-spleen contrast was significantly higher (P < 0.05) for the EPI-DWI compared with the T2-TSE sequence (0.47 +/- 0.11 (b50); 0.48 +/- 0.13 (b300); 0.47 +/- 0.13 (b600) vs 0.38 +/- 0.11). Liver-lesion contrast strongly depends on the b value of the DWI sequence and decreased with higher b values (b50, 0.47 +/- 0.19; b300, 0.40 +/- 0.20; b600, 0.28 +/- 0.23). Severity of artifacts and overall image quality were comparable to the T2-TSE sequence when using a low b value (P > 0.05), artifacts increased and image quality decreased with higher b values (P < 0.05). Respiratory-triggered EPI-DWI of the liver is feasible because good image quality and favorable soft tissue contrast can be achieved.

Color Retinal Image Enhancement Based on Luminosity and Contrast Adjustment.

PubMed

Zhou, Mei; Jin, Kai; Wang, Shaoze; Ye, Juan; Qian, Dahong

2018-03-01

Many common eye diseases and cardiovascular diseases can be diagnosed through retinal imaging. However, due to uneven illumination, image blurring, and low contrast, retinal images with poor quality are not useful for diagnosis, especially in automated image analyzing systems. Here, we propose a new image enhancement method to improve color retinal image luminosity and contrast. A luminance gain matrix, which is obtained by gamma correction of the value channel in the HSV (hue, saturation, and value) color space, is used to enhance the R, G, and B (red, green and blue) channels, respectively. Contrast is then enhanced in the luminosity channel of L * a * b * color space by CLAHE (contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization). Image enhancement by the proposed method is compared to other methods by evaluating quality scores of the enhanced images. The performance of the method is mainly validated on a dataset of 961 poor-quality retinal images. Quality assessment (range 0-1) of image enhancement of this poor dataset indicated that our method improved color retinal image quality from an average of 0.0404 (standard deviation 0.0291) up to an average of 0.4565 (standard deviation 0.1000). The proposed method is shown to achieve superior image enhancement compared to contrast enhancement in other color spaces or by other related methods, while simultaneously preserving image naturalness. This method of color retinal image enhancement may be employed to assist ophthalmologists in more efficient screening of retinal diseases and in development of improved automated image analysis for clinical diagnosis.

Combining Image and Non-Image Data for Automatic Detection of Retina Disease in a Telemedicine Network

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Aykac, Deniz; Chaum, Edward; Fox, Karen

A telemedicine network with retina cameras and automated quality control, physiological feature location, and lesion/anomaly detection is a low-cost way of achieving broad-based screening for diabetic retinopathy (DR) and other eye diseases. In the process of a routine eye-screening examination, other non-image data is often available which may be useful in automated diagnosis of disease. In this work, we report on the results of combining this non-image data with image data, using the protocol and processing steps of a prototype system for automated disease diagnosis of retina examinations from a telemedicine network. The system includes quality assessments, automated physiology detection,more » and automated lesion detection to create an archive of known cases. Non-image data such as diabetes onset date and hemoglobin A1c (HgA1c) for each patient examination are included as well, and the system is used to create a content-based image retrieval engine capable of automated diagnosis of disease into 'normal' and 'abnormal' categories. The system achieves a sensitivity and specificity of 91.2% and 71.6% using hold-one-out validation testing.« less

Steganographic embedding in containers-images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nikishova, A. V.; Omelchenko, T. A.; Makedonskij, S. A.

2018-05-01

Steganography is one of the approaches to ensuring the protection of information transmitted over the network. But a steganographic method should vary depending on a used container. According to statistics, the most widely used containers are images and the most common image format is JPEG. Authors propose a method of data embedding into a frequency area of images in format JPEG 2000. It is proposed to use the method of Benham-Memon- Yeo-Yeung, in which instead of discrete cosine transform, discrete wavelet transform is used. Two requirements for images are formulated. Structure similarity is chosen to obtain quality assessment of data embedding. Experiments confirm that requirements satisfaction allows achieving high quality assessment of data embedding.

A digital gigapixel large-format tile-scan camera.

PubMed

Ben-Ezra, M

2011-01-01

Although the resolution of single-lens reflex (SLR) and medium-format digital cameras has increased in recent years, applications for cultural-heritage preservation and computational photography require even higher resolutions. Addressing this issue, a large-format cameras' large image planes can achieve very high resolution without compromising pixel size and thus can provide high-quality, high-resolution images.This digital large-format tile scan camera can acquire high-quality, high-resolution images of static scenes. It employs unique calibration techniques and a simple algorithm for focal-stack processing of very large images with significant magnification variations. The camera automatically collects overlapping focal stacks and processes them into a high-resolution, extended-depth-of-field image.

Obtaining high resolution XUV coronal images

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Golub, L.; Spiller, E.

1992-01-01

Photographs obtained during three flights of an 11 inch diameter normal incident soft X-ray (wavelength 63.5 A) telescope are analyzed and the data are compared to the results expected from tests of the mirror surfaces. Multilayer coated X ray telescopes have the potential for 0.01 arcsec resolution, and there is optimism that such high quality mirrors can be built. Some of the factors which enter into the performance actually achieved in practice are as follows: quality of the mirror substrate, quality of the multilayer coating, and number of photons collected. Measurements of multilayer mirrors show that the actual performance achieved in the solar X-ray images demonstrates a reduction in the scattering compared to that calculated from the topography of the top surface of the multilayer. In the brief duration of a rocket flight, the resolution is also limited by counting statistics from the number of photons collected. At X-ray Ultraviolet (XUV) wavelengths from 171 to 335 A the photon flux should be greater than 10(exp 10) ph/sec, so that a resolution better than 0.1 arcsec might be achieved, if mirror quality does not provide a limit first. In a satellite, a large collecting area will be needed for the highest resolution.

A photon recycling approach to the denoising of ultra-low dose X-ray sequences.

PubMed

Hariharan, Sai Gokul; Strobel, Norbert; Kaethner, Christian; Kowarschik, Markus; Demirci, Stefanie; Albarqouni, Shadi; Fahrig, Rebecca; Navab, Nassir

2018-06-01

Clinical procedures that make use of fluoroscopy may expose patients as well as the clinical staff (throughout their career) to non-negligible doses of radiation. The potential consequences of such exposures fall under two categories, namely stochastic (mostly cancer) and deterministic risks (skin injury). According to the "as low as reasonably achievable" principle, the radiation dose can be lowered only if the necessary image quality can be maintained. Our work improves upon the existing patch-based denoising algorithms by utilizing a more sophisticated noise model to exploit non-local self-similarity better and this in turn improves the performance of low-rank approximation. The novelty of the proposed approach lies in its properly designed and parameterized noise model and the elimination of initial estimates. This reduces the computational cost significantly. The algorithm has been evaluated on 500 clinical images (7 patients, 20 sequences, 3 clinical sites), taken at ultra-low dose levels, i.e. 50% of the standard low dose level, during electrophysiology procedures. An average improvement in the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) by a factor of around 3.5 has been found. This is associated with an image quality achieved at around 12 (square of 3.5) times the ultra-low dose level. Qualitative evaluation by X-ray image quality experts suggests that the method produces denoised images that comply with the required image quality criteria. The results are consistent with the number of patches used, and they demonstrate that it is possible to use motion estimation techniques and "recycle" photons from previous frames to improve the image quality of the current frame. Our results are comparable in terms of CNR to Video Block Matching 3D-a state-of-the-art denoising method. But qualitative analysis by experts confirms that the denoised ultra-low dose X-ray images obtained using our method are more realistic with respect to appearance.

Automatic detection of retina disease: robustness to image quality and localization of anatomy structure.

PubMed

Karnowski, T P; Aykac, D; Giancardo, L; Li, Y; Nichols, T; Tobin, K W; Chaum, E

2011-01-01

The automated detection of diabetic retinopathy and other eye diseases in images of the retina has great promise as a low-cost method for broad-based screening. Many systems in the literature which perform automated detection include a quality estimation step and physiological feature detection, including the vascular tree and the optic nerve / macula location. In this work, we study the robustness of an automated disease detection method with respect to the accuracy of the optic nerve location and the quality of the images obtained as judged by a quality estimation algorithm. The detection algorithm features microaneurysm and exudate detection followed by feature extraction on the detected population to describe the overall retina image. Labeled images of retinas ground-truthed to disease states are used to train a supervised learning algorithm to identify the disease state of the retina image and exam set. Under the restrictions of high confidence optic nerve detections and good quality imagery, the system achieves a sensitivity and specificity of 94.8% and 78.7% with area-under-curve of 95.3%. Analysis of the effect of constraining quality and the distinction between mild non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy, normal retina images, and more severe disease states is included.

No-reference quality assessment based on visual perception

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Junshan; Yang, Yawei; Hu, Shuangyan; Zhang, Jiao

2014-11-01

The visual quality assessment of images/videos is an ongoing hot research topic, which has become more and more important for numerous image and video processing applications with the rapid development of digital imaging and communication technologies. The goal of image quality assessment (IQA) algorithms is to automatically assess the quality of images/videos in agreement with human quality judgments. Up to now, two kinds of models have been used for IQA, namely full-reference (FR) and no-reference (NR) models. For FR models, IQA algorithms interpret image quality as fidelity or similarity with a perfect image in some perceptual space. However, the reference image is not available in many practical applications, and a NR IQA approach is desired. Considering natural vision as optimized by the millions of years of evolutionary pressure, many methods attempt to achieve consistency in quality prediction by modeling salient physiological and psychological features of the human visual system (HVS). To reach this goal, researchers try to simulate HVS with image sparsity coding and supervised machine learning, which are two main features of HVS. A typical HVS captures the scenes by sparsity coding, and uses experienced knowledge to apperceive objects. In this paper, we propose a novel IQA approach based on visual perception. Firstly, a standard model of HVS is studied and analyzed, and the sparse representation of image is accomplished with the model; and then, the mapping correlation between sparse codes and subjective quality scores is trained with the regression technique of least squaresupport vector machine (LS-SVM), which gains the regressor that can predict the image quality; the visual metric of image is predicted with the trained regressor at last. We validate the performance of proposed approach on Laboratory for Image and Video Engineering (LIVE) database, the specific contents of the type of distortions present in the database are: 227 images of JPEG2000, 233 images of JPEG, 174 images of White Noise, 174 images of Gaussian Blur, 174 images of Fast Fading. The database includes subjective differential mean opinion score (DMOS) for each image. The experimental results show that the proposed approach not only can assess many kinds of distorted images quality, but also exhibits a superior accuracy and monotonicity.

A novel 3D Cartesian random sampling strategy for Compressive Sensing Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

PubMed

Valvano, Giuseppe; Martini, Nicola; Santarelli, Maria Filomena; Chiappino, Dante; Landini, Luigi

2015-01-01

In this work we propose a novel acquisition strategy for accelerated 3D Compressive Sensing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (CS-MRI). This strategy is based on a 3D cartesian sampling with random switching of the frequency encoding direction with other K-space directions. Two 3D sampling strategies are presented. In the first strategy, the frequency encoding direction is randomly switched with one of the two phase encoding directions. In the second strategy, the frequency encoding direction is randomly chosen between all the directions of the K-Space. These strategies can lower the coherence of the acquisition, in order to produce reduced aliasing artifacts and to achieve a better image quality after Compressive Sensing (CS) reconstruction. Furthermore, the proposed strategies can reduce the typical smoothing of CS due to the limited sampling of high frequency locations. We demonstrated by means of simulations that the proposed acquisition strategies outperformed the standard Compressive Sensing acquisition. This results in a better quality of the reconstructed images and in a greater achievable acceleration.

Sparsity-based multi-height phase recovery in holographic microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rivenson, Yair; Wu, Yichen; Wang, Hongda; Zhang, Yibo; Feizi, Alborz; Ozcan, Aydogan

2016-11-01

High-resolution imaging of densely connected samples such as pathology slides using digital in-line holographic microscopy requires the acquisition of several holograms, e.g., at >6-8 different sample-to-sensor distances, to achieve robust phase recovery and coherent imaging of specimen. Reducing the number of these holographic measurements would normally result in reconstruction artifacts and loss of image quality, which would be detrimental especially for biomedical and diagnostics-related applications. Inspired by the fact that most natural images are sparse in some domain, here we introduce a sparsity-based phase reconstruction technique implemented in wavelet domain to achieve at least 2-fold reduction in the number of holographic measurements for coherent imaging of densely connected samples with minimal impact on the reconstructed image quality, quantified using a structural similarity index. We demonstrated the success of this approach by imaging Papanicolaou smears and breast cancer tissue slides over a large field-of-view of ~20 mm2 using 2 in-line holograms that are acquired at different sample-to-sensor distances and processed using sparsity-based multi-height phase recovery. This new phase recovery approach that makes use of sparsity can also be extended to other coherent imaging schemes, involving e.g., multiple illumination angles or wavelengths to increase the throughput and speed of coherent imaging.

Quality evaluation of pansharpened hyperspectral images generated using multispectral images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matsuoka, Masayuki; Yoshioka, Hiroki

2012-11-01

Hyperspectral remote sensing can provide a smooth spectral curve of a target by using a set of higher spectral resolution detectors. The spatial resolution of the hyperspectral images, however, is generally much lower than that of multispectral images due to the lower energy of incident radiation. Pansharpening is an image-fusion technique that generates higher spatial resolution multispectral images by combining lower resolution multispectral images with higher resolution panchromatic images. In this study, higher resolution hyperspectral images were generated by pansharpening of simulated lower hyperspectral and higher multispectral data. Spectral and spatial qualities of pansharpened images, then, were accessed in relation to the spectral bands of multispectral images. Airborne hyperspectral data of AVIRIS was used in this study, and it was pansharpened using six methods. Quantitative evaluations of pansharpened image are achieved using two frequently used indices, ERGAS, and the Q index.

Information theoretic methods for image processing algorithm optimization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prokushkin, Sergey F.; Galil, Erez

2015-01-01

Modern image processing pipelines (e.g., those used in digital cameras) are full of advanced, highly adaptive filters that often have a large number of tunable parameters (sometimes > 100). This makes the calibration procedure for these filters very complex, and the optimal results barely achievable in the manual calibration; thus an automated approach is a must. We will discuss an information theory based metric for evaluation of algorithm adaptive characteristics ("adaptivity criterion") using noise reduction algorithms as an example. The method allows finding an "orthogonal decomposition" of the filter parameter space into the "filter adaptivity" and "filter strength" directions. This metric can be used as a cost function in automatic filter optimization. Since it is a measure of a physical "information restoration" rather than perceived image quality, it helps to reduce the set of the filter parameters to a smaller subset that is easier for a human operator to tune and achieve a better subjective image quality. With appropriate adjustments, the criterion can be used for assessment of the whole imaging system (sensor plus post-processing).

Sparse dictionary for synthetic transmit aperture medical ultrasound imaging.

PubMed

Wang, Ping; Jiang, Jin-Yang; Li, Na; Luo, Han-Wu; Li, Fang; Cui, Shi-Gang

2017-07-01

It is possible to recover a signal below the Nyquist sampling limit using a compressive sensing technique in ultrasound imaging. However, the reconstruction enabled by common sparse transform approaches does not achieve satisfactory results. Considering the ultrasound echo signal's features of attenuation, repetition, and superposition, a sparse dictionary with the emission pulse signal is proposed. Sparse coefficients in the proposed dictionary have high sparsity. Images reconstructed with this dictionary were compared with those obtained with the three other common transforms, namely, discrete Fourier transform, discrete cosine transform, and discrete wavelet transform. The performance of the proposed dictionary was analyzed via a simulation and experimental data. The mean absolute error (MAE) was used to quantify the quality of the reconstructions. Experimental results indicate that the MAE associated with the proposed dictionary was always the smallest, the reconstruction time required was the shortest, and the lateral resolution and contrast of the reconstructed images were also the closest to the original images. The proposed sparse dictionary performed better than the other three sparse transforms. With the same sampling rate, the proposed dictionary achieved excellent reconstruction quality.

A real time quality control application for animal production by image processing.

PubMed

Sungur, Cemil; Özkan, Halil

2015-11-01

Standards of hygiene and health are of major importance in food production, and quality control has become obligatory in this field. Thanks to rapidly developing technologies, it is now possible for automatic and safe quality control of food production. For this purpose, image-processing-based quality control systems used in industrial applications are being employed to analyze the quality of food products. In this study, quality control of chicken (Gallus domesticus) eggs was achieved using a real time image-processing technique. In order to execute the quality control processes, a conveying mechanism was used. Eggs passing on a conveyor belt were continuously photographed in real time by cameras located above the belt. The images obtained were processed by various methods and techniques. Using digital instrumentation, the volume of the eggs was measured, broken/cracked eggs were separated and dirty eggs were determined. In accordance with international standards for classifying the quality of eggs, the class of separated eggs was determined through a fuzzy implication model. According to tests carried out on thousands of eggs, a quality control process with an accuracy of 98% was possible. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry.

Combined use of iterative reconstruction and monochromatic imaging in spinal fusion CT images.

PubMed

Wang, Fengdan; Zhang, Yan; Xue, Huadan; Han, Wei; Yang, Xianda; Jin, Zhengyu; Zwar, Richard

2017-01-01

Spinal fusion surgery is an important procedure for treating spinal diseases and computed tomography (CT) is a critical tool for postoperative evaluation. However, CT image quality is considerably impaired by metal artifacts and image noise. To explore whether metal artifacts and image noise can be reduced by combining two technologies, adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) and monochromatic imaging generated by gemstone spectral imaging (GSI) dual-energy CT. A total of 51 patients with 318 spinal pedicle screws were prospectively scanned by dual-energy CT using fast kV-switching GSI between 80 and 140 kVp. Monochromatic GSI images at 110 keV were reconstructed either without or with various levels of ASIR (30%, 50%, 70%, and 100%). The quality of five sets of images was objectively and subjectively assessed. With objective image quality assessment, metal artifacts decreased when increasing levels of ASIR were applied (P < 0.001). Moreover, adding ASIR to GSI also decreased image noise (P < 0.001) and improved the signal-to-noise ratio (P < 0.001). The subjective image quality analysis showed good inter-reader concordance, with intra-class correlation coefficients between 0.89 and 0.99. The visualization of peri-implant soft tissue was improved at higher ASIR levels (P < 0.001). Combined use of ASIR and GSI decreased image noise and improved image quality in post-spinal fusion CT scans. Optimal results were achieved with ASIR levels ≥70%. © The Foundation Acta Radiologica 2016.

Paediatric cerebrovascular CT angiography—towards better image quality

PubMed Central

Thust, Stefanie C.; Chong, Wui Khean Kling; Gunny, Roxana; Mazumder, Asif; Poitelea, Marius; Welsh, Anna; Ederies, Ash

2014-01-01

Background Paediatric cerebrovascular CT angiography (CTA) can be challenging to perform due to variable cardiovascular physiology between different age groups and the risk of movement artefact. This analysis aimed to determine what proportion of CTA at our institution was of diagnostic quality and identify technical factors which could be improved. Materials and methods a retrospective analysis of 20 cases was performed at a national paediatric neurovascular centre assessing image quality with a subjective scoring system and Hounsfield Unit (HU) measurements. Demographic data, contrast dose, flow rate and triggering times were recorded for each patient. Results Using a qualitative scoring system, 75% of studies were found to be of diagnostic quality (n=9 ‘good’, n=6 ‘satisfactory’) and 25% (n=5) were ‘poor’. Those judged subjectively to be poor had arterial contrast density measured at less than 250 HU. Increased arterial opacification was achieved for cases performed with an increased flow rate (2.5-4 mL/s) and higher intravenous contrast dose (2 mL/kg). Triggering was found to be well timed in nine cases, early in four cases and late in seven cases. Of the scans triggered early, 75% were poor. Of the scans triggered late, less (29%) were poor. Conclusions High flow rates (>2.5 mL/s) were a key factor for achieving high quality paediatric cerebrovascular CTA imaging. However, appropriate triggering by starting the scan immediately on contrast opacification of the monitoring vessel plays an important role and could maintain image quality when flow rates were lower. Early triggering appeared more detrimental than late. PMID:25525579

Global quality imaging: improvement actions.

PubMed

Lau, Lawrence S; Pérez, Maria R; Applegate, Kimberly E; Rehani, Madan M; Ringertz, Hans G; George, Robert

2011-05-01

Workforce shortage, workload increase, workplace changes, and budget challenges are emerging issues around the world, which could place quality imaging at risk. It is important for imaging stakeholders to collaborate, ensure patient safety, improve the quality of care, and address these issues. There is no single panacea. A range of improvement measures, strategies, and actions are required. Examples of improvement actions supporting the 3 quality measures are described under 5 strategies: conducting research, promoting awareness, providing education and training, strengthening infrastructure, and implementing policies. The challenge is to develop long-term, cost-effective, system-based improvement actions that will bring better outcomes and underpin a sustainable future for quality imaging. In an imaging practice, these actions will result in selecting the right procedure (justification), using the right dose (optimization), and preventing errors along the patient journey. To realize this vision and implement these improvement actions, a range of expertise and adequate resources are required. Stakeholders should collaborate and work together. In today's globalized environment, collaboration is strength and provides synergy to achieve better outcomes and greater success. Copyright © 2011 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Regularization design for high-quality cone-beam CT of intracranial hemorrhage using statistical reconstruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dang, H.; Stayman, J. W.; Xu, J.; Sisniega, A.; Zbijewski, W.; Wang, X.; Foos, D. H.; Aygun, N.; Koliatsos, V. E.; Siewerdsen, J. H.

2016-03-01

Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) is associated with pathologies such as hemorrhagic stroke and traumatic brain injury. Multi-detector CT is the current front-line imaging modality for detecting ICH (fresh blood contrast 40-80 HU, down to 1 mm). Flat-panel detector (FPD) cone-beam CT (CBCT) offers a potential alternative with a smaller scanner footprint, greater portability, and lower cost potentially well suited to deployment at the point of care outside standard diagnostic radiology and emergency room settings. Previous studies have suggested reliable detection of ICH down to 3 mm in CBCT using high-fidelity artifact correction and penalized weighted least-squared (PWLS) image reconstruction with a post-artifact-correction noise model. However, ICH reconstructed by traditional image regularization exhibits nonuniform spatial resolution and noise due to interaction between the statistical weights and regularization, which potentially degrades the detectability of ICH. In this work, we propose three regularization methods designed to overcome these challenges. The first two compute spatially varying certainty for uniform spatial resolution and noise, respectively. The third computes spatially varying regularization strength to achieve uniform "detectability," combining both spatial resolution and noise in a manner analogous to a delta-function detection task. Experiments were conducted on a CBCT test-bench, and image quality was evaluated for simulated ICH in different regions of an anthropomorphic head. The first two methods improved the uniformity in spatial resolution and noise compared to traditional regularization. The third exhibited the highest uniformity in detectability among all methods and best overall image quality. The proposed regularization provides a valuable means to achieve uniform image quality in CBCT of ICH and is being incorporated in a CBCT prototype for ICH imaging.

Image Reconstruction Under Contact Impedance Effect in Micro Electrical Impedance Tomography Sensors.

PubMed

Liu, Xiayi; Yao, Jiafeng; Zhao, Tong; Obara, Hiromichi; Cui, Yahui; Takei, Masahiro

2018-06-01

Contact impedance has an important effect on micro electrical impedance tomography (EIT) sensors compared to conventional macro sensors. In the present work, a complex contact impedance effect ratio ξ is defined to quantitatively evaluate the effect of the contact impedance on the accuracy of the reconstructed images by micro EIT. Quality of the reconstructed image under various ξ is estimated by the phantom simulation to find the optimum algorithm. The generalized vector sampled pattern matching (GVSPM) method reveals the best image quality and the best tolerance to ξ. Moreover, the images of yeast cells sedimentary distribution in a multilayered microchannel are reconstructed by the GVSPM method under various mean magnitudes of contact impedance effect ratio |ξ|. The result shows that the best image quality that has the smallest voltage error U E = 0.581 is achieved with measurement frequency f = 1 MHz and mean magnitude |ξ| = 26. In addition, the reconstructed images of cells distribution become improper while f < 10 kHz and mean value of |ξ| > 2400.

The Quality and Stability of Chandra Telescope Spacial Resolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Ping

2017-08-01

Chandra X-ray Observatory revolutionized the X-ray astronomy as being the first, and so far the only, X-ray telescope achieving sub-arcsecond spacial resolution. Chandra is comprised of three principal elements: the High Resolution Mirror Assembly (HRMA), Pointing Control and Aspect Determination (PCAD) system, and the Science Instrument Module (SIM), which is where the X-ray detectors mounted and is connected to the HRMA by a 10-meter long Optical Bench Assembly. To achieve and retain the unprecedented imaging quality, it is critical that these three principal elements to stay rigid and stable for the entire life time of the Chandra operation. I will review the issues of telescope pointing stability, optical Axis, aimpoint and their impacts to the Chandra operation, and evaluate the integrity and stability of the telescope. I will show images taken from all four detectors since launch to demonstrate the quality and stability of the Chandra spacial resolution.

Pediatric chest HRCT using the iDose4 Hybrid Iterative Reconstruction Algorithm: Which iDose level to choose?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smarda, M.; Alexopoulou, E.; Mazioti, A.; Kordolaimi, S.; Ploussi, A.; Priftis, K.; Efstathopoulos, E.

2015-09-01

Purpose of the study is to determine the appropriate iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithm level that combines image quality and diagnostic confidence, for pediatric patients undergoing high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT). During the last 2 years, a total number of 20 children up to 10 years old with a clinical presentation of chronic bronchitis underwent HRCT in our department's 64-detector row CT scanner using the iDose IR algorithm, with almost similar image settings (80kVp, 40-50 mAs). CT images were reconstructed with all iDose levels (level 1 to 7) as well as with filtered-back projection (FBP) algorithm. Subjective image quality was evaluated by 2 experienced radiologists in terms of image noise, sharpness, contrast and diagnostic acceptability using a 5-point scale (1=excellent image, 5=non-acceptable image). Artifacts existance was also pointed out. All mean scores from both radiologists corresponded to satisfactory image quality (score ≤3), even with the FBP algorithm use. Almost excellent (score <2) overall image quality was achieved with iDose levels 5 to 7, but oversmoothing artifacts appearing with iDose levels 6 and 7 affected the diagnostic confidence. In conclusion, the use of iDose level 5 enables almost excellent image quality without considerable artifacts affecting the diagnosis. Further evaluation is needed in order to draw more precise conclusions.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McMillan, Kyle; Marleau, Peter; Brubaker, Erik

In coded aperture imaging, one of the most important factors determining the quality of reconstructed images is the choice of mask/aperture pattern. In many applications, uniformly redundant arrays (URAs) are widely accepted as the optimal mask pattern. Under ideal conditions, thin and highly opaque masks, URA patterns are mathematically constructed to provide artifact-free reconstruction however, the number of URAs for a chosen number of mask elements is limited and when highly penetrating particles such as fast neutrons and high-energy gamma-rays are being imaged, the optimum is seldom achieved. In this case more robust mask patterns that provide better reconstructed imagemore » quality may exist. Through the use of heuristic optimization methods and maximum likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM) image reconstruction, we show that for both point and extended neutron sources a random mask pattern can be optimized to provide better image quality than that of a URA.« less

A Flexible Annular-Array Imaging Platform for Micro-Ultrasound

PubMed Central

Qiu, Weibao; Yu, Yanyan; Chabok, Hamid Reza; Liu, Cheng; Tsang, Fu Keung; Zhou, Qifa; Shung, K. Kirk; Zheng, Hairong; Sun, Lei

2013-01-01

Micro-ultrasound is an invaluable imaging tool for many clinical and preclinical applications requiring high resolution (approximately several tens of micrometers). Imaging systems for micro-ultrasound, including single-element imaging systems and linear-array imaging systems, have been developed extensively in recent years. Single-element systems are cheaper, but linear-array systems give much better image quality at a higher expense. Annular-array-based systems provide a third alternative, striking a balance between image quality and expense. This paper presents the development of a novel programmable and real-time annular-array imaging platform for micro-ultrasound. It supports multi-channel dynamic beamforming techniques for large-depth-of-field imaging. The major image processing algorithms were achieved by a novel field-programmable gate array technology for high speed and flexibility. Real-time imaging was achieved by fast processing algorithms and high-speed data transfer interface. The platform utilizes a printed circuit board scheme incorporating state-of-the-art electronics for compactness and cost effectiveness. Extensive tests including hardware, algorithms, wire phantom, and tissue mimicking phantom measurements were conducted to demonstrate good performance of the platform. The calculated contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of the tissue phantom measurements were higher than 1.2 in the range of 3.8 to 8.7 mm imaging depth. The platform supported more than 25 images per second for real-time image acquisition. The depth-of-field had about 2.5-fold improvement compared to single-element transducer imaging. PMID:23287923

Second Iteration of Photogrammetric Pipeline to Enhance the Accuracy of Image Pose Estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nguyen, T. G.; Pierrot-Deseilligny, M.; Muller, J.-M.; Thom, C.

2017-05-01

In classical photogrammetric processing pipeline, the automatic tie point extraction plays a key role in the quality of achieved results. The image tie points are crucial to pose estimation and have a significant influence on the precision of calculated orientation parameters. Therefore, both relative and absolute orientations of the 3D model can be affected. By improving the precision of image tie point measurement, one can enhance the quality of image orientation. The quality of image tie points is under the influence of several factors such as the multiplicity, the measurement precision and the distribution in 2D images as well as in 3D scenes. In complex acquisition scenarios such as indoor applications and oblique aerial images, tie point extraction is limited while only image information can be exploited. Hence, we propose here a method which improves the precision of pose estimation in complex scenarios by adding a second iteration to the classical processing pipeline. The result of a first iteration is used as a priori information to guide the extraction of new tie points with better quality. Evaluated with multiple case studies, the proposed method shows its validity and its high potiential for precision improvement.

Half-unit weighted bilinear algorithm for image contrast enhancement in capsule endoscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rukundo, Olivier

2018-04-01

This paper proposes a novel enhancement method based exclusively on the bilinear interpolation algorithm for capsule endoscopy images. The proposed method does not convert the original RBG image components to HSV or any other color space or model; instead, it processes directly RGB components. In each component, a group of four adjacent pixels and half-unit weight in the bilinear weighting function are used to calculate the average pixel value, identical for each pixel in that particular group. After calculations, groups of identical pixels are overlapped successively in horizontal and vertical directions to achieve a preliminary-enhanced image. The final-enhanced image is achieved by halving the sum of the original and preliminary-enhanced image pixels. Quantitative and qualitative experiments were conducted focusing on pairwise comparisons between original and enhanced images. Final-enhanced images have generally the best diagnostic quality and gave more details about the visibility of vessels and structures in capsule endoscopy images.

Wavefront sensorless adaptive optics ophthalmoscopy in the human eye

PubMed Central

Hofer, Heidi; Sredar, Nripun; Queener, Hope; Li, Chaohong; Porter, Jason

2011-01-01

Wavefront sensor noise and fidelity place a fundamental limit on achievable image quality in current adaptive optics ophthalmoscopes. Additionally, the wavefront sensor ‘beacon’ can interfere with visual experiments. We demonstrate real-time (25 Hz), wavefront sensorless adaptive optics imaging in the living human eye with image quality rivaling that of wavefront sensor based control in the same system. A stochastic parallel gradient descent algorithm directly optimized the mean intensity in retinal image frames acquired with a confocal adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope (AOSLO). When imaging through natural, undilated pupils, both control methods resulted in comparable mean image intensities. However, when imaging through dilated pupils, image intensity was generally higher following wavefront sensor-based control. Despite the typically reduced intensity, image contrast was higher, on average, with sensorless control. Wavefront sensorless control is a viable option for imaging the living human eye and future refinements of this technique may result in even greater optical gains. PMID:21934779

Performance quantification of a millimeter-wavelength imaging system based on inexpensive glow-discharge-detector focal-plane array.

PubMed

Shilemay, Moshe; Rozban, Daniel; Levanon, Assaf; Yitzhaky, Yitzhak; Kopeika, Natan S; Yadid-Pecht, Orly; Abramovich, Amir

2013-03-01

Inexpensive millimeter-wavelength (MMW) optical digital imaging raises a challenge of evaluating the imaging performance and image quality because of the large electromagnetic wavelengths and pixel sensor sizes, which are 2 to 3 orders of magnitude larger than those of ordinary thermal or visual imaging systems, and also because of the noisiness of the inexpensive glow discharge detectors that compose the focal-plane array. This study quantifies the performances of this MMW imaging system. Its point-spread function and modulation transfer function were investigated. The experimental results and the analysis indicate that the image quality of this MMW imaging system is limited mostly by the noise, and the blur is dominated by the pixel sensor size. Therefore, the MMW image might be improved by oversampling, given that noise reduction is achieved. Demonstration of MMW image improvement through oversampling is presented.

Data fusion and photometric restoration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pirzkal, Norbert; Hook, Richard N.

2001-11-01

The current generation of 8-10m optical ground-based telescopes have a symbiotic relationship with space telescopes. For direct imaging in the optical the former can collect photons relatively cheaply but the latter can still achieve, even in the era of adaptive optics, significantly higher spatial resolution, point-spread function stability and astrometric fidelity over fields of a few arcminutes. The large archives of HST imaging already in place, when combined with the ease of access to ground-based data afforded by the virtual observatory currently under development, will make space-ground data fusion a powerful tool for the future. We describe a photometric image restoration method that we have developed which allows the efficient and accurate use of high-resolution space imaging of crowded fields to extract high quality photometry from very crowded ground-based images. We illustrate the method using HST and ESO VLT/FORS imaging of a globular cluster and demonstrate quantitatively the photometric measurements quality that can achieved using the data fusion approach instead of just using data from just one telescope. This method can handle most of the common difficulties encountered when attempting this problem such as determining the geometric mapping to the requisite precision, deriving the PSF and the background.

Dose reduction of up to 89% while maintaining image quality in cardiovascular CT achieved with prospective ECG gating

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Londt, John H.; Shreter, Uri; Vass, Melissa; Hsieh, Jiang; Ge, Zhanyu; Adda, Olivier; Dowe, David A.; Sabllayrolles, Jean-Louis

2007-03-01

We present the results of dose and image quality performance evaluation of a novel, prospective ECG-gated Coronary CT Angiography acquisition mode (SnapShot Pulse, LightSpeed VCT-XT scanner, GE Healthcare, Waukesha, WI), and compare it to conventional retrospective ECG gated helical acquisition in clinical and phantom studies. Image quality phantoms were used to measure noise, slice sensitivity profile, in-plane resolution, low contrast detectability and dose, using the two acquisition modes. Clinical image quality and diagnostic confidence were evaluated in a study of 31 patients scanned with the two acquisition modes. Radiation dose reduction in clinical practice was evaluated by tracking 120 consecutive patients scanned with the prospectively gated scan mode. In the phantom measurements, the prospectively gated mode resulted in equivalent or better image quality measures at dose reductions of up to 89% compared to non-ECG modulated conventional helical scans. In the clinical study, image quality was rated excellent by expert radiologist reviewing the cases, with pathology being identical using the two acquisition modes. The average dose to patients in the clinical practice study was 5.6 mSv, representing 50% reduction compared to a similar patient population scanned with the conventional helical mode.

Investigation into image quality difference between total variation and nonlinear sparsifying transform based compressed sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Jian; Kudo, Hiroyuki

2017-03-01

Compressed sensing (CS) is attracting growing concerns in sparse-view computed tomography (CT) image reconstruction. The most standard approach of CS is total variation (TV) minimization. However, images reconstructed by TV usually suffer from distortions, especially in reconstruction of practical CT images, in forms of patchy artifacts, improper serrate edges and loss of image textures. Most existing CS approaches including TV achieve image quality improvement by applying linear transforms to object image, but linear transforms usually fail to take discontinuities into account, such as edges and image textures, which is considered to be the key reason for image distortions. Actually, discussions on nonlinear filter based image processing has a long history, leading us to clarify that the nonlinear filters yield better results compared to linear filters in image processing task such as denoising. Median root prior was first utilized by Alenius as nonlinear transform in CT image reconstruction, with significant gains obtained. Subsequently, Zhang developed the application of nonlocal means-based CS. A fact is gradually becoming clear that the nonlinear transform based CS has superiority in improving image quality compared with the linear transform based CS. However, it has not been clearly concluded in any previous paper within the scope of our knowledge. In this work, we investigated the image quality differences between the conventional TV minimization and nonlinear sparsifying transform based CS, as well as image quality differences among different nonlinear sparisying transform based CSs in sparse-view CT image reconstruction. Additionally, we accelerated the implementation of nonlinear sparsifying transform based CS algorithm.

Visit, revamp, and revitalize your business plan: Part 2.

PubMed

Waldron, David

2011-01-01

The diagnostic imaging department strives for the highest quality outcomes in imaging quality, in diagnostic reporting, and in providing a caring patient experience while also satisfying the needs of referring physicians. Understand how tools such as process mapping and concepts such as Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma can be used to facilitate quality improvements and team building, resulting in staff led process improvement initiatives. Discover how to integrate a continuous staff management cycle to implement process improvements,capture the promised performance improvements, and achieve a culture change away from the "way it has always been done".

Strategic Marketing: The Use of Image Assessment and Marketing Review.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilhelmi, Charlotte; And Others

In 1986, Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) conducted a marketing review to assess the achievement of marketing objectives, identify the most effective marketing activities, assess the community's awareness of and the image of NVCC, assess the perceived quality and appropriateness of the college's programs and services, and formulate…

Retinal Image Quality During Accommodation

PubMed Central

López-Gil, N.; Martin, J.; Liu, T.; Bradley, A.; Díaz-Muñoz, D.; Thibos, L.

2013-01-01

Purpose We asked if retinal image quality is maximum during accommodation, or sub-optimal due to accommodative error, when subjects perform an acuity task. Methods Subjects viewed a monochromatic (552nm), high-contrast letter target placed at various viewing distances. Wavefront aberrations of the accommodating eye were measured near the endpoint of an acuity staircase paradigm. Refractive state, defined as the optimum target vergence for maximising retinal image quality, was computed by through-focus wavefront analysis to find the power of the virtual correcting lens that maximizes visual Strehl ratio. Results Despite changes in ocular aberrations and pupil size during binocular viewing, retinal image quality and visual acuity typically remain high for all target vergences. When accommodative errors lead to sub-optimal retinal image quality, acuity and measured image quality both decline. However, the effect of accommodation errors of on visual acuity are mitigated by pupillary constriction associated with accommodation and binocular convergence and also to binocular summation of dissimilar retinal image blur. Under monocular viewing conditions some subjects displayed significant accommodative lag that reduced visual performance, an effect that was exacerbated by pharmacological dilation of the pupil. Conclusions Spurious measurement of accommodative error can be avoided when the image quality metric used to determine refractive state is compatible with the focusing criteria used by the visual system to control accommodation. Real focusing errors of the accommodating eye do not necessarily produce a reliably measurable loss of image quality or clinically significant loss of visual performance, probably because of increased depth-of-focus due to pupil constriction. When retinal image quality is close to maximum achievable (given the eye’s higher-order aberrations), acuity is also near maximum. A combination of accommodative lag, reduced image quality, and reduced visual function may be a useful sign for diagnosing functionally-significant accommodative errors indicating the need for therapeutic intervention. PMID:23786386

Retinal image quality during accommodation.

PubMed

López-Gil, Norberto; Martin, Jesson; Liu, Tao; Bradley, Arthur; Díaz-Muñoz, David; Thibos, Larry N

2013-07-01

We asked if retinal image quality is maximum during accommodation, or sub-optimal due to accommodative error, when subjects perform an acuity task. Subjects viewed a monochromatic (552 nm), high-contrast letter target placed at various viewing distances. Wavefront aberrations of the accommodating eye were measured near the endpoint of an acuity staircase paradigm. Refractive state, defined as the optimum target vergence for maximising retinal image quality, was computed by through-focus wavefront analysis to find the power of the virtual correcting lens that maximizes visual Strehl ratio. Despite changes in ocular aberrations and pupil size during binocular viewing, retinal image quality and visual acuity typically remain high for all target vergences. When accommodative errors lead to sub-optimal retinal image quality, acuity and measured image quality both decline. However, the effect of accommodation errors of on visual acuity are mitigated by pupillary constriction associated with accommodation and binocular convergence and also to binocular summation of dissimilar retinal image blur. Under monocular viewing conditions some subjects displayed significant accommodative lag that reduced visual performance, an effect that was exacerbated by pharmacological dilation of the pupil. Spurious measurement of accommodative error can be avoided when the image quality metric used to determine refractive state is compatible with the focusing criteria used by the visual system to control accommodation. Real focusing errors of the accommodating eye do not necessarily produce a reliably measurable loss of image quality or clinically significant loss of visual performance, probably because of increased depth-of-focus due to pupil constriction. When retinal image quality is close to maximum achievable (given the eye's higher-order aberrations), acuity is also near maximum. A combination of accommodative lag, reduced image quality, and reduced visual function may be a useful sign for diagnosing functionally-significant accommodative errors indicating the need for therapeutic intervention. © 2013 The Authors Ophthalmic & Physiological Optics © 2013 The College of Optometrists.

Design of Restoration Method Based on Compressed Sensing and TwIST Algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Fei; Piao, Yan

2018-04-01

In order to improve the subjective and objective quality of degraded images at low sampling rates effectively,save storage space and reduce computational complexity at the same time, this paper proposes a joint restoration algorithm of compressed sensing and two step iterative threshold shrinkage (TwIST). The algorithm applies the TwIST algorithm which used in image restoration to the compressed sensing theory. Then, a small amount of sparse high-frequency information is obtained in frequency domain. The TwIST algorithm based on compressed sensing theory is used to accurately reconstruct the high frequency image. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm achieves better subjective visual effects and objective quality of degraded images while accurately restoring degraded images.

New requirements for digital radiographic testing of welds according to ISO standards

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zscherpel, U.; Ewert, U.; Jechow, M.

Users of EN 14784-2 (general principles for computed radiography with phosphor imaging plates) reported about difficulties to achieve testing class B in weld testing with imaging plates. One of the reasons is the insufficient consideration of the inherent detector unsharpness (u{sub i}) in the minimum requirements. Digital detectors have a higher inherent unsharpness compared to film, which can even exceed the geometrical unsharpness (u{sub g}) of the typical contact technique. In EN 444 and ISO 5579 (general principles for film radiography) u{sub i} is neglected for the calculation of the minimum source-to-object distance (SOD), because it is small compared tomore » the geometric unsharpness (u{sub g}). Considering u{sub i} for digital detectors results in a new equation for SOD (see ISO/FDIS 17636-2). Therefore, the increase in total image unsharpness requires the compensation by a larger SOD to reduce u{sub g}. This contribution discusses the need for change of the SOD for different setups (detectors, focal spots, etc.) and explains the difference in image quality, achieved on basis of the extended equation of ISO/FDIS 17636-2. Furthermore, the detection of image quality indicators depends on the achieved Contrast-to-Noise ratio (CNR) and total image unsharpness. Both of them are essential parameters, which influence the contrast sensitivity. Additionally, new compensation principles (e.g. compensation of missing spatial resolution by enhanced contrast sensitivity) allow to widen the application range of digital detectors for radiographic weld testing.« less

[Dry view laser imager--a new economical photothermal imaging method].

PubMed

Weberling, R

1996-11-01

The production of hard copies is currently achieved by means of laser imagers and wet film processing in systems attached either directly in or to the laser imager or in a darkroom. Variations in image quality resulting from a not always optimal wet film development are frequent. A newly developed thermographic film developer for laser films without liquid powdered chemicals, on the other hand, is environmentally preferable and reducing operating costs. The completely dry developing process provides permanent image documentation meeting the quality and safety requirements of RöV and BAK. One of the currently available systems of this type, the DryView Laser Imager is inexpensive and easy to install. The selective connection principle of the DryView Laser Imager can be expanded as required and accepts digital and/or analog interfaces with all imaging systems (CT, MR, DR, US, NM) from the various manufactures.

Analyser-based mammography using single-image reconstruction.

PubMed

Briedis, Dahliyani; Siu, Karen K W; Paganin, David M; Pavlov, Konstantin M; Lewis, Rob A

2005-08-07

We implement an algorithm that is able to decode a single analyser-based x-ray phase-contrast image of a sample, converting it into an equivalent conventional absorption-contrast radiograph. The algorithm assumes the projection approximation for x-ray propagation in a single-material object embedded in a substrate of approximately uniform thickness. Unlike the phase-contrast images, which have both directional bias and a bias towards edges present in the sample, the reconstructed images are directly interpretable in terms of the projected absorption coefficient of the sample. The technique was applied to a Leeds TOR[MAM] phantom, which is designed to test mammogram quality by the inclusion of simulated microcalcifications, filaments and circular discs. This phantom was imaged at varying doses using three modalities: analyser-based synchrotron phase-contrast images converted to equivalent absorption radiographs using our algorithm, slot-scanned synchrotron imaging and imaging using a conventional mammography unit. Features in the resulting images were then assigned a quality score by volunteers. The single-image reconstruction method achieved higher scores at equivalent and lower doses than the conventional mammography images, but no improvement of visualization of the simulated microcalcifications, and some degradation in image quality at reduced doses for filament features.

Multiband super-resolution imaging of graded-index photonic crystal flat lens

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, Jianlan; Wang, Junzhong; Ge, Rui; Yan, Bei; Liu, Exian; Tan, Wei; Liu, Jianjun

2018-05-01

Multiband super-resolution imaging of point source is achieved by a graded-index photonic crystal flat lens. With the calculations of six bands in common photonic crystal (CPC) constructed with scatterers of different refractive indices, it can be found that the super-resolution imaging of point source can be realized by different physical mechanisms in three different bands. In the first band, the imaging of point source is based on far-field condition of spherical wave while in the second band, it is based on the negative effective refractive index and exhibiting higher imaging quality than that of the CPC. However, in the fifth band, the imaging of point source is mainly based on negative refraction of anisotropic equi-frequency surfaces. The novel method of employing different physical mechanisms to achieve multiband super-resolution imaging of point source is highly meaningful for the field of imaging.

Selective visual region of interest to enhance medical video conferencing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonneau, Walt, Jr.; Read, Christopher J.; Shirali, Girish

1998-06-01

The continued economic pressure that is being placed upon the healthcare industry creates both challenge and opportunity to develop cost effective healthcare tools. Tools that provide improvements in the quality of medical care at the same time improve the distribution of efficient care will create product demand. Video Conferencing systems are one of the latest product technologies that are evolving their way into healthcare applications. The systems that provide quality Bi- directional video and imaging at the lowest system and communication cost are creating many possible options for the healthcare industry. A method to use only 128k bits/sec. of ISDN bandwidth while providing quality video images in selected regions will be applied to echocardiograms using a low cost video conferencing system operating within a basic rate ISDN line bandwidth. Within a given display area (frame) it has been observed that only selected informational areas of the frame of are of value when viewing for detail and precision within an image. Much in the same manner that a photograph is cropped. If a method to accomplish Region Of Interest (ROI) was applied to video conferencing using H.320 with H.263 (compression) and H.281 (camera control) international standards, medical image quality could be achieved in a cost-effective manner. For example, the cardiologist could be provided with a selectable three to eight end-point viewable ROI polygon that defines the ROI in the image. This is achieved by the video system calculating the selected regional end-points and creating an alpha mask to signify the importance of the ROI to the compression processor. This region is then applied to the compression algorithm in a manner that the majority of the video conferencing processor cycles are focused on the ROI of the image. An occasional update of the non-ROI area is processed to maintain total image coherence. The user could control the non-ROI area updates. Providing encoder side ROI specification is of value. However, the power of this capability is improved if remote access and selection of the ROI is also provided. Using the H.281 camera standard and proposing an additional option to the standard to allow for remote ROI selection would make this possible. When ROI is applied the ability to reach the equivalent of 384K bits/sec ISDN rates may be achieved or exceeded depending upon the size of the selected ROI using 128K bits/sec. This opens additional opportunity to establish international calling and reduced call rates by up to sixty- six percent making reoccurring communication costs attractive. Rates of twenty to thirty quality ROI updates could be achieved. It is however important to understand that this technique is still under development.

Eliminating chromatic aberration of lens and recognition of thermal images with artificial intelligence applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fang, Yi-Chin; Wu, Bo-Wen; Lin, Wei-Tang; Jon, Jen-Liung

2007-11-01

Resolution and color are two main directions for measuring optical digital image, but it will be a hard work to integral improve the image quality of optical system, because there are many limits such as size, materials and environment of optical system design. Therefore, it is important to let blurred images as aberrations and noises or due to the characteristics of human vision as far distance and small targets to raise the capability of image recognition with artificial intelligence such as genetic algorithm and neural network in the condition that decreasing color aberration of optical system and not to increase complex calculation in the image processes. This study could achieve the goal of integral, economically and effectively to improve recognition and classification in low quality image from optical system and environment.

Super Resolution Algorithm for CCTVs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gohshi, Seiichi

2015-03-01

Recently, security cameras and CCTV systems have become an important part of our daily lives. The rising demand for such systems has created business opportunities in this field, especially in big cities. Analogue CCTV systems are being replaced by digital systems, and HDTV CCTV has become quite common. HDTV CCTV can achieve images with high contrast and decent quality if they are clicked in daylight. However, the quality of an image clicked at night does not always have sufficient contrast and resolution because of poor lighting conditions. CCTV systems depend on infrared light at night to compensate for insufficient lighting conditions, thereby producing monochrome images and videos. However, these images and videos do not have high contrast and are blurred. We propose a nonlinear signal processing technique that significantly improves visual and image qualities (contrast and resolution) of low-contrast infrared images. The proposed method enables the use of infrared cameras for various purposes such as night shot and poor lighting environments under poor lighting conditions.

Evaluation of fluorophores for optimal performance in localization-based super-resolution imaging

PubMed Central

Dempsey, Graham T.; Vaughan, Joshua C.; Chen, Kok Hao; Bates, Mark; Zhuang, Xiaowei

2011-01-01

One approach to super-resolution fluorescence imaging uses sequential activation and localization of individual fluorophores to achieve high spatial resolution. Essential to this technique is the choice of fluorescent probes — the properties of the probes, including photons per switching event, on/off duty cycle, photostability, and number of switching cycles, largely dictate the quality of super-resolution images. While many probes have been reported, a systematic characterization of the properties of these probes and their impact on super-resolution image quality has been described in only a few cases. Here, we quantitatively characterized the switching properties of 26 organic dyes and directly related these properties to the quality of super-resolution images. This analysis provides a set of guidelines for characterization of super-resolution probes and a resource for selecting probes based on performance. Our evaluation identified several photoswitchable dyes with good to excellent performance in four independent spectral ranges, with which we demonstrated low crosstalk, four-color super-resolution imaging. PMID:22056676

The impact of the condenser on cytogenetic image quality in digital microscope system.

PubMed

Ren, Liqiang; Li, Zheng; Li, Yuhua; Zheng, Bin; Li, Shibo; Chen, Xiaodong; Liu, Hong

2013-01-01

Optimizing operational parameters of the digital microscope system is an important technique to acquire high quality cytogenetic images and facilitate the process of karyotyping so that the efficiency and accuracy of diagnosis can be improved. This study investigated the impact of the condenser on cytogenetic image quality and system working performance using a prototype digital microscope image scanning system. Both theoretical analysis and experimental validations through objectively evaluating a resolution test chart and subjectively observing large numbers of specimen were conducted. The results show that the optimal image quality and large depth of field (DOF) are simultaneously obtained when the numerical aperture of condenser is set as 60%-70% of the corresponding objective. Under this condition, more analyzable chromosomes and diagnostic information are obtained. As a result, the system shows higher working stability and less restriction for the implementation of algorithms such as autofocusing especially when the system is designed to achieve high throughput continuous image scanning. Although the above quantitative results were obtained using a specific prototype system under the experimental conditions reported in this paper, the presented evaluation methodologies can provide valuable guidelines for optimizing operational parameters in cytogenetic imaging using the high throughput continuous scanning microscopes in clinical practice.

Visual grading characteristics and ordinal regression analysis during optimisation of CT head examinations.

PubMed

Zarb, Francis; McEntee, Mark F; Rainford, Louise

2015-06-01

To evaluate visual grading characteristics (VGC) and ordinal regression analysis during head CT optimisation as a potential alternative to visual grading assessment (VGA), traditionally employed to score anatomical visualisation. Patient images (n = 66) were obtained using current and optimised imaging protocols from two CT suites: a 16-slice scanner at the national Maltese centre for trauma and a 64-slice scanner in a private centre. Local resident radiologists (n = 6) performed VGA followed by VGC and ordinal regression analysis. VGC alone indicated that optimised protocols had similar image quality as current protocols. Ordinal logistic regression analysis provided an in-depth evaluation, criterion by criterion allowing the selective implementation of the protocols. The local radiology review panel supported the implementation of optimised protocols for brain CT examinations (including trauma) in one centre, achieving radiation dose reductions ranging from 24 % to 36 %. In the second centre a 29 % reduction in radiation dose was achieved for follow-up cases. The combined use of VGC and ordinal logistic regression analysis led to clinical decisions being taken on the implementation of the optimised protocols. This improved method of image quality analysis provided the evidence to support imaging protocol optimisation, resulting in significant radiation dose savings. • There is need for scientifically based image quality evaluation during CT optimisation. • VGC and ordinal regression analysis in combination led to better informed clinical decisions. • VGC and ordinal regression analysis led to dose reductions without compromising diagnostic efficacy.

Design of a practical model-observer-based image quality assessment method for CT imaging systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tseng, Hsin-Wu; Fan, Jiahua; Cao, Guangzhi; Kupinski, Matthew A.; Sainath, Paavana

2014-03-01

The channelized Hotelling observer (CHO) is a powerful method for quantitative image quality evaluations of CT systems and their image reconstruction algorithms. It has recently been used to validate the dose reduction capability of iterative image-reconstruction algorithms implemented on CT imaging systems. The use of the CHO for routine and frequent system evaluations is desirable both for quality assurance evaluations as well as further system optimizations. The use of channels substantially reduces the amount of data required to achieve accurate estimates of observer performance. However, the number of scans required is still large even with the use of channels. This work explores different data reduction schemes and designs a new approach that requires only a few CT scans of a phantom. For this work, the leave-one-out likelihood (LOOL) method developed by Hoffbeck and Landgrebe is studied as an efficient method of estimating the covariance matrices needed to compute CHO performance. Three different kinds of approaches are included in the study: a conventional CHO estimation technique with a large sample size, a conventional technique with fewer samples, and the new LOOL-based approach with fewer samples. The mean value and standard deviation of area under ROC curve (AUC) is estimated by shuffle method. Both simulation and real data results indicate that an 80% data reduction can be achieved without loss of accuracy. This data reduction makes the proposed approach a practical tool for routine CT system assessment.

Global quality imaging: emerging issues.

PubMed

Lau, Lawrence S; Pérez, Maria R; Applegate, Kimberly E; Rehani, Madan M; Ringertz, Hans G; George, Robert

2011-07-01

Quality imaging may be described as "a timely access to and delivery of integrated and appropriate procedures, in a safe and responsive practice, and a prompt delivery of an accurately interpreted report by capable personnel in an efficient, effective, and sustainable manner." For this article, radiation safety is considered as one of the key quality elements. The stakeholders are the drivers of quality imaging. These include those that directly provide or use imaging procedures and others indirectly supporting the system. Imaging is indispensable in health care, and its use has greatly expanded worldwide. Globalization, consumer sophistication, communication and technological advances, corporatization, rationalization, service outsourcing, teleradiology, workflow modularization, and commoditization are reshaping practice. This article defines the emerging issues; an earlier article in the May 2011 issue described possible improvement actions. The issues that could threaten the quality use of imaging for all countries include workforce shortage; increased utilization, population radiation exposure, and cost; practice changes; and efficiency drive and budget constraints. In response to these issues, a range of quality improvement measures, strategies, and actions are used to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks. The 3 measures are procedure justification, optimization of image quality and radiation protection, and error prevention. The development and successful implementation of such improvement actions require leadership, collaboration, and the active participation of all stakeholders to achieve the best outcomes that we all advocate. Copyright © 2011 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Matching rendered and real world images by digital image processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mitjà, Carles; Bover, Toni; Bigas, Miquel; Escofet, Jaume

2010-05-01

Recent advances in computer-generated images (CGI) have been used in commercial and industrial photography providing a broad scope in product advertising. Mixing real world images with those rendered from virtual space software shows a more or less visible mismatching between corresponding image quality performance. Rendered images are produced by software which quality performance is only limited by the resolution output. Real world images are taken with cameras with some amount of image degradation factors as lens residual aberrations, diffraction, sensor low pass anti aliasing filters, color pattern demosaicing, etc. The effect of all those image quality degradation factors can be characterized by the system Point Spread Function (PSF). Because the image is the convolution of the object by the system PSF, its characterization shows the amount of image degradation added to any taken picture. This work explores the use of image processing to degrade the rendered images following the parameters indicated by the real system PSF, attempting to match both virtual and real world image qualities. The system MTF is determined by the slanted edge method both in laboratory conditions and in the real picture environment in order to compare the influence of the working conditions on the device performance; an approximation to the system PSF is derived from the two measurements. The rendered images are filtered through a Gaussian filter obtained from the taking system PSF. Results with and without filtering are shown and compared measuring the contrast achieved in different final image regions.

Head CT: Image quality improvement of posterior fossa and radiation dose reduction with ASiR - comparative studies of CT head examinations.

PubMed

Guziński, Maciej; Waszczuk, Łukasz; Sąsiadek, Marek J

2016-10-01

To evaluate head CT protocol developed to improve visibility of the brainstem and cerebellum, lower bone-related artefacts in the posterior fossa and maintain patient radioprotection. A paired comparison of head CT performed without Adaptive Statistical Iterative Reconstruction (ASiR) and a clinically indicated follow-up with 40 % ASiR was acquired in one group of 55 patients. Patients were scanned in the axial mode with different scanner settings for the brain and the posterior fossa. Objective image quality analysis was performed with signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). Subjective image quality analysis was based on brain structure visibility and evaluation of the artefacts. We achieved 19 % reduction of total DLP and significantly better image quality of posterior fossa structures. SNR for white and grey matter in the cerebellum were 34 % to 36 % higher, respectively, CNR was improved by 142 % and subjective analyses were better for images with ASiR. When imaging parameters are set independently for the brain and the posterior fossa imaging, ASiR has a great potential to improve CT performance: image quality of the brainstem and cerebellum is improved, and radiation dose for the brain as well as total radiation dose are reduced. •With ASiR it is possible to lower radiation dose or improve image quality •Sequentional imaging allows setting scan parameters for brain and posterior-fossa independently •We improved visibility of brainstem structures and decreased radiation dose •Total radiation dose (DLP) was decreased by 19.

High-speed real-time image compression based on all-optical discrete cosine transformation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Qiang; Chen, Hongwei; Wang, Yuxi; Chen, Minghua; Yang, Sigang; Xie, Shizhong

2017-02-01

In this paper, we present a high-speed single-pixel imaging (SPI) system based on all-optical discrete cosine transform (DCT) and demonstrate its capability to enable noninvasive imaging of flowing cells in a microfluidic channel. Through spectral shaping based on photonic time stretch (PTS) and wavelength-to-space conversion, structured illumination patterns are generated at a rate (tens of MHz) which is three orders of magnitude higher than the switching rate of a digital micromirror device (DMD) used in a conventional single-pixel camera. Using this pattern projector, high-speed image compression based on DCT can be achieved in the optical domain. In our proposed system, a high compression ratio (approximately 10:1) and a fast image reconstruction procedure are both achieved, which implicates broad applications in industrial quality control and biomedical imaging.

Closed Loop, DM Diversity-based, Wavefront Correction Algorithm for High Contrast Imaging Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Give'on, Amir; Belikov, Ruslan; Shaklan, Stuart; Kasdin, Jeremy

2007-01-01

High contrast imaging from space relies on coronagraphs to limit diffraction and a wavefront control systems to compensate for imperfections in both the telescope optics and the coronagraph. The extreme contrast required (up to 10(exp -10) for terrestrial planets) puts severe requirements on the wavefront control system, as the achievable contrast is limited by the quality of the wavefront. This paper presents a general closed loop correction algorithm for high contrast imaging coronagraphs by minimizing the energy in a predefined region in the image where terrestrial planets could be found. The estimation part of the algorithm reconstructs the complex field in the image plane using phase diversity caused by the deformable mirror. This method has been shown to achieve faster and better correction than classical speckle nulling.

Optimizing MR imaging-guided navigation for focused ultrasound interventions in the brain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Werner, B.; Martin, E.; Bauer, R.; O'Gorman, R.

2017-03-01

MR imaging during transcranial MR imaging-guided Focused Ultrasound surgery (tcMRIgFUS) is challenging due to the complex ultrasound transducer setup and the water bolus used for acoustic coupling. Achievable image quality in the tcMRIgFUS setup using the standard body coil is significantly inferior to current neuroradiologic standards. As a consequence, MR image guidance for precise navigation in functional neurosurgical interventions using tcMRIgFUS is basically limited to the acquisition of MR coordinates of salient landmarks such as the anterior and posterior commissure for aligning a stereotactic atlas. Here, we show how improved MR image quality provided by a custom built MR coil and optimized MR imaging sequences can support imaging-guided navigation for functional tcMRIgFUS neurosurgery by visualizing anatomical landmarks that can be integrated into the navigation process to accommodate for patient specific anatomy.

3D models mapping optimization through an integrated parameterization approach: cases studies from Ravenna

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cipriani, L.; Fantini, F.; Bertacchi, S.

2014-06-01

Image-based modelling tools based on SfM algorithms gained great popularity since several software houses provided applications able to achieve 3D textured models easily and automatically. The aim of this paper is to point out the importance of controlling models parameterization process, considering that automatic solutions included in these modelling tools can produce poor results in terms of texture utilization. In order to achieve a better quality of textured models from image-based modelling applications, this research presents a series of practical strategies aimed at providing a better balance between geometric resolution of models from passive sensors and their corresponding (u,v) map reference systems. This aspect is essential for the achievement of a high-quality 3D representation, since "apparent colour" is a fundamental aspect in the field of Cultural Heritage documentation. Complex meshes without native parameterization have to be "flatten" or "unwrapped" in the (u,v) parameter space, with the main objective to be mapped with a single image. This result can be obtained by using two different strategies: the former automatic and faster, while the latter manual and time-consuming. Reverse modelling applications provide automatic solutions based on splitting the models by means of different algorithms, that produce a sort of "atlas" of the original model in the parameter space, in many instances not adequate and negatively affecting the overall quality of representation. Using in synergy different solutions, ranging from semantic aware modelling techniques to quad-dominant meshes achieved using retopology tools, it is possible to obtain a complete control of the parameterization process.

Progressive cone beam CT dose control in image-guided radiation therapy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yan Hao; Cervino, Laura; Jiang, Steve B.

2013-06-15

Purpose: Cone beam CT (CBCT) in image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) offers a tremendous advantage for treatment guidance. The associated imaging dose is a clinical concern. One unique feature of CBCT-based IGRT is that the same patient is repeatedly scanned during a treatment course, and the contents of CBCT images at different fractions are similar. The authors propose a progressive dose control (PDC) scheme to utilize this temporal correlation for imaging dose reduction. Methods: A dynamic CBCT scan protocol, as opposed to the static one in the current clinical practice, is proposed to gradually reduce the imaging dose in each treatment fraction.more » The CBCT image from each fraction is processed by a prior-image based nonlocal means (PINLM) module to enhance its quality. The increasing amount of prior information from previous CBCT images prevents degradation of image quality due to the reduced imaging dose. Two proof-of-principle experiments have been conducted using measured phantom data and Monte Carlo simulated patient data with deformation. Results: In the measured phantom case, utilizing a prior image acquired at 0.4 mAs, PINLM is able to improve the image quality of a CBCT acquired at 0.2 mAs by reducing the noise level from 34.95 to 12.45 HU. In the synthetic patient case, acceptable image quality is maintained at four consecutive fractions with gradually decreasing exposure levels of 0.4, 0.1, 0.07, and 0.05 mAs. When compared with the standard low-dose protocol of 0.4 mAs for each fraction, an overall imaging dose reduction of more than 60% is achieved. Conclusions: PINLM-PDC is able to reduce CBCT imaging dose in IGRT utilizing the temporal correlations among the sequence of CBCT images while maintaining the quality.« less

MO-C-18A-01: Advances in Model-Based 3D Image Reconstruction

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chen, G; Pan, X; Stayman, J

2014-06-15

Recent years have seen the emergence of CT image reconstruction techniques that exploit physical models of the imaging system, photon statistics, and even the patient to achieve improved 3D image quality and/or reduction of radiation dose. With numerous advantages in comparison to conventional 3D filtered backprojection, such techniques bring a variety of challenges as well, including: a demanding computational load associated with sophisticated forward models and iterative optimization methods; nonlinearity and nonstationarity in image quality characteristics; a complex dependency on multiple free parameters; and the need to understand how best to incorporate prior information (including patient-specific prior images) within themore » reconstruction process. The advantages, however, are even greater – for example: improved image quality; reduced dose; robustness to noise and artifacts; task-specific reconstruction protocols; suitability to novel CT imaging platforms and noncircular orbits; and incorporation of known characteristics of the imager and patient that are conventionally discarded. This symposium features experts in 3D image reconstruction, image quality assessment, and the translation of such methods to emerging clinical applications. Dr. Chen will address novel methods for the incorporation of prior information in 3D and 4D CT reconstruction techniques. Dr. Pan will show recent advances in optimization-based reconstruction that enable potential reduction of dose and sampling requirements. Dr. Stayman will describe a “task-based imaging” approach that leverages models of the imaging system and patient in combination with a specification of the imaging task to optimize both the acquisition and reconstruction process. Dr. Samei will describe the development of methods for image quality assessment in such nonlinear reconstruction techniques and the use of these methods to characterize and optimize image quality and dose in a spectrum of clinical applications. Learning Objectives: Learn the general methodologies associated with model-based 3D image reconstruction. Learn the potential advantages in image quality and dose associated with model-based image reconstruction. Learn the challenges associated with computational load and image quality assessment for such reconstruction methods. Learn how imaging task can be incorporated as a means to drive optimal image acquisition and reconstruction techniques. Learn how model-based reconstruction methods can incorporate prior information to improve image quality, ease sampling requirements, and reduce dose.« less

Accelerating non-contrast-enhanced MR angiography with inflow inversion recovery imaging by skipped phase encoding and edge deghosting (SPEED).

PubMed

Chang, Zheng; Xiang, Qing-San; Shen, Hao; Yin, Fang-Fang

2010-03-01

To accelerate non-contrast-enhanced MR angiography (MRA) with inflow inversion recovery (IFIR) with a fast imaging method, Skipped Phase Encoding and Edge Deghosting (SPEED). IFIR imaging uses a preparatory inversion pulse to reduce signals from static tissue, while leaving inflow arterial blood unaffected, resulting in sparse arterial vasculature on modest tissue background. By taking advantage of vascular sparsity, SPEED can be simplified with a single-layer model to achieve higher efficiency in both scan time reduction and image reconstruction. SPEED can also make use of information available in multiple coils for further acceleration. The techniques are demonstrated with a three-dimensional renal non-contrast-enhanced IFIR MRA study. Images are reconstructed by SPEED based on a single-layer model to achieve an undersampling factor of up to 2.5 using one skipped phase encoding direction. By making use of information available in multiple coils, SPEED can achieve an undersampling factor of up to 8.3 with four receiver coils. The reconstructed images generally have comparable quality as that of the reference images reconstructed from full k-space data. As demonstrated with a three-dimensional renal IFIR scan, SPEED based on a single-layer model is able to reduce scan time further and achieve higher computational efficiency than the original SPEED.

Ultrafast Harmonic Coherent Compound (UHCC) imaging for high frame rate echocardiography and Shear Wave Elastography

PubMed Central

Correia, Mafalda; Provost, Jean; Chatelin, Simon; Villemain, Olivier; Tanter, Mickael; Pernot, Mathieu

2016-01-01

Transthoracic shear wave elastography of the myocardium remains very challenging due to the poor quality of transthoracic ultrafast imaging and the presence of clutter noise, jitter, phase aberration, and ultrasound reverberation. Several approaches, such as, e.g., diverging-wave coherent compounding or focused harmonic imaging have been proposed to improve the imaging quality. In this study, we introduce ultrafast harmonic coherent compounding (UHCC), in which pulse-inverted diverging-waves are emitted and coherently compounded, and show that such an approach can be used to enhance both Shear Wave Elastography (SWE) and high frame rate B-mode Imaging. UHCC SWE was first tested in phantoms containing an aberrating layer and was compared against pulse-inversion harmonic imaging and against ultrafast coherent compounding (UCC) imaging at the fundamental frequency. In-vivo feasibility of the technique was then evaluated in six healthy volunteers by measuring myocardial stiffness during diastole in transthoracic imaging. We also demonstrated that improvements in imaging quality could be achieved using UHCC B-mode imaging in healthy volunteers. The quality of transthoracic images of the heart was found to be improved with the number of pulse-inverted diverging waves with reduction of the imaging mean clutter level up to 13.8-dB when compared against UCC at the fundamental frequency. These results demonstrated that UHCC B-mode imaging is promising for imaging deep tissues exposed to aberration sources with a high frame-rate. PMID:26890730

A modeling analysis program for the JPL Table Mountain Io sodium cloud data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smyth, W. H.; Goldberg, B. A.

1986-01-01

Progress and achievements in the second year are discussed in three main areas: (1) data quality review of the 1981 Region B/C images; (2) data processing activities; and (3) modeling activities. The data quality review revealed that almost all 1981 Region B/C images are of sufficient quality to be valuable in the analyses of the JPL data set. In the second area, the major milestone reached was the successful development and application of complex image-processing software required to render the original image data suitable for modeling analysis studies. In the third area, the lifetime description of sodium atoms in the planet magnetosphere was improved in the model to include the offset dipole nature of the magnetic field as well as an east-west electric field. These improvements are important in properly representing the basic morphology as well as the east-west asymmetries of the sodium cloud.

Contrast medium administration and image acquisition parameters in renal CT angiography: what radiologists need to know.

PubMed

Saade, Charbel; Deeb, Ibrahim Alsheikh; Mohamad, Maha; Al-Mohiy, Hussain; El-Merhi, Fadi

2016-01-01

Over the last decade, exponential advances in computed tomography (CT) technology have resulted in improved spatial and temporal resolution. Faster image acquisition enabled renal CT angiography to become a viable and effective noninvasive alternative in diagnosing renal vascular pathologies. However, with these advances, new challenges in contrast media administration have emerged. Poor synchronization between scanner and contrast media administration have reduced the consistency in image quality with poor spatial and contrast resolution. Comprehensive understanding of contrast media dynamics is essential in the design and implementation of contrast administration and image acquisition protocols. This review includes an overview of the parameters affecting renal artery opacification and current protocol strategies to achieve optimal image quality during renal CT angiography with iodinated contrast media, with current safety issues highlighted.

A data compression technique for synthetic aperture radar images

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frost, V. S.; Minden, G. J.

1986-01-01

A data compression technique is developed for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. The technique is based on an SAR image model and is designed to preserve the local statistics in the image by an adaptive variable rate modification of block truncation coding (BTC). A data rate of approximately 1.6 bit/pixel is achieved with the technique while maintaining the image quality and cultural (pointlike) targets. The algorithm requires no large data storage and is computationally simple.

Fast l₁-SPIRiT compressed sensing parallel imaging MRI: scalable parallel implementation and clinically feasible runtime.

PubMed

Murphy, Mark; Alley, Marcus; Demmel, James; Keutzer, Kurt; Vasanawala, Shreyas; Lustig, Michael

2012-06-01

We present l₁-SPIRiT, a simple algorithm for auto calibrating parallel imaging (acPI) and compressed sensing (CS) that permits an efficient implementation with clinically-feasible runtimes. We propose a CS objective function that minimizes cross-channel joint sparsity in the wavelet domain. Our reconstruction minimizes this objective via iterative soft-thresholding, and integrates naturally with iterative self-consistent parallel imaging (SPIRiT). Like many iterative magnetic resonance imaging reconstructions, l₁-SPIRiT's image quality comes at a high computational cost. Excessively long runtimes are a barrier to the clinical use of any reconstruction approach, and thus we discuss our approach to efficiently parallelizing l₁-SPIRiT and to achieving clinically-feasible runtimes. We present parallelizations of l₁-SPIRiT for both multi-GPU systems and multi-core CPUs, and discuss the software optimization and parallelization decisions made in our implementation. The performance of these alternatives depends on the processor architecture, the size of the image matrix, and the number of parallel imaging channels. Fundamentally, achieving fast runtime requires the correct trade-off between cache usage and parallelization overheads. We demonstrate image quality via a case from our clinical experimentation, using a custom 3DFT spoiled gradient echo (SPGR) sequence with up to 8× acceleration via Poisson-disc undersampling in the two phase-encoded directions.

Molecular breast imaging using a dedicated high-performance instrument

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Connor, Michael K.; Wagenaar, Douglas; Hruska, Carrie B.; Phillips, Stephen; Caravaglia, Gina; Rhodes, Deborah

2006-08-01

In women with radiographically dense breasts, the sensitivity of mammography is less than 50%. With the increase in the percent of women with dense breasts, it is important to look at alternative screening techniques for this population. This article reviews the strengths and weaknesses of current imaging techniques and focuses on recent developments in semiconductor-based gamma camera systems that offer significant improvements in image quality over that achievable with single-crystal sodium iodide systems. We have developed a technique known as Molecular Breast Imaging (MBI) using small field of view Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) gamma cameras that permits the breast to be imaged in a similar manner to mammography, using light pain-free compression. Computer simulations and experimental studies have shown that use of low-energy high sensitivity collimation coupled with the excellent energy resolution and intrinsic spatial resolution of CZT detectors provides optimum image quality for the detection of small breast lesions. Preliminary clinical studies with a prototype dual-detector system have demonstrated that Molecular Breast Imaging has a sensitivity of ~90% for the detection of breast tumors less than 10 mm in diameter. By comparison, conventional scintimammography only achieves a sensitivity of 50% in the detection of lesions < 10 mm. Because Molecular Breast Imaging is not affected by breast density, this technique may offer an important adjunct to mammography in the evaluation of women with dense breast parenchyma.

Statistical iterative reconstruction to improve image quality for digital breast tomosynthesis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Xu, Shiyu, E-mail: shiyu.xu@gmail.com; Chen, Ying, E-mail: adachen@siu.edu; Lu, Jianping

2015-09-15

Purpose: Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is a novel modality with the potential to improve early detection of breast cancer by providing three-dimensional (3D) imaging with a low radiation dose. 3D image reconstruction presents some challenges: cone-beam and flat-panel geometry, and highly incomplete sampling. A promising means to overcome these challenges is statistical iterative reconstruction (IR), since it provides the flexibility of accurate physics modeling and a general description of system geometry. The authors’ goal was to develop techniques for applying statistical IR to tomosynthesis imaging data. Methods: These techniques include the following: a physics model with a local voxel-pair basedmore » prior with flexible parameters to fine-tune image quality; a precomputed parameter λ in the prior, to remove data dependence and to achieve a uniform resolution property; an effective ray-driven technique to compute the forward and backprojection; and an oversampled, ray-driven method to perform high resolution reconstruction with a practical region-of-interest technique. To assess the performance of these techniques, the authors acquired phantom data on the stationary DBT prototype system. To solve the estimation problem, the authors proposed an optimization-transfer based algorithm framework that potentially allows fewer iterations to achieve an acceptably converged reconstruction. Results: IR improved the detectability of low-contrast and small microcalcifications, reduced cross-plane artifacts, improved spatial resolution, and lowered noise in reconstructed images. Conclusions: Although the computational load remains a significant challenge for practical development, the superior image quality provided by statistical IR, combined with advancing computational techniques, may bring benefits to screening, diagnostics, and intraoperative imaging in clinical applications.« less

A data-driven approach for quality assessment of radiologic interpretations.

PubMed

Hsu, William; Han, Simon X; Arnold, Corey W; Bui, Alex At; Enzmann, Dieter R

2016-04-01

Given the increasing emphasis on delivering high-quality, cost-efficient healthcare, improved methodologies are needed to measure the accuracy and utility of ordered diagnostic examinations in achieving the appropriate diagnosis. Here, we present a data-driven approach for performing automated quality assessment of radiologic interpretations using other clinical information (e.g., pathology) as a reference standard for individual radiologists, subspecialty sections, imaging modalities, and entire departments. Downstream diagnostic conclusions from the electronic medical record are utilized as "truth" to which upstream diagnoses generated by radiology are compared. The described system automatically extracts and compares patient medical data to characterize concordance between clinical sources. Initial results are presented in the context of breast imaging, matching 18 101 radiologic interpretations with 301 pathology diagnoses and achieving a precision and recall of 84% and 92%, respectively. The presented data-driven method highlights the challenges of integrating multiple data sources and the application of information extraction tools to facilitate healthcare quality improvement. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Radiation dose reduction in abdominal computed tomography during the late hepatic arterial phase using a model-based iterative reconstruction algorithm: how low can we go?

PubMed

Husarik, Daniela B; Marin, Daniele; Samei, Ehsan; Richard, Samuel; Chen, Baiyu; Jaffe, Tracy A; Bashir, Mustafa R; Nelson, Rendon C

2012-08-01

The aim of this study was to compare the image quality of abdominal computed tomography scans in an anthropomorphic phantom acquired at different radiation dose levels where each raw data set is reconstructed with both a standard convolution filtered back projection (FBP) and a full model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) algorithm. An anthropomorphic phantom in 3 sizes was used with a custom-built liver insert simulating late hepatic arterial enhancement and containing hypervascular liver lesions of various sizes. Imaging was performed on a 64-section multidetector-row computed tomography scanner (Discovery CT750 HD; GE Healthcare, Waukesha, WI) at 3 different tube voltages for each patient size and 5 incrementally decreasing tube current-time products for each tube voltage. Quantitative analysis consisted of contrast-to-noise ratio calculations and image noise assessment. Qualitative image analysis was performed by 3 independent radiologists rating subjective image quality and lesion conspicuity. Contrast-to-noise ratio was significantly higher and mean image noise was significantly lower on MBIR images than on FBP images in all patient sizes, at all tube voltage settings, and all radiation dose levels (P < 0.05). Overall image quality and lesion conspicuity were rated higher for MBIR images compared with FBP images at all radiation dose levels. Image quality and lesion conspicuity on 25% to 50% dose MBIR images were rated equal to full-dose FBP images. This phantom study suggests that depending on patient size, clinically acceptable image quality of the liver in the late hepatic arterial phase can be achieved with MBIR at approximately 50% lower radiation dose compared with FBP.

Evaluation of an iterative model-based reconstruction of pediatric abdominal CT with regard to image quality and radiation dose.

PubMed

Aurumskjöld, Marie-Louise; Söderberg, Marcus; Stålhammar, Fredrik; von Steyern, Kristina Vult; Tingberg, Anders; Ydström, Kristina

2018-06-01

Background In pediatric patients, computed tomography (CT) is important in the medical chain of diagnosing and monitoring various diseases. Because children are more radiosensitive than adults, they require minimal radiation exposure. One way to achieve this goal is to implement new technical solutions, like iterative reconstruction. Purpose To evaluate the potential of a new, iterative, model-based method for reconstructing (IMR) pediatric abdominal CT at a low radiation dose and determine whether it maintains or improves image quality, compared to the current reconstruction method. Material and Methods Forty pediatric patients underwent abdominal CT. Twenty patients were examined with the standard dose settings and 20 patients were examined with a 32% lower radiation dose. Images from the standard examination were reconstructed with a hybrid iterative reconstruction method (iDose 4 ), and images from the low-dose examinations were reconstructed with both iDose 4 and IMR. Image quality was evaluated subjectively by three observers, according to modified EU image quality criteria, and evaluated objectively based on the noise observed in liver images. Results Visual grading characteristics analyses showed no difference in image quality between the standard dose examination reconstructed with iDose 4 and the low dose examination reconstructed with IMR. IMR showed lower image noise in the liver compared to iDose 4 images. Inter- and intra-observer variance was low: the intraclass coefficient was 0.66 (95% confidence interval = 0.60-0.71) for the three observers. Conclusion IMR provided image quality equivalent or superior to the standard iDose 4 method for evaluating pediatric abdominal CT, even with a 32% dose reduction.

Comparison of pediatric radiation dose and vessel visibility on angiographic systems using piglets as a surrogate: antiscatter grid removal vs. lower detector air kerma settings with a grid — a preclinical investigation

PubMed Central

Racadio, John M.; Abruzzo, Todd A.; Johnson, Neil D.; Patel, Manish N.; Kukreja, Kamlesh U.; den Hartog, Mark. J. H.; Hoornaert, Bart P.A.; Nachabe, Rami A.

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to reduce pediatric doses while maintaining or improving image quality scores without removing the grid from X‐ray beam. This study was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Three piglets (5, 14, and 20 kg) were imaged using six different selectable detector air kerma (Kair) per frame values (100%, 70%, 50%, 35%, 25%, 17.5%) with and without the grid. Number of distal branches visualized with diagnostic confidence relative to the injected vessel defined image quality score. Five pediatric interventional radiologists evaluated all images. Image quality score and piglet Kair were statistically compared using analysis of variance and receiver operating curve analysis to define the preferred dose setting and use of grid for a visibility of 2nd and 3rd order vessel branches. Grid removal reduced both dose to subject and imaging quality by 26%. Third order branches could only be visualized with the grid present; 100% detector Kair was required for smallest pig, while 70% detector Kair was adequate for the two larger pigs. Second order branches could be visualized with grid at 17.5% detector Kair for all three pig sizes. Without the grid, 50%, 35%, and 35% detector Kair were required for smallest to largest pig, respectively. Grid removal reduces both dose and image quality score. Image quality scores can be maintained with less dose to subject with the grid in the beam as opposed to removed. Smaller anatomy requires more dose to the detector to achieve the same image quality score. PACS numbers: 87.53.Bn, 87.57.N‐, 87.57.cj, 87.59.cf, 87.59.Dj PMID:26699297

Investigating the influence of chromatic aberration and optical illumination bandwidth on fundus imaging in rats

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Hao; Liu, Wenzhong; Zhang, Hao F.

2015-10-01

Rodent models are indispensable in studying various retinal diseases. Noninvasive, high-resolution retinal imaging of rodent models is highly desired for longitudinally investigating the pathogenesis and therapeutic strategies. However, due to severe aberrations, the retinal image quality in rodents can be much worse than that in humans. We numerically and experimentally investigated the influence of chromatic aberration and optical illumination bandwidth on retinal imaging. We confirmed that the rat retinal image quality decreased with increasing illumination bandwidth. We achieved the retinal image resolution of 10 μm using a 19 nm illumination bandwidth centered at 580 nm in a home-built fundus camera. Furthermore, we observed higher chromatic aberration in albino rat eyes than in pigmented rat eyes. This study provides a design guide for high-resolution fundus camera for rodents. Our method is also beneficial to dispersion compensation in multiwavelength retinal imaging applications.

Infrared and visible image fusion method based on saliency detection in sparse domain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, C. H.; Qi, Y.; Ding, W. R.

2017-06-01

Infrared and visible image fusion is a key problem in the field of multi-sensor image fusion. To better preserve the significant information of the infrared and visible images in the final fused image, the saliency maps of the source images is introduced into the fusion procedure. Firstly, under the framework of the joint sparse representation (JSR) model, the global and local saliency maps of the source images are obtained based on sparse coefficients. Then, a saliency detection model is proposed, which combines the global and local saliency maps to generate an integrated saliency map. Finally, a weighted fusion algorithm based on the integrated saliency map is developed to achieve the fusion progress. The experimental results show that our method is superior to the state-of-the-art methods in terms of several universal quality evaluation indexes, as well as in the visual quality.

Multistatic Array Sampling Scheme for Fast Near-Field Image Reconstruction

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-01-01

1 Multistatic Array Sampling Scheme for Fast Near-Field Image Reconstruction William F. Moulder, James D. Krieger, Denise T. Maurais-Galejs, Huy...described and validated experimentally with the formation of high quality microwave images. It is further shown that the scheme is more than two orders of... scheme (wherein transmitters and receivers are co-located) which require NTNR transmit-receive elements to achieve the same sampling. The second

Biological elements carry out optical tasks in coherent imaging systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferraro, P.; Bianco, V.; Paturzo, M.; Miccio, L.; Memmolo, P.; Merola, F.; Marchesano, V.

2016-03-01

We show how biological elements, like live bacteria species and Red Blood Cells (RBCs) can accomplish optical functionalities in DH systems. Turbid media allow coherent microscopy despite the strong light scattering these provoke, acting on light just as moving diffusers. Furthermore, a turbid medium can have positive effects on a coherent imaging system, providing resolution enhancement and mimicking the action of noise decorrelation devices, thus yielding an image quality significantly higher than the quality achievable through a transparent medium in similar recording conditions. Besides, suspended RBCs are demonstrated to behave as controllable liquid micro-lenses, opening new possibilities in biophotonics for endoscopy imaging purposes, as well as telemedicine for point-of-care diagnostics in developing countries and low-resource settings.

Use of images in shelf life assessment of fruit salad.

PubMed

Manzocco, Lara; Rumignani, Alberto; Lagazio, Corrado

2012-07-01

Fruit salads stored for different lengths of time as well as their images were used to estimate sensory shelf life by survival analysis. Shelf life estimates obtained using fruit salad images were longer than those achieved by analyzing the real product. This was attributed to the fact that images are 2-dimensional representations of real food, probably not comprehensive of all the visual information needed by the panelists to produce an acceptability/unacceptability judgment. Images were also subjected to image analysis and the analysis of the overall visual quality by a trained panel. These indices proved to be highly correlated to consumer rejection of the fruit salad and could be exploited for routine shelf life assessment of analogous products. To this regard, a failure criterion of 25% consumer rejection could be equivalent to a score 3 in a 5-point overall visual quality scale. Food images can be used to assess product shelf life. In the case of fruit salads, the overall visual quality assessed by a trained panel on product images and the percentage of brown pixels in digital images can be exploited to estimate shelf life corresponding to a selected consumer rejection. © 2012 Institute of Food Technologists®

Development of quality control and instrumentation performance metrics for diffuse optical spectroscopic imaging instruments in the multi-center clinical environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keene, Samuel T.; Cerussi, Albert E.; Warren, Robert V.; Hill, Brian; Roblyer, Darren; Leproux, AnaÑ--s.; Durkin, Amanda F.; O'Sullivan, Thomas D.; Haghany, Hosain; Mantulin, William W.; Tromberg, Bruce J.

2013-03-01

Instrument equivalence and quality control are critical elements of multi-center clinical trials. We currently have five identical Diffuse Optical Spectroscopic Imaging (DOSI) instruments enrolled in the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN, #6691) trial located at five academic clinical research sites in the US. The goal of the study is to predict the response of breast tumors to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in 60 patients. In order to reliably compare DOSI measurements across different instruments, operators and sites, we must be confident that the data quality is comparable. We require objective and reliable methods for identifying, correcting, and rejecting low quality data. To achieve this goal, we developed and tested an automated quality control algorithm that rejects data points below the instrument noise floor, improves tissue optical property recovery, and outputs a detailed data quality report. Using a new protocol for obtaining dark-noise data, we applied the algorithm to ACRIN patient data and successfully improved the quality of recovered physiological data in some cases.

Radiological Image Compression

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lo, Shih-Chung Benedict

The movement toward digital images in radiology presents the problem of how to conveniently and economically store, retrieve, and transmit the volume of digital images. Basic research into image data compression is necessary in order to move from a film-based department to an efficient digital -based department. Digital data compression technology consists of two types of compression technique: error-free and irreversible. Error -free image compression is desired; however, present techniques can only achieve compression ratio of from 1.5:1 to 3:1, depending upon the image characteristics. Irreversible image compression can achieve a much higher compression ratio; however, the image reconstructed from the compressed data shows some difference from the original image. This dissertation studies both error-free and irreversible image compression techniques. In particular, some modified error-free techniques have been tested and the recommended strategies for various radiological images are discussed. A full-frame bit-allocation irreversible compression technique has been derived. A total of 76 images which include CT head and body, and radiographs digitized to 2048 x 2048, 1024 x 1024, and 512 x 512 have been used to test this algorithm. The normalized mean -square-error (NMSE) on the difference image, defined as the difference between the original and the reconstructed image from a given compression ratio, is used as a global measurement on the quality of the reconstructed image. The NMSE's of total of 380 reconstructed and 380 difference images are measured and the results tabulated. Three complex compression methods are also suggested to compress images with special characteristics. Finally, various parameters which would effect the quality of the reconstructed images are discussed. A proposed hardware compression module is given in the last chapter.

Multi-frame super-resolution with quality self-assessment for retinal fundus videos.

PubMed

Köhler, Thomas; Brost, Alexander; Mogalle, Katja; Zhang, Qianyi; Köhler, Christiane; Michelson, Georg; Hornegger, Joachim; Tornow, Ralf P

2014-01-01

This paper proposes a novel super-resolution framework to reconstruct high-resolution fundus images from multiple low-resolution video frames in retinal fundus imaging. Natural eye movements during an examination are used as a cue for super-resolution in a robust maximum a-posteriori scheme. In order to compensate heterogeneous illumination on the fundus, we integrate retrospective illumination correction for photometric registration to the underlying imaging model. Our method utilizes quality self-assessment to provide objective quality scores for reconstructed images as well as to select regularization parameters automatically. In our evaluation on real data acquired from six human subjects with a low-cost video camera, the proposed method achieved considerable enhancements of low-resolution frames and improved noise and sharpness characteristics by 74%. In terms of image analysis, we demonstrate the importance of our method for the improvement of automatic blood vessel segmentation as an example application, where the sensitivity was increased by 13% using super-resolution reconstruction.

Continuous-tone applications in digital hard-copy output devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saunders, Jeffrey C.

1990-11-01

Dye diffusion technology has made a recent entry into the hardcopy printer arena making it now possible to achieve near-photographic quality images from digital raster image data. Whereas the majority of low cost printers utilizing ink-jet, thermal wax, or dotmatrix technologies advertise high resolution printheads, the restrictions which dithering algorithms apply to these inherently binary printing systems force them to sacrifice spatial resolution capability for tone scale reproduction. Dye diffusion technology allows a fully continuous range of density at each pixel location thus preserving the full spatial resolution capability of the printhead; spatial resolution is not sacrificed for tone scale. This results in images whose quality is far superior to the ink-jet or wax-transfer products; image quality so high in fact, to the unaided eye, dye diffusion images are indistinguishable from their silver-halide counterparts. Eastman Kodak Co. offers a highly refined application of dye diffusion technology in the Kodak XL 7700 Digital Continuous Tone Printer and Kodak EKTATHERM media products. The XL . 7700 Printer represents a serious alternative to expensive laser-based film recorders for applications which require high quality image output from digital data files. This paper presents an explanation of dye diffusion printing, what distinguishes it from other technologies, sensitometric control and image quality parameters, and applications within the industry, particularly that of Airborne Reconnaissance and Remote Sensing.

High-contrast multilayer imaging of biological organisms through dark-field digital refocusing.

PubMed

Faridian, Ahmad; Pedrini, Giancarlo; Osten, Wolfgang

2013-08-01

We have developed an imaging system to extract high contrast images from different layers of biological organisms. Utilizing a digital holographic approach, the system works without scanning through layers of the specimen. In dark-field illumination, scattered light has the main contribution in image formation, but in the case of coherent illumination, this creates a strong speckle noise that reduces the image quality. To remove this restriction, the specimen has been illuminated with various speckle-fields and a hologram has been recorded for each speckle-field. Each hologram has been analyzed separately and the corresponding intensity image has been reconstructed. The final image has been derived by averaging over the reconstructed images. A correlation approach has been utilized to determine the number of speckle-fields required to achieve a desired contrast and image quality. The reconstructed intensity images in different object layers are shown for different sea urchin larvae. Two multimedia files are attached to illustrate the process of digital focusing.

Breast MRI at 7 Tesla with a bilateral coil and T1-weighted acquisition with robust fat suppression: image evaluation and comparison with 3 Tesla.

PubMed

Brown, Ryan; Storey, Pippa; Geppert, Christian; McGorty, KellyAnne; Leite, Ana Paula Klautau; Babb, James; Sodickson, Daniel K; Wiggins, Graham C; Moy, Linda

2013-11-01

To evaluate the image quality of T1-weighted fat-suppressed breast MRI at 7 T and to compare 7-T and 3-T images. Seventeen subjects were imaged using a 7-T bilateral transmit-receive coil and 3D gradient echo sequence with adiabatic inversion-based fat suppression (FS). Images were graded on a five-point scale and quantitatively assessed through signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), fibroglandular/fat contrast and signal uniformity measurements. Image scores at 7 and 3 T were similar on standard-resolution images (1.1 × 1.1 × 1.1-1.6 mm(3)), indicating that high-quality breast imaging with clinical parameters can be performed at 7 T. The 7-T SNR advantage was underscored on 0.6-mm isotropic images, where image quality was significantly greater than at 3 T (4.2 versus 3.1, P ≤ 0.0001). Fibroglandular/fat contrast was more than two times higher at 7 T than at 3 T, owing to effective adiabatic inversion-based FS and the inherent 7-T signal advantage. Signal uniformity was comparable at 7 and 3 T (P < 0.05). Similar 7-T image quality was observed in all subjects, indicating robustness against anatomical variation. The 7-T bilateral transmit-receive coil and adiabatic inversion-based FS technique produce image quality that is as good as or better than at 3 T. • High image quality bilateral breast MRI is achievable with clinical parameters at 7 T. • 7-T high-resolution imaging improves delineation of subtle soft tissue structures. • Adiabatic-based fat suppression provides excellent fibroglandular/fat contrast at 7 T. • 7- and 3-T 3D T1-weighted gradient-echo images have similar signal uniformity. • The 7-T dual solenoid coil enables bilateral imaging without compromising uniformity.

iPhone 4s and iPhone 5s Imaging of the Eye.

PubMed

Jalil, Maaz; Ferenczy, Sandor R; Shields, Carol L

2017-01-01

To evaluate the technical feasibility of a consumer-grade cellular iPhone camera as an ocular imaging device compared to existing ophthalmic imaging equipment for documentation purposes. A comparison of iPhone 4s and 5s images was made with external facial images (macrophotography) using Nikon cameras, slit-lamp images (microphotography) using Zeiss photo slit-lamp camera, and fundus images (fundus photography) using RetCam II. In an analysis of six consecutive patients with ophthalmic conditions, both iPhones achieved documentation of external findings (macrophotography) using standard camera modality, tap to focus, and built-in flash. Both iPhones achieved documentation of anterior segment findings (microphotography) during slit-lamp examination through oculars. Both iPhones achieved fundus imaging using standard video modality with continuous iPhone illumination through an ophthalmic lens. Comparison to standard ophthalmic cameras, macrophotography and microphotography were excellent. In comparison to RetCam fundus photography, iPhone fundus photography revealed smaller field and was technically more difficult to obtain, but the quality was nearly similar to RetCam. iPhone versions 4s and 5s can provide excellent ophthalmic macrophotography and microphotography and adequate fundus photography. We believe that iPhone imaging could be most useful in settings where expensive, complicated, and cumbersome imaging equipment is unavailable.

Imaging the Parasinus Region with a Third-Generation Dual-Source CT and the Effect of Tin Filtration on Image Quality and Radiation Dose.

PubMed

Lell, M M; May, M S; Brand, M; Eller, A; Buder, T; Hofmann, E; Uder, M; Wuest, W

2015-07-01

CT is the imaging technique of choice in the evaluation of midface trauma or inflammatory disease. We performed a systematic evaluation of scan protocols to optimize image quality and radiation exposure on third-generation dual-source CT. CT protocols with different tube voltage (70-150 kV), current (25-300 reference mAs), prefiltration, pitch value, and rotation time were systematically evaluated. All images were reconstructed with iterative reconstruction (Advanced Modeled Iterative Reconstruction, level 2). To individually compare results with otherwise identical factors, we obtained all scans on a frozen human head. Conebeam CT was performed for image quality and dose comparison with multidetector row CT. Delineation of important anatomic structures and incidental pathologic conditions in the cadaver head was evaluated. One hundred kilovolts with tin prefiltration demonstrated the best compromise between dose and image quality. The most dose-effective combination for trauma imaging was Sn100 kV/250 mAs (volume CT dose index, 2.02 mGy), and for preoperative sinus surgery planning, Sn100 kV/150 mAs (volume CT dose index, 1.22 mGy). "Sn" indicates an additional prefiltration of the x-ray beam with a tin filter to constrict the energy spectrum. Exclusion of sinonasal disease was possible with even a lower dose by using Sn100 kV/25 mAs (volume CT dose index, 0.2 mGy). High image quality at very low dose levels can be achieved by using a Sn100-kV protocol with iterative reconstruction. The effective dose is comparable with that of conventional radiography, and the high image quality at even lower radiation exposure favors multidetector row CT over conebeam CT. © 2015 by American Journal of Neuroradiology.

Clinical performance of a free-breathing spatiotemporally accelerated 3-D time-resolved contrast-enhanced pediatric abdominal MR angiography.

PubMed

Zhang, Tao; Yousaf, Ufra; Hsiao, Albert; Cheng, Joseph Y; Alley, Marcus T; Lustig, Michael; Pauly, John M; Vasanawala, Shreyas S

2015-10-01

Pediatric contrast-enhanced MR angiography is often limited by respiration, other patient motion and compromised spatiotemporal resolution. To determine the reliability of a free-breathing spatiotemporally accelerated 3-D time-resolved contrast-enhanced MR angiography method for depicting abdominal arterial anatomy in young children. With IRB approval and informed consent, we retrospectively identified 27 consecutive children (16 males and 11 females; mean age: 3.8 years, range: 14 days to 8.4 years) referred for contrast-enhanced MR angiography at our institution, who had undergone free-breathing spatiotemporally accelerated time-resolved contrast-enhanced MR angiography studies. A radio-frequency-spoiled gradient echo sequence with Cartesian variable density k-space sampling and radial view ordering, intrinsic motion navigation and intermittent fat suppression was developed. Images were reconstructed with soft-gated parallel imaging locally low-rank method to achieve both motion correction and high spatiotemporal resolution. Quality of delineation of 13 abdominal arteries in the reconstructed images was assessed independently by two radiologists on a five-point scale. Ninety-five percent confidence intervals of the proportion of diagnostically adequate cases were calculated. Interobserver agreements were also analyzed. Eleven out of 13 arteries achieved acceptable image quality (mean score range: 3.9-5.0) for both readers. Fair to substantial interobserver agreement was reached on nine arteries. Free-breathing spatiotemporally accelerated 3-D time-resolved contrast-enhanced MR angiography frequently yields diagnostic image quality for most abdominal arteries in young children.

A new image for long-term care.

PubMed

Wager, Richard; Creelman, William

2004-04-01

To counter widely held negative images of long-term care, managers in the industry should implement quality-improvement initiatives that include six key strategies: Manage the expectations of residents and their families. Address customers' concerns early. Build long-term customer satisfaction. Allocate resources to achieve exceptional outcomes in key areas. Respond to adverse events with compassion. Reinforce the facility's credibility.

The Impact of the Condenser on Cytogenetic Image Quality in Digital Microscope System

PubMed Central

Ren, Liqiang; Li, Zheng; Li, Yuhua; Zheng, Bin; Li, Shibo; Chen, Xiaodong; Liu, Hong

2013-01-01

Background: Optimizing operational parameters of the digital microscope system is an important technique to acquire high quality cytogenetic images and facilitate the process of karyotyping so that the efficiency and accuracy of diagnosis can be improved. OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the impact of the condenser on cytogenetic image quality and system working performance using a prototype digital microscope image scanning system. Methods: Both theoretical analysis and experimental validations through objectively evaluating a resolution test chart and subjectively observing large numbers of specimen were conducted. Results: The results show that the optimal image quality and large depth of field (DOF) are simultaneously obtained when the numerical aperture of condenser is set as 60%–70% of the corresponding objective. Under this condition, more analyzable chromosomes and diagnostic information are obtained. As a result, the system shows higher working stability and less restriction for the implementation of algorithms such as autofocusing especially when the system is designed to achieve high throughput continuous image scanning. Conclusions: Although the above quantitative results were obtained using a specific prototype system under the experimental conditions reported in this paper, the presented evaluation methodologies can provide valuable guidelines for optimizing operational parameters in cytogenetic imaging using the high throughput continuous scanning microscopes in clinical practice. PMID:23676284

Image reconstruction through thin scattering media by simulated annealing algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fang, Longjie; Zuo, Haoyi; Pang, Lin; Yang, Zuogang; Zhang, Xicheng; Zhu, Jianhua

2018-07-01

An idea for reconstructing the image of an object behind thin scattering media is proposed by phase modulation. The optimized phase mask is achieved by modulating the scattered light using simulated annealing algorithm. The correlation coefficient is exploited as a fitness function to evaluate the quality of reconstructed image. The reconstructed images optimized from simulated annealing algorithm and genetic algorithm are compared in detail. The experimental results show that our proposed method has better definition and higher speed than genetic algorithm.

Performing Quantitative Imaging Acquisition, Analysis and Visualization Using the Best of Open Source and Commercial Software Solutions.

PubMed

Shenoy, Shailesh M

2016-07-01

A challenge in any imaging laboratory, especially one that uses modern techniques, is to achieve a sustainable and productive balance between using open source and commercial software to perform quantitative image acquisition, analysis and visualization. In addition to considering the expense of software licensing, one must consider factors such as the quality and usefulness of the software's support, training and documentation. Also, one must consider the reproducibility with which multiple people generate results using the same software to perform the same analysis, how one may distribute their methods to the community using the software and the potential for achieving automation to improve productivity.

Fast ℓ1-SPIRiT Compressed Sensing Parallel Imaging MRI: Scalable Parallel Implementation and Clinically Feasible Runtime

PubMed Central

Murphy, Mark; Alley, Marcus; Demmel, James; Keutzer, Kurt; Vasanawala, Shreyas; Lustig, Michael

2012-01-01

We present ℓ1-SPIRiT, a simple algorithm for auto calibrating parallel imaging (acPI) and compressed sensing (CS) that permits an efficient implementation with clinically-feasible runtimes. We propose a CS objective function that minimizes cross-channel joint sparsity in the Wavelet domain. Our reconstruction minimizes this objective via iterative soft-thresholding, and integrates naturally with iterative Self-Consistent Parallel Imaging (SPIRiT). Like many iterative MRI reconstructions, ℓ1-SPIRiT’s image quality comes at a high computational cost. Excessively long runtimes are a barrier to the clinical use of any reconstruction approach, and thus we discuss our approach to efficiently parallelizing ℓ1-SPIRiT and to achieving clinically-feasible runtimes. We present parallelizations of ℓ1-SPIRiT for both multi-GPU systems and multi-core CPUs, and discuss the software optimization and parallelization decisions made in our implementation. The performance of these alternatives depends on the processor architecture, the size of the image matrix, and the number of parallel imaging channels. Fundamentally, achieving fast runtime requires the correct trade-off between cache usage and parallelization overheads. We demonstrate image quality via a case from our clinical experimentation, using a custom 3DFT Spoiled Gradient Echo (SPGR) sequence with up to 8× acceleration via poisson-disc undersampling in the two phase-encoded directions. PMID:22345529

Histogram-based normalization technique on human brain magnetic resonance images from different acquisitions.

PubMed

Sun, Xiaofei; Shi, Lin; Luo, Yishan; Yang, Wei; Li, Hongpeng; Liang, Peipeng; Li, Kuncheng; Mok, Vincent C T; Chu, Winnie C W; Wang, Defeng

2015-07-28

Intensity normalization is an important preprocessing step in brain magnetic resonance image (MRI) analysis. During MR image acquisition, different scanners or parameters would be used for scanning different subjects or the same subject at a different time, which may result in large intensity variations. This intensity variation will greatly undermine the performance of subsequent MRI processing and population analysis, such as image registration, segmentation, and tissue volume measurement. In this work, we proposed a new histogram normalization method to reduce the intensity variation between MRIs obtained from different acquisitions. In our experiment, we scanned each subject twice on two different scanners using different imaging parameters. With noise estimation, the image with lower noise level was determined and treated as the high-quality reference image. Then the histogram of the low-quality image was normalized to the histogram of the high-quality image. The normalization algorithm includes two main steps: (1) intensity scaling (IS), where, for the high-quality reference image, the intensities of the image are first rescaled to a range between the low intensity region (LIR) value and the high intensity region (HIR) value; and (2) histogram normalization (HN),where the histogram of low-quality image as input image is stretched to match the histogram of the reference image, so that the intensity range in the normalized image will also lie between LIR and HIR. We performed three sets of experiments to evaluate the proposed method, i.e., image registration, segmentation, and tissue volume measurement, and compared this with the existing intensity normalization method. It is then possible to validate that our histogram normalization framework can achieve better results in all the experiments. It is also demonstrated that the brain template with normalization preprocessing is of higher quality than the template with no normalization processing. We have proposed a histogram-based MRI intensity normalization method. The method can normalize scans which were acquired on different MRI units. We have validated that the method can greatly improve the image analysis performance. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that with the help of our normalization method, we can create a higher quality Chinese brain template.

Cnn Based Retinal Image Upscaling Using Zero Component Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nasonov, A.; Chesnakov, K.; Krylov, A.

2017-05-01

The aim of the paper is to obtain high quality of image upscaling for noisy images that are typical in medical image processing. A new training scenario for convolutional neural network based image upscaling method is proposed. Its main idea is a novel dataset preparation method for deep learning. The dataset contains pairs of noisy low-resolution images and corresponding noiseless highresolution images. To achieve better results at edges and textured areas, Zero Component Analysis is applied to these images. The upscaling results are compared with other state-of-the-art methods like DCCI, SI-3 and SRCNN on noisy medical ophthalmological images. Objective evaluation of the results confirms high quality of the proposed method. Visual analysis shows that fine details and structures like blood vessels are preserved, noise level is reduced and no artifacts or non-existing details are added. These properties are essential in retinal diagnosis establishment, so the proposed algorithm is recommended to be used in real medical applications.

A further study to investigate the detection and enhancement of latent fingerprints using visible absorption and luminescence chemical imaging.

PubMed

Payne, Gemma; Reedy, Brian; Lennard, Chris; Comber, Bruce; Exline, David; Roux, Claude

2005-05-28

This study investigated the application of chemical imaging to the detection of latent fingerprints using the Condor macroscopic chemical imaging system (ChemImage Corp., Pittsburgh, USA). Methods were developed and optimised for the visualisation of untreated latent fingerprints and fingerprints processed with DFO, ninhydrin, cyanoacrylate, and cyanoacrylate plus rhodamine 6G stain. The results obtained with chemical imaging were compared to the detection achieved using conventional imaging techniques. The Condor significantly improved the detection of many prints, especially those that might be considered poor quality or borderline prints. Prints on newspaper treated with ninhydrin and DFO, and prints on white and yellow paper treated with ninhydrin, benefited the most from chemical imaging detection. In many cases, fingerprints undetectable using conventional imaging techniques could be visualised with chemical imaging. Ridge detail from untreated prints on yellow paper was also detected using the Condor. When prints of high quality were examined, both detection techniques produced quality results. The results of this project demonstrate that chemical imaging offers advantages over conventional visualisation techniques when examining latent fingerprints, especially those that would be considered difficult, such as weak prints or prints on surfaces that produce highly luminescent backgrounds. Standard testing procedures for the detection and enhancement of fingerprints by chemical imaging are presented and discussed.

Impact of Adaptive Statistical Iterative Reconstruction (ASIR) on radiation dose and image quality in aortic dissection studies: a qualitative and quantitative analysis.

PubMed

Cornfeld, Daniel; Israel, Gary; Detroy, Ezra; Bokhari, Jamal; Mojibian, Hamid

2011-03-01

The purpose of the study was to quantify the radiation dose reduction achieved when imaging the aorta using Adaptive Statistical Iterative Reconstruction (ASIR) and to determine if this has an effect on image quality. We retrospectively reviewed 31 CT angiography examinations of the thoracic and abdominal aorta performed with ASIR and 32 consecutive similar examinations performed without ASIR. Volume CT dose index (CTDI(vol)), dose-length product (DLP), aortic enhancement at multiple levels, aorta-to-muscle contrast-to-noise ratio at multiple levels, and subjective image quality were compared between the two groups. The mean CTDI(vol) and DLP were significantly lower for the studies performed with ASIR versus studies without ASIR (15.6 vs 21.5 mGy, with an average difference of 5.8 mGy [95% CI 2.3-9.4 mGy] and 818 vs 1075 mGy × cm with an average difference of -257 mGy × cm [54-460 mGy × cm], respectively). Aortic enhancement, aortic signal-to-noise ratio, and aortic to muscle contrast-to-noise ratio were not different between the two groups. Subjectively, one reviewer preferred the non-ASIR images and one found the images equivalent. Both reviewers believed the images were of diagnostic quality. A 29% decrease in CTDI(vol) and a 20% decrease in DLP were obtained in scans with ASIR compared with scans without ASIR, without a quantitative loss of image quality.

Progressive low-bitrate digital color/monochrome image coding by neuro-fuzzy clustering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mitra, Sunanda; Meadows, Steven

1997-10-01

Color image coding at low bit rates is an area of research that is just being addressed in recent literature since the problems of storage and transmission of color images are becoming more prominent in many applications. Current trends in image coding exploit the advantage of subband/wavelet decompositions in reducing the complexity in optimal scalar/vector quantizer (SQ/VQ) design. Compression ratios (CRs) of the order of 10:1 to 20:1 with high visual quality have been achieved by using vector quantization of subband decomposed color images in perceptually weighted color spaces. We report the performance of a recently developed adaptive vector quantizer, namely, AFLC-VQ for effective reduction in bit rates while maintaining high visual quality of reconstructed color as well as monochrome images. For 24 bit color images, excellent visual quality is maintained upto a bit rate reduction to approximately 0.48 bpp (for each color plane or monochrome 0.16 bpp, CR 50:1) by using the RGB color space. Further tuning of the AFLC-VQ, and addition of an entropy coder module after the VQ stage results in extremely low bit rates (CR 80:1) for good quality, reconstructed images. Our recent study also reveals that for similar visual quality, RGB color space requires less bits/pixel than either the YIQ, or HIS color space for storing the same information when entropy coding is applied. AFLC-VQ outperforms other standard VQ and adaptive SQ techniques in retaining visual fidelity at similar bit rate reduction.

Improved Compressive Sensing of Natural Scenes Using Localized Random Sampling

PubMed Central

Barranca, Victor J.; Kovačič, Gregor; Zhou, Douglas; Cai, David

2016-01-01

Compressive sensing (CS) theory demonstrates that by using uniformly-random sampling, rather than uniformly-spaced sampling, higher quality image reconstructions are often achievable. Considering that the structure of sampling protocols has such a profound impact on the quality of image reconstructions, we formulate a new sampling scheme motivated by physiological receptive field structure, localized random sampling, which yields significantly improved CS image reconstructions. For each set of localized image measurements, our sampling method first randomly selects an image pixel and then measures its nearby pixels with probability depending on their distance from the initially selected pixel. We compare the uniformly-random and localized random sampling methods over a large space of sampling parameters, and show that, for the optimal parameter choices, higher quality image reconstructions can be consistently obtained by using localized random sampling. In addition, we argue that the localized random CS optimal parameter choice is stable with respect to diverse natural images, and scales with the number of samples used for reconstruction. We expect that the localized random sampling protocol helps to explain the evolutionarily advantageous nature of receptive field structure in visual systems and suggests several future research areas in CS theory and its application to brain imaging. PMID:27555464

3D CT cerebral angiography technique using a 320-detector machine with a time-density curve and low contrast medium volume: comparison with fixed time delay technique.

PubMed

Das, K; Biswas, S; Roughley, S; Bhojak, M; Niven, S

2014-03-01

To describe a cerebral computed tomography angiography (CTA) technique using a 320-detector CT machine and a small contrast medium volume (35 ml, 15 ml for test bolus). Also, to compare the quality of these images with that of the images acquired using a larger contrast medium volume (90 or 120 ml) and a fixed time delay (FTD) of 18 s using a 16-detector CT machine. Cerebral CTA images were acquired using a 320-detector machine by synchronizing the scanning time with the time of peak enhancement as determined from the time-density curve (TDC) using a test bolus dose. The quality of CTA images acquired using this technique was compared with that obtained using a FTD of 18 s (by 16-detector CT), retrospectively. Average densities in four different intracranial arteries, overall opacification of arteries, and the degree of venous contamination were graded and compared. Thirty-eight patients were scanned using the TDC technique and 40 patients using the FTD technique. The arterial densities achieved by the TDC technique were higher (significant for supraclinoid and basilar arteries, p < 0.05). The proportion of images deemed as having "good" arterial opacification was 95% for TDC and 90% for FTD. The degree of venous contamination was significantly higher in images produced by the FTD technique (p < 0.001%). Good diagnostic quality CTA images with significant reduction of venous contamination can be achieved with a low contrast medium dose using a 320-detector machine by coupling the time of data acquisition with the time of peak enhancement. Copyright © 2013 The Royal College of Radiologists. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Digital X-Ray Imager Final Report CRADA No. TSB-1161-95

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Logan, C.; Toker, E.

The global objective of this cooperation was to lower the cost and improve the quality of breast health care in the United States. We planned to achieve it by designing a very high performance digital radiography unit for breast surgical specimen radiography in the operating room. These technical goals needed to be achieved at reasonable manufacturing costs to enable MedOptics to achieve high market penetration at a profit.

Convolutional Sparse Coding for RGB+NIR Imaging.

PubMed

Hu, Xuemei; Heide, Felix; Dai, Qionghai; Wetzstein, Gordon

2018-04-01

Emerging sensor designs increasingly rely on novel color filter arrays (CFAs) to sample the incident spectrum in unconventional ways. In particular, capturing a near-infrared (NIR) channel along with conventional RGB color is an exciting new imaging modality. RGB+NIR sensing has broad applications in computational photography, such as low-light denoising, it has applications in computer vision, such as facial recognition and tracking, and it paves the way toward low-cost single-sensor RGB and depth imaging using structured illumination. However, cost-effective commercial CFAs suffer from severe spectral cross talk. This cross talk represents a major challenge in high-quality RGB+NIR imaging, rendering existing spatially multiplexed sensor designs impractical. In this work, we introduce a new approach to RGB+NIR image reconstruction using learned convolutional sparse priors. We demonstrate high-quality color and NIR imaging for challenging scenes, even including high-frequency structured NIR illumination. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated on a large data set of experimental captures, and simulated benchmark results which demonstrate that this work achieves unprecedented reconstruction quality.

Full-frame video stabilization with motion inpainting.

PubMed

Matsushita, Yasuyuki; Ofek, Eyal; Ge, Weina; Tang, Xiaoou; Shum, Heung-Yeung

2006-07-01

Video stabilization is an important video enhancement technology which aims at removing annoying shaky motion from videos. We propose a practical and robust approach of video stabilization that produces full-frame stabilized videos with good visual quality. While most previous methods end up with producing smaller size stabilized videos, our completion method can produce full-frame videos by naturally filling in missing image parts by locally aligning image data of neighboring frames. To achieve this, motion inpainting is proposed to enforce spatial and temporal consistency of the completion in both static and dynamic image areas. In addition, image quality in the stabilized video is enhanced with a new practical deblurring algorithm. Instead of estimating point spread functions, our method transfers and interpolates sharper image pixels of neighboring frames to increase the sharpness of the frame. The proposed video completion and deblurring methods enabled us to develop a complete video stabilizer which can naturally keep the original image quality in the stabilized videos. The effectiveness of our method is confirmed by extensive experiments over a wide variety of videos.

Image quality improvement in MDCT cardiac imaging via SMART-RECON method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yinsheng; Cao, Ximiao; Xing, Zhanfeng; Sun, Xuguang; Hsieh, Jiang; Chen, Guang-Hong

2017-03-01

Coronary CT angiography (CCTA) is a challenging imaging task currently limited by the achievable temporal resolution of modern Multi-Detector CT (MDCT) scanners. In this paper, the recently proposed SMARTRECON method has been applied in MDCT-based CCTA imaging to improve the image quality without any prior knowledge of cardiac motion. After the prospective ECG-gated data acquisition from a short-scan angular span, the acquired data were sorted into several sub-sectors of view angles; each corresponds to a 1/4th of the short-scan angular range. Information of the cardiac motion was thus encoded into the data in each view angle sub-sector. The SMART-RECON algorithm was then applied to jointly reconstruct several image volumes, each of which is temporally consistent with the data acquired in the corresponding view angle sub-sector. Extensive numerical simulations were performed to validate the proposed technique and investigate the performance dependence.

Radiation dose-reduction strategies in thoracic CT.

PubMed

Moser, J B; Sheard, S L; Edyvean, S; Vlahos, I

2017-05-01

Modern computed tomography (CT) machines have the capability to perform thoracic CT for a range of clinical indications at increasingly low radiation doses. This article reviews several factors, both technical and patient-related, that can affect radiation dose and discusses current dose-reduction methods relevant to thoracic imaging through a review of current techniques in CT acquisition and image reconstruction. The fine balance between low radiation dose and high image quality is considered throughout, with an emphasis on obtaining diagnostic quality imaging at the lowest achievable radiation dose. The risks of excessive radiation dose reduction are also considered. Inappropriately low dose may result in suboptimal or non-diagnostic imaging that may reduce diagnostic confidence, impair diagnosis, or result in repeat examinations incurring incremental ionising radiation exposure. Copyright © 2016 The Royal College of Radiologists. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Technical aspects of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) examinations: tips and tricks.

PubMed

Greis, C

2014-01-01

Ultrasound contrast agents have substantially extended the clinical value of ultrasound, allowing the assessment of blood flow and distribution in real-time down to microcapillary level. Selective imaging of contrast agent signals requires a contrast-specific imaging mode on the ultrasound scanner, allowing real-time separation of tissue and contrast agent signals. The creation of a contrast image requires a specific interaction between the insonated ultrasound wave and the contrast agent microbubbles, leading to persistent oscillation of the bubbles. Several technical and procedural parameters have a significant influence on the quality of CEUS images and should be controlled carefully to obtain good image quality and a reliable diagnosis. Achieving the proper balance between the respective parameters is a matter of technical knowledge and experience. Appropriate training and education should be mandatory for every investigator performing CEUS examinations.

Contrast medium administration and image acquisition parameters in renal CT angiography: what radiologists need to know

PubMed Central

Saade, Charbel; Deeb, Ibrahim Alsheikh; Mohamad, Maha; Al-Mohiy, Hussain; El-Merhi, Fadi

2016-01-01

Over the last decade, exponential advances in computed tomography (CT) technology have resulted in improved spatial and temporal resolution. Faster image acquisition enabled renal CT angiography to become a viable and effective noninvasive alternative in diagnosing renal vascular pathologies. However, with these advances, new challenges in contrast media administration have emerged. Poor synchronization between scanner and contrast media administration have reduced the consistency in image quality with poor spatial and contrast resolution. Comprehensive understanding of contrast media dynamics is essential in the design and implementation of contrast administration and image acquisition protocols. This review includes an overview of the parameters affecting renal artery opacification and current protocol strategies to achieve optimal image quality during renal CT angiography with iodinated contrast media, with current safety issues highlighted. PMID:26728701

Whole-body CT in polytrauma patients: The effect of arm position on abdominal image quality when using a human phantom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jeon, Pil-Hyun; Kim, Hee-Joung; Lee, Chang-Lae; Kim, Dae-Hong; Lee, Won-Hyung; Jeon, Sung-Su

2012-06-01

For a considerable number of emergency computed tomography (CT) scans, patients are unable to position their arms above their head due to traumatic injuries. The arms-down position has been shown to reduce image quality with beam-hardening artifacts in the dorsal regions of the liver, spleen, and kidneys, rendering these images non-diagnostic. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of arm position on the image quality in patients undergoing whole-body CT. We acquired CT scans with various acquisition parameters at voltages of 80, 120, and 140 kVp and an increasing tube current from 200 to 400 mAs in 50 mAs increments. The image noise and the contrast assessment were considered for quantitative analyses of the CT images. The image noise (IN), the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and the coefficient of variation (COV) were evaluated. Quantitative analyses of the experiments were performed with CT scans representative of five different arm positions. Results of the CT scans acquired at 120 kVp and 250 mAs showed high image quality in patients with both arms raised above the head (SNR: 12.4, CNR: 10.9, and COV: 8.1) and both arms flexed at the elbows on the chest (SNR: 11.5, CNR: 10.2, and COV: 8.8) while the image quality significantly decreased with both arms in the down position (SNR: 9.1, CNR: 7.6, and COV: 11). Both arms raised, one arm raised, and both arms flexed improved the image quality compared to arms in the down position by reducing beam-hardening and streak artifacts caused by the arms being at the side of body. This study provides optimal methods for achieving higher image quality and lower noise in abdominal CT for trauma patients.

Retinal Image Simulation of Subjective Refraction Techniques.

PubMed

Perches, Sara; Collados, M Victoria; Ares, Jorge

2016-01-01

Refraction techniques make it possible to determine the most appropriate sphero-cylindrical lens prescription to achieve the best possible visual quality. Among these techniques, subjective refraction (i.e., patient's response-guided refraction) is the most commonly used approach. In this context, this paper's main goal is to present a simulation software that implements in a virtual manner various subjective-refraction techniques--including Jackson's Cross-Cylinder test (JCC)--relying all on the observation of computer-generated retinal images. This software has also been used to evaluate visual quality when the JCC test is performed in multifocal-contact-lens wearers. The results reveal this software's usefulness to simulate the retinal image quality that a particular visual compensation provides. Moreover, it can help to gain a deeper insight and to improve existing refraction techniques and it can be used for simulated training.

A comprehensive study on the relationship between the image quality and imaging dose in low-dose cone beam CT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yan, Hao; Cervino, Laura; Jia, Xun; Jiang, Steve B.

2012-04-01

While compressed sensing (CS)-based algorithms have been developed for the low-dose cone beam CT (CBCT) reconstruction, a clear understanding of the relationship between the image quality and imaging dose at low-dose levels is needed. In this paper, we qualitatively investigate this subject in a comprehensive manner with extensive experimental and simulation studies. The basic idea is to plot both the image quality and imaging dose together as functions of the number of projections and mAs per projection over the whole clinically relevant range. On this basis, a clear understanding of the tradeoff between the image quality and imaging dose can be achieved and optimal low-dose CBCT scan protocols can be developed to maximize the dose reduction while minimizing the image quality loss for various imaging tasks in image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT). Main findings of this work include (1) under the CS-based reconstruction framework, image quality has little degradation over a large range of dose variation. Image quality degradation becomes evident when the imaging dose (approximated with the x-ray tube load) is decreased below 100 total mAs. An imaging dose lower than 40 total mAs leads to a dramatic image degradation, and thus should be used cautiously. Optimal low-dose CBCT scan protocols likely fall in the dose range of 40-100 total mAs, depending on the specific IGRT applications. (2) Among different scan protocols at a constant low-dose level, the super sparse-view reconstruction with the projection number less than 50 is the most challenging case, even with strong regularization. Better image quality can be acquired with low mAs protocols. (3) The optimal scan protocol is the combination of a medium number of projections and a medium level of mAs/view. This is more evident when the dose is around 72.8 total mAs or below and when the ROI is a low-contrast or high-resolution object. Based on our results, the optimal number of projections is around 90 to 120. (4) The clinically acceptable lowest imaging dose level is task dependent. In our study, 72.8 mAs is a safe dose level for visualizing low-contrast objects, while 12.2 total mAs is sufficient for detecting high-contrast objects of diameter greater than 3 mm.

Perceptual full-reference quality assessment of stereoscopic images by considering binocular visual characteristics.

PubMed

Shao, Feng; Lin, Weisi; Gu, Shanbo; Jiang, Gangyi; Srikanthan, Thambipillai

2013-05-01

Perceptual quality assessment is a challenging issue in 3D signal processing research. It is important to study 3D signal directly instead of studying simple extension of the 2D metrics directly to the 3D case as in some previous studies. In this paper, we propose a new perceptual full-reference quality assessment metric of stereoscopic images by considering the binocular visual characteristics. The major technical contribution of this paper is that the binocular perception and combination properties are considered in quality assessment. To be more specific, we first perform left-right consistency checks and compare matching error between the corresponding pixels in binocular disparity calculation, and classify the stereoscopic images into non-corresponding, binocular fusion, and binocular suppression regions. Also, local phase and local amplitude maps are extracted from the original and distorted stereoscopic images as features in quality assessment. Then, each region is evaluated independently by considering its binocular perception property, and all evaluation results are integrated into an overall score. Besides, a binocular just noticeable difference model is used to reflect the visual sensitivity for the binocular fusion and suppression regions. Experimental results show that compared with the relevant existing metrics, the proposed metric can achieve higher consistency with subjective assessment of stereoscopic images.

Reconstruction of magnetic resonance imaging by three-dimensional dual-dictionary learning.

PubMed

Song, Ying; Zhu, Zhen; Lu, Yang; Liu, Qiegen; Zhao, Jun

2014-03-01

To improve the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data acquisition speed while maintaining the reconstruction quality, a novel method is proposed for multislice MRI reconstruction from undersampled k-space data based on compressed-sensing theory using dictionary learning. There are two aspects to improve the reconstruction quality. One is that spatial correlation among slices is used by extending the atoms in dictionary learning from patches to blocks. The other is that the dictionary-learning scheme is used at two resolution levels; i.e., a low-resolution dictionary is used for sparse coding and a high-resolution dictionary is used for image updating. Numerical experiments are carried out on in vivo 3D MR images of brains and abdomens with a variety of undersampling schemes and ratios. The proposed method (dual-DLMRI) achieves better reconstruction quality than conventional reconstruction methods, with the peak signal-to-noise ratio being 7 dB higher. The advantages of the dual dictionaries are obvious compared with the single dictionary. Parameter variations ranging from 50% to 200% only bias the image quality within 15% in terms of the peak signal-to-noise ratio. Dual-DLMRI effectively uses the a priori information in the dual-dictionary scheme and provides dramatically improved reconstruction quality. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Characteristics of a New X-Ray Imaging System for Interventional Procedures: Improved Image Quality and Reduced Radiation Dose.

PubMed

Schernthaner, Ruediger E; Haroun, Reham R; Nguyen, Sonny; Duran, Rafael; Sohn, Jae Ho; Sahu, Sonia; Chapiro, Julius; Zhao, Yan; Radaelli, Alessandro; van der Bom, Imramsjah M; Mauti, Maria; Hong, Kelvin; Geschwind, Jean-François H; Lin, MingDe

2018-03-01

To compare image quality and radiation exposure between a new angiographic imaging system and the preceding generation system during uterine artery embolization (UAE). In this retrospective, IRB-approved two-arm study, 54 patients with symptomatic uterine fibroids were treated with UAE on two different angiographic imaging systems. The new system includes optimized acquisition parameters and real-time image processing algorithms. Air kerma (AK), dose area product (DAP) and acquisition time for digital fluoroscopy (DF) and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) were recorded. Body mass index was noted as well. DF image quality was assessed objectively by image noise measurements. DSA image quality was rated by two blinded, independent readers on a four-rank scale. Statistical differences were assessed with unpaired t tests and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests. There was no significant difference between the patients treated on the new (n = 36) and the old system (n = 18) regarding age (p = 0.10), BMI (p = 0.18), DF time (p = 0.35) and DSA time (p = 0.17). The new system significantly reduced the cumulative AK and DAP by 64 and 72%, respectively (median 0.58 Gy and 145.9 Gy*cm 2 vs. 1.62 Gy and 526.8 Gy*cm 2 , p < 0.01 for both). Specifically, DAP for DF and DSA decreased by 59% (75.3 vs. 181.9 Gy*cm 2 , p < 0.01) and 78% (67.6 vs. 312.2 Gy*cm 2 , p < 0.01), respectively. The new system achieved a significant decrease in DF image noise (p < 0.01) and a significantly better DSA image quality (p < 0.01). The new angiographic imaging system significantly improved image quality and reduced radiation exposure during UAE procedures.

Image degradation characteristics and restoration based on regularization for diffractive imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhi, Xiyang; Jiang, Shikai; Zhang, Wei; Wang, Dawei; Li, Yun

2017-11-01

The diffractive membrane optical imaging system is an important development trend of ultra large aperture and lightweight space camera. However, related investigations on physics-based diffractive imaging degradation characteristics and corresponding image restoration methods are less studied. In this paper, the model of image quality degradation for the diffraction imaging system is first deduced mathematically based on diffraction theory and then the degradation characteristics are analyzed. On this basis, a novel regularization model of image restoration that contains multiple prior constraints is established. After that, the solving approach of the equation with the multi-norm coexistence and multi-regularization parameters (prior's parameters) is presented. Subsequently, the space-variant PSF image restoration method for large aperture diffractive imaging system is proposed combined with block idea of isoplanatic region. Experimentally, the proposed algorithm demonstrates its capacity to achieve multi-objective improvement including MTF enhancing, dispersion correcting, noise and artifact suppressing as well as image's detail preserving, and produce satisfactory visual quality. This can provide scientific basis for applications and possesses potential application prospects on future space applications of diffractive membrane imaging technology.

Computational assessment of mammography accreditation phantom images and correlation with human observer analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barufaldi, Bruno; Lau, Kristen C.; Schiabel, Homero; Maidment, D. A.

2015-03-01

Routine performance of basic test procedures and dose measurements are essential for assuring high quality of mammograms. International guidelines recommend that breast care providers ascertain that mammography systems produce a constant high quality image, using as low a radiation dose as is reasonably achievable. The main purpose of this research is to develop a framework to monitor radiation dose and image quality in a mixed breast screening and diagnostic imaging environment using an automated tracking system. This study presents a module of this framework, consisting of a computerized system to measure the image quality of the American College of Radiology mammography accreditation phantom. The methods developed combine correlation approaches, matched filters, and data mining techniques. These methods have been used to analyze radiological images of the accreditation phantom. The classification of structures of interest is based upon reports produced by four trained readers. As previously reported, human observers demonstrate great variation in their analysis due to the subjectivity of human visual inspection. The software tool was trained with three sets of 60 phantom images in order to generate decision trees using the software WEKA (Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis). When tested with 240 images during the classification step, the tool correctly classified 88%, 99%, and 98%, of fibers, speck groups and masses, respectively. The variation between the computer classification and human reading was comparable to the variation between human readers. This computerized system not only automates the quality control procedure in mammography, but also decreases the subjectivity in the expert evaluation of the phantom images.

Depth image enhancement using perceptual texture priors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bang, Duhyeon; Shim, Hyunjung

2015-03-01

A depth camera is widely used in various applications because it provides a depth image of the scene in real time. However, due to the limited power consumption, the depth camera presents severe noises, incapable of providing the high quality 3D data. Although the smoothness prior is often employed to subside the depth noise, it discards the geometric details so to degrade the distance resolution and hinder achieving the realism in 3D contents. In this paper, we propose a perceptual-based depth image enhancement technique that automatically recovers the depth details of various textures, using a statistical framework inspired by human mechanism of perceiving surface details by texture priors. We construct the database composed of the high quality normals. Based on the recent studies in human visual perception (HVP), we select the pattern density as a primary feature to classify textures. Upon the classification results, we match and substitute the noisy input normals with high quality normals in the database. As a result, our method provides the high quality depth image preserving the surface details. We expect that our work is effective to enhance the details of depth image from 3D sensors and to provide a high-fidelity virtual reality experience.

Diffusion-weighted Breast MRI: Clinical Applications and Emerging Techniques

PubMed Central

Partridge, Savannah C.; Nissan, Noam; Rahbar, Habib; Kitsch, Averi E.; Sigmund, Eric E.

2016-01-01

Diffusion weighted MRI (DWI) holds potential to improve the detection and biological characterization of breast cancer. DWI is increasingly being incorporated into breast MRI protocols to address some of the shortcomings of routine clinical breast MRI. Potential benefits include improved differentiation of benign and malignant breast lesions, assessment and prediction of therapeutic efficacy, and non-contrast detection of breast cancer. The breast presents a unique imaging environment with significant physiologic and inter-subject variations, as well as specific challenges to achieving reliable high quality diffusion weighted MR images. Technical innovations are helping to overcome many of the image quality issues that have limited widespread use of DWI for breast imaging. Advanced modeling approaches to further characterize tissue perfusion, complexity, and glandular organization may expand knowledge and yield improved diagnostic tools. PMID:27690173

Quality Control by Artificial Vision

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lam, Edmond Y.; Gleason, Shaun Scott; Niel, Kurt S.

2010-01-01

Computational technology has fundamentally changed many aspects of our lives. One clear evidence is the development of artificial-vision systems, which have effectively automated many manual tasks ranging from quality inspection to quantitative assessment. In many cases, these machine-vision systems are even preferred over manual ones due to their repeatability and high precision. Such advantages come from significant research efforts in advancing sensor technology, illumination, computational hardware, and image-processing algorithms. Similar to the Special Section on Quality Control by Artificial Vision published two years ago in Volume 17, Issue 3 of the Journal of Electronic Imaging, the present one invited papersmore » relevant to fundamental technology improvements to foster quality control by artificial vision, and fine-tuned the technology for specific applications. We aim to balance both theoretical and applied work pertinent to this special section theme. Consequently, we have seven high-quality papers resulting from the stringent peer-reviewing process in place at the Journal of Electronic Imaging. Some of the papers contain extended treatment of the authors work presented at the SPIE Image Processing: Machine Vision Applications conference and the International Conference on Quality Control by Artificial Vision. On the broad application side, Liu et al. propose an unsupervised texture image segmentation scheme. Using a multilayer data condensation spectral clustering algorithm together with wavelet transform, they demonstrate the effectiveness of their approach on both texture and synthetic aperture radar images. A problem related to image segmentation is image extraction. For this, O'Leary et al. investigate the theory of polynomial moments and show how these moments can be compared to classical filters. They also show how to use the discrete polynomial-basis functions for the extraction of 3-D embossed digits, demonstrating superiority over Fourier-basis functions for this task. Image registration is another important task for machine vision. Bingham and Arrowood investigate the implementation and results in applying Fourier phase matching for projection registration, with a particular focus on nondestructive testing using computed tomography. Readers interested in enriching their arsenal of image-processing algorithms for machine-vision tasks should find these papers enriching. Meanwhile, we have four papers dealing with more specific machine-vision tasks. The first one, Yahiaoui et al., is quantitative in nature, using machine vision for real-time passenger counting. Occulsion is a common problem in counting objects and people, and they circumvent this issue with a dense stereovision system, achieving 97 to 99% accuracy in their tests. On the other hand, the second paper by Oswald-Tranta et al. focuses on thermographic crack detection. An infrared camera is used to detect inhomogeneities, which may indicate surface cracks. They describe the various steps in developing fully automated testing equipment aimed at a high throughput. Another paper describing an inspection system is Molleda et al., which handles flatness inspection of rolled products. They employ optical-laser triangulation and 3-D surface reconstruction for this task, showing how these can be achieved in real time. Last but not least, Presles et al. propose a way to monitor the particle-size distribution of batch crystallization processes. This is achieved through a new in situ imaging probe and image-analysis methods. While it is unlikely any reader may be working on these four specific problems at the same time, we are confident that readers will find these papers inspiring and potentially helpful to their own machine-vision system developments.« less

Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging With Cascaded Dual-Polarity Waves.

PubMed

Zhang, Yang; Guo, Yuexin; Lee, Wei-Ning

2018-04-01

Ultrafast ultrasound imaging using plane or diverging waves, instead of focused beams, has advanced greatly the development of novel ultrasound imaging methods for evaluating tissue functions beyond anatomical information. However, the sonographic signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of ultrafast imaging remains limited due to the lack of transmission focusing, and thus insufficient acoustic energy delivery. We hereby propose a new ultrafast ultrasound imaging methodology with cascaded dual-polarity waves (CDWs), which consists of a pulse train with positive and negative polarities. A new coding scheme and a corresponding linear decoding process were thereby designed to obtain the recovered signals with increased amplitude, thus increasing the SNR without sacrificing the frame rate. The newly designed CDW ultrafast ultrasound imaging technique achieved higher quality B-mode images than coherent plane-wave compounding (CPWC) and multiplane wave (MW) imaging in a calibration phantom, ex vivo pork belly, and in vivo human back muscle. CDW imaging shows a significant improvement in the SNR (10.71 dB versus CPWC and 7.62 dB versus MW), penetration depth (36.94% versus CPWC and 35.14% versus MW), and contrast ratio in deep regions (5.97 dB versus CPWC and 5.05 dB versus MW) without compromising other image quality metrics, such as spatial resolution and frame rate. The enhanced image qualities and ultrafast frame rates offered by CDW imaging beget great potential for various novel imaging applications.

Finger vein verification system based on sparse representation.

PubMed

Xin, Yang; Liu, Zhi; Zhang, Haixia; Zhang, Hong

2012-09-01

Finger vein verification is a promising biometric pattern for personal identification in terms of security and convenience. The recognition performance of this technology heavily relies on the quality of finger vein images and on the recognition algorithm. To achieve efficient recognition performance, a special finger vein imaging device is developed, and a finger vein recognition method based on sparse representation is proposed. The motivation for the proposed method is that finger vein images exhibit a sparse property. In the proposed system, the regions of interest (ROIs) in the finger vein images are segmented and enhanced. Sparse representation and sparsity preserving projection on ROIs are performed to obtain the features. Finally, the features are measured for recognition. An equal error rate of 0.017% was achieved based on the finger vein image database, which contains images that were captured by using the near-IR imaging device that was developed in this study. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is faster and more robust than previous methods.

Fast single image dehazing based on image fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Haibo; Yang, Jie; Wu, Zhengping; Zhang, Qingnian

2015-01-01

Images captured in foggy weather conditions often fade the colors and reduce the contrast of the observed objects. An efficient image fusion method is proposed to remove haze from a single input image. First, the initial medium transmission is estimated based on the dark channel prior. Second, the method adopts an assumption that the degradation level affected by haze of each region is the same, which is similar to the Retinex theory, and uses a simple Gaussian filter to get the coarse medium transmission. Then, pixel-level fusion is achieved between the initial medium transmission and coarse medium transmission. The proposed method can recover a high-quality haze-free image based on the physical model, and the complexity of the proposed method is only a linear function of the number of input image pixels. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can allow a very fast implementation and achieve better restoration for visibility and color fidelity compared to some state-of-the-art methods.

Three dimensional range geometry and texture data compression with space-filling curves.

PubMed

Chen, Xia; Zhang, Song

2017-10-16

This paper presents a novel method to effectively store three-dimensional (3D) data and 2D texture data into a regular 24-bit image. The proposed method uses the Hilbert space-filling curve to map the normalized unwrapped phase map to two 8-bit color channels, and saves the third color channel for 2D texture storage. By further leveraging existing 2D image and video compression techniques, the proposed method can achieve high compression ratios while effectively preserving data quality. Since the encoding and decoding processes can be applied to most of the current 2D media platforms, this proposed compression method can make 3D data storage and transmission available for many electrical devices without requiring special hardware changes. Experiments demonstrate that if a lossless 2D image/video format is used, both original 3D geometry and 2D color texture can be accurately recovered; if lossy image/video compression is used, only black-and-white or grayscale texture can be properly recovered, but much higher compression ratios (e.g., 1543:1 against the ASCII OBJ format) are achieved with slight loss of 3D geometry quality.

Model-based error diffusion for high fidelity lenticular screening.

PubMed

Lau, Daniel; Smith, Trebor

2006-04-17

Digital halftoning is the process of converting a continuous-tone image into an arrangement of black and white dots for binary display devices such as digital ink-jet and electrophotographic printers. As printers are achieving print resolutions exceeding 1,200 dots per inch, it is becoming increasingly important for halftoning algorithms to consider the variations and interactions in the size and shape of printed dots between neighboring pixels. In the case of lenticular screening where statistically independent images are spatially multiplexed together, ignoring these variations and interactions, such as dot overlap, will result in poor lenticular image quality. To this end, we describe our use of model-based error-diffusion for the lenticular screening problem where statistical independence between component images is achieved by restricting the diffusion of error to only those pixels of the same component image where, in order to avoid instabilities, the proposed approach involves a novel error-clipping procedure.

Development and Performance Evaluation of Image-Based Robotic Waxing System for Detailing Automobiles

PubMed Central

Hsu, Bing-Cheng

2018-01-01

Waxing is an important aspect of automobile detailing, aimed at protecting the finish of the car and preventing rust. At present, this delicate work is conducted manually due to the need for iterative adjustments to achieve acceptable quality. This paper presents a robotic waxing system in which surface images are used to evaluate the quality of the finish. An RGB-D camera is used to build a point cloud that details the sheet metal components to enable path planning for a robot manipulator. The robot is equipped with a multi-axis force sensor to measure and control the forces involved in the application and buffing of wax. Images of sheet metal components that were waxed by experienced car detailers were analyzed using image processing algorithms. A Gaussian distribution function and its parameterized values were obtained from the images for use as a performance criterion in evaluating the quality of surfaces prepared by the robotic waxing system. Waxing force and dwell time were optimized using a mathematical model based on the image-based criterion used to measure waxing performance. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed robotic waxing system and image-based performance evaluation scheme. PMID:29757940

Prestack depth migration for complex 2D structure using phase-screen propagators

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Roberts, P.; Huang, Lian-Jie; Burch, C.

1997-11-01

We present results for the phase-screen propagator method applied to prestack depth migration of the Marmousi synthetic data set. The data were migrated as individual common-shot records and the resulting partial images were superposed to obtain the final complete Image. Tests were performed to determine the minimum number of frequency components required to achieve the best quality image and this in turn provided estimates of the minimum computing time. Running on a single processor SUN SPARC Ultra I, high quality images were obtained in as little as 8.7 CPU hours and adequate images were obtained in as little as 4.4more » CPU hours. Different methods were tested for choosing the reference velocity used for the background phase-shift operation and for defining the slowness perturbation screens. Although the depths of some of the steeply dipping, high-contrast features were shifted slightly the overall image quality was fairly insensitive to the choice of the reference velocity. Our jests show the phase-screen method to be a reliable and fast algorithm for imaging complex geologic structures, at least for complex 2D synthetic data where the velocity model is known.« less

Development and Performance Evaluation of Image-Based Robotic Waxing System for Detailing Automobiles.

PubMed

Lin, Chi-Ying; Hsu, Bing-Cheng

2018-05-14

Waxing is an important aspect of automobile detailing, aimed at protecting the finish of the car and preventing rust. At present, this delicate work is conducted manually due to the need for iterative adjustments to achieve acceptable quality. This paper presents a robotic waxing system in which surface images are used to evaluate the quality of the finish. An RGB-D camera is used to build a point cloud that details the sheet metal components to enable path planning for a robot manipulator. The robot is equipped with a multi-axis force sensor to measure and control the forces involved in the application and buffing of wax. Images of sheet metal components that were waxed by experienced car detailers were analyzed using image processing algorithms. A Gaussian distribution function and its parameterized values were obtained from the images for use as a performance criterion in evaluating the quality of surfaces prepared by the robotic waxing system. Waxing force and dwell time were optimized using a mathematical model based on the image-based criterion used to measure waxing performance. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed robotic waxing system and image-based performance evaluation scheme.

GPU-accelerated Kernel Regression Reconstruction for Freehand 3D Ultrasound Imaging.

PubMed

Wen, Tiexiang; Li, Ling; Zhu, Qingsong; Qin, Wenjian; Gu, Jia; Yang, Feng; Xie, Yaoqin

2017-07-01

Volume reconstruction method plays an important role in improving reconstructed volumetric image quality for freehand three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound imaging. By utilizing the capability of programmable graphics processing unit (GPU), we can achieve a real-time incremental volume reconstruction at a speed of 25-50 frames per second (fps). After incremental reconstruction and visualization, hole-filling is performed on GPU to fill remaining empty voxels. However, traditional pixel nearest neighbor-based hole-filling fails to reconstruct volume with high image quality. On the contrary, the kernel regression provides an accurate volume reconstruction method for 3D ultrasound imaging but with the cost of heavy computational complexity. In this paper, a GPU-based fast kernel regression method is proposed for high-quality volume after the incremental reconstruction of freehand ultrasound. The experimental results show that improved image quality for speckle reduction and details preservation can be obtained with the parameter setting of kernel window size of [Formula: see text] and kernel bandwidth of 1.0. The computational performance of the proposed GPU-based method can be over 200 times faster than that on central processing unit (CPU), and the volume with size of 50 million voxels in our experiment can be reconstructed within 10 seconds.

Maximizing Total QoS-Provisioning of Image Streams with Limited Energy Budget

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Wan Yeon; Kim, Kyong Hoon; Ko, Young Woong

To fully utilize the limited battery energy of mobile electronic devices, we propose an adaptive adjustment method of processing quality for multiple image stream tasks running with widely varying execution times. This adjustment method completes the worst-case executions of the tasks with a given budget of energy, and maximizes the total reward value of processing quality obtained during their executions by exploiting the probability distribution of task execution times. The proposed method derives the maximum reward value for the tasks being executable with arbitrary processing quality, and near maximum value for the tasks being executable with a finite number of processing qualities. Our evaluation on a prototype system shows that the proposed method achieves larger reward values, by up to 57%, than the previous method.

Performance evaluation of image segmentation algorithms on microscopic image data.

PubMed

Beneš, Miroslav; Zitová, Barbara

2015-01-01

In our paper, we present a performance evaluation of image segmentation algorithms on microscopic image data. In spite of the existence of many algorithms for image data partitioning, there is no universal and 'the best' method yet. Moreover, images of microscopic samples can be of various character and quality which can negatively influence the performance of image segmentation algorithms. Thus, the issue of selecting suitable method for a given set of image data is of big interest. We carried out a large number of experiments with a variety of segmentation methods to evaluate the behaviour of individual approaches on the testing set of microscopic images (cross-section images taken in three different modalities from the field of art restoration). The segmentation results were assessed by several indices used for measuring the output quality of image segmentation algorithms. In the end, the benefit of segmentation combination approach is studied and applicability of achieved results on another representatives of microscopic data category - biological samples - is shown. © 2014 The Authors Journal of Microscopy © 2014 Royal Microscopical Society.

Dose reduction and image quality optimizations in CT of pediatric and adult patients: phantom studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jeon, P.-H.; Lee, C.-L.; Kim, D.-H.; Lee, Y.-J.; Jeon, S.-S.; Kim, H.-J.

2014-03-01

Multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) can be used to easily and rapidly perform numerous acquisitions, possibly leading to a marked increase in the radiation dose to individual patients. Technical options dedicated to automatically adjusting the acquisition parameters according to the patient's size are of specific interest in pediatric radiology. A constant tube potential reduction can be achieved for adults and children, while maintaining a constant detector energy fluence. To evaluate radiation dose, the weighted CT dose index (CTDIw) was calculated based on the CT dose index (CTDI) measured using an ion chamber, and image noise and image contrast were measured from a scanned image to evaluate image quality. The dose-weighted contrast-to-noise ratio (CNRD) was calculated from the radiation dose, image noise, and image contrast measured from a scanned image. The noise derivative (ND) is a quality index for dose efficiency. X-ray spectra with tube voltages ranging from 80 to 140 kVp were used to compute the average photon energy. Image contrast and the corresponding contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) were determined for lesions of soft tissue, muscle, bone, and iodine relative to a uniform water background, as the iodine contrast increases at lower energy (i.e., k-edge of iodine is 33 keV closer to the beam energy) using mixed water-iodine contrast normalization (water 0, iodine 25, 100, 200, and 1000 HU, respectively). The proposed values correspond to high quality images and can be reduced if only high-contrast organs are assessed. The potential benefit of lowering the tube voltage is an improved CNRD, resulting in a lower radiation dose and optimization of image quality. Adjusting the tube potential in abdominal CT would be useful in current pediatric radiography, where the choice of X-ray techniques generally takes into account the size of the patient as well as the need to balance the conflicting requirements of diagnostic image quality and radiation dose optimization.

Self-Calibrating Wave-Encoded Variable-Density Single-Shot Fast Spin Echo Imaging.

PubMed

Chen, Feiyu; Taviani, Valentina; Tamir, Jonathan I; Cheng, Joseph Y; Zhang, Tao; Song, Qiong; Hargreaves, Brian A; Pauly, John M; Vasanawala, Shreyas S

2018-04-01

It is highly desirable in clinical abdominal MR scans to accelerate single-shot fast spin echo (SSFSE) imaging and reduce blurring due to T 2 decay and partial-Fourier acquisition. To develop and investigate the clinical feasibility of wave-encoded variable-density SSFSE imaging for improved image quality and scan time reduction. Prospective controlled clinical trial. With Institutional Review Board approval and informed consent, the proposed method was assessed on 20 consecutive adult patients (10 male, 10 female, range, 24-84 years). A wave-encoded variable-density SSFSE sequence was developed for clinical 3.0T abdominal scans to enable high acceleration (3.5×) with full-Fourier acquisitions by: 1) introducing wave encoding with self-refocusing gradient waveforms to improve acquisition efficiency; 2) developing self-calibrated estimation of wave-encoding point-spread function and coil sensitivity to improve motion robustness; and 3) incorporating a parallel imaging and compressed sensing reconstruction to reconstruct highly accelerated datasets. Image quality was compared pairwise with standard Cartesian acquisition independently and blindly by two radiologists on a scale from -2 to 2 for noise, contrast, confidence, sharpness, and artifacts. The average ratio of scan time between these two approaches was also compared. A Wilcoxon signed-rank tests with a P value under 0.05 considered statistically significant. Wave-encoded variable-density SSFSE significantly reduced the perceived noise level and improved the sharpness of the abdominal wall and the kidneys compared with standard acquisition (mean scores 0.8, 1.2, and 0.8, respectively, P < 0.003). No significant difference was observed in relation to other features (P = 0.11). An average of 21% decrease in scan time was achieved using the proposed method. Wave-encoded variable-density sampling SSFSE achieves improved image quality with clinically relevant echo time and reduced scan time, thus providing a fast and robust approach for clinical SSFSE imaging. 1 Technical Efficacy: Stage 6 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:954-966. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Characterization of Long Working Distance Optical Coherence Tomography for Imaging of Pediatric Retinal Pathology.

PubMed

Qian, Ruobing; Carrasco-Zevallos, Oscar M; Mangalesh, Shwetha; Sarin, Neeru; Vajzovic, Lejla; Farsiu, Sina; Izatt, Joseph A; Toth, Cynthia A

2017-10-01

We determined the feasibility of fovea and optic nerve head imaging with a long working distance (LWD) swept source optical coherence tomography (OCT) prototype in adults, teenagers, and young children. A prototype swept source OCT system with a LWD (defined as distance from the last optical element of the imaging system to the eye) of 350 mm with custom fixation targets was developed to facilitate imaging of children. Imaging was performed in 49 participants from three age groups: 26 adults, 16 children 13 to 18 years old (teenagers), and seven children under 6 years old (young children) under an approved institutional review board protocol. The imaging goal was to acquire high quality scans of the fovea and optic nerve in each eye in the shortest time possible. OCT B-scans and volumes of the fovea and optic nerve head of each eligible eye were captured and graded based on four categories (lateral and axial centration, contrast, and resolution) and on ability to determine presence or absence of pathology. LWD-OCT imaging was successful in 88 of 94 eligible eyes, including seven of 10 eyes of young children. Of the successfully acquired OCT images, 83% of B-scan and volumetric images, including 86% from young children, were graded as high-quality scans. Pathology was observed in high-quality OCT images. The prototype LWD-OCT system achieved high quality retinal imaging of adults, teenagers, and some young children with and without pathology with reasonable alignment time. The LWD-OCT system can facilitate imaging in children.

Characterization of Long Working Distance Optical Coherence Tomography for Imaging of Pediatric Retinal Pathology

PubMed Central

Qian, Ruobing; Carrasco-Zevallos, Oscar M.; Mangalesh, Shwetha; Sarin, Neeru; Vajzovic, Lejla; Farsiu, Sina; Izatt, Joseph A.; Toth, Cynthia A.

2017-01-01

Purpose We determined the feasibility of fovea and optic nerve head imaging with a long working distance (LWD) swept source optical coherence tomography (OCT) prototype in adults, teenagers, and young children. Methods A prototype swept source OCT system with a LWD (defined as distance from the last optical element of the imaging system to the eye) of 350 mm with custom fixation targets was developed to facilitate imaging of children. Imaging was performed in 49 participants from three age groups: 26 adults, 16 children 13 to 18 years old (teenagers), and seven children under 6 years old (young children) under an approved institutional review board protocol. The imaging goal was to acquire high quality scans of the fovea and optic nerve in each eye in the shortest time possible. OCT B-scans and volumes of the fovea and optic nerve head of each eligible eye were captured and graded based on four categories (lateral and axial centration, contrast, and resolution) and on ability to determine presence or absence of pathology. Results LWD-OCT imaging was successful in 88 of 94 eligible eyes, including seven of 10 eyes of young children. Of the successfully acquired OCT images, 83% of B-scan and volumetric images, including 86% from young children, were graded as high-quality scans. Pathology was observed in high-quality OCT images. Conclusions The prototype LWD-OCT system achieved high quality retinal imaging of adults, teenagers, and some young children with and without pathology with reasonable alignment time. Translational Relevance The LWD-OCT system can facilitate imaging in children. PMID:29057163

Quantitative comparison of OSEM and penalized likelihood image reconstruction using relative difference penalties for clinical PET

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahn, Sangtae; Ross, Steven G.; Asma, Evren; Miao, Jun; Jin, Xiao; Cheng, Lishui; Wollenweber, Scott D.; Manjeshwar, Ravindra M.

2015-08-01

Ordered subset expectation maximization (OSEM) is the most widely used algorithm for clinical PET image reconstruction. OSEM is usually stopped early and post-filtered to control image noise and does not necessarily achieve optimal quantitation accuracy. As an alternative to OSEM, we have recently implemented a penalized likelihood (PL) image reconstruction algorithm for clinical PET using the relative difference penalty with the aim of improving quantitation accuracy without compromising visual image quality. Preliminary clinical studies have demonstrated visual image quality including lesion conspicuity in images reconstructed by the PL algorithm is better than or at least as good as that in OSEM images. In this paper we evaluate lesion quantitation accuracy of the PL algorithm with the relative difference penalty compared to OSEM by using various data sets including phantom data acquired with an anthropomorphic torso phantom, an extended oval phantom and the NEMA image quality phantom; clinical data; and hybrid clinical data generated by adding simulated lesion data to clinical data. We focus on mean standardized uptake values and compare them for PL and OSEM using both time-of-flight (TOF) and non-TOF data. The results demonstrate improvements of PL in lesion quantitation accuracy compared to OSEM with a particular improvement in cold background regions such as lungs.

Free software for performing physical analysis of systems for digital radiography and mammography.

PubMed

Donini, Bruno; Rivetti, Stefano; Lanconelli, Nico; Bertolini, Marco

2014-05-01

In this paper, the authors present a free software for assisting users in achieving the physical characterization of x-ray digital systems and image quality checks. The program was developed as a plugin of a well-known public-domain suite ImageJ. The software can assist users in calculating various physical parameters such as the response curve (also termed signal transfer property), modulation transfer function (MTF), noise power spectra (NPS), and detective quantum efficiency (DQE). It also includes the computation of some image quality checks: defective pixel analysis, uniformity, dark analysis, and lag. The software was made available in 2009 and has been used during the last couple of years by many users who gave us valuable feedback for improving its usability. It was tested for achieving the physical characterization of several clinical systems for digital radiography and mammography. Various published papers made use of the outcomes of the plugin. This software is potentially beneficial to a variety of users: physicists working in hospitals, staff working in radiological departments, such as medical physicists, physicians, engineers. The plugin, together with a brief user manual, are freely available and can be found online (www.medphys.it/downloads.htm). With our plugin users can estimate all three most important parameters used for physical characterization (MTF, NPS, and also DQE). The plugin can run on any operating system equipped with ImageJ suite. The authors validated the software by comparing MTF and NPS curves on a common set of images with those obtained with other dedicated programs, achieving a very good agreement.

Radiation protection program for early detection of breast cancer in a mammography facility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Villagomez Casimiro, Mariana; Ruiz Trejo, Cesar; Espejo Fonseca, Ruby

2014-11-01

Mammography is the best tool for early detection of Breast Cancer. In this diagnostic radiology modality it is necessary to establish the criteria to ensure the proper use and operation of the equipment used to obtain mammographic images in order to contribute to the safe use of ionizing radiation. The aim of the work was to implement at FUCAM-AC the radiation protection program which must be established for patients and radiation workers according to Mexican standards [1-4]. To achieve this goal, radiation protection and quality control manuals were elaborated [5]. Furthermore, a quality control program (QCP) in the mammography systems (analog/digital), darkroom included, has been implemented. Daily sensitometry, non-variability of the image quality, visualizing artifacts, revision of the equipment mechanical stability, compression force and analysis of repetition studies are some of the QCP routine tests that must be performed by radiological technicians of this institution as a set of actions to ensure the protection of patients. Image quality and patients dose assessment were performed on 4 analog equipment installed in 2 mobile units. In relation to dose assessment, all equipment passed the acceptance criteria (<3 mGy per projection). The image quality test showed that most images (70%)- presented artifacts. A brief summary of the results of quality control tests applied to the equipment and film processor are presented. To maintain an adequate level of quality and safety at FUCAM-AC is necessary that the proposed radiation protection program in this work is applied.

Beam Width Robustness of a 670 GHz Imaging Radar

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cooper, K. B.; Llombart, N.; Dengler, R. J.; Siegel, P. H.

2009-01-01

Detection of a replica bomb belt concealed on a mannequin at 4 m standoff range is achieved using a 670 GHz imaging radar. At a somewhat larger standoff range of 4.6 m, the radar's beam width increases substantially, but the through-shirt image quality remains good. This suggests that a relatively modest increase in aperture size over the current design will be sufficient to detect person-borne concealed weapons at ranges exceeding 25 meters.

COxSwAIN: Compressive Sensing for Advanced Imaging and Navigation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kurwitz, Richard; Pulley, Marina; LaFerney, Nathan; Munoz, Carlos

2015-01-01

The COxSwAIN project focuses on building an image and video compression scheme that can be implemented in a small or low-power satellite. To do this, we used Compressive Sensing, where the compression is performed by matrix multiplications on the satellite and reconstructed on the ground. Our paper explains our methodology and demonstrates the results of the scheme, being able to achieve high quality image compression that is robust to noise and corruption.

Online geometric calibration of cone-beam computed tomography for arbitrary imaging objects.

PubMed

Meng, Yuanzheng; Gong, Hui; Yang, Xiaoquan

2013-02-01

A novel online method based on the symmetry property of the sum of projections (SOP) is proposed to obtain the geometric parameters in cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). This method requires no calibration phantom and can be used in circular trajectory CBCT with arbitrary cone angles. An objective function is deduced to illustrate the dependence of the symmetry of SOP on geometric parameters, which will converge to its minimum when the geometric parameters achieve their true values. Thus, by minimizing the objective function, we can obtain the geometric parameters for image reconstruction. To validate this method, numerical phantom studies with different noise levels are simulated. The results show that our method is insensitive to the noise and can determine the skew (in-plane rotation angle of the detector), the roll (rotation angle around the projection of the rotation axis on the detector), and the rotation axis with high accuracy, while the mid-plane and source-to-detector distance will be obtained with slightly lower accuracy. However, our simulation studies validate that the errors of the latter two parameters brought by our method will hardly degrade the quality of reconstructed images. The small animal studies show that our method is able to deal with arbitrary imaging objects. In addition, the results of the reconstructed images in different slices demonstrate that we have achieved comparable image quality in the reconstructions as some offline methods.

Cone Beam X-ray Luminescence Computed Tomography Based on Bayesian Method.

PubMed

Zhang, Guanglei; Liu, Fei; Liu, Jie; Luo, Jianwen; Xie, Yaoqin; Bai, Jing; Xing, Lei

2017-01-01

X-ray luminescence computed tomography (XLCT), which aims to achieve molecular and functional imaging by X-rays, has recently been proposed as a new imaging modality. Combining the principles of X-ray excitation of luminescence-based probes and optical signal detection, XLCT naturally fuses functional and anatomical images and provides complementary information for a wide range of applications in biomedical research. In order to improve the data acquisition efficiency of previously developed narrow-beam XLCT, a cone beam XLCT (CB-XLCT) mode is adopted here to take advantage of the useful geometric features of cone beam excitation. Practically, a major hurdle in using cone beam X-ray for XLCT is that the inverse problem here is seriously ill-conditioned, hindering us to achieve good image quality. In this paper, we propose a novel Bayesian method to tackle the bottleneck in CB-XLCT reconstruction. The method utilizes a local regularization strategy based on Gaussian Markov random field to mitigate the ill-conditioness of CB-XLCT. An alternating optimization scheme is then used to automatically calculate all the unknown hyperparameters while an iterative coordinate descent algorithm is adopted to reconstruct the image with a voxel-based closed-form solution. Results of numerical simulations and mouse experiments show that the self-adaptive Bayesian method significantly improves the CB-XLCT image quality as compared with conventional methods.

Cone Beam X-ray Luminescence Computed Tomography Based on Bayesian Method

PubMed Central

Liu, Fei; Luo, Jianwen; Xie, Yaoqin; Bai, Jing

2017-01-01

X-ray luminescence computed tomography (XLCT), which aims to achieve molecular and functional imaging by X-rays, has recently been proposed as a new imaging modality. Combining the principles of X-ray excitation of luminescence-based probes and optical signal detection, XLCT naturally fuses functional and anatomical images and provides complementary information for a wide range of applications in biomedical research. In order to improve the data acquisition efficiency of previously developed narrow-beam XLCT, a cone beam XLCT (CB-XLCT) mode is adopted here to take advantage of the useful geometric features of cone beam excitation. Practically, a major hurdle in using cone beam X-ray for XLCT is that the inverse problem here is seriously ill-conditioned, hindering us to achieve good image quality. In this paper, we propose a novel Bayesian method to tackle the bottleneck in CB-XLCT reconstruction. The method utilizes a local regularization strategy based on Gaussian Markov random field to mitigate the ill-conditioness of CB-XLCT. An alternating optimization scheme is then used to automatically calculate all the unknown hyperparameters while an iterative coordinate descent algorithm is adopted to reconstruct the image with a voxel-based closed-form solution. Results of numerical simulations and mouse experiments show that the self-adaptive Bayesian method significantly improves the CB-XLCT image quality as compared with conventional methods. PMID:27576245

Iterative pixelwise approach applied to computer-generated holograms and diffractive optical elements.

PubMed

Hsu, Wei-Feng; Lin, Shih-Chih

2018-01-01

This paper presents a novel approach to optimizing the design of phase-only computer-generated holograms (CGH) for the creation of binary images in an optical Fourier transform system. Optimization begins by selecting an image pixel with a temporal change in amplitude. The modulated image function undergoes an inverse Fourier transform followed by the imposition of a CGH constraint and the Fourier transform to yield an image function associated with the change in amplitude of the selected pixel. In iterations where the quality of the image is improved, that image function is adopted as the input for the next iteration. In cases where the image quality is not improved, the image function before the pixel changed is used as the input. Thus, the proposed approach is referred to as the pixelwise hybrid input-output (PHIO) algorithm. The PHIO algorithm was shown to achieve image quality far exceeding that of the Gerchberg-Saxton (GS) algorithm. The benefits were particularly evident when the PHIO algorithm was equipped with a dynamic range of image intensities equivalent to the amplitude freedom of the image signal. The signal variation of images reconstructed from the GS algorithm was 1.0223, but only 0.2537 when using PHIO, i.e., a 75% improvement. Nonetheless, the proposed scheme resulted in a 10% degradation in diffraction efficiency and signal-to-noise ratio.

Applicability of common measures in multifocus image fusion comparison

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vajgl, Marek

2017-11-01

Image fusion is an image processing area aimed at fusion of multiple input images to achieve an output image somehow better then each of the input ones. In the case of "multifocus fusion", input images are capturing the same scene differing ina focus distance. The aim is to obtain an image, which is sharp in all its areas. The are several different approaches and methods used to solve this problem. However, it is common question which one is the best. This work describes a research covering the field of common measures with a question, if some of them can be used as a quality measure of the fusion result evaluation.

Non-ECG-gated unenhanced MRA of the carotids: optimization and clinical feasibility.

PubMed

Raoult, H; Gauvrit, J Y; Schmitt, P; Le Couls, V; Bannier, E

2013-11-01

To optimise and assess the clinical feasibility of a carotid non-ECG-gated unenhanced MRA sequence. Sixteen healthy volunteers and 11 patients presenting with internal carotid artery (ICA) disease underwent large field-of-view balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) unenhanced MRA at 3T. Sampling schemes acquiring the k-space centre either early (kCE) or late (kCL) in the acquisition window were evaluated. Signal and image quality was scored in comparison to ECG-gated kCE unenhanced MRA and TOF. For patients, computed tomography angiography was used as the reference. In volunteers, kCE sampling yielded higher image quality than kCL and TOF, with fewer flow artefacts and improved signal homogeneity. kCE unenhanced MRA image quality was higher without ECG-gating. Arterial signal and artery/vein contrast were higher with both bSSFP sampling schemes than with TOF. The kCE sequence allowed correct quantification of ten significant stenoses, and it facilitated the identification of an infrapetrous dysplasia, which was outside of the TOF imaging coverage. Non-ECG-gated bSSFP carotid imaging offers high-quality images and is a promising sequence for carotid disease diagnosis in a short acquisition time with high spatial resolution and a large field of view. • Non-ECG-gated unenhanced bSSFP MRA offers high-quality imaging of the carotid arteries. • Sequences using early acquisition of the k-space centre achieve higher image quality. • Non-ECG-gated unenhanced bSSFP MRA allows quantification of significant carotid stenosis. • Short MR acquisition times and ungated sequences are helpful in clinical practice. • High 3D spatial resolution and a large field of view improve diagnostic performance.

Quality assurance of multiport image-guided minimally invasive surgery at the lateral skull base.

PubMed

Nau-Hermes, Maria; Schmitt, Robert; Becker, Meike; El-Hakimi, Wissam; Hansen, Stefan; Klenzner, Thomas; Schipper, Jörg

2014-01-01

For multiport image-guided minimally invasive surgery at the lateral skull base a quality management is necessary to avoid the damage of closely spaced critical neurovascular structures. So far there is no standardized method applicable independently from the surgery. Therefore, we adapt a quality management method, the quality gates (QG), which is well established in, for example, the automotive industry and apply it to multiport image-guided minimally invasive surgery. QG divide a process into different sections. Passing between sections can only be achieved if previously defined requirements are fulfilled which secures the process chain. An interdisciplinary team of otosurgeons, computer scientists, and engineers has worked together to define the quality gates and the corresponding criteria that need to be fulfilled before passing each quality gate. In order to evaluate the defined QG and their criteria, the new surgery method was applied with a first prototype at a human skull cadaver model. We show that the QG method can ensure a safe multiport minimally invasive surgical process at the lateral skull base. Therewith, we present an approach towards the standardization of quality assurance of surgical processes.

Quality Assurance of Multiport Image-Guided Minimally Invasive Surgery at the Lateral Skull Base

PubMed Central

Nau-Hermes, Maria; Schmitt, Robert; Becker, Meike; El-Hakimi, Wissam; Hansen, Stefan; Klenzner, Thomas; Schipper, Jörg

2014-01-01

For multiport image-guided minimally invasive surgery at the lateral skull base a quality management is necessary to avoid the damage of closely spaced critical neurovascular structures. So far there is no standardized method applicable independently from the surgery. Therefore, we adapt a quality management method, the quality gates (QG), which is well established in, for example, the automotive industry and apply it to multiport image-guided minimally invasive surgery. QG divide a process into different sections. Passing between sections can only be achieved if previously defined requirements are fulfilled which secures the process chain. An interdisciplinary team of otosurgeons, computer scientists, and engineers has worked together to define the quality gates and the corresponding criteria that need to be fulfilled before passing each quality gate. In order to evaluate the defined QG and their criteria, the new surgery method was applied with a first prototype at a human skull cadaver model. We show that the QG method can ensure a safe multiport minimally invasive surgical process at the lateral skull base. Therewith, we present an approach towards the standardization of quality assurance of surgical processes. PMID:25105146

The quality assessment of radial and tangential neutron radiography beamlines of TRR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choopan Dastjerdi, M. H.; Movafeghi, A.; Khalafi, H.; Kasesaz, Y.

2017-07-01

To achieve a quality neutron radiographic image in a relatively short exposure time, the neutron radiography beam must be of good quality and relatively high neutron flux. Characterization of a neutron radiography beam, such as determination of the image quality and the neutron flux, is vital for producing quality radiographic images and also provides a means to compare the quality of different neutron radiography facilities. This paper provides a characterization of the radial and tangential neutron radiography beamlines at the Tehran research reactor. This work includes determination of the facilities category according to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards, and also uses the gold foils to determine the neutron beam flux. The radial neutron beam is a Category I neutron radiography facility, the highest possible quality level according to the ASTM. The tangential beam is a Category IV neutron radiography facility. Gold foil activation experiments show that the measured neutron flux for radial beamline with length-to-diameter ratio (L/D) =150 is 6.1× 106 n cm-2 s-1 and for tangential beamline with (L/D)=115 is 2.4× 104 n cm-2 s-1.

iPhone 4s and iPhone 5s Imaging of the Eye

PubMed Central

Jalil, Maaz; Ferenczy, Sandor R.; Shields, Carol L.

2017-01-01

Background/Aims To evaluate the technical feasibility of a consumer-grade cellular iPhone camera as an ocular imaging device compared to existing ophthalmic imaging equipment for documentation purposes. Methods A comparison of iPhone 4s and 5s images was made with external facial images (macrophotography) using Nikon cameras, slit-lamp images (microphotography) using Zeiss photo slit-lamp camera, and fundus images (fundus photography) using RetCam II. Results In an analysis of six consecutive patients with ophthalmic conditions, both iPhones achieved documentation of external findings (macrophotography) using standard camera modality, tap to focus, and built-in flash. Both iPhones achieved documentation of anterior segment findings (microphotography) during slit-lamp examination through oculars. Both iPhones achieved fundus imaging using standard video modality with continuous iPhone illumination through an ophthalmic lens. Comparison to standard ophthalmic cameras, macrophotography and microphotography were excellent. In comparison to RetCam fundus photography, iPhone fundus photography revealed smaller field and was technically more difficult to obtain, but the quality was nearly similar to RetCam. Conclusions iPhone versions 4s and 5s can provide excellent ophthalmic macrophotography and microphotography and adequate fundus photography. We believe that iPhone imaging could be most useful in settings where expensive, complicated, and cumbersome imaging equipment is unavailable. PMID:28275604

Low-complexity camera digital signal imaging for video document projection system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hsia, Shih-Chang; Tsai, Po-Shien

2011-04-01

We present high-performance and low-complexity algorithms for real-time camera imaging applications. The main functions of the proposed camera digital signal processing (DSP) involve color interpolation, white balance, adaptive binary processing, auto gain control, and edge and color enhancement for video projection systems. A series of simulations demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve good image quality while keeping computation cost and memory requirements low. On the basis of the proposed algorithms, the cost-effective hardware core is developed using Verilog HDL. The prototype chip has been verified with one low-cost programmable device. The real-time camera system can achieve 1270 × 792 resolution with the combination of extra components and can demonstrate each DSP function.

Magnetic resonance cinematography of the fingers: a 3.0 Tesla feasibility study with comparison of incremental and continuous dynamic protocols.

PubMed

Bayer, Thomas; Adler, Werner; Janka, Rolf; Uder, Michael; Roemer, Frank

2017-12-01

To study the feasibility of magnetic resonance cinematography of the fingers (MRCF) with comparison of image quality of different protocols for depicting the finger anatomy during motion. MRCF was performed during a full flexion and extension movement in 14 healthy volunteers using a finger-gating device. Three real-time sequences (frame rates 17-59 images/min) and one proton density (PD) sequence (3 images/min) were acquired during incremental and continuous motion. Analyses were performed independently by three readers. Qualitative image analysis included Likert-scale grading from 0 (useless) to 5 (excellent) and specific visual analog scale (VAS) grading from 0 (insufficient) to 100 (excellent). Signal-to-noise calculation was performed. Overall percentage agreement and mean absolute disagreement were calculated. Within the real-time sequences a high frame-rate true fast imaging with steady-state free precession (TRUFI) yielded the best image quality with Likert and overall VAS scores of 3.0 ± 0.2 and 60.4 ± 25.3, respectively. The best sequence regarding image quality was an incremental PD with mean values of 4.8 ± 0.2 and 91.2 ± 9.4, respectively. Overall percentage agreement and mean absolute disagreement were 47.9 and 0.7, respectively. No statistically significant SNR differences were found between continuous and incremental motion for the real-time protocols. MRCF is feasible with appropriate image quality during continuous motion using a finger-gating device. Almost perfect image quality is achievable with incremental PD imaging, which represents a compromise for MRCF with the drawback of prolonged scanning time.

A new CT collimator for producing two simultaneous overlapping slices from one scan. [for biomedical applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kwoh, Y. S.; Glenn, W. V., Jr.; Reed, I. S.; Truong, T. K.

1981-01-01

A new CT collimator is developed which is capable of producing two simultaneous successive overlapping images from a single scan. The collimator represents a modification of the standard EMI 5005 collimator achieved by alternately masking one end or portions of both ends of the X-ray detectors at a 13-mm beamwidth so that a set of 540 filtered projections is obtained for each scan which can be separated into two sets of interleaved projections corresponding to views 3 mm apart. Tests have demonstrated that the quality of the images produced from these two projections almost equals the quality of those produced by the standard collimator from two separate scans. The new collimator may thus be used to achieve a speed improvement in the generation of overlapping sections as well as a reduction in X-ray dosage.

The Stability of Chandra Telescope Pointing and Spacial Resolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Ping

2018-01-01

Chandra X-ray Observatory revolutionized the X-ray astronomy as being the first, and so far the only, X-ray telescope achieving sub-arcsecond spacial resolution. Chandra is comprised of three principal elements: the High Resolution Mirror Assembly (HRMA), Pointing Control and Aspect Determination (PCAD) system, and the Science Instrument Module (SIM), which is where the X-ray detectors mounted and is connected to the HRMA by a 10-meter long Optical Bench Assembly. To achieve and retain the unprecedented imaging quality, it is critical that these three principal elements to stay rigid and stable for the entire life time of the Chandra operation. I will review the issues of telescope pointing stability, optical Axis, aimpoint and their impacts to the Chandra operation, and evaluate the integrity and stability of the telescope. I will show images taken from all four detectors since launch to demonstrate the quality and stability of the Chandra spacial resolution.

Practical Considerations for Optic Nerve Estimation in Telemedicine

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Karnowski, Thomas Paul; Aykac, Deniz; Chaum, Edward

The projected increase in diabetes in the United States and worldwide has created a need for broad-based, inexpensive screening for diabetic retinopathy (DR), an eye disease which can lead to vision impairment. A telemedicine network with retina cameras and automated quality control, physiological feature location, and lesion / anomaly detection is a low-cost way of achieving broad-based screening. In this work we report on the effect of quality estimation on an optic nerve (ON) detection method with a confidence metric. We report on an improvement of the fusion technique using a data set from an ophthalmologists practice then show themore » results of the method as a function of image quality on a set of images from an on-line telemedicine network collected in Spring 2009 and another broad-based screening program. We show that the fusion method, combined with quality estimation processing, can improve detection performance and also provide a method for utilizing a physician-in-the-loop for images that may exceed the capabilities of automated processing.« less

Image recording requirements for earth observation applications in the next decade

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Peavey, B.; Sos, J. Y.

1975-01-01

Future requirements for satellite-borne image recording systems are examined from the standpoints of system performance, system operation, product type, and product quality. Emphasis is on total system design while keeping in mind that the image recorder or scanner is the most crucial element which will affect the end product quality more than any other element within the system. Consideration of total system design and implementation for sustained operational usage must encompass the requirements for flexibility of input data and recording speed, pixel density, aspect ratio, and format size. To produce this type of system requires solution of challenging problems in interfacing the data source with the recorder, maintaining synchronization between the data source and the recorder, and maintaining a consistent level of quality. Film products of better quality than is currently achieved in a routine manner are needed. A 0.1 pixel geometric accuracy and 0.0001 d.u. radiometric accuracy on standard (240 mm) size format should be accepted as a goal to be reached in the near future.

WE-G-209-03: PET

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kemp, B.

2016-06-15

Digital radiography, CT, PET, and MR are complicated imaging modalities which are composed of many hardware and software components. These components work together in a highly coordinated chain of events with the intent to produce high quality images. Acquisition, processing and reconstruction of data must occur in a precise way for optimum image quality to be achieved. Any error or unexpected event in the entire process can produce unwanted pixel intensities in the final images which may contribute to visible image artifacts. The diagnostic imaging physicist is uniquely qualified to investigate and contribute to resolution of image artifacts. This coursemore » will teach the participant to identify common artifacts found clinically in digital radiography, CT, PET, and MR, to determine the causes of artifacts, and to make recommendations for how to resolve artifacts. Learning Objectives: Identify common artifacts found clinically in digital radiography, CT, PET and MR. Determine causes of various clinical artifacts from digital radiography, CT, PET and MR. Describe how to resolve various clinical artifacts from digital radiography, CT, PET and MR.« less

Spatiotemporal matrix image formation for programmable ultrasound scanners

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berthon, Beatrice; Morichau-Beauchant, Pierre; Porée, Jonathan; Garofalakis, Anikitos; Tavitian, Bertrand; Tanter, Mickael; Provost, Jean

2018-02-01

As programmable ultrasound scanners become more common in research laboratories, it is increasingly important to develop robust software-based image formation algorithms that can be obtained in a straightforward fashion for different types of probes and sequences with a small risk of error during implementation. In this work, we argue that as the computational power keeps increasing, it is becoming practical to directly implement an approximation to the matrix operator linking reflector point targets to the corresponding radiofrequency signals via thoroughly validated and widely available simulations software. Once such a spatiotemporal forward-problem matrix is constructed, standard and thus highly optimized inversion procedures can be leveraged to achieve very high quality images in real time. Specifically, we show that spatiotemporal matrix image formation produces images of similar or enhanced quality when compared against standard delay-and-sum approaches in phantoms and in vivo, and show that this approach can be used to form images even when using non-conventional probe designs for which adapted image formation algorithms are not readily available.

WE-G-209-02: CT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kofler, J.

2016-06-15

Digital radiography, CT, PET, and MR are complicated imaging modalities which are composed of many hardware and software components. These components work together in a highly coordinated chain of events with the intent to produce high quality images. Acquisition, processing and reconstruction of data must occur in a precise way for optimum image quality to be achieved. Any error or unexpected event in the entire process can produce unwanted pixel intensities in the final images which may contribute to visible image artifacts. The diagnostic imaging physicist is uniquely qualified to investigate and contribute to resolution of image artifacts. This coursemore » will teach the participant to identify common artifacts found clinically in digital radiography, CT, PET, and MR, to determine the causes of artifacts, and to make recommendations for how to resolve artifacts. Learning Objectives: Identify common artifacts found clinically in digital radiography, CT, PET and MR. Determine causes of various clinical artifacts from digital radiography, CT, PET and MR. Describe how to resolve various clinical artifacts from digital radiography, CT, PET and MR.« less

WE-G-209-04: MRI

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pooley, R.

2016-06-15

Digital radiography, CT, PET, and MR are complicated imaging modalities which are composed of many hardware and software components. These components work together in a highly coordinated chain of events with the intent to produce high quality images. Acquisition, processing and reconstruction of data must occur in a precise way for optimum image quality to be achieved. Any error or unexpected event in the entire process can produce unwanted pixel intensities in the final images which may contribute to visible image artifacts. The diagnostic imaging physicist is uniquely qualified to investigate and contribute to resolution of image artifacts. This coursemore » will teach the participant to identify common artifacts found clinically in digital radiography, CT, PET, and MR, to determine the causes of artifacts, and to make recommendations for how to resolve artifacts. Learning Objectives: Identify common artifacts found clinically in digital radiography, CT, PET and MR. Determine causes of various clinical artifacts from digital radiography, CT, PET and MR. Describe how to resolve various clinical artifacts from digital radiography, CT, PET and MR.« less

Telemedicine + OCT: toward design of optimized algorithms for high-quality compressed images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mousavi, Mahta; Lurie, Kristen; Land, Julian; Javidi, Tara; Ellerbee, Audrey K.

2014-03-01

Telemedicine is an emerging technology that aims to provide clinical healthcare at a distance. Among its goals, the transfer of diagnostic images over telecommunication channels has been quite appealing to the medical community. When viewed as an adjunct to biomedical device hardware, one highly important consideration aside from the transfer rate and speed is the accuracy of the reconstructed image at the receiver end. Although optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an established imaging technique that is ripe for telemedicine, the effects of OCT data compression, which may be necessary on certain telemedicine platforms, have not received much attention in the literature. We investigate the performance and efficiency of several lossless and lossy compression techniques for OCT data and characterize their effectiveness with respect to achievable compression ratio, compression rate and preservation of image quality. We examine the effects of compression in the interferogram vs. A-scan domain as assessed with various objective and subjective metrics.

High dynamic range CMOS-based mammography detector for FFDM and DBT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peters, Inge M.; Smit, Chiel; Miller, James J.; Lomako, Andrey

2016-03-01

Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) requires excellent image quality in a dynamic mode at very low dose levels while Full Field Digital Mammography (FFDM) is a static imaging modality that requires high saturation dose levels. These opposing requirements can only be met by a dynamic detector with a high dynamic range. This paper will discuss a wafer-scale CMOS-based mammography detector with 49.5 μm pixels and a CsI scintillator. Excellent image quality is obtained for FFDM as well as DBT applications, comparing favorably with a-Se detectors that dominate the X-ray mammography market today. The typical dynamic range of a mammography detector is not high enough to accommodate both the low noise and the high saturation dose requirements for DBT and FFDM applications, respectively. An approach based on gain switching does not provide the signal-to-noise benefits in the low-dose DBT conditions. The solution to this is to add frame summing functionality to the detector. In one X-ray pulse several image frames will be acquired and summed. The requirements to implement this into a detector are low noise levels, high frame rates and low lag performance, all of which are unique characteristics of CMOS detectors. Results are presented to prove that excellent image quality is achieved, using a single detector for both DBT as well as FFDM dose conditions. This method of frame summing gave the opportunity to optimize the detector noise and saturation level for DBT applications, to achieve high DQE level at low dose, without compromising the FFDM performance.

Clinical performance of a free-breathing spatiotemporally accelerated 3-D time-resolved contrast-enhanced pediatric abdominal MR angiography

PubMed Central

Yousaf, Ufra; Hsiao, Albert; Cheng, Joseph Y.; Alley, Marcus T.; Lustig, Michael; Pauly, John M.; Vasanawala, Shreyas S.

2015-01-01

Background Pediatric contrast-enhanced MR angiography is often limited by respiration, other patient motion and compromised spatiotemporal resolution. Objective To determine the reliability of a free-breathing spatiotemporally accelerated 3-D time-resolved contrast enhanced MR angiography method for depicting abdominal arterial anatomy in young children. Materials and methods With IRB approval and informed consent, we retrospectively identified 27 consecutive children (16 males and 11 females; mean age: 3.8 years, range: 14 days to 8.4 years) referred for contrast enhanced MR angiography at our institution, who had undergone free-breathing spatiotemporally accelerated time-resolved contrast enhanced MR angiography studies. An radio-frequency-spoiled gradient echo sequence with Cartesian variable density k-space sampling and radial view ordering, intrinsic motion navigation and intermittent fat suppression was developed. Images were reconstructed with soft-gated parallel imaging locally low-rank method to achieve both motion correction and high spatiotemporal resolution. Quality of delineation of 13 abdominal arteries in the reconstructed images was assessed independently by two radiologists on a five-point scale. Ninety-five percent confidence intervals of the proportion of diagnostically adequate cases were calculated. Interobserver agreements were also analyzed. Results Eleven out of 13 arteries achieved acceptable image quality (mean score range: 3.9–5.0) for both readers. Fair to substantial interobserver agreement was reached on nine arteries. Conclusion Free-breathing spatiotemporally accelerated 3-D time-resolved contrast enhanced MR angiography frequently yields diagnostic image quality for most abdominal arteries for pediatric contrast enhanced MR angiography. PMID:26040509

High-performance compression and double cryptography based on compressive ghost imaging with the fast Fourier transform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leihong, Zhang; Zilan, Pan; Luying, Wu; Xiuhua, Ma

2016-11-01

To solve the problem that large images can hardly be retrieved for stringent hardware restrictions and the security level is low, a method based on compressive ghost imaging (CGI) with Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is proposed, named FFT-CGI. Initially, the information is encrypted by the sender with FFT, and the FFT-coded image is encrypted by the system of CGI with a secret key. Then the receiver decrypts the image with the aid of compressive sensing (CS) and FFT. Simulation results are given to verify the feasibility, security, and compression of the proposed encryption scheme. The experiment suggests the method can improve the quality of large images compared with conventional ghost imaging and achieve the imaging for large-sized images, further the amount of data transmitted largely reduced because of the combination of compressive sensing and FFT, and improve the security level of ghost images through ciphertext-only attack (COA), chosen-plaintext attack (CPA), and noise attack. This technique can be immediately applied to encryption and data storage with the advantages of high security, fast transmission, and high quality of reconstructed information.

Low-rate image coding using vector quantization

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Makur, A.

1990-01-01

This thesis deals with the development and analysis of a computationally simple vector quantization image compression system for coding monochrome images at low bit rate. Vector quantization has been known to be an effective compression scheme when a low bit rate is desirable, but the intensive computation required in a vector quantization encoder has been a handicap in using it for low rate image coding. The present work shows that, without substantially increasing the coder complexity, it is indeed possible to achieve acceptable picture quality while attaining a high compression ratio. Several modifications to the conventional vector quantization coder aremore » proposed in the thesis. These modifications are shown to offer better subjective quality when compared to the basic coder. Distributed blocks are used instead of spatial blocks to construct the input vectors. A class of input-dependent weighted distortion functions is used to incorporate psychovisual characteristics in the distortion measure. Computationally simple filtering techniques are applied to further improve the decoded image quality. Finally, unique designs of the vector quantization coder using electronic neural networks are described, so that the coding delay is reduced considerably.« less

Low-cost, high-resolution scanning laser ophthalmoscope for the clinical environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soliz, P.; Larichev, A.; Zamora, G.; Murillo, S.; Barriga, E. S.

2010-02-01

Researchers have sought to gain greater insight into the mechanisms of the retina and the optic disc at high spatial resolutions that would enable the visualization of small structures such as photoreceptors and nerve fiber bundles. The sources of retinal image quality degradation are aberrations within the human eye, which limit the achievable resolution and the contrast of small image details. To overcome these fundamental limitations, researchers have been applying adaptive optics (AO) techniques to correct for the aberrations. Today, deformable mirror based adaptive optics devices have been developed to overcome the limitations of standard fundus cameras, but at prices that are typically unaffordable for most clinics. In this paper we demonstrate a clinically viable fundus camera with auto-focus and astigmatism correction that is easy to use and has improved resolution. We have shown that removal of low-order aberrations results in significantly better resolution and quality images. Additionally, through the application of image restoration and super-resolution techniques, the images present considerably improved quality. The improvements lead to enhanced visualization of retinal structures associated with pathology.

Toward practical 3D radiography of pipeline girth welds

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wassink, Casper, E-mail: casper.wassink@applusrtd.com; Hol, Martijn, E-mail: martijn.hol@applusrtd.com; Flikweert, Arjan, E-mail: martijn.hol@applusrtd.com

2015-03-31

Digital radiography has made its way into in-the-field girth weld testing. With recent generations of detectors and x-ray tubes it is possible to reach the image quality desired in standards as well as the speed of inspection desired to be competitive with film radiography and automated ultrasonic testing. This paper will show the application of these technologies in the RTD Rayscan system. The method for achieving an image quality that complies with or even exceeds prevailing industrial standards will be presented, as well as the application on pipeline girth welds with CRA layers. A next step in development will bemore » to also achieve a measurement of weld flaw height to allow for performing an Engineering Critical Assessment on the weld. This will allow for similar acceptance limits as currently used with Automated Ultrasonic Testing of pipeline girth welds. Although a sufficient sizing accuracy was already demonstrated and qualified in the TomoCAR system, testing in some applications is restricted to time limits. The paper will present some experiments that were performed to achieve flaw height approximation within these time limits.« less

Audiovisual quality estimation of mobile phone video cameras with interpretation-based quality approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Radun, Jenni E.; Virtanen, Toni; Olives, Jean-Luc; Vaahteranoksa, Mikko; Vuori, Tero; Nyman, Göte

2007-01-01

We present an effective method for comparing subjective audiovisual quality and the features related to the quality changes of different video cameras. Both quantitative estimation of overall quality and qualitative description of critical quality features are achieved by the method. The aim was to combine two image quality evaluation methods, the quantitative Absolute Category Rating (ACR) method with hidden reference removal and the qualitative Interpretation- Based Quality (IBQ) method in order to see how they complement each other in audiovisual quality estimation tasks. 26 observers estimated the audiovisual quality of six different cameras, mainly mobile phone video cameras. In order to achieve an efficient subjective estimation of audiovisual quality, only two contents with different quality requirements were recorded with each camera. The results show that the subjectively important quality features were more related to the overall estimations of cameras' visual video quality than to the features related to sound. The data demonstrated two significant quality dimensions related to visual quality: darkness and sharpness. We conclude that the qualitative methodology can complement quantitative quality estimations also with audiovisual material. The IBQ approach is valuable especially, when the induced quality changes are multidimensional.

Blind image deconvolution using the Fields of Experts prior

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Wende; Feng, Huajun; Xu, Zhihai; Li, Qi

2012-11-01

In this paper, we present a method for single image blind deconvolution. To improve its ill-posedness, we formulate the problem under Bayesian probabilistic framework and use a prior named Fields of Experts (FoE) which is learnt from natural images to regularize the latent image. Furthermore, due to the sparse distribution of the point spread function (PSF), we adopt a Student-t prior to regularize it. An improved alternating minimization (AM) approach is proposed to solve the resulted optimization problem. Experiments on both synthetic and real world blurred images show that the proposed method can achieve results of high quality.

Multiple enface image averaging for enhanced optical coherence tomography angiography imaging.

PubMed

Uji, Akihito; Balasubramanian, Siva; Lei, Jianqin; Baghdasaryan, Elmira; Al-Sheikh, Mayss; Borrelli, Enrico; Sadda, SriniVas R

2018-05-31

To investigate the effect of multiple enface image averaging on image quality of the optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). Twenty-one normal volunteers were enrolled in this study. For each subject, one eye was imaged with 3 × 3 mm scan protocol, and another eye was imaged with the 6 × 6 mm scan protocol centred on the fovea using the ZEISS Angioplex™ spectral-domain OCTA device. Eyes were repeatedly imaged to obtain nine OCTA cube scan sets, and nine superficial capillary plexus (SCP) and deep capillary plexus (DCP) were individually averaged after registration. Eighteen eyes with a 3 × 3 mm scan field and 14 eyes with a 6 × 6 mm scan field were studied. Averaged images showed more continuous vessels and less background noise in both the SCP and the DCP as the number of frames used for averaging increased, with both 3 × 3 and 6 × 6 mm scan protocols. The intensity histogram of the vessels dramatically changed after averaging. Contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and subjectively assessed image quality scores also increased as the number of frames used for averaging increased in all image types. However, the additional benefit in quality diminished when averaging more than five frames. Averaging only three frames achieved significant improvement in CNR and the score assigned by certified grades. Use of multiple image averaging in OCTA enface images was found to be both objectively and subjectively effective for enhancing image quality. These findings may of value for developing optimal OCTA imaging protocols for future studies. © 2018 Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica Foundation. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Improving the quality of transvaginal ultrasound scan by simulation training for general practice residents.

PubMed

Le Lous, M; De Chanaud, N; Bourret, A; Senat, M V; Colmant, C; Jaury, P; Tesnière, A; Tsatsaris, V

2017-01-01

Ultrasonography (US) is an essential tool for the diagnosis of acute gynecological conditions. General practice (GP) residents are involved in the first-line management of gynecologic emergencies. They are not familiar with US equipment. Initial training on simulators was conducted.The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of simulation-based training on the quality of the sonographic images achieved by GP residents 2 months after the simulation training versus clinical training alone. Young GP residents assigned to emergency gynecology departments were invited to a one-day simulation-based US training session. A prospective controlled trial aiming to assess the impact of such training on TVS (transvaginal ultrasound scan) image quality was conducted. The first group included GP residents who attended the simulation training course. The second group included GP residents who did not attend the course. Written consent to participate was obtained from all participants. Images achieved 2 months after the training were scored using standardized quality criteria and compared in both groups. The stress generated by this examination was also assessed with a simple numeric scale. A total of 137 residents attended the simulation training, 26 consented to participate in the controlled trial. Sonographic image quality was significantly better in the simulation group for the sagittal view of the uterus (3.6 vs 2.7, p  = 0.01), for the longitudinal view of the right ovary (2.8 vs 1.4, p  = 0.027), and for the Morrison space (1.7 vs 0.4, p  = 0.034), but the difference was not significant for the left ovary (2.9 vs 1.7, p  = 0.189). The stress generated by TVS after 2 months was not different between the groups (6.0 vs 4.8, p  = 0.4). Simulation-based training improved the quality of pelvic US images in GP residents assessed after 2 months of experience in gynecology compared to clinical training alone.

Enhance the Quality of Crowdsensing for Fine-Grained Urban Environment Monitoring via Data Correlation

PubMed Central

Kang, Xu; Liu, Liang; Ma, Huadong

2017-01-01

Monitoring the status of urban environments, which provides fundamental information for a city, yields crucial insights into various fields of urban research. Recently, with the popularity of smartphones and vehicles equipped with onboard sensors, a people-centric scheme, namely “crowdsensing”, for city-scale environment monitoring is emerging. This paper proposes a data correlation based crowdsensing approach for fine-grained urban environment monitoring. To demonstrate urban status, we generate sensing images via crowdsensing network, and then enhance the quality of sensing images via data correlation. Specifically, to achieve a higher quality of sensing images, we not only utilize temporal correlation of mobile sensing nodes but also fuse the sensory data with correlated environment data by introducing a collective tensor decomposition approach. Finally, we conduct a series of numerical simulations and a real dataset based case study. The results validate that our approach outperforms the traditional spatial interpolation-based method. PMID:28054968

Retinal Image Simulation of Subjective Refraction Techniques

PubMed Central

Perches, Sara; Collados, M. Victoria; Ares, Jorge

2016-01-01

Refraction techniques make it possible to determine the most appropriate sphero-cylindrical lens prescription to achieve the best possible visual quality. Among these techniques, subjective refraction (i.e., patient’s response-guided refraction) is the most commonly used approach. In this context, this paper’s main goal is to present a simulation software that implements in a virtual manner various subjective-refraction techniques—including Jackson’s Cross-Cylinder test (JCC)—relying all on the observation of computer-generated retinal images. This software has also been used to evaluate visual quality when the JCC test is performed in multifocal-contact-lens wearers. The results reveal this software’s usefulness to simulate the retinal image quality that a particular visual compensation provides. Moreover, it can help to gain a deeper insight and to improve existing refraction techniques and it can be used for simulated training. PMID:26938648

The utility of conductive plastic electrodes in prolonged ICU EEG monitoring.

PubMed

Das, Rohit R; Lucey, Brendan P; Chou, Sherry H-Y; Espinosa, Patricio S; Zamani, Amir A; Dworetzky, Barbara A; Bromfield, Edward B; Lee, Jong Woo

2009-01-01

We investigated the feasibility and utilization of conductive plastic electrodes (CPEs) in patients undergoing continuous video-electroencephalographic (EEG) monitoring in the intensive care unit (ICU), and assessed the quality of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) images obtained during this period. A total of 54 patients were monitored. Seizures were recorded in 16 patients. Twenty-five patients had neuroimaging performed with electrodes in place; 15 MRI and 23 CT scans were performed. All patients had excellent quality anatomical images without clinically significant artifacts, and without any signs or symptoms that raised safety concerns. Recording quality of the EEG was indistinguishable to that achieved with standard gold electrodes. The use of CPEs allowed for uninterrupted EEG recording of patients who required urgent neuroimaging, and decreased the amount of time spent by the technologists required to remove and reattach leads.

Human Visual System-Based Fundus Image Quality Assessment of Portable Fundus Camera Photographs.

PubMed

Wang, Shaoze; Jin, Kai; Lu, Haitong; Cheng, Chuming; Ye, Juan; Qian, Dahong

2016-04-01

Telemedicine and the medical "big data" era in ophthalmology highlight the use of non-mydriatic ocular fundus photography, which has given rise to indispensable applications of portable fundus cameras. However, in the case of portable fundus photography, non-mydriatic image quality is more vulnerable to distortions, such as uneven illumination, color distortion, blur, and low contrast. Such distortions are called generic quality distortions. This paper proposes an algorithm capable of selecting images of fair generic quality that would be especially useful to assist inexperienced individuals in collecting meaningful and interpretable data with consistency. The algorithm is based on three characteristics of the human visual system--multi-channel sensation, just noticeable blur, and the contrast sensitivity function to detect illumination and color distortion, blur, and low contrast distortion, respectively. A total of 536 retinal images, 280 from proprietary databases and 256 from public databases, were graded independently by one senior and two junior ophthalmologists, such that three partial measures of quality and generic overall quality were classified into two categories. Binary classification was implemented by the support vector machine and the decision tree, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were obtained and plotted to analyze the performance of the proposed algorithm. The experimental results revealed that the generic overall quality classification achieved a sensitivity of 87.45% at a specificity of 91.66%, with an area under the ROC curve of 0.9452, indicating the value of applying the algorithm, which is based on the human vision system, to assess the image quality of non-mydriatic photography, especially for low-cost ophthalmological telemedicine applications.

Application of fluence field modulation to proton computed tomography for proton therapy imaging.

PubMed

Dedes, G; De Angelis, L; Rit, S; Hansen, D; Belka, C; Bashkirov, V; Johnson, R P; Coutrakon, G; Schubert, K E; Schulte, R W; Parodi, K; Landry, G

2017-07-12

This simulation study presents the application of fluence field modulated computed tomography, initially developed for x-ray CT, to proton computed tomography (pCT). By using pencil beam (PB) scanning, fluence modulated pCT (FMpCT) may achieve variable image quality in a pCT image and imaging dose reduction. Three virtual phantoms, a uniform cylinder and two patients, were studied using Monte Carlo simulations of an ideal list-mode pCT scanner. Regions of interest (ROI) were selected for high image quality and only PBs intercepting them preserved full fluence (FF). Image quality was investigated in terms of accuracy (mean) and noise (standard deviation) of the reconstructed proton relative stopping power compared to reference values. Dose calculation accuracy on FMpCT images was evaluated in terms of dose volume histograms (DVH), range difference (RD) for beam-eye-view (BEV) dose profiles and gamma evaluation. Pseudo FMpCT scans were created from broad beam experimental data acquired with a list-mode pCT prototype. FMpCT noise in ROIs was equivalent to FF images and accuracy better than  -1.3%(-0.7%) by using 1% of FF for the cylinder (patients). Integral imaging dose reduction of 37% and 56% was achieved for the two patients for that level of modulation. Corresponding DVHs from proton dose calculation on FMpCT images agreed to those from reference images and 96% of BEV profiles had RD below 2 mm, compared to only 1% for uniform 1% of FF. Gamma pass rates (2%, 2 mm) were 98% for FMpCT while for uniform 1% of FF they were as low as 59%. Applying FMpCT to preliminary experimental data showed that low noise levels and accuracy could be preserved in a ROI, down to 30% modulation. We have shown, using both virtual and experimental pCT scans, that FMpCT is potentially feasible and may allow a means of imaging dose reduction for a pCT scanner operating in PB scanning mode. This may be of particular importance to proton therapy given the low integral dose found outside the target.

Investigation of Image Reconstruction Parameters of the Mediso nanoScan PC Small-Animal PET/CT Scanner for Two Different Positron Emitters Under NEMA NU 4-2008 Standards.

PubMed

Gaitanis, Anastasios; Kastis, George A; Vlastou, Elena; Bouziotis, Penelope; Verginis, Panayotis; Anagnostopoulos, Constantinos D

2017-08-01

The Tera-Tomo 3D image reconstruction algorithm (a version of OSEM), provided with the Mediso nanoScan® PC (PET8/2) small-animal positron emission tomograph (PET)/x-ray computed tomography (CT) scanner, has various parameter options such as total level of regularization, subsets, and iterations. Also, the acquisition time in PET plays an important role. This study aims to assess the performance of this new small-animal PET/CT scanner for different acquisition times and reconstruction parameters, for 2-deoxy-2-[ 18 F]fluoro-D-glucose ([ 18 F]FDG) and Ga-68, under the NEMA NU 4-2008 standards. Various image quality metrics were calculated for different realizations of [ 18 F]FDG and Ga-68 filled image quality (IQ) phantoms. [ 18 F]FDG imaging produced improved images over Ga-68. The best compromise for the optimization of all image quality factors is achieved for at least 30 min acquisition and image reconstruction with 52 iteration updates combined with a high regularization level. A high regularization level at 52 iteration updates and 30 min acquisition time were found to optimize most of the figures of merit investigated.

Optimization of image quality and acquisition time for lab-based X-ray microtomography using an iterative reconstruction algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Qingyang; Andrew, Matthew; Thompson, William; Blunt, Martin J.; Bijeljic, Branko

2018-05-01

Non-invasive laboratory-based X-ray microtomography has been widely applied in many industrial and research disciplines. However, the main barrier to the use of laboratory systems compared to a synchrotron beamline is its much longer image acquisition time (hours per scan compared to seconds to minutes at a synchrotron), which results in limited application for dynamic in situ processes. Therefore, the majority of existing laboratory X-ray microtomography is limited to static imaging; relatively fast imaging (tens of minutes per scan) can only be achieved by sacrificing imaging quality, e.g. reducing exposure time or number of projections. To alleviate this barrier, we introduce an optimized implementation of a well-known iterative reconstruction algorithm that allows users to reconstruct tomographic images with reasonable image quality, but requires lower X-ray signal counts and fewer projections than conventional methods. Quantitative analysis and comparison between the iterative and the conventional filtered back-projection reconstruction algorithm was performed using a sandstone rock sample with and without liquid phases in the pore space. Overall, by implementing the iterative reconstruction algorithm, the required image acquisition time for samples such as this, with sparse object structure, can be reduced by a factor of up to 4 without measurable loss of sharpness or signal to noise ratio.

Use of a channelized Hotelling observer to assess CT image quality and optimize dose reduction for iteratively reconstructed images.

PubMed

Favazza, Christopher P; Ferrero, Andrea; Yu, Lifeng; Leng, Shuai; McMillan, Kyle L; McCollough, Cynthia H

2017-07-01

The use of iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithms in CT generally decreases image noise and enables dose reduction. However, the amount of dose reduction possible using IR without sacrificing diagnostic performance is difficult to assess with conventional image quality metrics. Through this investigation, achievable dose reduction using a commercially available IR algorithm without loss of low contrast spatial resolution was determined with a channelized Hotelling observer (CHO) model and used to optimize a clinical abdomen/pelvis exam protocol. A phantom containing 21 low contrast disks-three different contrast levels and seven different diameters-was imaged at different dose levels. Images were created with filtered backprojection (FBP) and IR. The CHO was tasked with detecting the low contrast disks. CHO performance indicated dose could be reduced by 22% to 25% without compromising low contrast detectability (as compared to full-dose FBP images) whereas 50% or more dose reduction significantly reduced detection performance. Importantly, default settings for the scanner and protocol investigated reduced dose by upward of 75%. Subsequently, CHO-based protocol changes to the default protocol yielded images of higher quality and doses more consistent with values from a larger, dose-optimized scanner fleet. CHO assessment provided objective data to successfully optimize a clinical CT acquisition protocol.

SU-F-J-214: Dose Reduction by Spatially Optimized Image Quality Via Fluence Modulated Proton CT (FMpCT)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

De Angelis, L; Landry, G; Dedes, G

Purpose: Proton CT (pCT) is a promising imaging modality for reducing range uncertainty in image-guided proton therapy. Range uncertainties partially originate from X-ray CT number conversion to stopping power ratio (SPR) and are limiting the exploitation of the full potential of proton therapy. In this study we explore the concept of spatially dependent fluence modulated proton CT (FMpCT), for achieving optimal image quality in a clinical region of interest (ROI), while reducing significantly the imaging dose to the patient. Methods: The study was based on simulated ideal pCT using pencil beam (PB) scanning. A set of 250 MeV protons PBsmore » was used to create 360 projections of a cylindrical water phantom and a head and neck cancer patient. The tomographic images were reconstructed using a filtered backprojection (FBP) as well as an iterative algorithm (ITR). Different fluence modulation levels were investigated and their impact on the image was quantified in terms of SPR accuracy as well as noise within and outside selected ROIs, as a function of imaging dose. The unmodulated image served as reference. Results: Both FBP reconstruction and ITR without total variation (TV) yielded image quality in the ROIs similar to the reference images, for modulation down to 0.1 of the full proton fluence. The average dose was reduced by 75% for the water phantom and by 40% for the patient. FMpCT does not improve the noise for ITR with TV and modulation 0.1. Conclusion: This is the first work proposing and investigating FMpCT for producing optimal image quality for treatment planning and image guidance, while simultaneously reducing imaging dose. Future work will address spatial resolution effects and the impact of FMpCT on the quality of proton treatment plans for a prototype pCT scanner capable of list mode data acquisition. Acknowledgement: DFG-MAP DFG - Munich-Centre for Advanced Photonics (MAP)« less

MIGS-GPU: Microarray Image Gridding and Segmentation on the GPU.

PubMed

Katsigiannis, Stamos; Zacharia, Eleni; Maroulis, Dimitris

2017-05-01

Complementary DNA (cDNA) microarray is a powerful tool for simultaneously studying the expression level of thousands of genes. Nevertheless, the analysis of microarray images remains an arduous and challenging task due to the poor quality of the images that often suffer from noise, artifacts, and uneven background. In this study, the MIGS-GPU [Microarray Image Gridding and Segmentation on Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)] software for gridding and segmenting microarray images is presented. MIGS-GPU's computations are performed on the GPU by means of the compute unified device architecture (CUDA) in order to achieve fast performance and increase the utilization of available system resources. Evaluation on both real and synthetic cDNA microarray images showed that MIGS-GPU provides better performance than state-of-the-art alternatives, while the proposed GPU implementation achieves significantly lower computational times compared to the respective CPU approaches. Consequently, MIGS-GPU can be an advantageous and useful tool for biomedical laboratories, offering a user-friendly interface that requires minimum input in order to run.

Air Land Sea Bulletin. Issue No. 2013-1

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-01-01

face, finger- print, iris , DNA, and palm print. Biometric capabilities may achieve enabling effects such as the ability to separate, identify...to obtain forensic-quality fingerprints, latent fingerprints, iris images, photos, and other biometric data. Figure 1. SEEK II ALSB 2013-1 12...logical and biographical contextual data of POIs and matches fingerprints and iris images against an internal biomet- rics enrollment database. The

Signal template generation from acquired mammographic images for the non-prewhitening model observer with eye-filter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Balta, Christiana; Bouwman, Ramona W.; Sechopoulos, Ioannis; Broeders, Mireille J. M.; Karssemeijer, Nico; van Engen, Ruben E.; Veldkamp, Wouter J. H.

2017-03-01

Model observers (MOs) are being investigated for image quality assessment in full-field digital mammography (FFDM). Signal templates for the non-prewhitening MO with eye filter (NPWE) were formed using acquired FFDM images. A signal template was generated from acquired images by averaging multiple exposures resulting in a low noise signal template. Noise elimination while preserving the signal was investigated and a methodology which results in a noise-free template is proposed. In order to deal with signal location uncertainty, template shifting was implemented. The procedure to generate the template was evaluated on images of an anthropomorphic breast phantom containing microcalcification-related signals. Optimal reduction of the background noise was achieved without changing the signal. Based on a validation study in simulated images, the difference (bias) in MO performance from the ground truth signal was calculated and found to be <1%. As template generation is a building stone of the entire image quality assessment framework, the proposed method to construct templates from acquired images facilitates the use of the NPWE MO in acquired images.

A robust color image fusion for low light level and infrared images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Chao; Zhang, Xiao-hui; Hu, Qing-ping; Chen, Yong-kang

2016-09-01

The low light level and infrared color fusion technology has achieved great success in the field of night vision, the technology is designed to make the hot target of fused image pop out with intenser colors, represent the background details with a nearest color appearance to nature, and improve the ability in target discovery, detection and identification. The low light level images have great noise under low illumination, and that the existing color fusion methods are easily to be influenced by low light level channel noise. To be explicit, when the low light level image noise is very large, the quality of the fused image decreases significantly, and even targets in infrared image would be submerged by the noise. This paper proposes an adaptive color night vision technology, the noise evaluation parameters of low light level image is introduced into fusion process, which improve the robustness of the color fusion. The color fuse results are still very good in low-light situations, which shows that this method can effectively improve the quality of low light level and infrared fused image under low illumination conditions.

Multifocus image fusion using phase congruency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhan, Kun; Li, Qiaoqiao; Teng, Jicai; Wang, Mingying; Shi, Jinhui

2015-05-01

We address the problem of fusing multifocus images based on the phase congruency (PC). PC provides a sharpness feature of a natural image. The focus measure (FM) is identified as strong PC near a distinctive image feature evaluated by the complex Gabor wavelet. The PC is more robust against noise than other FMs. The fusion image is obtained by a new fusion rule (FR), and the focused region is selected by the FR from one of the input images. Experimental results show that the proposed fusion scheme achieves the fusion performance of the state-of-the-art methods in terms of visual quality and quantitative evaluations.

Initial products of Akatsuki 1-μm camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iwagami, Naomoto; Sakanoi, Takeshi; Hashimoto, George L.; Sawai, Kenta; Ohtsuki, Shoko; Takagi, Seiko; Uemizu, Kazunori; Ueno, Munetaka; Kameda, Shingo; Murakami, Shin-ya; Nakamura, Masato; Ishii, Nobuaki; Abe, Takumi; Satoh, Takehiko; Imamura, Takeshi; Hirose, Chikako; Suzuki, Makoto; Hirata, Naru; Yamazaki, Atsushi; Sato, Takao M.; Yamada, Manabu; Yamamoto, Yukio; Fukuhara, Tetsuya; Ogohara, Kazunori; Ando, Hiroki; Sugiyama, Ko-ichiro; Kashimura, Hiroki; Kouyama, Toru

2018-01-01

The status and initial products of the 1-μm camera onboard the Akatsuki mission to Venus are presented. After the successful retrial of Venus' orbit insertion on Dec. 2015 (5 years after the failure in Dec. 2010), and after a long cruise under intense radiation, damage in the detector seems small and fortunately insignificant in the final quality of the images. More than 600 dayside images have been obtained since the beginning of regular operation on Apr. 2016 although nightside images are less numerous (about 150 in total at three wavelengths) due to the light scattered from the bright dayside. However, data acquisition stopped after December 07, 2016, due to malfunction of the electronics and has not been resumed since then. The 0.90-µm dayside images are of sufficient quality for the cloud-tracking procedure to retrieve wind field in the cloud region. The results appear to be similar to those reported by previous 1-μm imaging by Galileo and Venus Express. The representative altitude sampled for such dayside images is estimated to be 51-55 km. Also, the quality of the nightside 1.01-µm images is sufficient for a search for active volcanism, since interference due to cloud inhomogeneity appears to be insignificant. The quality of the 0.97-µm images may be insufficient to achieve the expected spatial resolution for the near-surface H2O mixing ratio retrievals.[Figure not available: see fulltext.

Estimation of Image Sensor Fill Factor Using a Single Arbitrary Image

PubMed Central

Wen, Wei; Khatibi, Siamak

2017-01-01

Achieving a high fill factor is a bottleneck problem for capturing high-quality images. There are hardware and software solutions to overcome this problem. In the solutions, the fill factor is known. However, this is an industrial secrecy by most image sensor manufacturers due to its direct effect on the assessment of the sensor quality. In this paper, we propose a method to estimate the fill factor of a camera sensor from an arbitrary single image. The virtual response function of the imaging process and sensor irradiance are estimated from the generation of virtual images. Then the global intensity values of the virtual images are obtained, which are the result of fusing the virtual images into a single, high dynamic range radiance map. A non-linear function is inferred from the original and global intensity values of the virtual images. The fill factor is estimated by the conditional minimum of the inferred function. The method is verified using images of two datasets. The results show that our method estimates the fill factor correctly with significant stability and accuracy from one single arbitrary image according to the low standard deviation of the estimated fill factors from each of images and for each camera. PMID:28335459

Evaluation of automatic image quality assessment in chest CT - A human cadaver study.

PubMed

Franck, Caro; De Crop, An; De Roo, Bieke; Smeets, Peter; Vergauwen, Merel; Dewaele, Tom; Van Borsel, Mathias; Achten, Eric; Van Hoof, Tom; Bacher, Klaus

2017-04-01

The evaluation of clinical image quality (IQ) is important to optimize CT protocols and to keep patient doses as low as reasonably achievable. Considering the significant amount of effort needed for human observer studies, automatic IQ tools are a promising alternative. The purpose of this study was to evaluate automatic IQ assessment in chest CT using Thiel embalmed cadavers. Chest CT's of Thiel embalmed cadavers were acquired at different exposures. Clinical IQ was determined by performing a visual grading analysis. Physical-technical IQ (noise, contrast-to-noise and contrast-detail) was assessed in a Catphan phantom. Soft and sharp reconstructions were made with filtered back projection and two strengths of iterative reconstruction. In addition to the classical IQ metrics, an automatic algorithm was used to calculate image quality scores (IQs). To be able to compare datasets reconstructed with different kernels, the IQs values were normalized. Good correlations were found between IQs and the measured physical-technical image quality: noise (ρ=-1.00), contrast-to-noise (ρ=1.00) and contrast-detail (ρ=0.96). The correlation coefficients between IQs and the observed clinical image quality of soft and sharp reconstructions were 0.88 and 0.93, respectively. The automatic scoring algorithm is a promising tool for the evaluation of thoracic CT scans in daily clinical practice. It allows monitoring of the image quality of a chest protocol over time, without human intervention. Different reconstruction kernels can be compared after normalization of the IQs. Copyright © 2017 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Simple, inexpensive technique for high-quality smartphone fundus photography in human and animal eyes.

PubMed

Haddock, Luis J; Kim, David Y; Mukai, Shizuo

2013-01-01

Purpose. We describe in detail a relatively simple technique of fundus photography in human and rabbit eyes using a smartphone, an inexpensive app for the smartphone, and instruments that are readily available in an ophthalmic practice. Methods. Fundus images were captured with a smartphone and a 20D lens with or without a Koeppe lens. By using the coaxial light source of the phone, this system works as an indirect ophthalmoscope that creates a digital image of the fundus. The application whose software allows for independent control of focus, exposure, and light intensity during video filming was used. With this app, we recorded high-definition videos of the fundus and subsequently extracted high-quality, still images from the video clip. Results. The described technique of smartphone fundus photography was able to capture excellent high-quality fundus images in both children under anesthesia and in awake adults. Excellent images were acquired with the 20D lens alone in the clinic, and the addition of the Koeppe lens in the operating room resulted in the best quality images. Successful photodocumentation of rabbit fundus was achieved in control and experimental eyes. Conclusion. The currently described system was able to take consistently high-quality fundus photographs in patients and in animals using readily available instruments that are portable with simple power sources. It is relatively simple to master, is relatively inexpensive, and can take advantage of the expanding mobile-telephone networks for telemedicine.

The Impact of Different Levels of Adaptive Iterative Dose Reduction 3D on Image Quality of 320-Row Coronary CT Angiography: A Clinical Trial

PubMed Central

Feger, Sarah; Rief, Matthias; Zimmermann, Elke; Martus, Peter; Schuijf, Joanne Désirée; Blobel, Jörg; Richter, Felicitas; Dewey, Marc

2015-01-01

Purpose The aim of this study was the systematic image quality evaluation of coronary CT angiography (CTA), reconstructed with the 3 different levels of adaptive iterative dose reduction (AIDR 3D) and compared to filtered back projection (FBP) with quantum denoising software (QDS). Methods Standard-dose CTA raw data of 30 patients with mean radiation dose of 3.2 ± 2.6 mSv were reconstructed using AIDR 3D mild, standard, strong and compared to FBP/QDS. Objective image quality comparison (signal, noise, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), contour sharpness) was performed using 21 measurement points per patient, including measurements in each coronary artery from proximal to distal. Results Objective image quality parameters improved with increasing levels of AIDR 3D. Noise was lowest in AIDR 3D strong (p≤0.001 at 20/21 measurement points; compared with FBP/QDS). Signal and contour sharpness analysis showed no significant difference between the reconstruction algorithms for most measurement points. Best coronary SNR and CNR were achieved with AIDR 3D strong. No loss of SNR or CNR in distal segments was seen with AIDR 3D as compared to FBP. Conclusions On standard-dose coronary CTA images, AIDR 3D strong showed higher objective image quality than FBP/QDS without reducing contour sharpness. Trial Registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00967876 PMID:25945924

Estimation of Spatiotemporal Sensitivity Using Band-limited Signals with No Additional Acquisitions for k-t Parallel Imaging.

PubMed

Takeshima, Hidenori; Saitoh, Kanako; Nitta, Shuhei; Shiodera, Taichiro; Takeguchi, Tomoyuki; Bannae, Shuhei; Kuhara, Shigehide

2018-03-13

Dynamic MR techniques, such as cardiac cine imaging, benefit from shorter acquisition times. The goal of the present study was to develop a method that achieves short acquisition times, while maintaining a cost-effective reconstruction, for dynamic MRI. k - t sensitivity encoding (SENSE) was identified as the base method to be enhanced meeting these two requirements. The proposed method achieves a reduction in acquisition time by estimating the spatiotemporal (x - f) sensitivity without requiring the acquisition of the alias-free signals, typical of the k - t SENSE technique. The cost-effective reconstruction, in turn, is achieved by a computationally efficient estimation of the x - f sensitivity from the band-limited signals of the aliased inputs. Such band-limited signals are suitable for sensitivity estimation because the strongly aliased signals have been removed. For the same reduction factor 4, the net reduction factor 4 for the proposed method was significantly higher than the factor 2.29 achieved by k - t SENSE. The processing time is reduced from 4.1 s for k - t SENSE to 1.7 s for the proposed method. The image quality obtained using the proposed method proved to be superior (mean squared error [MSE] ± standard deviation [SD] = 6.85 ± 2.73) compared to the k - t SENSE case (MSE ± SD = 12.73 ± 3.60) for the vertical long-axis (VLA) view, as well as other views. In the present study, k - t SENSE was identified as a suitable base method to be improved achieving both short acquisition times and a cost-effective reconstruction. To enhance these characteristics of base method, a novel implementation is proposed, estimating the x - f sensitivity without the need for an explicit scan of the reference signals. Experimental results showed that the acquisition, computational times and image quality for the proposed method were improved compared to the standard k - t SENSE method.

Adaptive compressed sensing of remote-sensing imaging based on the sparsity prediction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Senlin; Li, Xilong; Chong, Xin

2017-10-01

The conventional compressive sensing works based on the non-adaptive linear projections, and the parameter of its measurement times is usually set empirically. As a result, the quality of image reconstruction is always affected. Firstly, the block-based compressed sensing (BCS) with conventional selection for compressive measurements was given. Then an estimation method for the sparsity of image was proposed based on the two dimensional discrete cosine transform (2D DCT). With an energy threshold given beforehand, the DCT coefficients were processed with both energy normalization and sorting in descending order, and the sparsity of the image can be achieved by the proportion of dominant coefficients. And finally, the simulation result shows that, the method can estimate the sparsity of image effectively, and provides an active basis for the selection of compressive observation times. The result also shows that, since the selection of observation times is based on the sparse degree estimated with the energy threshold provided, the proposed method can ensure the quality of image reconstruction.

Rotating single-shot acquisition (RoSA) with composite reconstruction for fast high-resolution diffusion imaging.

PubMed

Wen, Qiuting; Kodiweera, Chandana; Dale, Brian M; Shivraman, Giri; Wu, Yu-Chien

2018-01-01

To accelerate high-resolution diffusion imaging, rotating single-shot acquisition (RoSA) with composite reconstruction is proposed. Acceleration was achieved by acquiring only one rotating single-shot blade per diffusion direction, and high-resolution diffusion-weighted (DW) images were reconstructed by using similarities of neighboring DW images. A parallel imaging technique was implemented in RoSA to further improve the image quality and acquisition speed. RoSA performance was evaluated by simulation and human experiments. A brain tensor phantom was developed to determine an optimal blade size and rotation angle by considering similarity in DW images, off-resonance effects, and k-space coverage. With the optimal parameters, RoSA MR pulse sequence and reconstruction algorithm were developed to acquire human brain data. For comparison, multishot echo planar imaging (EPI) and conventional single-shot EPI sequences were performed with matched scan time, resolution, field of view, and diffusion directions. The simulation indicated an optimal blade size of 48 × 256 and a 30 ° rotation angle. For 1 × 1 mm 2 in-plane resolution, RoSA was 12 times faster than the multishot acquisition with comparable image quality. With the same acquisition time as SS-EPI, RoSA provided superior image quality and minimum geometric distortion. RoSA offers fast, high-quality, high-resolution diffusion images. The composite image reconstruction is model-free and compatible with various diffusion computation approaches including parametric and nonparametric analyses. Magn Reson Med 79:264-275, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Good reasons to implement quality assurance in nationwide breast cancer screening programs in Croatia and Serbia: results from a pilot study.

PubMed

Ciraj-Bjelac, Olivera; Faj, Dario; Stimac, Damir; Kosutic, Dusko; Arandjic, Danijela; Brkic, Hrvoje

2011-04-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the need for and the possible achievements of a comprehensive QA programme and to look at effects of simple corrective actions on image quality in Croatia and in Serbia. The paper focuses on activities related to the technical and radiological aspects of QA. The methodology consisted of two phases. The aim of the first phase was the initial assessment of mammography practice in terms of image quality, patient dose and equipment performance in selected number of mammography units in Croatia and Serbia. Subsequently, corrective actions were suggested and implemented. Then the same parameters were re-assessed. Most of the suggested corrective actions were simple, low-cost and possible to implement immediately, as these were related to working habits in mammography units, such as film processing and darkroom conditions. It has been demonstrated how simple quantitative assessment of image quality can be used for optimisation purposes. Analysis of image quality parameters as OD, gradient and contrast demonstrated general similarities between mammography practices in Croatia and Serbia. The applied methodology should be expanded to larger number of hospitals and applied on a regular basis. Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Radiation protection program for early detection of breast cancer in a mammography facility

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mariana, Villagomez Casimiro, E-mail: marjim10-66@ciencias.unam.mx, E-mail: cesar@fisica.unam.mx; Cesar, Ruiz Trejo, E-mail: marjim10-66@ciencias.unam.mx, E-mail: cesar@fisica.unam.mx; Ruby, Espejo Fonseca

Mammography is the best tool for early detection of Breast Cancer. In this diagnostic radiology modality it is necessary to establish the criteria to ensure the proper use and operation of the equipment used to obtain mammographic images in order to contribute to the safe use of ionizing radiation. The aim of the work was to implement at FUCAM-AC the radiation protection program which must be established for patients and radiation workers according to Mexican standards [1–4]. To achieve this goal, radiation protection and quality control manuals were elaborated [5]. Furthermore, a quality control program (QCP) in the mammography systemsmore » (analog/digital), darkroom included, has been implemented. Daily sensitometry, non-variability of the image quality, visualizing artifacts, revision of the equipment mechanical stability, compression force and analysis of repetition studies are some of the QCP routine tests that must be performed by radiological technicians of this institution as a set of actions to ensure the protection of patients. Image quality and patients dose assessment were performed on 4 analog equipment installed in 2 mobile units. In relation to dose assessment, all equipment passed the acceptance criteria (<3 mGy per projection). The image quality test showed that most images (70%)– presented artifacts. A brief summary of the results of quality control tests applied to the equipment and film processor are presented. To maintain an adequate level of quality and safety at FUCAM-AC is necessary that the proposed radiation protection program in this work is applied.« less

WE-G-209-00: Identifying Image Artifacts, Their Causes, and How to Fix Them

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

Digital radiography, CT, PET, and MR are complicated imaging modalities which are composed of many hardware and software components. These components work together in a highly coordinated chain of events with the intent to produce high quality images. Acquisition, processing and reconstruction of data must occur in a precise way for optimum image quality to be achieved. Any error or unexpected event in the entire process can produce unwanted pixel intensities in the final images which may contribute to visible image artifacts. The diagnostic imaging physicist is uniquely qualified to investigate and contribute to resolution of image artifacts. This coursemore » will teach the participant to identify common artifacts found clinically in digital radiography, CT, PET, and MR, to determine the causes of artifacts, and to make recommendations for how to resolve artifacts. Learning Objectives: Identify common artifacts found clinically in digital radiography, CT, PET and MR. Determine causes of various clinical artifacts from digital radiography, CT, PET and MR. Describe how to resolve various clinical artifacts from digital radiography, CT, PET and MR.« less

Improving Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry Image Quality with Image Fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tarolli, Jay G.; Jackson, Lauren M.; Winograd, Nicholas

2014-12-01

The spatial resolution of chemical images acquired with cluster secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is limited not only by the size of the probe utilized to create the images but also by detection sensitivity. As the probe size is reduced to below 1 μm, for example, a low signal in each pixel limits lateral resolution because of counting statistics considerations. Although it can be useful to implement numerical methods to mitigate this problem, here we investigate the use of image fusion to combine information from scanning electron microscope (SEM) data with chemically resolved SIMS images. The advantage of this approach is that the higher intensity and, hence, spatial resolution of the electron images can help to improve the quality of the SIMS images without sacrificing chemical specificity. Using a pan-sharpening algorithm, the method is illustrated using synthetic data, experimental data acquired from a metallic grid sample, and experimental data acquired from a lawn of algae cells. The results show that up to an order of magnitude increase in spatial resolution is possible to achieve. A cross-correlation metric is utilized for evaluating the reliability of the procedure.

Online image classification under monotonic decision boundary constraint

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Cheng; Allebach, Jan; Wagner, Jerry; Pitta, Brandi; Larson, David; Guo, Yandong

2015-01-01

Image classification is a prerequisite for copy quality enhancement in all-in-one (AIO) device that comprises a printer and scanner, and which can be used to scan, copy and print. Different processing pipelines are provided in an AIO printer. Each of the processing pipelines is designed specifically for one type of input image to achieve the optimal output image quality. A typical approach to this problem is to apply Support Vector Machine to classify the input image and feed it to its corresponding processing pipeline. The online training SVM can help users to improve the performance of classification as input images accumulate. At the same time, we want to make quick decision on the input image to speed up the classification which means sometimes the AIO device does not need to scan the entire image to make a final decision. These two constraints, online SVM and quick decision, raise questions regarding: 1) what features are suitable for classification; 2) how we should control the decision boundary in online SVM training. This paper will discuss the compatibility of online SVM and quick decision capability.

Multimodal Imaging and Lighting Bias Correction for Improved μPAD-based Water Quality Monitoring via Smartphones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCracken, Katherine E.; Angus, Scott V.; Reynolds, Kelly A.; Yoon, Jeong-Yeol

2016-06-01

Smartphone image-based sensing of microfluidic paper analytical devices (μPADs) offers low-cost and mobile evaluation of water quality. However, consistent quantification is a challenge due to variable environmental, paper, and lighting conditions, especially across large multi-target μPADs. Compensations must be made for variations between images to achieve reproducible results without a separate lighting enclosure. We thus developed a simple method using triple-reference point normalization and a fast-Fourier transform (FFT)-based pre-processing scheme to quantify consistent reflected light intensity signals under variable lighting and channel conditions. This technique was evaluated using various light sources, lighting angles, imaging backgrounds, and imaging heights. Further testing evaluated its handle of absorbance, quenching, and relative scattering intensity measurements from assays detecting four water contaminants - Cr(VI), total chlorine, caffeine, and E. coli K12 - at similar wavelengths using the green channel of RGB images. Between assays, this algorithm reduced error from μPAD surface inconsistencies and cross-image lighting gradients. Although the algorithm could not completely remove the anomalies arising from point shadows within channels or some non-uniform background reflections, it still afforded order-of-magnitude quantification and stable assay specificity under these conditions, offering one route toward improving smartphone quantification of μPAD assays for in-field water quality monitoring.

3D conditional generative adversarial networks for high-quality PET image estimation at low dose.

PubMed

Wang, Yan; Yu, Biting; Wang, Lei; Zu, Chen; Lalush, David S; Lin, Weili; Wu, Xi; Zhou, Jiliu; Shen, Dinggang; Zhou, Luping

2018-07-01

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a widely used imaging modality, providing insight into both the biochemical and physiological processes of human body. Usually, a full dose radioactive tracer is required to obtain high-quality PET images for clinical needs. This inevitably raises concerns about potential health hazards. On the other hand, dose reduction may cause the increased noise in the reconstructed PET images, which impacts the image quality to a certain extent. In this paper, in order to reduce the radiation exposure while maintaining the high quality of PET images, we propose a novel method based on 3D conditional generative adversarial networks (3D c-GANs) to estimate the high-quality full-dose PET images from low-dose ones. Generative adversarial networks (GANs) include a generator network and a discriminator network which are trained simultaneously with the goal of one beating the other. Similar to GANs, in the proposed 3D c-GANs, we condition the model on an input low-dose PET image and generate a corresponding output full-dose PET image. Specifically, to render the same underlying information between the low-dose and full-dose PET images, a 3D U-net-like deep architecture which can combine hierarchical features by using skip connection is designed as the generator network to synthesize the full-dose image. In order to guarantee the synthesized PET image to be close to the real one, we take into account of the estimation error loss in addition to the discriminator feedback to train the generator network. Furthermore, a concatenated 3D c-GANs based progressive refinement scheme is also proposed to further improve the quality of estimated images. Validation was done on a real human brain dataset including both the normal subjects and the subjects diagnosed as mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Experimental results show that our proposed 3D c-GANs method outperforms the benchmark methods and achieves much better performance than the state-of-the-art methods in both qualitative and quantitative measures. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Steganographic optical image encryption system based on reversible data hiding and double random phase encoding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chuang, Cheng-Hung; Chen, Yen-Lin

2013-02-01

This study presents a steganographic optical image encryption system based on reversible data hiding and double random phase encoding (DRPE) techniques. Conventional optical image encryption systems can securely transmit valuable images using an encryption method for possible application in optical transmission systems. The steganographic optical image encryption system based on the DRPE technique has been investigated to hide secret data in encrypted images. However, the DRPE techniques vulnerable to attacks and many of the data hiding methods in the DRPE system can distort the decrypted images. The proposed system, based on reversible data hiding, uses a JBIG2 compression scheme to achieve lossless decrypted image quality and perform a prior encryption process. Thus, the DRPE technique enables a more secured optical encryption process. The proposed method extracts and compresses the bit planes of the original image using the lossless JBIG2 technique. The secret data are embedded in the remaining storage space. The RSA algorithm can cipher the compressed binary bits and secret data for advanced security. Experimental results show that the proposed system achieves a high data embedding capacity and lossless reconstruction of the original images.

Real-time fusion of endoscopic views with dynamic 3-D cardiac images: a phantom study.

PubMed

Szpala, Stanislaw; Wierzbicki, Marcin; Guiraudon, Gerard; Peters, Terry M

2005-09-01

Minimally invasive robotically assisted cardiac surgical systems currently do not routinely employ 3-D image guidance. However, preoperative magnetic resonance and computed tomography (CT) images have the potential to be used in this role, if appropriately registered with the patient anatomy and animated synchronously with the motion of the actual heart. This paper discusses the fusion of optical images of a beating heart phantom obtained from an optically tracked endoscope, with volumetric images of the phantom created from a dynamic CT dataset. High quality preoperative dynamic CT images are created by first extracting the motion parameters of the heart from the series of temporal frames, and then applying this information to animate a high-quality heart image acquired at end systole. Temporal synchronization of the endoscopic and CT model is achieved by selecting the appropriate CT image from the dynamic set, based on an electrocardiographic trigger signal. The spatial error between the optical and virtual images is 1.4 +/- 1.1 mm, while the time discrepancy is typically 50-100 ms. Index Terms-Image guidance, image warping, minimally invasive cardiac surgery, virtual endoscopy, virtual reality.

Multi-MHz retinal OCT.

PubMed

Klein, Thomas; Wieser, Wolfgang; Reznicek, Lukas; Neubauer, Aljoscha; Kampik, Anselm; Huber, Robert

2013-01-01

We analyze the benefits and problems of in vivo optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging of the human retina at A-scan rates in excess of 1 MHz, using a 1050 nm Fourier-domain mode-locked (FDML) laser. Different scanning strategies enabled by MHz OCT line rates are investigated, and a simple multi-volume data processing approach is presented. In-vivo OCT of the human ocular fundus is performed at different axial scan rates of up to 6.7 MHz. High quality non-mydriatic retinal imaging over an ultra-wide field is achieved by a combination of several key improvements compared to previous setups. For the FDML laser, long coherence lengths and 72 nm wavelength tuning range are achieved using a chirped fiber Bragg grating in a laser cavity at 419.1 kHz fundamental tuning rate. Very large data sets can be acquired with sustained data transfer from the data acquisition card to host computer memory, enabling high-quality averaging of many frames and of multiple aligned data sets. Three imaging modes are investigated: Alignment and averaging of 24 data sets at 1.68 MHz axial line rate, ultra-dense transverse sampling at 3.35 MHz line rate, and dual-beam imaging with two laser spots on the retina at an effective line rate of 6.7 MHz.

Multi-MHz retinal OCT

PubMed Central

Klein, Thomas; Wieser, Wolfgang; Reznicek, Lukas; Neubauer, Aljoscha; Kampik, Anselm; Huber, Robert

2013-01-01

We analyze the benefits and problems of in vivo optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging of the human retina at A-scan rates in excess of 1 MHz, using a 1050 nm Fourier-domain mode-locked (FDML) laser. Different scanning strategies enabled by MHz OCT line rates are investigated, and a simple multi-volume data processing approach is presented. In-vivo OCT of the human ocular fundus is performed at different axial scan rates of up to 6.7 MHz. High quality non-mydriatic retinal imaging over an ultra-wide field is achieved by a combination of several key improvements compared to previous setups. For the FDML laser, long coherence lengths and 72 nm wavelength tuning range are achieved using a chirped fiber Bragg grating in a laser cavity at 419.1 kHz fundamental tuning rate. Very large data sets can be acquired with sustained data transfer from the data acquisition card to host computer memory, enabling high-quality averaging of many frames and of multiple aligned data sets. Three imaging modes are investigated: Alignment and averaging of 24 data sets at 1.68 MHz axial line rate, ultra-dense transverse sampling at 3.35 MHz line rate, and dual-beam imaging with two laser spots on the retina at an effective line rate of 6.7 MHz. PMID:24156052

Implant image quality in dental radiographs recorded using a customized imaging guide or a standard film holder.

PubMed

Schropp, Lars; Stavropoulos, Andreas; Spin-Neto, Rubens; Wenzel, Ann

2012-01-01

To compare a customized imaging guide and a standard film holder for obtaining optimally projected intraoral radiographs of dental implants. Intraoral radiographs of four screw-type implants with different inclination placed in an upper or lower dental phantom model were recorded by 32 groups of examiners after a short instruction in the use of the RB-RB/LB-LB mnemonic rule. Half of the examiners recorded the images using a standard film holder and the other half used a customized imaging guide. Each radiograph was assessed under blinded conditions with regard to rendering of the implant threads and was assigned to one of four quality categories: (1) perfect, (2) not perfect, but clinically acceptable, (3) not acceptable, and (4) hopeless. For the upper jaw, the same number of exposures per implant were made to achieve an acceptable image (P=0.86) by the standard film holder method (median=2) and the imaging guide method (median=2). For the lower jaw, medians for the imaging guide method and the film holder method were 1 and 2, respectively (P=0.004). For the imaging guide method, the first exposure was rated as perfect/acceptable in 62% of the cases and for the film holder method in 41% of the cases (P=0.013). After ≤ 2 exposures, 78% (imaging guide method) and 69% (film holder method) of the implant images were perfect/acceptable (P=0.23). The implant inclination did not have a major influence on the outcomes. Perfect or acceptable images were achieved after two exposures with the same frequency either using a customized imaging guide method or a standard film holder method. However, the use of a customized imaging guide method was overall significantly superior to a standard film holder method in terms of obtaining perfect or acceptable images with only one exposure. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Strauss, K; Nachabe, R; Racadio, J

Purpose: To define an alternative to antiscatter grid (ASG) removal in angiographic systems which achieves similar patient dose reduction as ASG removal without degrading image quality during pediatric imaging. Methods: This study was approved by the local institution animal care and use committee (IACUC). Six different digital subtraction angiography settings were evaluated that altered the mAs, (100, 70, 50, 35, 25, 17.5% of reference mAs) with and without ASG. Three pigs of 5, 15, and 20 kg (9, 15, and 17 cm abdominal thickness; smaller than a newborn, average 3 yr old, and average 10 year old human abdomen respectively)more » were imaged using the six dose settings with and without ASG. Image quality was defined as the order of vessel branch that is visible relative to the injected vessel. Five interventional radiologists evaluated all images. Image quality and patient dose were statistically compared using analysis of variance and receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis to define the preferred dose level and use of ASG for a minimum visibility of 2nd or 3rd order branches of vessel visibility. Results: ASG grid removal reduces dose by 26% with reduced image quality. Only with the ASG present can 3rd order branches be visualized; 100% mAs is required for 9 cm pig while 70% mAs is adequate for the larger pigs. 2nd order branches can be visualized with ASG at 17.5% mAs for all three pig sizes. Without the ASG, 50%, 35% and 35% mAs is required for smallest to largest pig. Conclusion: Removing ASG reduces patient dose and image quality. Image quality can be improved with the ASG present while further reducing patient dose if an optimized radiographic technique is used. Rami Nachabe is an employee of Philips Health Care; Keith Strauss is a paid consultant of Philips Health Care.« less

Optimized satellite image compression and reconstruction via evolution strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Babb, Brendan; Moore, Frank; Peterson, Michael

2009-05-01

This paper describes the automatic discovery, via an Evolution Strategy with Covariance Matrix Adaptation (CMA-ES), of vectors of real-valued coefficients representing matched forward and inverse transforms that outperform the 9/7 Cohen-Daubechies-Feauveau (CDF) discrete wavelet transform (DWT) for satellite image compression and reconstruction under conditions subject to quantization error. The best transform evolved during this study reduces the mean squared error (MSE) present in reconstructed satellite images by an average of 33.78% (1.79 dB), while maintaining the average information entropy (IE) of compressed images at 99.57% in comparison to the wavelet. In addition, this evolved transform achieves 49.88% (3.00 dB) average MSE reduction when tested on 80 images from the FBI fingerprint test set, and 42.35% (2.39 dB) average MSE reduction when tested on a set of 18 digital photographs, while achieving average IE of 104.36% and 100.08%, respectively. These results indicate that our evolved transform greatly improves the quality of reconstructed images without substantial loss of compression capability over a broad range of image classes.

Prospective ECG-Triggered Coronary CT Angiography: Clinical Value of Noise-Based Tube Current Reduction Method with Iterative Reconstruction

PubMed Central

Shen, Junlin; Du, Xiangying; Guo, Daode; Cao, Lizhen; Gao, Yan; Yang, Qi; Li, Pengyu; Liu, Jiabin; Li, Kuncheng

2013-01-01

Objectives To evaluate the clinical value of noise-based tube current reduction method with iterative reconstruction for obtaining consistent image quality with dose optimization in prospective electrocardiogram (ECG)-triggered coronary CT angiography (CCTA). Materials and Methods We performed a prospective randomized study evaluating 338 patients undergoing CCTA with prospective ECG-triggering. Patients were randomly assigned to fixed tube current with filtered back projection (Group 1, n = 113), noise-based tube current with filtered back projection (Group 2, n = 109) or with iterative reconstruction (Group 3, n = 116). Tube voltage was fixed at 120 kV. Qualitative image quality was rated on a 5-point scale (1 = impaired, to 5 = excellent, with 3–5 defined as diagnostic). Image noise and signal intensity were measured; signal-to-noise ratio was calculated; radiation dose parameters were recorded. Statistical analyses included one-way analysis of variance, chi-square test, Kruskal-Wallis test and multivariable linear regression. Results Image noise was maintained at the target value of 35HU with small interquartile range for Group 2 (35.00–35.03HU) and Group 3 (34.99–35.02HU), while from 28.73 to 37.87HU for Group 1. All images in the three groups were acceptable for diagnosis. A relative 20% and 51% reduction in effective dose for Group 2 (2.9 mSv) and Group 3 (1.8 mSv) were achieved compared with Group 1 (3.7 mSv). After adjustment for scan characteristics, iterative reconstruction was associated with 26% reduction in effective dose. Conclusion Noise-based tube current reduction method with iterative reconstruction maintains image noise precisely at the desired level and achieves consistent image quality. Meanwhile, effective dose can be reduced by more than 50%. PMID:23741444

Automating PACS quality control with the Vanderbilt image processing enterprise resource

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Esparza, Michael L.; Welch, E. Brian; Landman, Bennett A.

2012-02-01

Precise image acquisition is an integral part of modern patient care and medical imaging research. Periodic quality control using standardized protocols and phantoms ensures that scanners are operating according to specifications, yet such procedures do not ensure that individual datasets are free from corruption; for example due to patient motion, transient interference, or physiological variability. If unacceptable artifacts are noticed during scanning, a technologist can repeat a procedure. Yet, substantial delays may be incurred if a problematic scan is not noticed until a radiologist reads the scans or an automated algorithm fails. Given scores of slices in typical three-dimensional scans and widevariety of potential use cases, a technologist cannot practically be expected inspect all images. In large-scale research, automated pipeline systems have had great success in achieving high throughput. However, clinical and institutional workflows are largely based on DICOM and PACS technologies; these systems are not readily compatible with research systems due to security and privacy restrictions. Hence, quantitative quality control has been relegated to individual investigators and too often neglected. Herein, we propose a scalable system, the Vanderbilt Image Processing Enterprise Resource (VIPER) to integrate modular quality control and image analysis routines with a standard PACS configuration. This server unifies image processing routines across an institutional level and provides a simple interface so that investigators can collaborate to deploy new analysis technologies. VIPER integrates with high performance computing environments has successfully analyzed all standard scans from our institutional research center over the course of the last 18 months.

Design of a practical model-observer-based image quality assessment method for x-ray computed tomography imaging systems

PubMed Central

Tseng, Hsin-Wu; Fan, Jiahua; Kupinski, Matthew A.

2016-01-01

Abstract. The use of a channelization mechanism on model observers not only makes mimicking human visual behavior possible, but also reduces the amount of image data needed to estimate the model observer parameters. The channelized Hotelling observer (CHO) and channelized scanning linear observer (CSLO) have recently been used to assess CT image quality for detection tasks and combined detection/estimation tasks, respectively. Although the use of channels substantially reduces the amount of data required to compute image quality, the number of scans required for CT imaging is still not practical for routine use. It is our desire to further reduce the number of scans required to make CHO or CSLO an image quality tool for routine and frequent system validations and evaluations. This work explores different data-reduction schemes and designs an approach that requires only a few CT scans. Three different kinds of approaches are included in this study: a conventional CHO/CSLO technique with a large sample size, a conventional CHO/CSLO technique with fewer samples, and an approach that we will show requires fewer samples to mimic conventional performance with a large sample size. The mean value and standard deviation of areas under ROC/EROC curve were estimated using the well-validated shuffle approach. The results indicate that an 80% data reduction can be achieved without loss of accuracy. This substantial data reduction is a step toward a practical tool for routine-task-based QA/QC CT system assessment. PMID:27493982

Accelerated acquisition of tagged MRI for cardiac motion correction in simultaneous PET-MR: Phantom and patient studies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Huang, Chuan, E-mail: chuan.huang@stonybrookmedicine.edu; Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115; Departments of Radiology, Psychiatry, Stony Brook Medicine, Stony Brook, New York 11794

2015-02-15

Purpose: Degradation of image quality caused by cardiac and respiratory motions hampers the diagnostic quality of cardiac PET. It has been shown that improved diagnostic accuracy of myocardial defect can be achieved by tagged MR (tMR) based PET motion correction using simultaneous PET-MR. However, one major hurdle for the adoption of tMR-based PET motion correction in the PET-MR routine is the long acquisition time needed for the collection of fully sampled tMR data. In this work, the authors propose an accelerated tMR acquisition strategy using parallel imaging and/or compressed sensing and assess the impact on the tMR-based motion corrected PETmore » using phantom and patient data. Methods: Fully sampled tMR data were acquired simultaneously with PET list-mode data on two simultaneous PET-MR scanners for a cardiac phantom and a patient. Parallel imaging and compressed sensing were retrospectively performed by GRAPPA and kt-FOCUSS algorithms with various acceleration factors. Motion fields were estimated using nonrigid B-spline image registration from both the accelerated and fully sampled tMR images. The motion fields were incorporated into a motion corrected ordered subset expectation maximization reconstruction algorithm with motion-dependent attenuation correction. Results: Although tMR acceleration introduced image artifacts into the tMR images for both phantom and patient data, motion corrected PET images yielded similar image quality as those obtained using the fully sampled tMR images for low to moderate acceleration factors (<4). Quantitative analysis of myocardial defect contrast over ten independent noise realizations showed similar results. It was further observed that although the image quality of the motion corrected PET images deteriorates for high acceleration factors, the images were still superior to the images reconstructed without motion correction. Conclusions: Accelerated tMR images obtained with more than 4 times acceleration can still provide relatively accurate motion fields and yield tMR-based motion corrected PET images with similar image quality as those reconstructed using fully sampled tMR data. The reduction of tMR acquisition time makes it more compatible with routine clinical cardiac PET-MR studies.« less

HIGH-SPEED IMAGING AND WAVEFRONT SENSING WITH AN INFRARED AVALANCHE PHOTODIODE ARRAY

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Baranec, Christoph; Atkinson, Dani; Hall, Donald

2015-08-10

Infrared avalanche photodiode (APD) arrays represent a panacea for many branches of astronomy by enabling extremely low-noise, high-speed, and even photon-counting measurements at near-infrared wavelengths. We recently demonstrated the use of an early engineering-grade infrared APD array that achieves a correlated double sampling read noise of 0.73 e{sup −} in the lab, and a total noise of 2.52 e{sup −} on sky, and supports simultaneous high-speed imaging and tip-tilt wavefront sensing with the Robo-AO visible-light laser adaptive optics (AO) system at the Palomar Observatory 1.5 m telescope. Here we report on the improved image quality simultaneously achieved at visible andmore » infrared wavelengths by using the array as part of an image stabilization control loop with AO-sharpened guide stars. We also discuss a newly enabled survey of nearby late M-dwarf multiplicity, as well as future uses of this technology in other AO and high-contrast imaging applications.« less

A new method of Quickbird own image fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Ying; Jiang, Hong; Zhang, Xiuying

2009-10-01

With the rapid development of remote sensing technology, the means of accessing to remote sensing data become increasingly abundant, thus the same area can form a large number of multi-temporal, different resolution image sequence. At present, the fusion methods are mainly: HPF, IHS transform method, PCA method, Brovey, Mallat algorithm and wavelet transform and so on. There exists a serious distortion of the spectrums in the IHS transform, Mallat algorithm omits low-frequency information of the high spatial resolution images, the integration results of which has obvious blocking effects. Wavelet multi-scale decomposition for different sizes, the directions, details and the edges can have achieved very good results, but different fusion rules and algorithms can achieve different effects. This article takes the Quickbird own image fusion as an example, basing on wavelet transform and HVS, wavelet transform and IHS integration. The result shows that the former better. This paper introduces the correlation coefficient, the relative average spectral error index and usual index to evaluate the quality of image.

The remote sensing image segmentation mean shift algorithm parallel processing based on MapReduce

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Xi; Zhou, Liqing

2015-12-01

With the development of satellite remote sensing technology and the remote sensing image data, traditional remote sensing image segmentation technology cannot meet the massive remote sensing image processing and storage requirements. This article put cloud computing and parallel computing technology in remote sensing image segmentation process, and build a cheap and efficient computer cluster system that uses parallel processing to achieve MeanShift algorithm of remote sensing image segmentation based on the MapReduce model, not only to ensure the quality of remote sensing image segmentation, improved split speed, and better meet the real-time requirements. The remote sensing image segmentation MeanShift algorithm parallel processing algorithm based on MapReduce shows certain significance and a realization of value.

The use of photostimulable phosphor systems for periodic quality assurance in radiotherapy.

PubMed

Conte, L; Bianchi, C; Cassani, E; Monciardini, M; Mordacchini, C; Novario, R; Strocchi, S; Stucchi, P; Tanzi, F

2008-03-01

The fusion of radiological and optical images can be achieved through charging a photostimulable phosphor plate (PSP) with an exposure to a field of X- or gamma-rays, followed by exposure to an optical image which discharges the plate in relation to the amount of incident light. According to this PSP characteristic, we developed a simple method for periodic quality assurance (QA) of light/radiation field coincidence, distance indicator, field size indicators, crosshair centering, coincidence of radiation and mechanical isocenter for linear accelerators. The geometrical accuracy of radiological units can be subjected to the same QA method. Further, the source position accuracy for an HDR remote afterloader can be checked by taking an autoradiography of the radioactive source and simultaneously an optical image of a reference geometrical system.

Characteristic of x-ray tomography performance using CdTe timepix detector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zain, R. M.; O'Shea, V.; Maneuski, D.

2017-01-01

X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) is a non-destructive technique for visualizing interior features within solid objects, and for obtaining digital information on their 3-D geometries and properties. The selection of CdTe Timepix detector has a sufficient performance of imaging detector is based on quality of detector performance and energy resolution. The study of Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) shows a 70% contrast at 4 lp/mm was achieved for the 55 µm pixel pitch detector with the 60 kVp X-ray tube and 5 keV noise level. No significant degradation in performance was observed for X-ray tube energies of 20 - 60 keV. The paper discusses the application of the CdTe Timepix detector to produce a good quality image of X-ray tomography imaging.

Towards a five-minute comprehensive cardiac MR examination using highly accelerated parallel imaging with a 32-element coil array: feasibility and initial comparative evaluation.

PubMed

Xu, Jian; Kim, Daniel; Otazo, Ricardo; Srichai, Monvadi B; Lim, Ruth P; Axel, Leon; Mcgorty, Kelly Anne; Niendorf, Thoralf; Sodickson, Daniel K

2013-07-01

To evaluate the feasibility and perform initial comparative evaluations of a 5-minute comprehensive whole-heart magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol with four image acquisition types: perfusion (PERF), function (CINE), coronary artery imaging (CAI), and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE). This study protocol was Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant and Institutional Review Board-approved. A 5-minute comprehensive whole-heart MRI examination protocol (Accelerated) using 6-8-fold-accelerated volumetric parallel imaging was incorporated into and compared with a standard 2D clinical routine protocol (Standard). Following informed consent, 20 patients were imaged with both protocols. Datasets were reviewed for image quality using a 5-point Likert scale (0 = non-diagnostic, 4 = excellent) in blinded fashion by two readers. Good image quality with full whole-heart coverage was achieved using the accelerated protocol, particularly for CAI, although significant degradations in quality, as compared with traditional lengthy examinations, were observed for the other image types. Mean total scan time was significantly lower for the Accelerated as compared to Standard protocols (28.99 ± 4.59 min vs. 1.82 ± 0.05 min, P < 0.05). Overall image quality for the Standard vs. Accelerated protocol was 3.67 ± 0.29 vs. 1.5 ± 0.51 (P < 0.005) for PERF, 3.48 ± 0.64 vs. 2.6 ± 0.68 (P < 0.005) for CINE, 2.35 ± 1.01 vs. 2.48 ± 0.68 (P = 0.75) for CAI, and 3.67 ± 0.42 vs. 2.67 ± 0.84 (P < 0.005) for LGE. Diagnostic image quality for Standard vs. Accelerated protocols was 20/20 (100%) vs. 10/20 (50%) for PERF, 20/20 (100%) vs. 18/20 (90%) for CINE, 18/20 (90%) vs. 18/20 (90%) for CAI, and 20/20 (100%) vs. 18/20 (90%) for LGE. This study demonstrates the technical feasibility and promising image quality of 5-minute comprehensive whole-heart cardiac examinations, with simplified scan prescription and high spatial and temporal resolution enabled by highly parallel imaging technology. The study also highlights technical hurdles that remain to be addressed. Although image quality remained diagnostic for most scan types, the reduced image quality of PERF, CINE, and LGE scans in the Accelerated protocol remain a concern. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Improved fat-suppression homogeneity with mDIXON turbo spin echo (TSE) in pediatric spine imaging at 3.0 T.

PubMed

Pokorney, Amber L; Chia, Jonathan M; Pfeifer, Cory M; Miller, Jeffrey H; Hu, Houchun H

2017-11-01

Background Robust fat suppression remains essential in clinical MRI to improve tissue signal contrast, minimize fat-related artifacts, and enhance image quality. Purpose To compare fat suppression between mDIXON turbo spin echo (TSE) and conventional frequency-selective and inversion-recovery methods in pediatric spine MRI. Material and Methods Images from T1-weighted (T1W) and T2-weighted (T2W) TSE sequences coupled with conventional methods and the mDIXON technique were compared in 36 patients (5.8 ± 5.4 years) at 3.0 T. Images from 42 pairs of T1W (n = 16) and T2W (n = 26) scans were acquired. Two radiologists reviewed the data and rated images using a three-point scale in two categories, including the uniformity of fat suppression and overall diagnostic image quality. The Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to compare the scores. Results The Cohen's kappa coefficient for inter-rater agreement was 0.69 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.56-0.83). Images from mDIXON TSE were considered superior in fat suppression ( P < 0.01) in 22 (rater 1) and 25 (rater 2) cases, respectively. In 13 (rater 1) and 11 (rater 2) cases, mDIXON TSE demonstrated improved diagnostic image quality ( P < 0.01). In three cases, fat suppression was superior using inversion-recovery and likewise in one case mDIXON had poorer image diagnostic quality. Lastly, mDIXON and conventional fat-suppression methods performed similarly in 17 (rater 1) and 14 (rater 2) cases, and yielded equal diagnostic image quality in 28 (rater 1) and 30 (rater 2) cases. Conclusion Robust fat suppression can be achieved with mDixon TSE pediatric spine imaging at 3.0 T and should be considered as a permanent replacement of traditional methods, in particular frequency-selective techniques.

Improving education and supervision of Queensland X-ray Operators through video conference technology: A teleradiography pilot project.

PubMed

Rawle, Marnie; Oliver, Tanya; Pighills, Alison; Lindsay, Daniel

2017-12-01

X-ray Operator (XO) supervision in Queensland is performed by radiographers in a site removed from the XO site. This has historically been performed by telephone when the XO requires immediate help, as well as post-examination through radiographer review and the provision of written feedback on images produced. This project aimed to improve image quality through the provision of real-time support of XOs by the introduction of video conference (VC) supervision. A 6-month pilot project compared image quality with and without VC supervision. VC equipment was installed in the X-ray room at two rural sites, as well as at the radiographer site, to enable visual and oral supervision. The VC unit enabled visualisation of the X-ray examination technique as it was being undertaken, as well as the images produced prior to transmission to the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). Statistically significant improvement in image quality criteria measures were seen for patient positioning (P = 0.008), image quality (P < 0.001) and diagnostic value (P < 0.001) of images taken during this project. No statistically significant differences were seen during case level assessment in the inclusion of only appropriate imaging (P = 0.06), and the inclusion of unacceptable imaging (P = 0.06), however improvements were seen in both of these criteria. The survey revealed 24.6% of examinations performed would normally have involved the XO contacting the radiographer for assistance, although, assistance was actually provided in 88.3% of examinations. This project has demonstrated that significant improvement in image quality is achievable with VC supervision. A larger study with a control arm that did not receive direct supervision should be used to validate the findings of this study. © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Medical Radiation Sciences published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australian Society of Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy and New Zealand Institute of Medical Radiation Technology.

A qualitative and quantitative analysis of radiation dose and image quality of computed tomography images using adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction.

PubMed

Hussain, Fahad Ahmed; Mail, Noor; Shamy, Abdulrahman M; Suliman, Alghamdi; Saoudi, Abdelhamid

2016-05-08

Image quality is a key issue in radiology, particularly in a clinical setting where it is important to achieve accurate diagnoses while minimizing radiation dose. Some computed tomography (CT) manufacturers have introduced algorithms that claim significant dose reduction. In this study, we assessed CT image quality produced by two reconstruction algorithms provided with GE Healthcare's Discovery 690 Elite positron emission tomography (PET) CT scanner. Image quality was measured for images obtained at various doses with both conventional filtered back-projection (FBP) and adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) algorithms. A stan-dard CT dose index (CTDI) phantom and a pencil ionization chamber were used to measure the CT dose at 120 kVp and an exposure of 260 mAs. Image quality was assessed using two phantoms. CT images of both phantoms were acquired at tube voltage (kV) of 120 with exposures ranging from 25 mAs to 400 mAs. Images were reconstructed using FBP and ASIR ranging from 10% to 100%, then analyzed for noise, low-contrast detectability, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and modulation transfer function (MTF). Noise was 4.6 HU in water phantom images acquired at 260 mAs/FBP 120 kV and 130 mAs/50% ASIR 120 kV. The large objects (fre-quency < 7 lp/cm) retained fairly acceptable image quality at 130 mAs/50% ASIR, compared to 260 mAs/FBP. The application of ASIR for small objects (frequency >7 lp/cm) showed poor visibility compared to FBP at 260 mAs and even worse for images acquired at less than 130 mAs. ASIR blending more than 50% at low dose tends to reduce contrast of small objects (frequency >7 lp/cm). We concluded that dose reduction and ASIR should be applied with close attention if the objects to be detected or diagnosed are small (frequency > 7 lp/cm). Further investigations are required to correlate the small objects (frequency > 7 lp/cm) to patient anatomy and clinical diagnosis.

Failed heart rate control with oral metoprolol prior to coronary CT angiography: effect of additional intravenous metoprolol on heart rate, image quality and radiation dose.

PubMed

Jiménez-Juan, Laura; Nguyen, Elsie T; Wintersperger, Bernd J; Moshonov, Hadas; Crean, Andrew M; Deva, Djeven P; Paul, Narinder S; Torres, Felipe S

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of intravenous (i.v.) metoprolol after a suboptimal heart rate (HR) response to oral metoprolol (75-150 mg) on HR control, image quality (IQ) and radiation dose during coronary CTA using 320-MDCT. Fifty-three consecutive patients who failed to achieve a target HR of < 60 bpm after an oral dose of metoprolol and required supplementary i.v. metoprolol (5-20 mg) prior to coronary CTA were evaluated. Patients with HR < 60 bpm during image acquisition were defined as responders (R) and those with HR ≥ 60 bpm as non-responders (NR). Two observers assessed IQ using a 3-point scale (1-2, diagnostic and 3, non-diagnostic). Effective dose (ED) was estimated using dose-length product and a 0.014 mSV/mGy.cm conversion factor. Baseline characteristics and HR on arrival were similar in the two groups. 58% of patients didn't achieve the target HR after receiving i.v. metoprolol (NR). R had a significantly higher HR reduction after oral (mean HR 63.9 ± 4.5 bpm vs. 69.6 ± 5.6 bpm) (p < 0.005) and i.v. (mean HR 55.4 ± 3.9 bpm vs. 67.4 ± 5.3 bpm) (p < 0.005) doses of metoprolol. Studies from NR showed a significantly higher ED in comparison to R (8.0 ± 2.9 vs. 6.1 ± 2.2 mSv) (p = 0.016) and a significantly higher proportion of non-diagnostic coronary segments (9.2 vs. 2.5%) (p < 0.001). 58% of patients who do not achieve a HR of <60 bpm prior to coronary CTA with oral fail to respond to additional i.v. metoprolol and have studies with higher radiation dose and worse image quality.

Coherence and diffraction limited resolution in microscopic OCT by a unified approach for the correction of dispersion and aberrations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schulz-Hildebrandt, H.; Münter, Michael; Ahrens, M.; Spahr, H.; Hillmann, D.; König, P.; Hüttmann, G.

2018-03-01

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) images scattering tissues with 5 to 15 μm resolution. This is usually not sufficient for a distinction of cellular and subcellular structures. Increasing axial and lateral resolution and compensation of artifacts caused by dispersion and aberrations is required to achieve cellular and subcellular resolution. This includes defocus which limit the usable depth of field at high lateral resolution. OCT gives access the phase of the scattered light and hence correction of dispersion and aberrations is possible by numerical algorithms. Here we present a unified dispersion/aberration correction which is based on a polynomial parameterization of the phase error and an optimization of the image quality using Shannon's entropy. For validation, a supercontinuum light sources and a costume-made spectrometer with 400 nm bandwidth were combined with a high NA microscope objective in a setup for tissue and small animal imaging. Using this setup and computation corrections, volumetric imaging at 1.5 μm resolution is possible. Cellular and near cellular resolution is demonstrated in porcine cornea and the drosophila larva, when computational correction of dispersion and aberrations is used. Due to the excellent correction of the used microscope objective, defocus was the main contribution to the aberrations. In addition, higher aberrations caused by the sample itself were successfully corrected. Dispersion and aberrations are closely related artifacts in microscopic OCT imaging. Hence they can be corrected in the same way by optimization of the image quality. This way microscopic resolution is easily achieved in OCT imaging of static biological tissues.

Effect of injection rate on contrast-enhanced MR angiography image quality: Modulation transfer function analysis.

PubMed

Clark, Toshimasa J; Wilson, Gregory J; Maki, Jeffrey H

2017-07-01

Contrast-enhanced (CE)-MRA optimization involves interactions of sequence duration, bolus timing, contrast recirculation, and both R 1 relaxivity and R2*-related reduction of signal. Prior data suggest superior image quality with slower gadolinium injection rates than typically used. A computer-based model of CE-MRA was developed, with contrast injection, physiologic, and image acquisition parameters varied over a wide gamut. Gadolinium concentration was derived using Verhoeven's model with recirculation, R 1 and R2* calculated at each time point, and modulation transfer curves used to determine injection rates, resulting in optimal resolution and image contrast for renal and carotid artery CE-MRA. Validation was via a vessel stenosis phantom and example patients who underwent carotid CE-MRA with low effective injection rates. Optimal resolution for renal and carotid CE-MRA is achieved with injection rates between 0.5 to 0.9 mL/s and 0.2 to 0.3 mL/s, respectively, dependent on contrast volume. Optimal image contrast requires slightly faster injection rates. Expected signal-to-noise ratio varies with both contrast volume and cardiac output. Simulated vessel phantom and clinical carotid CE-MRA exams at an effective contrast injection rate of 0.4 to 0.5 mL/s demonstrate increased resolution. Optimal image resolution is achieved at intuitively low, effective injection rates (0.2-0.9 mL/s, dependent on imaging parameters and contrast injection volume). Magn Reson Med 78:357-369, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Time-gated ballistic imaging using a large aperture switching beam.

PubMed

Mathieu, Florian; Reddemann, Manuel A; Palmer, Johannes; Kneer, Reinhold

2014-03-24

Ballistic imaging commonly denotes the formation of line-of-sight shadowgraphs through turbid media by suppression of multiply scattered photons. The technique relies on a femtosecond laser acting as light source for the images and as switch for an optical Kerr gate that separates ballistic photons from multiply scattered ones. The achievable image resolution is one major limitation for the investigation of small objects. In this study, practical influences on the optical Kerr gate and image quality are discussed theoretically and experimentally applying a switching beam with large aperture (D = 19 mm). It is shown how switching pulse energy and synchronization of switching and imaging pulse in the Kerr cell influence the gate's transmission. Image quality of ballistic imaging and standard shadowgraphy is evaluated and compared, showing that the present ballistic imaging setup is advantageous for optical densities in the range of 8 < OD < 13. Owing to the spatial transmission characteristics of the optical Kerr gate, a rectangular aperture stop is formed, which leads to different resolution limits for vertical and horizontal structures in the object. Furthermore, it is reported how to convert the ballistic imaging setup into a schlieren-type system with an optical schlieren edge.

SIRF: Simultaneous Satellite Image Registration and Fusion in a Unified Framework.

PubMed

Chen, Chen; Li, Yeqing; Liu, Wei; Huang, Junzhou

2015-11-01

In this paper, we propose a novel method for image fusion with a high-resolution panchromatic image and a low-resolution multispectral (Ms) image at the same geographical location. The fusion is formulated as a convex optimization problem which minimizes a linear combination of a least-squares fitting term and a dynamic gradient sparsity regularizer. The former is to preserve accurate spectral information of the Ms image, while the latter is to keep sharp edges of the high-resolution panchromatic image. We further propose to simultaneously register the two images during the fusing process, which is naturally achieved by virtue of the dynamic gradient sparsity property. An efficient algorithm is then devised to solve the optimization problem, accomplishing a linear computational complexity in the size of the output image in each iteration. We compare our method against six state-of-the-art image fusion methods on Ms image data sets from four satellites. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method substantially outperforms the others in terms of both spatial and spectral qualities. We also show that our method can provide high-quality products from coarsely registered real-world IKONOS data sets. Finally, a MATLAB implementation is provided to facilitate future research.

Stable image acquisition for mobile image processing applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henning, Kai-Fabian; Fritze, Alexander; Gillich, Eugen; Mönks, Uwe; Lohweg, Volker

2015-02-01

Today, mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.) are widespread and of high importance for their users. Their performance as well as versatility increases over time. This leads to the opportunity to use such devices for more specific tasks like image processing in an industrial context. For the analysis of images requirements like image quality (blur, illumination, etc.) as well as a defined relative position of the object to be inspected are crucial. Since mobile devices are handheld and used in constantly changing environments the challenge is to fulfill these requirements. We present an approach to overcome the obstacles and stabilize the image capturing process such that image analysis becomes significantly improved on mobile devices. Therefore, image processing methods are combined with sensor fusion concepts. The approach consists of three main parts. First, pose estimation methods are used to guide a user moving the device to a defined position. Second, the sensors data and the pose information are combined for relative motion estimation. Finally, the image capturing process is automated. It is triggered depending on the alignment of the device and the object as well as the image quality that can be achieved under consideration of motion and environmental effects.

Accelerated fast iterative shrinkage thresholding algorithms for sparsity-regularized cone-beam CT image reconstruction

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Xu, Qiaofeng; Sawatzky, Alex; Anastasio, Mark A., E-mail: anastasio@wustl.edu

Purpose: The development of iterative image reconstruction algorithms for cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) remains an active and important research area. Even with hardware acceleration, the overwhelming majority of the available 3D iterative algorithms that implement nonsmooth regularizers remain computationally burdensome and have not been translated for routine use in time-sensitive applications such as image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT). In this work, two variants of the fast iterative shrinkage thresholding algorithm (FISTA) are proposed and investigated for accelerated iterative image reconstruction in CBCT. Methods: Algorithm acceleration was achieved by replacing the original gradient-descent step in the FISTAs by a subproblem that ismore » solved by use of the ordered subset simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique (OS-SART). Due to the preconditioning matrix adopted in the OS-SART method, two new weighted proximal problems were introduced and corresponding fast gradient projection-type algorithms were developed for solving them. We also provided efficient numerical implementations of the proposed algorithms that exploit the massive data parallelism of multiple graphics processing units. Results: The improved rates of convergence of the proposed algorithms were quantified in computer-simulation studies and by use of clinical projection data corresponding to an IGRT study. The accelerated FISTAs were shown to possess dramatically improved convergence properties as compared to the standard FISTAs. For example, the number of iterations to achieve a specified reconstruction error could be reduced by an order of magnitude. Volumetric images reconstructed from clinical data were produced in under 4 min. Conclusions: The FISTA achieves a quadratic convergence rate and can therefore potentially reduce the number of iterations required to produce an image of a specified image quality as compared to first-order methods. We have proposed and investigated accelerated FISTAs for use with two nonsmooth penalty functions that will lead to further reductions in image reconstruction times while preserving image quality. Moreover, with the help of a mixed sparsity-regularization, better preservation of soft-tissue structures can be potentially obtained. The algorithms were systematically evaluated by use of computer-simulated and clinical data sets.« less

Accelerated fast iterative shrinkage thresholding algorithms for sparsity-regularized cone-beam CT image reconstruction.

PubMed

Xu, Qiaofeng; Yang, Deshan; Tan, Jun; Sawatzky, Alex; Anastasio, Mark A

2016-04-01

The development of iterative image reconstruction algorithms for cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) remains an active and important research area. Even with hardware acceleration, the overwhelming majority of the available 3D iterative algorithms that implement nonsmooth regularizers remain computationally burdensome and have not been translated for routine use in time-sensitive applications such as image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT). In this work, two variants of the fast iterative shrinkage thresholding algorithm (FISTA) are proposed and investigated for accelerated iterative image reconstruction in CBCT. Algorithm acceleration was achieved by replacing the original gradient-descent step in the FISTAs by a subproblem that is solved by use of the ordered subset simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique (OS-SART). Due to the preconditioning matrix adopted in the OS-SART method, two new weighted proximal problems were introduced and corresponding fast gradient projection-type algorithms were developed for solving them. We also provided efficient numerical implementations of the proposed algorithms that exploit the massive data parallelism of multiple graphics processing units. The improved rates of convergence of the proposed algorithms were quantified in computer-simulation studies and by use of clinical projection data corresponding to an IGRT study. The accelerated FISTAs were shown to possess dramatically improved convergence properties as compared to the standard FISTAs. For example, the number of iterations to achieve a specified reconstruction error could be reduced by an order of magnitude. Volumetric images reconstructed from clinical data were produced in under 4 min. The FISTA achieves a quadratic convergence rate and can therefore potentially reduce the number of iterations required to produce an image of a specified image quality as compared to first-order methods. We have proposed and investigated accelerated FISTAs for use with two nonsmooth penalty functions that will lead to further reductions in image reconstruction times while preserving image quality. Moreover, with the help of a mixed sparsity-regularization, better preservation of soft-tissue structures can be potentially obtained. The algorithms were systematically evaluated by use of computer-simulated and clinical data sets.

Accelerated fast iterative shrinkage thresholding algorithms for sparsity-regularized cone-beam CT image reconstruction

PubMed Central

Xu, Qiaofeng; Yang, Deshan; Tan, Jun; Sawatzky, Alex; Anastasio, Mark A.

2016-01-01

Purpose: The development of iterative image reconstruction algorithms for cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) remains an active and important research area. Even with hardware acceleration, the overwhelming majority of the available 3D iterative algorithms that implement nonsmooth regularizers remain computationally burdensome and have not been translated for routine use in time-sensitive applications such as image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT). In this work, two variants of the fast iterative shrinkage thresholding algorithm (FISTA) are proposed and investigated for accelerated iterative image reconstruction in CBCT. Methods: Algorithm acceleration was achieved by replacing the original gradient-descent step in the FISTAs by a subproblem that is solved by use of the ordered subset simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique (OS-SART). Due to the preconditioning matrix adopted in the OS-SART method, two new weighted proximal problems were introduced and corresponding fast gradient projection-type algorithms were developed for solving them. We also provided efficient numerical implementations of the proposed algorithms that exploit the massive data parallelism of multiple graphics processing units. Results: The improved rates of convergence of the proposed algorithms were quantified in computer-simulation studies and by use of clinical projection data corresponding to an IGRT study. The accelerated FISTAs were shown to possess dramatically improved convergence properties as compared to the standard FISTAs. For example, the number of iterations to achieve a specified reconstruction error could be reduced by an order of magnitude. Volumetric images reconstructed from clinical data were produced in under 4 min. Conclusions: The FISTA achieves a quadratic convergence rate and can therefore potentially reduce the number of iterations required to produce an image of a specified image quality as compared to first-order methods. We have proposed and investigated accelerated FISTAs for use with two nonsmooth penalty functions that will lead to further reductions in image reconstruction times while preserving image quality. Moreover, with the help of a mixed sparsity-regularization, better preservation of soft-tissue structures can be potentially obtained. The algorithms were systematically evaluated by use of computer-simulated and clinical data sets. PMID:27036582

Design and assessment of a novel SPECT system for desktop open-gantry imaging of small animals: A simulation study

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zeraatkar, Navid; Farahani, Mohammad Hossein; Rahmim, Arman

Purpose: Given increasing efforts in biomedical research utilizing molecular imaging methods, development of dedicated high-performance small-animal SPECT systems has been growing rapidly in the last decade. In the present work, we propose and assess an alternative concept for SPECT imaging enabling desktop open-gantry imaging of small animals. Methods: The system, PERSPECT, consists of an imaging desk, with a set of tilted detector and pinhole collimator placed beneath it. The object to be imaged is simply placed on the desk. Monte Carlo (MC) and analytical simulations were utilized to accurately model and evaluate the proposed concept and design. Furthermore, a dedicatedmore » image reconstruction algorithm, finite-aperture-based circular projections (FABCP), was developed and validated for the system, enabling more accurate modeling of the system and higher quality reconstructed images. Image quality was quantified as a function of different tilt angles in the acquisition and number of iterations in the reconstruction algorithm. Furthermore, more complex phantoms including Derenzo, Defrise, and mouse whole body were simulated and studied. Results: The sensitivity of the PERSPECT was 207 cps/MBq. It was quantitatively demonstrated that for a tilt angle of 30°, comparable image qualities were obtained in terms of normalized squared error, contrast, uniformity, noise, and spatial resolution measurements, the latter at ∼0.6 mm. Furthermore, quantitative analyses demonstrated that 3 iterations of FABCP image reconstruction (16 subsets/iteration) led to optimally reconstructed images. Conclusions: The PERSPECT, using a novel imaging protocol, can achieve comparable image quality performance in comparison with a conventional pinhole SPECT with the same configuration. The dedicated FABCP algorithm, which was developed for reconstruction of data from the PERSPECT system, can produce high quality images for small-animal imaging via accurate modeling of the system as incorporated in the forward- and back-projection steps. Meanwhile, the developed MC model and the analytical simulator of the system can be applied for further studies on development and evaluation of the system.« less

Landsat Image Map Production Methods at the U. S. Geological Survey

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kidwell, R.D.; Binnie, D.R.; Martin, S.

1987-01-01

To maintain consistently high quality in satellite image map production, the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) has developed standard procedures for the photographic and digital production of Landsat image mosaics, and for lithographic printing of multispectral imagery. This paper gives a brief review of the photographic, digital, and lithographic procedures currently in use for producing image maps from Landsat data. It is shown that consistency in the printing of image maps is achieved by standardizing the materials and procedures that affect the image detail and color balance of the final product. Densitometric standards are established by printing control targets using the pressplates, inks, pre-press proofs, and paper to be used for printing.

Review of Telemicrobiology

PubMed Central

Rhoads, Daniel D.; Mathison, Blaine A.; Bishop, Henry S.; da Silva, Alexandre J.; Pantanowitz, Liron

2016-01-01

Context Microbiology laboratories are continually pursuing means to improve quality, rapidity, and efficiency of specimen analysis in the face of limited resources. One means by which to achieve these improvements is through the remote analysis of digital images. Telemicrobiology enables the remote interpretation of images of microbiology specimens. To date, the practice of clinical telemicrobiology has not been thoroughly reviewed. Objective Identify the various methods that can be employed for telemicrobiology, including emerging technologies that may provide value to the clinical laboratory. Data Sources Peer-reviewed literature, conference proceedings, meeting presentations, and expert opinions pertaining to telemicrobiology have been evaluated. Results A number of modalities have been employed for telemicroscopy including static capture techniques, whole slide imaging, video telemicroscopy, mobile devices, and hybrid systems. Telemicrobiology has been successfully implemented for applications including routine primary diagnois, expert teleconsultation, and proficiency testing. Emerging areas include digital culture plate reading, mobile health applications and computer-augmented analysis of digital images. Conclusions Static image capture techniques to date have been the most widely used modality for telemicrobiology, despite the fact that other newer technologies are available and may produce better quality interpretations. Increased adoption of telemicrobiology offers added value, quality, and efficiency to the clinical microbiology laboratory. PMID:26317376

WE-G-209-01: Digital Radiography

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schueler, B.

Digital radiography, CT, PET, and MR are complicated imaging modalities which are composed of many hardware and software components. These components work together in a highly coordinated chain of events with the intent to produce high quality images. Acquisition, processing and reconstruction of data must occur in a precise way for optimum image quality to be achieved. Any error or unexpected event in the entire process can produce unwanted pixel intensities in the final images which may contribute to visible image artifacts. The diagnostic imaging physicist is uniquely qualified to investigate and contribute to resolution of image artifacts. This coursemore » will teach the participant to identify common artifacts found clinically in digital radiography, CT, PET, and MR, to determine the causes of artifacts, and to make recommendations for how to resolve artifacts. Learning Objectives: Identify common artifacts found clinically in digital radiography, CT, PET and MR. Determine causes of various clinical artifacts from digital radiography, CT, PET and MR. Describe how to resolve various clinical artifacts from digital radiography, CT, PET and MR.« less

SkySat-1: very high-resolution imagery from a small satellite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murthy, Kiran; Shearn, Michael; Smiley, Byron D.; Chau, Alexandra H.; Levine, Josh; Robinson, M. Dirk

2014-10-01

This paper presents details of the SkySat-1 mission, which is the first microsatellite-class commercial earth- observation system to generate sub-meter resolution panchromatic imagery, in addition to sub-meter resolution 4-band pan-sharpened imagery. SkySat-1 was built and launched for an order of magnitude lower cost than similarly performing missions. The low-cost design enables the deployment of a large imaging constellation that can provide imagery with both high temporal resolution and high spatial resolution. One key enabler of the SkySat-1 mission was simplifying the spacecraft design and instead relying on ground- based image processing to achieve high-performance at the system level. The imaging instrument consists of a custom-designed high-quality optical telescope and commercially-available high frame rate CMOS image sen- sors. While each individually captured raw image frame shows moderate quality, ground-based image processing algorithms improve the raw data by combining data from multiple frames to boost image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and decrease the ground sample distance (GSD) in a process Skybox calls "digital TDI". Careful qual-ity assessment and tuning of the spacecraft, payload, and algorithms was necessary to generate high-quality panchromatic, multispectral, and pan-sharpened imagery. Furthermore, the framing sensor configuration en- abled the first commercial High-Definition full-frame rate panchromatic video to be captured from space, with approximately 1 meter ground sample distance. Details of the SkySat-1 imaging instrument and ground-based image processing system are presented, as well as an overview of the work involved with calibrating and validating the system. Examples of raw and processed imagery are shown, and the raw imagery is compared to pre-launch simulated imagery used to tune the image processing algorithms.

A fast and efficient segmentation scheme for cell microscopic image.

PubMed

Lebrun, G; Charrier, C; Lezoray, O; Meurie, C; Cardot, H

2007-04-27

Microscopic cellular image segmentation schemes must be efficient for reliable analysis and fast to process huge quantity of images. Recent studies have focused on improving segmentation quality. Several segmentation schemes have good quality but processing time is too expensive to deal with a great number of images per day. For segmentation schemes based on pixel classification, the classifier design is crucial since it is the one which requires most of the processing time necessary to segment an image. The main contribution of this work is focused on how to reduce the complexity of decision functions produced by support vector machines (SVM) while preserving recognition rate. Vector quantization is used in order to reduce the inherent redundancy present in huge pixel databases (i.e. images with expert pixel segmentation). Hybrid color space design is also used in order to improve data set size reduction rate and recognition rate. A new decision function quality criterion is defined to select good trade-off between recognition rate and processing time of pixel decision function. The first results of this study show that fast and efficient pixel classification with SVM is possible. Moreover posterior class pixel probability estimation is easy to compute with Platt method. Then a new segmentation scheme using probabilistic pixel classification has been developed. This one has several free parameters and an automatic selection must dealt with, but criteria for evaluate segmentation quality are not well adapted for cell segmentation, especially when comparison with expert pixel segmentation must be achieved. Another important contribution in this paper is the definition of a new quality criterion for evaluation of cell segmentation. The results presented here show that the selection of free parameters of the segmentation scheme by optimisation of the new quality cell segmentation criterion produces efficient cell segmentation.

Smart light random memory sprays Retinex: a fast Retinex implementation for high-quality brightness adjustment and color correction.

PubMed

Banić, Nikola; Lončarić, Sven

2015-11-01

Removing the influence of illumination on image colors and adjusting the brightness across the scene are important image enhancement problems. This is achieved by applying adequate color constancy and brightness adjustment methods. One of the earliest models to deal with both of these problems was the Retinex theory. Some of the Retinex implementations tend to give high-quality results by performing local operations, but they are computationally relatively slow. One of the recent Retinex implementations is light random sprays Retinex (LRSR). In this paper, a new method is proposed for brightness adjustment and color correction that overcomes the main disadvantages of LRSR. There are three main contributions of this paper. First, a concept of memory sprays is proposed to reduce the number of LRSR's per-pixel operations to a constant regardless of the parameter values, thereby enabling a fast Retinex-based local image enhancement. Second, an effective remapping of image intensities is proposed that results in significantly higher quality. Third, the problem of LRSR's halo effect is significantly reduced by using an alternative illumination processing method. The proposed method enables a fast Retinex-based image enhancement by processing Retinex paths in a constant number of steps regardless of the path size. Due to the halo effect removal and remapping of the resulting intensities, the method outperforms many of the well-known image enhancement methods in terms of resulting image quality. The results are presented and discussed. It is shown that the proposed method outperforms most of the tested methods in terms of image brightness adjustment, color correction, and computational speed.

Volumetric real-time imaging using a CMUT ring array.

PubMed

Choe, Jung Woo; Oralkan, Ömer; Nikoozadeh, Amin; Gencel, Mustafa; Stephens, Douglas N; O'Donnell, Matthew; Sahn, David J; Khuri-Yakub, Butrus T

2012-06-01

A ring array provides a very suitable geometry for forward-looking volumetric intracardiac and intravascular ultrasound imaging. We fabricated an annular 64-element capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) array featuring a 10-MHz operating frequency and a 1.27-mm outer radius. A custom software suite was developed to run on a PC-based imaging system for real-time imaging using this device. This paper presents simulated and experimental imaging results for the described CMUT ring array. Three different imaging methods--flash, classic phased array (CPA), and synthetic phased array (SPA)--were used in the study. For SPA imaging, two techniques to improve the image quality--Hadamard coding and aperture weighting--were also applied. The results show that SPA with Hadamard coding and aperture weighting is a good option for ring-array imaging. Compared with CPA, it achieves better image resolution and comparable signal-to-noise ratio at a much faster image acquisition rate. Using this method, a fast frame rate of up to 463 volumes per second is achievable if limited only by the ultrasound time of flight; with the described system we reconstructed three cross-sectional images in real-time at 10 frames per second, which was limited by the computation time in synthetic beamforming.

NMF-Based Image Quality Assessment Using Extreme Learning Machine.

PubMed

Wang, Shuigen; Deng, Chenwei; Lin, Weisi; Huang, Guang-Bin; Zhao, Baojun

2017-01-01

Numerous state-of-the-art perceptual image quality assessment (IQA) algorithms share a common two-stage process: distortion description followed by distortion effects pooling. As for the first stage, the distortion descriptors or measurements are expected to be effective representatives of human visual variations, while the second stage should well express the relationship among quality descriptors and the perceptual visual quality. However, most of the existing quality descriptors (e.g., luminance, contrast, and gradient) do not seem to be consistent with human perception, and the effects pooling is often done in ad-hoc ways. In this paper, we propose a novel full-reference IQA metric. It applies non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) to measure image degradations by making use of the parts-based representation of NMF. On the other hand, a new machine learning technique [extreme learning machine (ELM)] is employed to address the limitations of the existing pooling techniques. Compared with neural networks and support vector regression, ELM can achieve higher learning accuracy with faster learning speed. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed metric has better performance and lower computational complexity in comparison with the relevant state-of-the-art approaches.

Halftone visual cryptography.

PubMed

Zhou, Zhi; Arce, Gonzalo R; Di Crescenzo, Giovanni

2006-08-01

Visual cryptography encodes a secret binary image (SI) into n shares of random binary patterns. If the shares are xeroxed onto transparencies, the secret image can be visually decoded by superimposing a qualified subset of transparencies, but no secret information can be obtained from the superposition of a forbidden subset. The binary patterns of the n shares, however, have no visual meaning and hinder the objectives of visual cryptography. Extended visual cryptography [1] was proposed recently to construct meaningful binary images as shares using hypergraph colourings, but the visual quality is poor. In this paper, a novel technique named halftone visual cryptography is proposed to achieve visual cryptography via halftoning. Based on the blue-noise dithering principles, the proposed method utilizes the void and cluster algorithm [2] to encode a secret binary image into n halftone shares (images) carrying significant visual information. The simulation shows that the visual quality of the obtained halftone shares are observably better than that attained by any available visual cryptography method known to date.

The integrated design and archive of space-borne signal processing and compression coding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Qiang-min; Su, Hao-hang; Wu, Wen-bo

2017-10-01

With the increasing demand of users for the extraction of remote sensing image information, it is very urgent to significantly enhance the whole system's imaging quality and imaging ability by using the integrated design to achieve its compact structure, light quality and higher attitude maneuver ability. At this present stage, the remote sensing camera's video signal processing unit and image compression and coding unit are distributed in different devices. The volume, weight and consumption of these two units is relatively large, which unable to meet the requirements of the high mobility remote sensing camera. This paper according to the high mobility remote sensing camera's technical requirements, designs a kind of space-borne integrated signal processing and compression circuit by researching a variety of technologies, such as the high speed and high density analog-digital mixed PCB design, the embedded DSP technology and the image compression technology based on the special-purpose chips. This circuit lays a solid foundation for the research of the high mobility remote sensing camera.

Fast segmentation of stained nuclei in terabyte-scale, time resolved 3D microscopy image stacks.

PubMed

Stegmaier, Johannes; Otte, Jens C; Kobitski, Andrei; Bartschat, Andreas; Garcia, Ariel; Nienhaus, G Ulrich; Strähle, Uwe; Mikut, Ralf

2014-01-01

Automated analysis of multi-dimensional microscopy images has become an integral part of modern research in life science. Most available algorithms that provide sufficient segmentation quality, however, are infeasible for a large amount of data due to their high complexity. In this contribution we present a fast parallelized segmentation method that is especially suited for the extraction of stained nuclei from microscopy images, e.g., of developing zebrafish embryos. The idea is to transform the input image based on gradient and normal directions in the proximity of detected seed points such that it can be handled by straightforward global thresholding like Otsu's method. We evaluate the quality of the obtained segmentation results on a set of real and simulated benchmark images in 2D and 3D and show the algorithm's superior performance compared to other state-of-the-art algorithms. We achieve an up to ten-fold decrease in processing times, allowing us to process large data sets while still providing reasonable segmentation results.

Dynamic-Receive Focusing with High-Frequency Annular Arrays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ketterling, J. A.; Mamou, J.; Silverman, R. H.

High-frequency ultrasound is commonly employed for ophthalmic and small-animal imaging because of the fine-resolution images it affords. Annular arrays allow improved depth of field and lateral resolution versus commonly used single-element, focused transducers. The best image quality from an annular array is achieved by using synthetic transmit-to-receive focusing while utilizing data from all transmit-to-receive element combinations. However, annular arrays must be laterally scanned to form an image and this requires one pass for each of the array elements when implementing full synthetic transmit-to-receive focusing. A dynamic-receive focusing approach permits a single pass, although at a sacrifice of depth of field and lateral resolution. A five-element, 20-MHz annular array is examined to determine the acoustic beam properties for synthetic and dynamic-receive focusing. A spatial impulse response model is used to simulate the acoustic beam properties for each focusing case and then data acquired from a human eye-bank eye are processed to demonstrate the effect of each approach on image quality.

High-Definition Infrared Spectroscopic Imaging

PubMed Central

Reddy, Rohith K.; Walsh, Michael J.; Schulmerich, Matthew V.; Carney, P. Scott; Bhargava, Rohit

2013-01-01

The quality of images from an infrared (IR) microscope has traditionally been limited by considerations of throughput and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). An understanding of the achievable quality as a function of instrument parameters, from first principals is needed for improved instrument design. Here, we first present a model for light propagation through an IR spectroscopic imaging system based on scalar wave theory. The model analytically describes the propagation of light along the entire beam path from the source to the detector. The effect of various optical elements and the sample in the microscope is understood in terms of the accessible spatial frequencies by using a Fourier optics approach and simulations are conducted to gain insights into spectroscopic image formation. The optimal pixel size at the sample plane is calculated and shown much smaller than that in current mid-IR microscopy systems. A commercial imaging system is modified, and experimental data are presented to demonstrate the validity of the developed model. Building on this validated theoretical foundation, an optimal sampling configuration is set up. Acquired data were of high spatial quality but, as expected, of poorer SNR. Signal processing approaches were implemented to improve the spectral SNR. The resulting data demonstrated the ability to perform high-definition IR imaging in the laboratory by using minimally-modified commercial instruments. PMID:23317676

High-definition infrared spectroscopic imaging.

PubMed

Reddy, Rohith K; Walsh, Michael J; Schulmerich, Matthew V; Carney, P Scott; Bhargava, Rohit

2013-01-01

The quality of images from an infrared (IR) microscope has traditionally been limited by considerations of throughput and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). An understanding of the achievable quality as a function of instrument parameters, from first principals is needed for improved instrument design. Here, we first present a model for light propagation through an IR spectroscopic imaging system based on scalar wave theory. The model analytically describes the propagation of light along the entire beam path from the source to the detector. The effect of various optical elements and the sample in the microscope is understood in terms of the accessible spatial frequencies by using a Fourier optics approach and simulations are conducted to gain insights into spectroscopic image formation. The optimal pixel size at the sample plane is calculated and shown much smaller than that in current mid-IR microscopy systems. A commercial imaging system is modified, and experimental data are presented to demonstrate the validity of the developed model. Building on this validated theoretical foundation, an optimal sampling configuration is set up. Acquired data were of high spatial quality but, as expected, of poorer SNR. Signal processing approaches were implemented to improve the spectral SNR. The resulting data demonstrated the ability to perform high-definition IR imaging in the laboratory by using minimally-modified commercial instruments.

Photodiode area effect on performance of X-ray CMOS active pixel sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, M. S.; Kim, Y.; Kim, G.; Lim, K. T.; Cho, G.; Kim, D.

2018-02-01

Compared to conventional TFT-based X-ray imaging devices, CMOS-based X-ray imaging sensors are considered next generation because they can be manufactured in very small pixel pitches and can acquire high-speed images. In addition, CMOS-based sensors have the advantage of integration of various functional circuits within the sensor. The image quality can also be improved by the high fill-factor in large pixels. If the size of the subject is small, the size of the pixel must be reduced as a consequence. In addition, the fill factor must be reduced to aggregate various functional circuits within the pixel. In this study, 3T-APS (active pixel sensor) with photodiodes of four different sizes were fabricated and evaluated. It is well known that a larger photodiode leads to improved overall performance. Nonetheless, if the size of the photodiode is > 1000 μm2, the degree to which the sensor performance increases as the photodiode size increases, is reduced. As a result, considering the fill factor, pixel-pitch > 32 μm is not necessary to achieve high-efficiency image quality. In addition, poor image quality is to be expected unless special sensor-design techniques are included for sensors with a pixel pitch of 25 μm or less.

Near-self-imaging cavity for three-mode optoacoustic parametric amplifiers using silicon microresonators.

PubMed

Liu, Jian; Torres, F A; Ma, Yubo; Zhao, C; Ju, L; Blair, D G; Chao, S; Roch-Jeune, I; Flaminio, R; Michel, C; Liu, K-Y

2014-02-10

Three-mode optoacoustic parametric amplifiers (OAPAs), in which a pair of photon modes are strongly coupled to an acoustic mode, provide a general platform for investigating self-cooling, parametric instability and very sensitive transducers. Their realization requires an optical cavity with tunable transverse modes and a high quality-factor mirror resonator. This paper presents the design of a table-top OAPA based on a near-self-imaging cavity design, using a silicon torsional microresonator. The design achieves a tuning coefficient for the optical mode spacing of 2.46  MHz/mm. This allows tuning of the mode spacing between amplification and self-cooling regimes of the OAPA device. Based on demonstrated resonator parameters (frequencies ∼400  kHz and quality-factors ∼7.5×10(5) we predict that the OAPA can achieve parametric instability with 1.6 μW of input power and mode cooling by a factor of 1.9×10(4) with 30 mW of input power.

Effect of x-ray tube parameters and iodine concentration on image quality and radiation dose in cerebral pediatric and adult CT angiography: a phantom study.

PubMed

Papadakis, Antonios E; Perisinakis, Kostas; Raissaki, Maria; Damilakis, John

2013-04-01

The aim of the present phantom study was to investigate the effect of x-ray tube parameters and iodine concentration on image quality and radiation dose in cerebral computed tomographic (CT) angiographic examinations of pediatric and adult individuals. Four physical anthropomorphic phantoms that represent the average individual as neonate, 1-year-old, 5-year-old, and 10-year-old children and the RANDO phantom that simulates the average adult individual were used. Cylindrical vessels were bored along the brain-equivalent plugs of each physical phantom. To simulate the brain vasculature, vessels of 0.6, 1, 2, and 3 mm in diameter were created. These vessels were filled with contrast medium (CM) solutions at different iodine concentrations, that is, 5.6, 4.2, 2.7, and 1.4 mg I/mL. The phantom heads were scanned at 120, 100, and 80 kV. The applied quality reference tube current-time product values ranged from a minimum of 45 to a maximum of 680. The CT acquisitions were performed on a 16-slice CT scanner using the automatic exposure control system. Image quality was evaluated on the basis of image noise and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) between the contrast-enhanced iodinated vessels and the unenhanced regions of interest. Dose reduction was calculated as the percentage difference of the CT dose index value at the quality reference tube current-time product and the CT dose index at the mean modulated tube current-time product. Image noise that was measured using the preset tube current-time product settings varied significantly among the different phantoms (P < 0.0001). Hounsfield unit number of iodinated vessels was linearly related to CM concentration (r² = 0.907) and vessel diameter (r² = 0.918). The Hounsfield unit number of iodinated vessels followed a decreasing trend from the neonate phantom to the adult phantom at all kilovoltage settings. For the same image noise level, a CNR improvement of up to 69% and a dose reduction of up to 61% may be achieved when CT acquisition is performed at 80 kV compared with 120 kV. For the same CNR, a reduction by 25% of the administered CM concentration may be achieved when CT acquisition is performed at 80 kV compared with 120 kV. In cerebral CT angiographic studies, appropriate adjustment of the preset tube current-time product settings is required to achieve the same image noise level among participants of different age. Cerebral CT angiography at 80 kV significantly improves CNR and significantly reduces radiation dose. Moreover, at 80 kV, a considerable reduction of the administered amount of the CM may be reached, thus reducing potential risks for contrast-induced nephropathy.

X-ray dose reduction in abdominal computed tomography using advanced iterative reconstruction algorithms.

PubMed

Ning, Peigang; Zhu, Shaocheng; Shi, Dapeng; Guo, Ying; Sun, Minghua

2014-01-01

This work aims to explore the effects of adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASiR) and model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) algorithms in reducing computed tomography (CT) radiation dosages in abdominal imaging. CT scans on a standard male phantom were performed at different tube currents. Images at the different tube currents were reconstructed with the filtered back-projection (FBP), 50% ASiR and MBIR algorithms and compared. The CT value, image noise and contrast-to-noise ratios (CNRs) of the reconstructed abdominal images were measured. Volumetric CT dose indexes (CTDIvol) were recorded. At different tube currents, 50% ASiR and MBIR significantly reduced image noise and increased the CNR when compared with FBP. The minimal tube current values required by FBP, 50% ASiR, and MBIR to achieve acceptable image quality using this phantom were 200, 140, and 80 mA, respectively. At the identical image quality, 50% ASiR and MBIR reduced the radiation dose by 35.9% and 59.9% respectively when compared with FBP. Advanced iterative reconstruction techniques are able to reduce image noise and increase image CNRs. Compared with FBP, 50% ASiR and MBIR reduced radiation doses by 35.9% and 59.9%, respectively.

Red Lesion Detection Using Dynamic Shape Features for Diabetic Retinopathy Screening.

PubMed

Seoud, Lama; Hurtut, Thomas; Chelbi, Jihed; Cheriet, Farida; Langlois, J M Pierre

2016-04-01

The development of an automatic telemedicine system for computer-aided screening and grading of diabetic retinopathy depends on reliable detection of retinal lesions in fundus images. In this paper, a novel method for automatic detection of both microaneurysms and hemorrhages in color fundus images is described and validated. The main contribution is a new set of shape features, called Dynamic Shape Features, that do not require precise segmentation of the regions to be classified. These features represent the evolution of the shape during image flooding and allow to discriminate between lesions and vessel segments. The method is validated per-lesion and per-image using six databases, four of which are publicly available. It proves to be robust with respect to variability in image resolution, quality and acquisition system. On the Retinopathy Online Challenge's database, the method achieves a FROC score of 0.420 which ranks it fourth. On the Messidor database, when detecting images with diabetic retinopathy, the proposed method achieves an area under the ROC curve of 0.899, comparable to the score of human experts, and it outperforms state-of-the-art approaches.

Control of Formation-Flying Multi-Element Space Interferometers with Direct Interferometer-Output Feedback

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lu, Hui-Ling; Cheng, H. L.; Lyon, Richard G.; Carpenter, Kenneth G.

2007-01-01

The long-baseline space interferometer concept involving formation flying of multiple spacecraft holds great promise as future space missions for high-resolution imagery. A major challenge of obtaining high-quality interferometric synthesized images from long-baseline space interferometers is to accurately control these spacecraft and their optics payloads in the specified configuration. Our research focuses on the determination of the optical errors to achieve fine control of long-baseline space interferometers without resorting to additional sensing equipment. We present a suite of estimation tools that can effectively extract from the raw interferometric image relative x/y, piston translational and tip/tilt deviations at the exit pupil aperture. The use of these error estimates in achieving control of the interferometer elements is demonstrated using simulated as well as laboratory-collected interferometric stellar images.

Control of Formation-Flying Multi-Element Space Interferometers with Direct Interferometer-Output Feedback

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lu, Hui-Ling; Cheng, Victor H. L.; Lyon, Richard G.; Carpenter, Kenneth G.

2007-01-01

The long-baseline space interferometer concept involving formation flying of multiple spacecrafts holds great promise as future space missions for high-resolution imagery. A major challenge of obtaining high-quality interferometric synthesized images from long-baseline space interferometers is to accurately control these spacecraft and their optics payloads in the specified configuration. Our research focuses on the determination of the optical errors to achieve fine control of long-baseline space interferometers without resorting to additional sensing equipment. We present a suite of estimation tools that can effectively extract from the raw interferometric image relative x/y, piston translational and tip/tilt deviations at the exit pupil aperture. The use of these error estimates in achieving control of the interferometer elements is demonstrated using simulated as well as laboratory-collected interferometric stellar images.

Full image-processing pipeline in field-programmable gate array for a small endoscopic camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mostafa, Sheikh Shanawaz; Sousa, L. Natércia; Ferreira, Nuno Fábio; Sousa, Ricardo M.; Santos, Joao; Wäny, Martin; Morgado-Dias, F.

2017-01-01

Endoscopy is an imaging procedure used for diagnosis as well as for some surgical purposes. The camera used for the endoscopy should be small and able to produce a good quality image or video, to reduce discomfort of the patients, and to increase the efficiency of the medical team. To achieve these fundamental goals, a small endoscopy camera with a footprint of 1 mm×1 mm×1.65 mm is used. Due to the physical properties of the sensors and human vision system limitations, different image-processing algorithms, such as noise reduction, demosaicking, and gamma correction, among others, are needed to faithfully reproduce the image or video. A full image-processing pipeline is implemented using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to accomplish a high frame rate of 60 fps with minimum processing delay. Along with this, a viewer has also been developed to display and control the image-processing pipeline. The control and data transfer are done by a USB 3.0 end point in the computer. The full developed system achieves real-time processing of the image and fits in a Xilinx Spartan-6LX150 FPGA.

Region-based multifocus image fusion for the precise acquisition of Pap smear images.

PubMed

Tello-Mijares, Santiago; Bescós, Jesús

2018-05-01

A multifocus image fusion method to obtain a single focused image from a sequence of microscopic high-magnification Papanicolau source (Pap smear) images is presented. These images, captured each in a different position of the microscope lens, frequently show partially focused cells or parts of cells, which makes them unpractical for the direct application of image analysis techniques. The proposed method obtains a focused image with a high preservation of original pixels information while achieving a negligible visibility of the fusion artifacts. The method starts by identifying the best-focused image of the sequence; then, it performs a mean-shift segmentation over this image; the focus level of the segmented regions is evaluated in all the images of the sequence, and best-focused regions are merged in a single combined image; finally, this image is processed with an adaptive artifact removal process. The combination of a region-oriented approach, instead of block-based approaches, and a minimum modification of the value of focused pixels in the original images achieve a highly contrasted image with no visible artifacts, which makes this method especially convenient for the medical imaging domain. The proposed method is compared with several state-of-the-art alternatives over a representative dataset. The experimental results show that our proposal obtains the best and more stable quality indicators. (2018) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

SU-E-I-68: Practical Considerations On Implementation of the Image Gently Pediatric CT Protocols

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, J; Adams, C; Lumby, C

Purpose: One limitation associated with the Image Gently pediatric CT protocols is practical implementation of the recommended manual techniques. Inconsistency as a result of different practice is a possibility among technologist. An additional concern is the added risk of data error that would result in over or underexposure. The Automatic Exposure Control (AEC) features automatically reduce radiation for children. However, they do not work efficiently for the patients of very small size and relative large size. This study aims to implement the Image Gently pediatric CT protocols in the practical setting while maintaining the use of AEC features for pediatricmore » patients of varying size. Methods: Anthropomorphological abdomen phantoms were scanned in a CT scanner using the Image Gently pediatric protocols, the AEC technique with a fixed adult baseline, and automatic protocols with various baselines. The baselines were adjusted corresponding to patient age, weight and posterioranterior thickness to match the Image Gently pediatric CT manual techniques. CTDIvol was recorded for each examination. Image noise was measured and recorded for image quality comparison. Clinical images were evaluated by pediatric radiologists. Results: By adjusting vendor default baselines used in the automatic techniques, radiation dose and image quality can match those of the Image Gently manual techniques. In practice, this can be achieved by dividing pediatric patients into three major groups for technologist reference: infant, small child, and large child. Further division can be done but will increase the number of CT protocols. For each group, AEC can efficiently adjust acquisition techniques for children. This implementation significantly overcomes the limitation of the Image Gently manual techniques. Conclusion: Considering the effectiveness in clinical practice, Image Gently Pediatric CT protocols can be implemented in accordance with AEC techniques, with adjusted baselines, to achieve the goal of providing the most appropriate radiation dose for pediatric patients of varying sizes.« less

SU-F-BRCD-09: Total Variation (TV) Based Fast Convergent Iterative CBCT Reconstruction with GPU Acceleration.

PubMed

Xu, Q; Yang, D; Tan, J; Anastasio, M

2012-06-01

To improve image quality and reduce imaging dose in CBCT for radiation therapy applications and to realize near real-time image reconstruction based on use of a fast convergence iterative algorithm and acceleration by multi-GPUs. An iterative image reconstruction that sought to minimize a weighted least squares cost function that employed total variation (TV) regularization was employed to mitigate projection data incompleteness and noise. To achieve rapid 3D image reconstruction (< 1 min), a highly optimized multiple-GPU implementation of the algorithm was developed. The convergence rate and reconstruction accuracy were evaluated using a modified 3D Shepp-Logan digital phantom and a Catphan-600 physical phantom. The reconstructed images were compared with the clinical FDK reconstruction results. Digital phantom studies showed that only 15 iterations and 60 iterations are needed to achieve algorithm convergence for 360-view and 60-view cases, respectively. The RMSE was reduced to 10-4 and 10-2, respectively, by using 15 iterations for each case. Our algorithm required 5.4s to complete one iteration for the 60-view case using one Tesla C2075 GPU. The few-view study indicated that our iterative algorithm has great potential to reduce the imaging dose and preserve good image quality. For the physical Catphan studies, the images obtained from the iterative algorithm possessed better spatial resolution and higher SNRs than those obtained from by use of a clinical FDK reconstruction algorithm. We have developed a fast convergence iterative algorithm for CBCT image reconstruction. The developed algorithm yielded images with better spatial resolution and higher SNR than those produced by a commercial FDK tool. In addition, from the few-view study, the iterative algorithm has shown great potential for significantly reducing imaging dose. We expect that the developed reconstruction approach will facilitate applications including IGART and patient daily CBCT-based treatment localization. © 2012 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Quantitative approach for optimizing e-beam condition of photoresist inspection and measurement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Chia-Jen; Teng, Chia-Hao; Cheng, Po-Chung; Sato, Yoshishige; Huang, Shang-Chieh; Chen, Chu-En; Maruyama, Kotaro; Yamazaki, Yuichiro

2018-03-01

Severe process margin in advanced technology node of semiconductor device is controlled by e-beam metrology system and e-beam inspection system with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image. By using SEM, larger area image with higher image quality is required to collect massive amount of data for metrology and to detect defect in a large area for inspection. Although photoresist is the one of the critical process in semiconductor device manufacturing, observing photoresist pattern by SEM image is crucial and troublesome especially in the case of large image. The charging effect by e-beam irradiation on photoresist pattern causes deterioration of image quality, and it affect CD variation on metrology system and causes difficulties to continue defect inspection in a long time for a large area. In this study, we established a quantitative approach for optimizing e-beam condition with "Die to Database" algorithm of NGR3500 on photoresist pattern to minimize charging effect. And we enhanced the performance of measurement and inspection on photoresist pattern by using optimized e-beam condition. NGR3500 is the geometry verification system based on "Die to Database" algorithm which compares SEM image with design data [1]. By comparing SEM image and design data, key performance indicator (KPI) of SEM image such as "Sharpness", "S/N", "Gray level variation in FOV", "Image shift" can be retrieved. These KPIs were analyzed with different e-beam conditions which consist of "Landing Energy", "Probe Current", "Scanning Speed" and "Scanning Method", and the best e-beam condition could be achieved with maximum image quality, maximum scanning speed and minimum image shift. On this quantitative approach of optimizing e-beam condition, we could observe dependency of SEM condition on photoresist charging. By using optimized e-beam condition, measurement could be continued on photoresist pattern over 24 hours stably. KPIs of SEM image proved image quality during measurement and inspection was stabled enough.

WE-FG-207B-05: Iterative Reconstruction Via Prior Image Constrained Total Generalized Variation for Spectral CT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Niu, S; Zhang, Y; Ma, J

Purpose: To investigate iterative reconstruction via prior image constrained total generalized variation (PICTGV) for spectral computed tomography (CT) using fewer projections while achieving greater image quality. Methods: The proposed PICTGV method is formulated as an optimization problem, which balances the data fidelity and prior image constrained total generalized variation of reconstructed images in one framework. The PICTGV method is based on structure correlations among images in the energy domain and high-quality images to guide the reconstruction of energy-specific images. In PICTGV method, the high-quality image is reconstructed from all detector-collected X-ray signals and is referred as the broad-spectrum image. Distinctmore » from the existing reconstruction methods applied on the images with first order derivative, the higher order derivative of the images is incorporated into the PICTGV method. An alternating optimization algorithm is used to minimize the PICTGV objective function. We evaluate the performance of PICTGV on noise and artifacts suppressing using phantom studies and compare the method with the conventional filtered back-projection method as well as TGV based method without prior image. Results: On the digital phantom, the proposed method outperforms the existing TGV method in terms of the noise reduction, artifacts suppression, and edge detail preservation. Compared to that obtained by the TGV based method without prior image, the relative root mean square error in the images reconstructed by the proposed method is reduced by over 20%. Conclusion: The authors propose an iterative reconstruction via prior image constrained total generalize variation for spectral CT. Also, we have developed an alternating optimization algorithm and numerically demonstrated the merits of our approach. Results show that the proposed PICTGV method outperforms the TGV method for spectral CT.« less

Adaptive recovery of motion blur point spread function from differently exposed images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Albu, Felix; Florea, Corneliu; Drîmbarean, Alexandru; Zamfir, Adrian

2010-01-01

Motion due to digital camera movement during the image capture process is a major factor that degrades the quality of images and many methods for camera motion removal have been developed. Central to all techniques is the correct recovery of what is known as the Point Spread Function (PSF). A very popular technique to estimate the PSF relies on using a pair of gyroscopic sensors to measure the hand motion. However, the errors caused either by the loss of the translational component of the movement or due to the lack of precision in gyro-sensors measurements impede the achievement of a good quality restored image. In order to compensate for this, we propose a method that begins with an estimation of the PSF obtained from 2 gyro sensors and uses a pair of under-exposed image together with the blurred image to adaptively improve it. The luminance of the under-exposed image is equalized with that of the blurred image. An initial estimation of the PSF is generated from the output signal of 2 gyro sensors. The PSF coefficients are updated using 2D-Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithms with a coarse-to-fine approach on a grid of points selected from both images. This refined PSF is used to process the blurred image using known deblurring methods. Our results show that the proposed method leads to superior PSF support and coefficient estimation. Also the quality of the restored image is improved compared to 2 gyro only approach or to blind image de-convolution results.

Enhancement of automated blood flow estimates (ENABLE) from arterial spin-labeled MRI.

PubMed

Shirzadi, Zahra; Stefanovic, Bojana; Chappell, Michael A; Ramirez, Joel; Schwindt, Graeme; Masellis, Mario; Black, Sandra E; MacIntosh, Bradley J

2018-03-01

To validate a multiparametric automated algorithm-ENhancement of Automated Blood fLow Estimates (ENABLE)-that identifies useful and poor arterial spin-labeled (ASL) difference images in multiple postlabeling delay (PLD) acquisitions and thereby improve clinical ASL. ENABLE is a sort/check algorithm that uses a linear combination of ASL quality features. ENABLE uses simulations to determine quality weighting factors based on an unconstrained nonlinear optimization. We acquired a set of 6-PLD ASL images with 1.5T or 3.0T systems among 98 healthy elderly and adults with mild cognitive impairment or dementia. We contrasted signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of cerebral blood flow (CBF) images obtained with ENABLE vs. conventional ASL analysis. In a subgroup, we validated our CBF estimates with single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) CBF images. ENABLE produced significantly increased SNR compared to a conventional ASL analysis (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, P < 0.0001). We also found the similarity between ASL and SPECT was greater when using ENABLE vs. conventional ASL analysis (n = 51, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, P < 0.0001) and this similarity was strongly related to ASL SNR (t = 24, P < 0.0001). These findings suggest that ENABLE improves CBF image quality from multiple PLD ASL in dementia cohorts at either 1.5T or 3.0T, achieved by multiparametric quality features that guided postprocessing of dementia ASL. 2 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:647-655. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Median prior constrained TV algorithm for sparse view low-dose CT reconstruction.

PubMed

Liu, Yi; Shangguan, Hong; Zhang, Quan; Zhu, Hongqing; Shu, Huazhong; Gui, Zhiguo

2015-05-01

It is known that lowering the X-ray tube current (mAs) or tube voltage (kVp) and simultaneously reducing the total number of X-ray views (sparse view) is an effective means to achieve low-dose in computed tomography (CT) scan. However, the associated image quality by the conventional filtered back-projection (FBP) usually degrades due to the excessive quantum noise. Although sparse-view CT reconstruction algorithm via total variation (TV), in the scanning protocol of reducing X-ray tube current, has been demonstrated to be able to result in significant radiation dose reduction while maintain image quality, noticeable patchy artifacts still exist in reconstructed images. In this study, to address the problem of patchy artifacts, we proposed a median prior constrained TV regularization to retain the image quality by introducing an auxiliary vector m in register with the object. Specifically, the approximate action of m is to draw, in each iteration, an object voxel toward its own local median, aiming to improve low-dose image quality with sparse-view projection measurements. Subsequently, an alternating optimization algorithm is adopted to optimize the associative objective function. We refer to the median prior constrained TV regularization as "TV_MP" for simplicity. Experimental results on digital phantoms and clinical phantom demonstrated that the proposed TV_MP with appropriate control parameters can not only ensure a higher signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the reconstructed image, but also its resolution compared with the original TV method. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fundamental limits of image registration performance: Effects of image noise and resolution in CT-guided interventions.

PubMed

Ketcha, M D; de Silva, T; Han, R; Uneri, A; Goerres, J; Jacobson, M; Vogt, S; Kleinszig, G; Siewerdsen, J H

2017-02-11

In image-guided procedures, image acquisition is often performed primarily for the task of geometrically registering information from another image dataset, rather than detection / visualization of a particular feature. While the ability to detect a particular feature in an image has been studied extensively with respect to image quality characteristics (noise, resolution) and is an ongoing, active area of research, comparatively little has been accomplished to relate such image quality characteristics to registration performance. To establish such a framework, we derived Cramer-Rao lower bounds (CRLB) for registration accuracy, revealing the underlying dependencies on image variance and gradient strength. The CRLB was analyzed as a function of image quality factors (in particular, dose) for various similarity metrics and compared to registration accuracy using CT images of an anthropomorphic head phantom at various simulated dose levels. Performance was evaluated in terms of root mean square error (RMSE) of the registration parameters. Analysis of the CRLB shows two primary dependencies: 1) noise variance (related to dose); and 2) sum of squared image gradients (related to spatial resolution and image content). Comparison of the measured RMSE to the CRLB showed that the best registration method, RMSE achieved the CRLB to within an efficiency factor of 0.21, and optimal estimators followed the predicted inverse proportionality between registration performance and radiation dose. Analysis of the CRLB for image registration is an important step toward understanding and evaluating an intraoperative imaging system with respect to a registration task. While the CRLB is optimistic in absolute performance, it reveals a basis for relating the performance of registration estimators as a function of noise content and may be used to guide acquisition parameter selection (e.g., dose) for purposes of intraoperative registration.

A Standard Mammography Unit - Standard 3D Ultrasound Probe Fusion Prototype: First Results.

PubMed

Schulz-Wendtland, Rüdiger; Jud, Sebastian M; Fasching, Peter A; Hartmann, Arndt; Radicke, Marcus; Rauh, Claudia; Uder, Michael; Wunderle, Marius; Gass, Paul; Langemann, Hanna; Beckmann, Matthias W; Emons, Julius

2017-06-01

The combination of different imaging modalities through the use of fusion devices promises significant diagnostic improvement for breast pathology. The aim of this study was to evaluate image quality and clinical feasibility of a prototype fusion device (fusion prototype) constructed from a standard tomosynthesis mammography unit and a standard 3D ultrasound probe using a new method of breast compression. Imaging was performed on 5 mastectomy specimens from patients with confirmed DCIS or invasive carcinoma (BI-RADS ™ 6). For the preclinical fusion prototype an ABVS system ultrasound probe from an Acuson S2000 was integrated into a MAMMOMAT Inspiration (both Siemens Healthcare Ltd) and, with the aid of a newly developed compression plate, digital mammogram and automated 3D ultrasound images were obtained. The quality of digital mammogram images produced by the fusion prototype was comparable to those produced using conventional compression. The newly developed compression plate did not influence the applied x-ray dose. The method was not more labour intensive or time-consuming than conventional mammography. From the technical perspective, fusion of the two modalities was achievable. In this study, using only a few mastectomy specimens, the fusion of an automated 3D ultrasound machine with a standard mammography unit delivered images of comparable quality to conventional mammography. The device allows simultaneous ultrasound - the second important imaging modality in complementary breast diagnostics - without increasing examination time or requiring additional staff.

PubMed Central

Schulz-Wendtland, Rüdiger; Jud, Sebastian M.; Fasching, Peter A.; Hartmann, Arndt; Radicke, Marcus; Rauh, Claudia; Uder, Michael; Wunderle, Marius; Gass, Paul; Langemann, Hanna; Beckmann, Matthias W.; Emons, Julius

2017-01-01

Aim The combination of different imaging modalities through the use of fusion devices promises significant diagnostic improvement for breast pathology. The aim of this study was to evaluate image quality and clinical feasibility of a prototype fusion device (fusion prototype) constructed from a standard tomosynthesis mammography unit and a standard 3D ultrasound probe using a new method of breast compression. Materials and Methods Imaging was performed on 5 mastectomy specimens from patients with confirmed DCIS or invasive carcinoma (BI-RADS ™ 6). For the preclinical fusion prototype an ABVS system ultrasound probe from an Acuson S2000 was integrated into a MAMMOMAT Inspiration (both Siemens Healthcare Ltd) and, with the aid of a newly developed compression plate, digital mammogram and automated 3D ultrasound images were obtained. Results The quality of digital mammogram images produced by the fusion prototype was comparable to those produced using conventional compression. The newly developed compression plate did not influence the applied x-ray dose. The method was not more labour intensive or time-consuming than conventional mammography. From the technical perspective, fusion of the two modalities was achievable. Conclusion In this study, using only a few mastectomy specimens, the fusion of an automated 3D ultrasound machine with a standard mammography unit delivered images of comparable quality to conventional mammography. The device allows simultaneous ultrasound – the second important imaging modality in complementary breast diagnostics – without increasing examination time or requiring additional staff. PMID:28713173

High-Pitch, Low-Voltage and Low-Iodine-Concentration CT Angiography of Aorta: Assessment of Image Quality and Radiation Dose with Iterative Reconstruction

PubMed Central

Shen, Yanguang; Sun, Zhonghua; Xu, Lei; Li, Yu; Zhang, Nan; Yan, Zixu; Fan, Zhanming

2015-01-01

Objective To assess the image quality of aorta obtained by dual-source computed tomography angiography (DSCTA), performed with high pitch, low tube voltage, and low iodine concentration contrast medium (CM) with images reconstructed using iterative reconstruction (IR). Methods One hundred patients randomly allocated to receive one of two types of CM underwent DSCTA with the electrocardiogram-triggered Flash protocol. In the low-iodine group, 50 patients received CM containing 270 mg I/mL and were scanned at low tube voltage (100 kVp). In the high-iodine CM group, 50 patients received CM containing 370 mg I/mL and were scanned at the tube voltage (120 kVp). The filtered back projection (FBP) algorithm was used for reconstruction in both groups. In addition, the IR algorithm was used in the low-iodine group. Image quality of the aorta was analyzed subjectively by a 3-point grading scale and objectively by measuring the CT attenuation in terms of the signal- and contrast-to-noise ratios (SNR and CNR, respectively). Radiation and CM doses were compared. Results The CT attenuation, subjective image quality assessment, SNR, and CNR of various aortic regions of interest did not differ significantly between two groups. In the low-iodine group, images reconstructed by FBP and IR demonstrated significant differences in image noise, SNR, and CNR (p<0.05). The low-iodine group resulted in 34.3% less radiation (4.4 ± 0.5 mSv) than the high-iodine group (6.7 ± 0.6 mSv), and 27.3% less iodine weight (20.36 ± 2.65 g) than the high-iodine group (28 ± 1.98 g). Observers exhibited excellent agreement on the aortic image quality scores (κ = 0.904). Conclusions CT images of aorta could be obtained within 2 s by using a DSCT Flash protocol with low tube voltage, IR, and low-iodine-concentration CM. Appropriate contrast enhancement was achieved while maintaining good image quality and decreasing the radiation and iodine doses. PMID:25643353

Using fingerprint image quality to improve the identification performance of the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology Program

PubMed Central

Wein, Lawrence M.; Baveja, Manas

2005-01-01

Motivated by the difficulty of biometric systems to correctly match fingerprints with poor image quality, we formulate and solve a game-theoretic formulation of the identification problem in two settings: U.S. visa applicants are checked against a list of visa holders to detect visa fraud, and visitors entering the U.S. are checked against a watchlist of criminals and suspected terrorists. For three types of biometric strategies, we solve the game in which the U.S. Government chooses the strategy's optimal parameter values to maximize the detection probability subject to a constraint on the mean biometric processing time per legal visitor, and then the terrorist chooses the image quality to minimize the detection probability. At current inspector staffing levels at ports of entry, our model predicts that a quality-dependent two-finger strategy achieves a detection probability of 0.733, compared to 0.526 under the quality-independent two-finger strategy that is currently implemented at the U.S. border. Increasing the staffing level of inspectors offers only minor increases in the detection probability for these two strategies. Using more than two fingers to match visitors with poor image quality allows a detection probability of 0.949 under current staffing levels, but may require major changes to the current U.S. biometric program. The detection probabilities during visa application are ≈11–22% smaller than at ports of entry for all three strategies, but the same qualitative conclusions hold. PMID:15894628

Using fingerprint image quality to improve the identification performance of the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology Program.

PubMed

Wein, Lawrence M; Baveja, Manas

2005-05-24

Motivated by the difficulty of biometric systems to correctly match fingerprints with poor image quality, we formulate and solve a game-theoretic formulation of the identification problem in two settings: U.S. visa applicants are checked against a list of visa holders to detect visa fraud, and visitors entering the U.S. are checked against a watchlist of criminals and suspected terrorists. For three types of biometric strategies, we solve the game in which the U.S. Government chooses the strategy's optimal parameter values to maximize the detection probability subject to a constraint on the mean biometric processing time per legal visitor, and then the terrorist chooses the image quality to minimize the detection probability. At current inspector staffing levels at ports of entry, our model predicts that a quality-dependent two-finger strategy achieves a detection probability of 0.733, compared to 0.526 under the quality-independent two-finger strategy that is currently implemented at the U.S. border. Increasing the staffing level of inspectors offers only minor increases in the detection probability for these two strategies. Using more than two fingers to match visitors with poor image quality allows a detection probability of 0.949 under current staffing levels, but may require major changes to the current U.S. biometric program. The detection probabilities during visa application are approximately 11-22% smaller than at ports of entry for all three strategies, but the same qualitative conclusions hold.

An Efficient Correction Algorithm for Eliminating Image Misalignment Effects on Co-Phasing Measurement Accuracy for Segmented Active Optics Systems

PubMed Central

Yue, Dan; Xu, Shuyan; Nie, Haitao; Wang, Zongyang

2016-01-01

The misalignment between recorded in-focus and out-of-focus images using the Phase Diversity (PD) algorithm leads to a dramatic decline in wavefront detection accuracy and image recovery quality for segmented active optics systems. This paper demonstrates the theoretical relationship between the image misalignment and tip-tilt terms in Zernike polynomials of the wavefront phase for the first time, and an efficient two-step alignment correction algorithm is proposed to eliminate these misalignment effects. This algorithm processes a spatial 2-D cross-correlation of the misaligned images, revising the offset to 1 or 2 pixels and narrowing the search range for alignment. Then, it eliminates the need for subpixel fine alignment to achieve adaptive correction by adding additional tip-tilt terms to the Optical Transfer Function (OTF) of the out-of-focus channel. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and validity of the proposed correction algorithm to improve the measurement accuracy during the co-phasing of segmented mirrors. With this alignment correction, the reconstructed wavefront is more accurate, and the recovered image is of higher quality. PMID:26934045

Singular value decomposition metrics show limitations of detector design in diffuse fluorescence tomography

PubMed Central

Leblond, Frederic; Tichauer, Kenneth M.; Pogue, Brian W.

2010-01-01

The spatial resolution and recovered contrast of images reconstructed from diffuse fluorescence tomography data are limited by the high scattering properties of light propagation in biological tissue. As a result, the image reconstruction process can be exceedingly vulnerable to inaccurate prior knowledge of tissue optical properties and stochastic noise. In light of these limitations, the optimal source-detector geometry for a fluorescence tomography system is non-trivial, requiring analytical methods to guide design. Analysis of the singular value decomposition of the matrix to be inverted for image reconstruction is one potential approach, providing key quantitative metrics, such as singular image mode spatial resolution and singular data mode frequency as a function of singular mode. In the present study, these metrics are used to analyze the effects of different sources of noise and model errors as related to image quality in the form of spatial resolution and contrast recovery. The image quality is demonstrated to be inherently noise-limited even when detection geometries were increased in complexity to allow maximal tissue sampling, suggesting that detection noise characteristics outweigh detection geometry for achieving optimal reconstructions. PMID:21258566

Comparison of image quality, myocardial perfusion, and LV function between standard imaging and single-injection ultra-low-dose imaging using a high-efficiency SPECT camera: the MILLISIEVERT study

PubMed Central

Einstein, Andrew J.; Blankstein, Ron; Andrews, Howard; Fish, Mathews; Padgett, Richard; Hayes, Sean W.; Friedman, John D.; Qureshi, Mehreen; Rakotoarivelo, Harivony; Slomka, Piotr; Nakazato, Ryo; Bokhari, Sabahat; Di Carli, Marcello; Berman, Daniel S.

2015-01-01

SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) plays a central role in coronary artery disease diagnosis; but concerns exist regarding its radiation burden. Compared to standard Anger-SPECT (A-SPECT) cameras, new high-efficiency (HE) cameras with specialized collimators and solid-state cadmium-zinc-telluride detectors offer potential to maintain image quality (IQ), while reducing administered activity and thus radiation dose to patients. No previous study has compared IQ, interpretation, total perfusion deficit (TPD), or ejection fraction (EF) in patients receiving both ultra-low-dose (ULD) imaging on a HE-SPECT camera and standard low-dose (SLD) A-SPECT imaging. Methods We compared ULD-HE-SPECT to SLD-A-SPECT imaging by dividing the rest dose in 101 patients at 3 sites scheduled to undergo clinical A-SPECT MPI using a same day rest/stress Tc-99m protocol. Patients received HE-SPECT imaging following an initial ~130 MBq (3.5mCi) dose, and SLD-A-SPECT imaging following the remainder of the planned dose. Images were scored visually by 2 blinded readers for IQ and summed rest score (SRS). TPD and EF were assessed quantitatively. Results Mean activity was 134 MBq (3.62 mCi) for ULD-HE-SPECT (effective dose 1.15 mSv) and 278 MBq (7.50 mCi, 2.39 mSv) for SLD-A-SPECT. Overall IQ was superior for ULD-HE-SPECT (p<0.0001), with twice as many studies graded excellent quality. Extracardiac activity and overall perfusion assessment were similar. Between-method correlations were high for SRS (r=0.87), TPD (r=0.91), and EF (r=0.88). Conclusion ULD-HE-SPECT rest imaging correlates highly with SLD-A-SPECT. It has improved image quality, comparable extracardiac activity, and achieves radiation dose reduction to 1 mSv for a single injection. PMID:24982439

The laboratory demonstration and signal processing of the inverse synthetic aperture imaging ladar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Si; Zhang, ZengHui; Xu, XianWen; Yu, WenXian

2017-10-01

This paper presents a coherent inverse synthetic-aperture imaging ladar(ISAL)system to obtain high resolution images. A balanced coherent optics system in laboratory is built with binary phase coded modulation transmit waveform which is different from conventional chirp. A whole digital signal processing solution is proposed including both quality phase gradient autofocus(QPGA) algorithm and cubic phase function(CPF) algorithm. Some high-resolution well-focused ISAL images of retro-reflecting targets are shown to validate the concepts. It is shown that high resolution images can be achieved and the influences from vibrations of platform involving targets and radar can be automatically compensated by the distinctive laboratory system and digital signal process.

Radiation dose reduction in a neonatal intensive care unit in computed radiography.

PubMed

Frayre, A S; Torres, P; Gaona, E; Rivera, T; Franco, J; Molina, N

2012-12-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the dose received by chest x-rays in neonatal care with thermoluminescent dosimetry and to determine the level of exposure where the quantum noise level does not affect the diagnostic image quality in order to reduce the dose to neonates. In pediatric radiology, especially the prematurely born children are highly sensitive to the radiation because of the highly mitotic state of their cells; in general, the sensitivity of a tissue to radiation is directly proportional to its rate of proliferation. The sample consisted of 208 neonatal chest x-rays of 12 neonates admitted and treated in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). All the neonates were preterm in the range of 28-34 weeks, with a mean of 30.8 weeks. Entrance Surface Doses (ESD) values for chest x-rays are higher than the DRL of 50 μGy proposed by the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB). In order to reduce the dose to neonates, the optimum image quality was achieved by determining the level of ESD where level noise does not affect the diagnostic image quality. The optimum ESD was estimated for additional 20 chest x-rays increasing kVp and reducing mAs until quantum noise affects image quality. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparative study on fluorescence spectra of Chinese medicine north and south isatis root granules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, Lan; He, Qing; Chen, Zhenqiang; Zhu, Siqi

2016-03-01

Since the spectral imaging technology emerged, it has gained a lot of application achievements in the military field, precision agriculture and biomedical science. When the fluorescence spectrum imaging first applied to the detection of the feature resource of Chinese herbal medicine, the characteristics of holistic and ambiguity made it a new approach to the traditional Chinese medicine testing. In this paper, we applied this method to study the Chinese medicine north and south isatis root granules by comparing their fluorescence spectra. Using cluster analysis, the results showed that the north and south Banlangen can not be divided by ascription. And these indicate that there is a large difference in the quality of Banlangen granules on the market, and fluorescence spectrum imaging method can be used in monitoring the quality of radix isatidis granules.

Electrocardiographically gated 16-section CT of the thorax: cardiac motion suppression.

PubMed

Hofmann, Lars K; Zou, Kelly H; Costello, Philip; Schoepf, U Joseph

2004-12-01

Thirty patients underwent 16-section multi-detector row computed tomographic (CT) angiography of the thorax with retrospective electrocardiographic gating. Institutional review board approval was obtained for retrospective analysis of CT scan data and records; patient informed consent was not required. Images reconstructed at six different time points (0%, 20%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 80%) within the R-R interval on the electrocardiogram were analyzed by two radiologists for diagnostic quality, to identify suitable reconstruction intervals for optimal suppression of cardiac motion. Five regions of interest (left coronary artery, aortic root, ascending and descending aorta, pulmonary arteries) were evaluated. Best image quality was achieved by referencing image reconstruction to middiastole (50%-60%) for the left coronary artery, aortic root, and ascending aorta. The pulmonary arteries are best displayed during mid- to late diastole (80%). (c) RSNA, 2004

Optimized phase mask to realize retro-reflection reduction for optical systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Sifeng; Gong, Mali

2017-10-01

Aiming at the threats to the active laser detection systems of electro-optical devices due to the cat-eye effect, a novel solution is put forward to realize retro-reflection reduction in this paper. According to the demands of both cat-eye effect reduction and the image quality maintenance of electro-optical devices, a symmetric phase mask is achieved from a stationary phase method and a fast Fourier transform algorithm. Then, based on a comparison of peak normalized cross-correlation (PNCC) between the different defocus parameters, the optimal imaging position can be obtained. After modification with the designed phase mask, the cat-eye effect peak intensity can be reduced by two orders of magnitude while maintaining good image quality and high modulation transfer function (MTF). Furthermore, a practical design example is introduced to demonstrate the feasibility of our proposed approach.

A novel color image compression algorithm using the human visual contrast sensitivity characteristics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yao, Juncai; Liu, Guizhong

2017-03-01

In order to achieve higher image compression ratio and improve visual perception of the decompressed image, a novel color image compression scheme based on the contrast sensitivity characteristics of the human visual system (HVS) is proposed. In the proposed scheme, firstly the image is converted into the YCrCb color space and divided into sub-blocks. Afterwards, the discrete cosine transform is carried out for each sub-block, and three quantization matrices are built to quantize the frequency spectrum coefficients of the images by combining the contrast sensitivity characteristics of HVS. The Huffman algorithm is used to encode the quantized data. The inverse process involves decompression and matching to reconstruct the decompressed color image. And simulations are carried out for two color images. The results show that the average structural similarity index measurement (SSIM) and peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) under the approximate compression ratio could be increased by 2.78% and 5.48%, respectively, compared with the joint photographic experts group (JPEG) compression. The results indicate that the proposed compression algorithm in the text is feasible and effective to achieve higher compression ratio under ensuring the encoding and image quality, which can fully meet the needs of storage and transmission of color images in daily life.

Mutual information as a measure of image quality for 3D dynamic lung imaging with EIT

PubMed Central

Crabb, M G; Davidson, J L; Little, R; Wright, P; Morgan, A R; Miller, C A; Naish, J H; Parker, G J M; Kikinis, R; McCann, H; Lionheart, W R B

2014-01-01

We report on a pilot study of dynamic lung electrical impedance tomography (EIT) at the University of Manchester. Low-noise EIT data at 100 frames per second (fps) were obtained from healthy male subjects during controlled breathing, followed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) subsequently used for spatial validation of the EIT reconstruction. The torso surface in the MR image and electrode positions obtained using MRI fiducial markers informed the construction of a 3D finite element model extruded along the caudal-distal axis of the subject. Small changes in the boundary that occur during respiration were accounted for by incorporating the sensitivity with respect to boundary shape into a robust temporal difference reconstruction algorithm. EIT and MRI images were co-registered using the open source medical imaging software, 3D Slicer. A quantitative comparison of quality of different EIT reconstructions was achieved through calculation of the mutual information with a lung-segmented MR image. EIT reconstructions using a linear shape correction algorithm reduced boundary image artefacts, yielding better contrast of the lungs, and had 10% greater mutual information compared with a standard linear EIT reconstruction. PMID:24710978

Improving Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry Image Quality with Image Fusion

PubMed Central

Tarolli, Jay G.; Jackson, Lauren M.; Winograd, Nicholas

2014-01-01

The spatial resolution of chemical images acquired with cluster secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is limited not only by the size of the probe utilized to create the images, but also by detection sensitivity. As the probe size is reduced to below 1 µm, for example, a low signal in each pixel limits lateral resolution due to counting statistics considerations. Although it can be useful to implement numerical methods to mitigate this problem, here we investigate the use of image fusion to combine information from scanning electron microscope (SEM) data with chemically resolved SIMS images. The advantage of this approach is that the higher intensity and, hence, spatial resolution of the electron images can help to improve the quality of the SIMS images without sacrificing chemical specificity. Using a pan-sharpening algorithm, the method is illustrated using synthetic data, experimental data acquired from a metallic grid sample, and experimental data acquired from a lawn of algae cells. The results show that up to an order of magnitude increase in spatial resolution is possible to achieve. A cross-correlation metric is utilized for evaluating the reliability of the procedure. PMID:24912432

A tool to include gamma analysis software into a quality assurance program.

PubMed

Agnew, Christina E; McGarry, Conor K

2016-03-01

To provide a tool to enable gamma analysis software algorithms to be included in a quality assurance (QA) program. Four image sets were created comprising two geometric images to independently test the distance to agreement (DTA) and dose difference (DD) elements of the gamma algorithm, a clinical step and shoot IMRT field and a clinical VMAT arc. The images were analysed using global and local gamma analysis with 2 in-house and 8 commercially available software encompassing 15 software versions. The effect of image resolution on gamma pass rates was also investigated. All but one software accurately calculated the gamma passing rate for the geometric images. Variation in global gamma passing rates of 1% at 3%/3mm and over 2% at 1%/1mm was measured between software and software versions with analysis of appropriately sampled images. This study provides a suite of test images and the gamma pass rates achieved for a selection of commercially available software. This image suite will enable validation of gamma analysis software within a QA program and provide a frame of reference by which to compare results reported in the literature from various manufacturers and software versions. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Mutual information as a measure of image quality for 3D dynamic lung imaging with EIT.

PubMed

Crabb, M G; Davidson, J L; Little, R; Wright, P; Morgan, A R; Miller, C A; Naish, J H; Parker, G J M; Kikinis, R; McCann, H; Lionheart, W R B

2014-05-01

We report on a pilot study of dynamic lung electrical impedance tomography (EIT) at the University of Manchester. Low-noise EIT data at 100 frames per second were obtained from healthy male subjects during controlled breathing, followed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) subsequently used for spatial validation of the EIT reconstruction. The torso surface in the MR image and electrode positions obtained using MRI fiducial markers informed the construction of a 3D finite element model extruded along the caudal-distal axis of the subject. Small changes in the boundary that occur during respiration were accounted for by incorporating the sensitivity with respect to boundary shape into a robust temporal difference reconstruction algorithm. EIT and MRI images were co-registered using the open source medical imaging software, 3D Slicer. A quantitative comparison of quality of different EIT reconstructions was achieved through calculation of the mutual information with a lung-segmented MR image. EIT reconstructions using a linear shape correction algorithm reduced boundary image artefacts, yielding better contrast of the lungs, and had 10% greater mutual information compared with a standard linear EIT reconstruction.

Experimental evaluation of dual multiple aperture devices for fluence field modulated x-ray computed tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mathews, A. J.; Gang, G.; Levinson, R.; Zbijewski, W.; Kawamoto, S.; Siewerdsen, J. H.; Stayman, J. W.

2017-03-01

Acquisition of CT images with comparable diagnostic power can potentially be achieved with lower radiation exposure than the current standard of care through the adoption of hardware-based fluence-field modulation (e.g. dynamic bowtie filters). While modern CT scanners employ elements such as static bowtie filters and tube-current modulation, such solutions are limited in the fluence patterns that they can achieve, and thus are limited in their ability to adapt to broad classes of patient morphology. Fluence-field modulation also enables new applications such as region-of-interest imaging, task specific imaging, reducing measurement noise or improving image quality. The work presented in this paper leverages a novel fluence modulation strategy that uses "Multiple Aperture Devices" (MADs) which are, in essence, binary filters, blocking or passing x-rays on a fine scale. Utilizing two MAD devices in series provides the capability of generating a large number of fluence patterns via small relative motions between the MAD filters. We present the first experimental evaluation of fluence-field modulation using a dual-MAD system, and demonstrate the efficacy of this technique with a characterization of achievable fluence patterns and an investigation of experimental projection data.

Development and validation of segmentation and interpolation techniques in sinograms for metal artifact suppression in CT.

PubMed

Veldkamp, Wouter J H; Joemai, Raoul M S; van der Molen, Aart J; Geleijns, Jacob

2010-02-01

Metal prostheses cause artifacts in computed tomography (CT) images. The purpose of this work was to design an efficient and accurate metal segmentation in raw data to achieve artifact suppression and to improve CT image quality for patients with metal hip or shoulder prostheses. The artifact suppression technique incorporates two steps: metal object segmentation in raw data and replacement of the segmented region by new values using an interpolation scheme, followed by addition of the scaled metal signal intensity. Segmentation of metal is performed directly in sinograms, making it efficient and different from current methods that perform segmentation in reconstructed images in combination with Radon transformations. Metal signal segmentation is achieved by using a Markov random field model (MRF). Three interpolation methods are applied and investigated. To provide a proof of concept, CT data of five patients with metal implants were included in the study, as well as CT data of a PMMA phantom with Teflon, PVC, and titanium inserts. Accuracy was determined quantitatively by comparing mean Hounsfield (HU) values and standard deviation (SD) as a measure of distortion in phantom images with titanium (original and suppressed) and without titanium insert. Qualitative improvement was assessed by comparing uncorrected clinical images with artifact suppressed images. Artifacts in CT data of a phantom and five patients were automatically suppressed. The general visibility of structures clearly improved. In phantom images, the technique showed reduced SD close to the SD for the case where titanium was not inserted, indicating improved image quality. HU values in corrected images were different from expected values for all interpolation methods. Subtle differences between interpolation methods were found. The new artifact suppression design is efficient, for instance, in terms of preserving spatial resolution, as it is applied directly to original raw data. It successfully reduced artifacts in CT images of five patients and in phantom images. Sophisticated interpolation methods are needed to obtain reliable HU values close to the prosthesis.

Patient-Adaptive Reconstruction and Acquisition in Dynamic Imaging with Sensitivity Encoding (PARADISE)

PubMed Central

Sharif, Behzad; Derbyshire, J. Andrew; Faranesh, Anthony Z.; Bresler, Yoram

2010-01-01

MR imaging of the human heart without explicit cardiac synchronization promises to extend the applicability of cardiac MR to a larger patient population and potentially expand its diagnostic capabilities. However, conventional non-gated imaging techniques typically suffer from low image quality or inadequate spatio-temporal resolution and fidelity. Patient-Adaptive Reconstruction and Acquisition in Dynamic Imaging with Sensitivity Encoding (PARADISE) is a highly-accelerated non-gated dynamic imaging method that enables artifact-free imaging with high spatio-temporal resolutions by utilizing novel computational techniques to optimize the imaging process. In addition to using parallel imaging, the method gains acceleration from a physiologically-driven spatio-temporal support model; hence, it is doubly accelerated. The support model is patient-adaptive, i.e., its geometry depends on dynamics of the imaged slice, e.g., subject’s heart-rate and heart location within the slice. The proposed method is also doubly adaptive as it adapts both the acquisition and reconstruction schemes. Based on the theory of time-sequential sampling, the proposed framework explicitly accounts for speed limitations of gradient encoding and provides performance guarantees on achievable image quality. The presented in-vivo results demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the PARADISE method for high resolution non-gated cardiac MRI during a short breath-hold. PMID:20665794

Accelerating Advanced MRI Reconstructions on GPUs

PubMed Central

Stone, S.S.; Haldar, J.P.; Tsao, S.C.; Hwu, W.-m.W.; Sutton, B.P.; Liang, Z.-P.

2008-01-01

Computational acceleration on graphics processing units (GPUs) can make advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reconstruction algorithms attractive in clinical settings, thereby improving the quality of MR images across a broad spectrum of applications. This paper describes the acceleration of such an algorithm on NVIDIA’s Quadro FX 5600. The reconstruction of a 3D image with 1283 voxels achieves up to 180 GFLOPS and requires just over one minute on the Quadro, while reconstruction on a quad-core CPU is twenty-one times slower. Furthermore, relative to the true image, the error exhibited by the advanced reconstruction is only 12%, while conventional reconstruction techniques incur error of 42%. PMID:21796230

Accelerating Advanced MRI Reconstructions on GPUs.

PubMed

Stone, S S; Haldar, J P; Tsao, S C; Hwu, W-M W; Sutton, B P; Liang, Z-P

2008-10-01

Computational acceleration on graphics processing units (GPUs) can make advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reconstruction algorithms attractive in clinical settings, thereby improving the quality of MR images across a broad spectrum of applications. This paper describes the acceleration of such an algorithm on NVIDIA's Quadro FX 5600. The reconstruction of a 3D image with 128(3) voxels achieves up to 180 GFLOPS and requires just over one minute on the Quadro, while reconstruction on a quad-core CPU is twenty-one times slower. Furthermore, relative to the true image, the error exhibited by the advanced reconstruction is only 12%, while conventional reconstruction techniques incur error of 42%.

Robust image registration for multiple exposure high dynamic range image synthesis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yao, Susu

2011-03-01

Image registration is an important preprocessing technique in high dynamic range (HDR) image synthesis. This paper proposed a robust image registration method for aligning a group of low dynamic range images (LDR) that are captured with different exposure times. Illumination change and photometric distortion between two images would result in inaccurate registration. We propose to transform intensity image data into phase congruency to eliminate the effect of the changes in image brightness and use phase cross correlation in the Fourier transform domain to perform image registration. Considering the presence of non-overlapped regions due to photometric distortion, evolutionary programming is applied to search for the accurate translation parameters so that the accuracy of registration is able to be achieved at a hundredth of a pixel level. The proposed algorithm works well for under and over-exposed image registration. It has been applied to align LDR images for synthesizing high quality HDR images..

Compressive sensing in medical imaging

PubMed Central

Graff, Christian G.; Sidky, Emil Y.

2015-01-01

The promise of compressive sensing, exploitation of compressibility to achieve high quality image reconstructions with less data, has attracted a great deal of attention in the medical imaging community. At the Compressed Sensing Incubator meeting held in April 2014 at OSA Headquarters in Washington, DC, presentations were given summarizing some of the research efforts ongoing in compressive sensing for x-ray computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging systems. This article provides an expanded version of these presentations. Sparsity-exploiting reconstruction algorithms that have gained popularity in the medical imaging community are studied, and examples of clinical applications that could benefit from compressive sensing ideas are provided. The current and potential future impact of compressive sensing on the medical imaging field is discussed. PMID:25968400

A source-channel coding approach to digital image protection and self-recovery.

PubMed

Sarreshtedari, Saeed; Akhaee, Mohammad Ali

2015-07-01

Watermarking algorithms have been widely applied to the field of image forensics recently. One of these very forensic applications is the protection of images against tampering. For this purpose, we need to design a watermarking algorithm fulfilling two purposes in case of image tampering: 1) detecting the tampered area of the received image and 2) recovering the lost information in the tampered zones. State-of-the-art techniques accomplish these tasks using watermarks consisting of check bits and reference bits. Check bits are used for tampering detection, whereas reference bits carry information about the whole image. The problem of recovering the lost reference bits still stands. This paper is aimed at showing that having the tampering location known, image tampering can be modeled and dealt with as an erasure error. Therefore, an appropriate design of channel code can protect the reference bits against tampering. In the present proposed method, the total watermark bit-budget is dedicated to three groups: 1) source encoder output bits; 2) channel code parity bits; and 3) check bits. In watermark embedding phase, the original image is source coded and the output bit stream is protected using appropriate channel encoder. For image recovery, erasure locations detected by check bits help channel erasure decoder to retrieve the original source encoded image. Experimental results show that our proposed scheme significantly outperforms recent techniques in terms of image quality for both watermarked and recovered image. The watermarked image quality gain is achieved through spending less bit-budget on watermark, while image recovery quality is considerably improved as a consequence of consistent performance of designed source and channel codes.

Using collective expert judgements to evaluate quality measures of mass spectrometry images.

PubMed

Palmer, Andrew; Ovchinnikova, Ekaterina; Thuné, Mikael; Lavigne, Régis; Guével, Blandine; Dyatlov, Andrey; Vitek, Olga; Pineau, Charles; Borén, Mats; Alexandrov, Theodore

2015-06-15

Imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) is a maturating technique of molecular imaging. Confidence in the reproducible quality of IMS data is essential for its integration into routine use. However, the predominant method for assessing quality is visual examination, a time consuming, unstandardized and non-scalable approach. So far, the problem of assessing the quality has only been marginally addressed and existing measures do not account for the spatial information of IMS data. Importantly, no approach exists for unbiased evaluation of potential quality measures. We propose a novel approach for evaluating potential measures by creating a gold-standard set using collective expert judgements upon which we evaluated image-based measures. To produce a gold standard, we engaged 80 IMS experts, each to rate the relative quality between 52 pairs of ion images from MALDI-TOF IMS datasets of rat brain coronal sections. Experts' optional feedback on their expertise, the task and the survey showed that (i) they had diverse backgrounds and sufficient expertise, (ii) the task was properly understood, and (iii) the survey was comprehensible. A moderate inter-rater agreement was achieved with Krippendorff's alpha of 0.5. A gold-standard set of 634 pairs of images with accompanying ratings was constructed and showed a high agreement of 0.85. Eight families of potential measures with a range of parameters and statistical descriptors, giving 143 in total, were evaluated. Both signal-to-noise and spatial chaos-based measures performed highly with a correlation of 0.7 to 0.9 with the gold standard ratings. Moreover, we showed that a composite measure with the linear coefficients (trained on the gold standard with regularized least squares optimization and lasso) showed a strong linear correlation of 0.94 and an accuracy of 0.98 in predicting which image in a pair was of higher quality. The anonymized data collected from the survey and the Matlab source code for data processing can be found at: https://github.com/alexandrovteam/IMS_quality. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press.

Using collective expert judgements to evaluate quality measures of mass spectrometry images

PubMed Central

Palmer, Andrew; Ovchinnikova, Ekaterina; Thuné, Mikael; Lavigne, Régis; Guével, Blandine; Dyatlov, Andrey; Vitek, Olga; Pineau, Charles; Borén, Mats; Alexandrov, Theodore

2015-01-01

Motivation: Imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) is a maturating technique of molecular imaging. Confidence in the reproducible quality of IMS data is essential for its integration into routine use. However, the predominant method for assessing quality is visual examination, a time consuming, unstandardized and non-scalable approach. So far, the problem of assessing the quality has only been marginally addressed and existing measures do not account for the spatial information of IMS data. Importantly, no approach exists for unbiased evaluation of potential quality measures. Results: We propose a novel approach for evaluating potential measures by creating a gold-standard set using collective expert judgements upon which we evaluated image-based measures. To produce a gold standard, we engaged 80 IMS experts, each to rate the relative quality between 52 pairs of ion images from MALDI-TOF IMS datasets of rat brain coronal sections. Experts’ optional feedback on their expertise, the task and the survey showed that (i) they had diverse backgrounds and sufficient expertise, (ii) the task was properly understood, and (iii) the survey was comprehensible. A moderate inter-rater agreement was achieved with Krippendorff’s alpha of 0.5. A gold-standard set of 634 pairs of images with accompanying ratings was constructed and showed a high agreement of 0.85. Eight families of potential measures with a range of parameters and statistical descriptors, giving 143 in total, were evaluated. Both signal-to-noise and spatial chaos-based measures performed highly with a correlation of 0.7 to 0.9 with the gold standard ratings. Moreover, we showed that a composite measure with the linear coefficients (trained on the gold standard with regularized least squares optimization and lasso) showed a strong linear correlation of 0.94 and an accuracy of 0.98 in predicting which image in a pair was of higher quality. Availability and implementation: The anonymized data collected from the survey and the Matlab source code for data processing can be found at: https://github.com/alexandrovteam/IMS_quality. Contact: theodore.alexandrov@embl.de PMID:26072506

A Projection Quality-Driven Tube Current Modulation Method in Cone-Beam CT for IGRT: Proof of Concept.

PubMed

Men, Kuo; Dai, Jianrong

2017-12-01

To develop a projection quality-driven tube current modulation method in cone-beam computed tomography for image-guided radiotherapy based on the prior attenuation information obtained by the planning computed tomography and then evaluate its effect on a reduction in the imaging dose. The QCKV-1 phantom with different thicknesses (0-400 mm) of solid water upon it was used to simulate different attenuation (μ). Projections were acquired with a series of tube current-exposure time product (mAs) settings, and a 2-dimensional contrast to noise ratio was analyzed for each projection to create a lookup table of mAs versus 2-dimensional contrast to noise ratio, μ. Before a patient underwent computed tomography, the maximum attenuation [Formula: see text] within the 95% range of each projection angle (θ) was estimated according to the planning computed tomography images. Then, a desired 2-dimensional contrast to noise ratio value was selected, and the mAs setting at θ was calculated with the lookup table of mAs versus 2-dimensional contrast to noise ratio,[Formula: see text]. Three-dimensional cone-beam computed tomography images were reconstructed using the projections acquired with the selected mAs. The imaging dose was evaluated with a polymethyl methacrylate dosimetry phantom in terms of volume computed tomography dose index. Image quality was analyzed using a Catphan 503 phantom with an oval body annulus and a pelvis phantom. For the Catphan 503 phantom, the cone-beam computed tomography image obtained by the projection quality-driven tube current modulation method had a similar quality to that of conventional cone-beam computed tomography . However, the proposed method could reduce the imaging dose by 16% to 33% to achieve an equivalent contrast to noise ratio value. For the pelvis phantom, the structural similarity index was 0.992 with a dose reduction of 39.7% for the projection quality-driven tube current modulation method. The proposed method could reduce the additional dose to the patient while not degrading the image quality for cone-beam computed tomography. The projection quality-driven tube current modulation method could be especially beneficial to patients who undergo cone-beam computed tomography frequently during a treatment course.

Radiation Safety in Children With Congenital and Acquired Heart Disease: A Scientific Position Statement on Multimodality Dose Optimization From the Image Gently Alliance.

PubMed

Hill, Kevin D; Frush, Donald P; Han, B Kelly; Abbott, Brian G; Armstrong, Aimee K; DeKemp, Robert A; Glatz, Andrew C; Greenberg, S Bruce; Herbert, Alexander Sheldon; Justino, Henri; Mah, Douglas; Mahesh, Mahadevappa; Rigsby, Cynthia K; Slesnick, Timothy C; Strauss, Keith J; Trattner, Sigal; Viswanathan, Mohan N; Einstein, Andrew J

2017-07-01

There is a need for consensus recommendations for ionizing radiation dose optimization during multimodality medical imaging in children with congenital and acquired heart disease (CAHD). These children often have complex diseases and may be exposed to a relatively high cumulative burden of ionizing radiation from medical imaging procedures, including cardiac computed tomography, nuclear cardiology studies, and fluoroscopically guided diagnostic and interventional catheterization and electrophysiology procedures. Although these imaging procedures are all essential to the care of children with CAHD and have contributed to meaningfully improved outcomes in these patients, exposure to ionizing radiation is associated with potential risks, including an increased lifetime attributable risk of cancer. The goal of these recommendations is to encourage informed imaging to achieve appropriate study quality at the lowest achievable dose. Other strategies to improve care include a patient-centered approach to imaging, emphasizing education and informed decision making and programmatic approaches to ensure appropriate dose monitoring. Looking ahead, there is a need for standardization of dose metrics across imaging modalities, so as to encourage comparative effectiveness studies across the spectrum of CAHD in children. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

First "glass" education: telementored cardiac ultrasonography using Google Glass- a pilot study.

PubMed

Russell, Patrick M; Mallin, Michael; Youngquist, Scott T; Cotton, Jennifer; Aboul-Hosn, Nael; Dawson, Matt

2014-11-01

The objective of this study was to determine the feasibility of telementored instruction in bedside ultrasonography (US) using Google Glass. The authors sought to examine whether first-time US users could obtain adequate parasternal long axis (PSLA) views to approximate ejection fraction (EF) using Google Glass telementoring. This was a prospective, randomized, single-blinded study. Eighteen second-year medical students were randomized into three groups and tasked with obtaining PSLA cardiac imaging. Group A received real-time telementored education through Google Glass via Google Hangout from a remotely located expert. Group B received bedside education from the same expert. Group C represented the control and received no instruction. Each subject was given 3 minutes to obtain a best PSLA cardiac imaging using a portable GE Vscan. Image clips obtained by each subject were stored. A second expert, blinded to instructional mode, evaluated images for adequacy and assigned an image quality rating on a 0 to 10 scale. Group A was able to obtain adequate images six out of six times (100%) with a median image quality rating of 7.5 (interquartile range [IQR] = 6 to 10) out of 10. Group B was also able to obtain adequate views six out of six times (100%), with a median image quality rating of 8 (IQR = 7 to 9). Group C was able to obtain adequate views one out of six times (17%), with a median image quality of 0 (IQR = 0 to 2). There were no statistically significant differences between Group A and Group B in the achievement of adequate images for E-point septal separation measurement or in image quality. In this pilot/feasibility study, novice US users were able to obtain adequate imaging to determine a healthy patient's EF through telementored education using Google Glass. These preliminary data suggest telementoring as an adequate means of medical education in bedside US. This conclusion will need to be validated with larger, more powerful studies including evaluation of pathologic findings and varying body habitus among models. © 2014 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Improved in-plane visibility of tumors using breast tomosynthesis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruschin, Mark; Timberg, Pontus; Svahn, Tony; Andersson, Ingvar; Hemdal, Bengt; Mattsson, Sören; Båth, Magnus; Tingberg, Anders

2007-03-01

The purpose of this work was to evaluate and compare the visibility of tumors in digital mammography (DM) and breast tomosynthesis (BT) images. Images of the same women were acquired on both a DM system (Mammomat Novation, Siemens) and a BT prototype system adapted from the same type of DM system. Simulated 3D tumors (average dimension: 8.4 mm x 6.6 mm x 5 mm) were projected and added to each DM image as well as each BT projection image prior to 3D reconstruction. The same beam quality and approximately the same total absorbed dose were used for each breast image acquisition on both systems. Two simulated tumors were added to each of thirty breast scans, yielding sixty cases. A series of 4-alternative forced choice (4-AFC) human observer performance experiments were conducted in order to determine what projected tumor signal intensity in the DM images would be needed to achieve the same detectability as in the reconstructed BT images. Nine observers participated. For the BT experiment, when the tumor signal intensity on the central projection was 0.010 the mean percent of correct responses (PC) was measured to be 81.5%, which converted to a detectability index value (d') of 1.96. For the DM experiments, the same detectability was achieved at a signal intensity determined to be 0.038. Equivalent tumor detection in BT images were thus achieved at around four times less projected signal intensity than in DM images, indicating that the use of BT may lead to earlier detection of breast cancer.

Understanding the optics to aid microscopy image segmentation.

PubMed

Yin, Zhaozheng; Li, Kang; Kanade, Takeo; Chen, Mei

2010-01-01

Image segmentation is essential for many automated microscopy image analysis systems. Rather than treating microscopy images as general natural images and rushing into the image processing warehouse for solutions, we propose to study a microscope's optical properties to model its image formation process first using phase contrast microscopy as an exemplar. It turns out that the phase contrast imaging system can be relatively well explained by a linear imaging model. Using this model, we formulate a quadratic optimization function with sparseness and smoothness regularizations to restore the "authentic" phase contrast images that directly correspond to specimen's optical path length without phase contrast artifacts such as halo and shade-off. With artifacts removed, high quality segmentation can be achieved by simply thresholding the restored images. The imaging model and restoration method are quantitatively evaluated on two sequences with thousands of cells captured over several days.

Radiation dose reduction in parasinus CT by spectral shaping.

PubMed

May, Matthias S; Brand, Michael; Lell, Michael M; Sedlmair, Martin; Allmendinger, Thomas; Uder, Michael; Wuest, Wolfgang

2017-02-01

Spectral shaping aims to narrow the X-ray spectrum of clinical CT. The aim of this study was to determine the image quality and the extent of radiation dose reduction that can be achieved by tin prefiltration for parasinus CT. All scans were performed with a third generation dual-source CT scanner. A study protocol was designed using 100 kV tube voltage with tin prefiltration (200 mAs) that provides image noise levels comparable to a low-dose reference protocol using 100 kV without spectral shaping (25 mAs). One hundred consecutive patients were prospectively enrolled and randomly assigned to the study or control group. All patients signed written informed consent. The study protocol was approved by the local Institutional Review Board and applies to the HIPAA. Subjective and objective image quality (attenuation values, image noise, and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR)) were assessed. Radiation exposure was assessed as volumetric CT dose index, and effective dose was estimated. Mann-Whitney U test was performed for radiation exposure and for image noise comparison. All scans were of diagnostic image quality. Image noise in air, in the retrobulbar fat, and in the eye globe was comparable between both groups (all p > 0.05). CNR eye globe/air did not differ significantly between both groups (p = 0.7). Radiation exposure (1.7 vs. 2.1 mGy, p < 0.01) and effective dose (0.055 vs. 0.066 mSv, p < 0.01) were significantly reduced in the study group. Radiation dose can be further reduced by 17% for low-dose parasinus CT by tin prefiltration maintaining diagnostic image quality.

Image degradation by glare in radiologic display devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Badano, Aldo; Flynn, Michael J.

1997-05-01

No electronic devices are currently available that can display digital radiographs without loss of visual information compared to traditional transilluminated film. Light scattering within the glass faceplate of cathode-ray tube (CRT) devices causes excessive glare that reduces image contrast. This glare, along with ambient light reflection, has been recognized as a significant limitation for radiologic applications. Efforts to control the effect of glare and ambient light reflection in CRTs include the use of absorptive glass and thin film coatings. In the near future, flat panel displays (FPD) with thin emissive structures should provide very low glare, high performance devices. We have used an optical Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the effect of glare on image quality for typical CRT and flat panel display devices. The trade-off between display brightness and image contrast is described. For CRT systems, achieving good glare ratio requires a reduction of brightness to 30-40 percent of the maximum potential brightness. For FPD systems, similar glare performance can be achieved while maintaining 80 percent of the maximum potential brightness.

Establishment of effective control factors to achieve federal enforcement consistency with the Highway Beautification Act : [research summary].

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-10-01

One of the pleasures of driving in Florida is enjoying a beautiful and diverse landscape. The quality of this view is critical to a states image for visitors and those considering relocation as well as to residents enjoyment. To ensure the cont...

Planning and Implementing Institutional Image and Promoting Academic Programs in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cetin, Rubeena

2003-01-01

Universities face a multitude of issues and challenges in the current era of higher educational endeavors. Universities are being urged to provide high quality education, exist as a well-reputed university, achieve enrollment success, improve competitive positioning, provide contemporary and well-designed academic programs, and maintain financial…

Frame Rate and Human Vision

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Watson, Andrew B.

2012-01-01

To enhance the quality of the theatre experience, the film industry is interested in achieving higher frame rates for capture and display. In this talk I will describe the basic spatio-temporal sensitivities of human vision, and how they respond to the time sequence of static images that is fundamental to cinematic presentation.

A singular K-space model for fast reconstruction of magnetic resonance images from undersampled data.

PubMed

Luo, Jianhua; Mou, Zhiying; Qin, Binjie; Li, Wanqing; Ogunbona, Philip; Robini, Marc C; Zhu, Yuemin

2018-07-01

Reconstructing magnetic resonance images from undersampled k-space data is a challenging problem. This paper introduces a novel method of image reconstruction from undersampled k-space data based on the concept of singularizing operators and a novel singular k-space model. Exploring the sparsity of an image in the k-space, the singular k-space model (SKM) is proposed in terms of the k-space functions of a singularizing operator. The singularizing operator is constructed by combining basic difference operators. An algorithm is developed to reliably estimate the model parameters from undersampled k-space data. The estimated parameters are then used to recover the missing k-space data through the model, subsequently achieving high-quality reconstruction of the image using inverse Fourier transform. Experiments on physical phantom and real brain MR images have shown that the proposed SKM method constantly outperforms the popular total variation (TV) and the classical zero-filling (ZF) methods regardless of the undersampling rates, the noise levels, and the image structures. For the same objective quality of the reconstructed images, the proposed method requires much less k-space data than the TV method. The SKM method is an effective method for fast MRI reconstruction from the undersampled k-space data. Graphical abstract Two Real Images and their sparsified images by singularizing operator.

Initial phantom study comparing image quality in computed tomography using adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction and new adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction v.

PubMed

Lim, Kyungjae; Kwon, Heejin; Cho, Jinhan; Oh, Jongyoung; Yoon, Seongkuk; Kang, Myungjin; Ha, Dongho; Lee, Jinhwa; Kang, Eunju

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the image quality of a novel advanced iterative reconstruction (IR) method called as "adaptive statistical IR V" (ASIR-V) by comparing the image noise, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and spatial resolution from those of filtered back projection (FBP) and adaptive statistical IR (ASIR) on computed tomography (CT) phantom image. We performed CT scans at 5 different tube currents (50, 70, 100, 150, and 200 mA) using 3 types of CT phantoms. Scanned images were subsequently reconstructed in 7 different scan settings, such as FBP, and 3 levels of ASIR and ASIR-V (30%, 50%, and 70%). The image noise was measured in the first study using body phantom. The CNR was measured in the second study using contrast phantom and the spatial resolutions were measured in the third study using a high-resolution phantom. We compared the image noise, CNR, and spatial resolution among the 7 reconstructed image scan settings to determine whether noise reduction, high CNR, and high spatial resolution could be achieved at ASIR-V. At quantitative analysis of the first and second studies, it showed that the images reconstructed using ASIR-V had reduced image noise and improved CNR compared with those of FBP and ASIR (P < 0.001). At qualitative analysis of the third study, it also showed that the images reconstructed using ASIR-V had significantly improved spatial resolution than those of FBP and ASIR (P < 0.001). Our phantom studies showed that ASIR-V provides a significant reduction in image noise and a significant improvement in CNR as well as spatial resolution. Therefore, this technique has the potential to reduce the radiation dose further without compromising image quality.

SAVI: Synthetic apertures for long-range, subdiffraction-limited visible imaging using Fourier ptychography

PubMed Central

Holloway, Jason; Wu, Yicheng; Sharma, Manoj K.; Cossairt, Oliver; Veeraraghavan, Ashok

2017-01-01

Synthetic aperture radar is a well-known technique for improving resolution in radio imaging. Extending these synthetic aperture techniques to the visible light domain is not straightforward because optical receivers cannot measure phase information. We propose to use macroscopic Fourier ptychography (FP) as a practical means of creating a synthetic aperture for visible imaging to achieve subdiffraction-limited resolution. We demonstrate the first working prototype for macroscopic FP in a reflection imaging geometry that is capable of imaging optically rough objects. In addition, a novel image space denoising regularization is introduced during phase retrieval to reduce the effects of speckle and improve perceptual quality of the recovered high-resolution image. Our approach is validated experimentally where the resolution of various diffuse objects is improved sixfold. PMID:28439550

High spatial resolution diffusion weighted imaging on clinical 3 T MRI scanners using multislab spiral acquisitions

PubMed Central

Holtrop, Joseph L.; Sutton, Bradley P.

2016-01-01

Abstract. A diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) approach that is signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) efficient and can be applied to achieve sub-mm resolutions on clinical 3 T systems was developed. The sequence combined a multislab, multishot pulsed gradient spin echo diffusion scheme with spiral readouts for imaging data and navigators. Long data readouts were used to keep the number of shots, and hence total imaging time, for the three-dimensional acquisition short. Image quality was maintained by incorporating a field-inhomogeneity-corrected image reconstruction to remove distortions associated with long data readouts. Additionally, multiple shots were required for the high-resolution images, necessitating motion induced phase correction through the use of efficiently integrated navigator data. The proposed approach is compared with two-dimensional (2-D) acquisitions that use either a spiral or a typical echo-planar imaging (EPI) acquisition to demonstrate the improved SNR efficiency. The proposed technique provided 71% higher SNR efficiency than the standard 2-D EPI approach. The adaptability of the technique to achieve high spatial resolutions is demonstrated by acquiring diffusion tensor imaging data sets with isotropic resolutions of 1.25 and 0.8 mm. The proposed approach allows for SNR-efficient sub-mm acquisitions of DWI data on clinical 3 T systems. PMID:27088107

Adaptive ISAR Imaging of Maneuvering Targets Based on a Modified Fourier Transform.

PubMed

Wang, Binbin; Xu, Shiyou; Wu, Wenzhen; Hu, Pengjiang; Chen, Zengping

2018-04-27

Focusing on the inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging of maneuvering targets, this paper presents a new imaging method which works well when the target's maneuvering is not too severe. After translational motion compensation, we describe the equivalent rotation of maneuvering targets by two variables-the relative chirp rate of the linear frequency modulated (LFM) signal and the Doppler focus shift. The first variable indicates the target's motion status, and the second one represents the possible residual error of the translational motion compensation. With them, a modified Fourier transform matrix is constructed and then used for cross-range compression. Consequently, the imaging of maneuvering is converted into a two-dimensional parameter optimization problem in which a stable and clear ISAR image is guaranteed. A gradient descent optimization scheme is employed to obtain the accurate relative chirp rate and Doppler focus shift. Moreover, we designed an efficient and robust initialization process for the gradient descent method, thus, the well-focused ISAR images of maneuvering targets can be achieved adaptively. Human intervention is not needed, and it is quite convenient for practical ISAR imaging systems. Compared to precedent imaging methods, the new method achieves better imaging quality under reasonable computational cost. Simulation results are provided to validate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed method.

Comparison of image quality and radiation dose between split-filter dual-energy images and single-energy images in single-source abdominal CT.

PubMed

Euler, André; Obmann, Markus M; Szucs-Farkas, Zsolt; Mileto, Achille; Zaehringer, Caroline; Falkowski, Anna L; Winkel, David J; Marin, Daniele; Stieltjes, Bram; Krauss, Bernhard; Schindera, Sebastian T

2018-02-19

To compare image quality and radiation dose of abdominal split-filter dual-energy CT (SF-DECT) combined with monoenergetic imaging to single-energy CT (SECT) with automatic tube voltage selection (ATVS). Two-hundred single-source abdominal CT scans were performed as SECT with ATVS (n = 100) and SF-DECT (n = 100). SF-DECT scans were reconstructed and subdivided into composed images (SF-CI) and monoenergetic images at 55 keV (SF-MI). Objective and subjective image quality were compared among single-energy images (SEI), SF-CI and SF-MI. CNR and FOM were separately calculated for the liver (e.g. CNR liv ) and the portal vein (CNR pv ). Radiation dose was compared using size-specific dose estimate (SSDE). Results of the three groups were compared using non-parametric tests. Image noise of SF-CI was 18% lower compared to SEI and 48% lower compared to SF-MI (p < 0.001). Composed images yielded higher CNR liv over single-energy images (23.4 vs. 20.9; p < 0.001), whereas CNR pv was significantly lower (3.5 vs. 5.2; p < 0.001). Monoenergetic images overcame this inferiority in CNR pv and achieved similar results compared to single-energy images (5.1 vs. 5.2; p > 0.628). Subjective sharpness was equal between single-energy and monoenergetic images and diagnostic confidence was equal between single-energy and composed images. FOM liv was highest for SF-CI. FOM pv was equal for SEI and SF-MI (p = 0.78). SSDE was significant lower for SF-DECT compared to SECT (p < 0.022). The combined use of split-filter dual-energy CT images provides comparable objective and subjective image quality at lower radiation dose compared to single-energy CT with ATVS. • Split-filter dual-energy results in 18% lower noise compared to single-energy with ATVS. • Split-filter dual-energy results in 11% lower SSDE compared to single-energy with ATVS. • Spectral shaping of split-filter dual-energy leads to an increased dose-efficiency.

Head CT: Image quality improvement with ASIR-V using a reduced radiation dose protocol for children.

PubMed

Kim, Hyun Gi; Lee, Ho-Joon; Lee, Seung-Koo; Kim, Hyun Ji; Kim, Myung-Joon

2017-09-01

To investigate the quality of images reconstructed with adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction V (ASIR-V), using pediatric head CT protocols. A phantom was scanned at decreasing 20% mA intervals using our standard pediatric head CT protocols. Each study was then reconstructed at 10% ASIR-V intervals. After the phantom study, we reduced mA by 10% in the protocol for <3-year-old patients and applied 30% ASIR-V and by 30% in the protocol for 3- to 15-year-old patients and applied 40% ASIR-V. Increasing the percentage of ASIR-V resulted in lower noise and higher contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and preserved spatial resolution in the phantom study. Compared to a conventional-protocol, reduced-dose protocol with ASIR-V achieved 12.8% to 34.0% of dose reduction and showed images of lower noise (9.22 vs. 10.73, P = 0.043) and higher CNR in different levels (centrum semiovale, 2.14 vs. 1.52, P = 0.003; basal ganglia, 1.46 vs. 1.07, P = 0.001; and cerebellum, 2.18 vs. 1.33, P < 0.001). Qualitative analysis showed higher gray-white matter differentiation and sharpness and preserved overall diagnostic quality in the images with ASIR-V. Use of ASIR-V allowed a 12.8% to 34.0% dose reduction in each age group with potential to improve image quality. • It is possible to reduce radiation dose and improve image quality with ASIR-V. • We improved noise and CNR and decreased radiation dose. • Sharpness improved with ASIR-V. • Total radiation dose was decreased by 12.8% to 34.0%.

Precise attitude rate estimation using star images obtained by mission telescope for satellite missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Inamori, Takaya; Hosonuma, Takayuki; Ikari, Satoshi; Saisutjarit, Phongsatorn; Sako, Nobutada; Nakasuka, Shinichi

2015-02-01

Recently, small satellites have been employed in various satellite missions such as astronomical observation and remote sensing. During these missions, the attitudes of small satellites should be stabilized to a higher accuracy to obtain accurate science data and images. To achieve precise attitude stabilization, these small satellites should estimate their attitude rate under the strict constraints of mass, space, and cost. This research presents a new method for small satellites to precisely estimate angular rate using star blurred images by employing a mission telescope to achieve precise attitude stabilization. In this method, the angular velocity is estimated by assessing the quality of a star image, based on how blurred it appears to be. Because the proposed method utilizes existing mission devices, a satellite does not require additional precise rate sensors, which makes it easier to achieve precise stabilization given the strict constraints possessed by small satellites. The research studied the relationship between estimation accuracy and parameters used to achieve an attitude rate estimation, which has a precision greater than 1 × 10-6 rad/s. The method can be applied to all attitude sensors, which use optics systems such as sun sensors and star trackers (STTs). Finally, the method is applied to the nano astrometry satellite Nano-JASMINE, and we investigate the problems that are expected to arise with real small satellites by performing numerical simulations.

Helicity multiplexed broadband metasurface holograms.

PubMed

Wen, Dandan; Yue, Fuyong; Li, Guixin; Zheng, Guoxing; Chan, Kinlong; Chen, Shumei; Chen, Ming; Li, King Fai; Wong, Polis Wing Han; Cheah, Kok Wai; Pun, Edwin Yue Bun; Zhang, Shuang; Chen, Xianzhong

2015-09-10

Metasurfaces are engineered interfaces that contain a thin layer of plasmonic or dielectric nanostructures capable of manipulating light in a desirable manner. Advances in metasurfaces have led to various practical applications ranging from lensing to holography. Metasurface holograms that can be switched by the polarization state of incident light have been demonstrated for achieving polarization multiplexed functionalities. However, practical application of these devices has been limited by their capability for achieving high efficiency and high image quality. Here we experimentally demonstrate a helicity multiplexed metasurface hologram with high efficiency and good image fidelity over a broad range of frequencies. The metasurface hologram features the combination of two sets of hologram patterns operating with opposite incident helicities. Two symmetrically distributed off-axis images are interchangeable by controlling the helicity of the input light. The demonstrated helicity multiplexed metasurface hologram with its high performance opens avenues for future applications with functionality switchable optical devices.

Helicity multiplexed broadband metasurface holograms

PubMed Central

Wen, Dandan; Yue, Fuyong; Li, Guixin; Zheng, Guoxing; Chan, Kinlong; Chen, Shumei; Chen, Ming; Li, King Fai; Wong, Polis Wing Han; Cheah, Kok Wai; Yue Bun Pun, Edwin; Zhang, Shuang; Chen, Xianzhong

2015-01-01

Metasurfaces are engineered interfaces that contain a thin layer of plasmonic or dielectric nanostructures capable of manipulating light in a desirable manner. Advances in metasurfaces have led to various practical applications ranging from lensing to holography. Metasurface holograms that can be switched by the polarization state of incident light have been demonstrated for achieving polarization multiplexed functionalities. However, practical application of these devices has been limited by their capability for achieving high efficiency and high image quality. Here we experimentally demonstrate a helicity multiplexed metasurface hologram with high efficiency and good image fidelity over a broad range of frequencies. The metasurface hologram features the combination of two sets of hologram patterns operating with opposite incident helicities. Two symmetrically distributed off-axis images are interchangeable by controlling the helicity of the input light. The demonstrated helicity multiplexed metasurface hologram with its high performance opens avenues for future applications with functionality switchable optical devices. PMID:26354497

Optimized Two-Party Video Chat with Restored Eye Contact Using Graphics Hardware

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dumont, Maarten; Rogmans, Sammy; Maesen, Steven; Bekaert, Philippe

We present a practical system prototype to convincingly restore eye contact between two video chat participants, with a minimal amount of constraints. The proposed six-fold camera setup is easily integrated into the monitor frame, and is used to interpolate an image as if its virtual camera captured the image through a transparent screen. The peer user has a large freedom of movement, resulting in system specifications that enable genuine practical usage. Our software framework thereby harnesses the powerful computational resources inside graphics hardware, and maximizes arithmetic intensity to achieve over real-time performance up to 42 frames per second for 800 ×600 resolution images. Furthermore, an optimal set of fine tuned parameters are presented, that optimizes the end-to-end performance of the application to achieve high subjective visual quality, and still allows for further algorithmic advancement without loosing its real-time capabilities.

Towards real-time image deconvolution: application to confocal and STED microscopy

PubMed Central

Zanella, R.; Zanghirati, G.; Cavicchioli, R.; Zanni, L.; Boccacci, P.; Bertero, M.; Vicidomini, G.

2013-01-01

Although deconvolution can improve the quality of any type of microscope, the high computational time required has so far limited its massive spreading. Here we demonstrate the ability of the scaled-gradient-projection (SGP) method to provide accelerated versions of the most used algorithms in microscopy. To achieve further increases in efficiency, we also consider implementations on graphic processing units (GPUs). We test the proposed algorithms both on synthetic and real data of confocal and STED microscopy. Combining the SGP method with the GPU implementation we achieve a speed-up factor from about a factor 25 to 690 (with respect the conventional algorithm). The excellent results obtained on STED microscopy images demonstrate the synergy between super-resolution techniques and image-deconvolution. Further, the real-time processing allows conserving one of the most important property of STED microscopy, i.e the ability to provide fast sub-diffraction resolution recordings. PMID:23982127

Externally Calibrated Parallel Imaging for 3D Multispectral Imaging Near Metallic Implants Using Broadband Ultrashort Echo Time Imaging

PubMed Central

Wiens, Curtis N.; Artz, Nathan S.; Jang, Hyungseok; McMillan, Alan B.; Reeder, Scott B.

2017-01-01

Purpose To develop an externally calibrated parallel imaging technique for three-dimensional multispectral imaging (3D-MSI) in the presence of metallic implants. Theory and Methods A fast, ultrashort echo time (UTE) calibration acquisition is proposed to enable externally calibrated parallel imaging techniques near metallic implants. The proposed calibration acquisition uses a broadband radiofrequency (RF) pulse to excite the off-resonance induced by the metallic implant, fully phase-encoded imaging to prevent in-plane distortions, and UTE to capture rapidly decaying signal. The performance of the externally calibrated parallel imaging reconstructions was assessed using phantoms and in vivo examples. Results Phantom and in vivo comparisons to self-calibrated parallel imaging acquisitions show that significant reductions in acquisition times can be achieved using externally calibrated parallel imaging with comparable image quality. Acquisition time reductions are particularly large for fully phase-encoded methods such as spectrally resolved fully phase-encoded three-dimensional (3D) fast spin-echo (SR-FPE), in which scan time reductions of up to 8 min were obtained. Conclusion A fully phase-encoded acquisition with broadband excitation and UTE enabled externally calibrated parallel imaging for 3D-MSI, eliminating the need for repeated calibration regions at each frequency offset. Significant reductions in acquisition time can be achieved, particularly for fully phase-encoded methods like SR-FPE. PMID:27403613

Fusion of visible and near-infrared images based on luminance estimation by weighted luminance algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Zhun; Cheng, Feiyan; Shi, Junsheng; Huang, Xiaoqiao

2018-01-01

In a low-light scene, capturing color images needs to be at a high-gain setting or a long-exposure setting to avoid a visible flash. However, such these setting will lead to color images with serious noise or motion blur. Several methods have been proposed to improve a noise-color image through an invisible near infrared flash image. A novel method is that the luminance component and the chroma component of the improved color image are estimated from different image sources [1]. The luminance component is estimated mainly from the NIR image via a spectral estimation, and the chroma component is estimated from the noise-color image by denoising. However, it is challenging to estimate the luminance component. This novel method to estimate the luminance component needs to generate the learning data pairs, and the processes and algorithm are complex. It is difficult to achieve practical application. In order to reduce the complexity of the luminance estimation, an improved luminance estimation algorithm is presented in this paper, which is to weight the NIR image and the denoised-color image and the weighted coefficients are based on the mean value and standard deviation of both images. Experimental results show that the same fusion effect at aspect of color fidelity and texture quality is achieved, compared the proposed method with the novel method, however, the algorithm is more simple and practical.

A qualitative and quantitative analysis of radiation dose and image quality of computed tomography images using adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction

PubMed Central

Mail, Noor; Shamy, Abdulrahman M.; Alghamdi, Suliman; Saoudi, Abdelhamid

2016-01-01

Image quality is a key issue in radiology, particularly in a clinical setting where it is important to achieve accurate diagnoses while minimizing radiation dose. Some computed tomography (CT) manufacturers have introduced algorithms that claim significant dose reduction. In this study, we assessed CT image quality produced by two reconstruction algorithms provided with GE Healthcare's Discovery 690 Elite positron emission tomography (PET) CT scanner. Image quality was measured for images obtained at various doses with both conventional filtered back‐projection (FBP) and adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) algorithms. A standard CT dose index (CTDI) phantom and a pencil ionization chamber were used to measure the CT dose at 120 kVp and an exposure of 260 mAs. Image quality was assessed using two phantoms. CT images of both phantoms were acquired at tube voltage (kV) of 120 with exposures ranging from 25 mAs to 400 mAs. Images were reconstructed using FBP and ASIR ranging from 10% to 100%, then analyzed for noise, low‐contrast detectability, contrast‐to‐noise ratio (CNR), and modulation transfer function (MTF). Noise was 4.6 HU in water phantom images acquired at 260 mAs/FBP 120 kV and 130 mAs/50% ASIR 120 kV. The large objects (frequency<7 lp/cm) retained fairly acceptable image quality at 130 mAs/50% ASIR, compared to 260 mAs/FBP. The application of ASIR for small objects (frequency>7 lp/cm) showed poor visibility compared to FBP at 260 mAs and even worse for images acquired at less than 130 mAs. ASIR blending more than 50% at low dose tends to reduce contrast of small objects (frequency>7 lp/cm). We concluded that dose reduction and ASIR should be applied with close attention if the objects to be detected or diagnosed are small (frequency>7 lp/cm). Further investigations are required to correlate the small objects (frequency>7 lp/cm) to patient anatomy and clinical diagnosis. PACS number(s): 87.57.‐s, 87.57.C, 87.57.cf, 87.57.cj, 87.57.cm, 87.57.cp, 87.57.N, 87.57.nf, 87.57.np, 87.57.nt, 87.57.Q, 87.59.‐e, 87.59.B PMID:27167261

Improved wavefront correction for coherent image restoration.

PubMed

Zelenka, Claudius; Koch, Reinhard

2017-08-07

Coherent imaging has a wide range of applications in, for example, microscopy, astronomy, and radar imaging. Particularly interesting is the field of microscopy, where the optical quality of the lens is the main limiting factor. In this article, novel algorithms for the restoration of blurred images in a system with known optical aberrations are presented. Physically motivated by the scalar diffraction theory, the new algorithms are based on Haugazeau POCS and FISTA, and are faster and more robust than methods presented earlier. With the new approach the level of restoration quality on real images is very high, thereby blurring and ringing caused by defocus can be effectively removed. In classical microscopy, lenses with very low aberration must be used, which puts a practical limit on their size and numerical aperture. A coherent microscope using the novel restoration method overcomes this limitation. In contrast to incoherent microscopy, severe optical aberrations including defocus can be removed, hence the requirements on the quality of the optics are lower. This can be exploited for an essential price reduction of the optical system. It can be also used to achieve higher resolution than in classical microscopy, using lenses with high numerical aperture and high aberration. All this makes the coherent microscopy superior to the traditional incoherent in suited applications.

Improved Adaptive LSB Steganography Based on Chaos and Genetic Algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Lifang; Zhao, Yao; Ni, Rongrong; Li, Ting

2010-12-01

We propose a novel steganographic method in JPEG images with high performance. Firstly, we propose improved adaptive LSB steganography, which can achieve high capacity while preserving the first-order statistics. Secondly, in order to minimize visual degradation of the stego image, we shuffle bits-order of the message based on chaos whose parameters are selected by the genetic algorithm. Shuffling message's bits-order provides us with a new way to improve the performance of steganography. Experimental results show that our method outperforms classical steganographic methods in image quality, while preserving characteristics of histogram and providing high capacity.

Implementation of compressive sensing for preclinical cine-MRI

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tan, Elliot; Yang, Ming; Ma, Lixin; Zheng, Yahong Rosa

2014-03-01

This paper presents a practical implementation of Compressive Sensing (CS) for a preclinical MRI machine to acquire randomly undersampled k-space data in cardiac function imaging applications. First, random undersampling masks were generated based on Gaussian, Cauchy, wrapped Cauchy and von Mises probability distribution functions by the inverse transform method. The best masks for undersampling ratios of 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 were chosen for animal experimentation, and were programmed into a Bruker Avance III BioSpec 7.0T MRI system through method programming in ParaVision. Three undersampled mouse heart datasets were obtained using a fast low angle shot (FLASH) sequence, along with a control undersampled phantom dataset. ECG and respiratory gating was used to obtain high quality images. After CS reconstructions were applied to all acquired data, resulting images were quantitatively analyzed using the performance metrics of reconstruction error and Structural Similarity Index (SSIM). The comparative analysis indicated that CS reconstructed images from MRI machine undersampled data were indeed comparable to CS reconstructed images from retrospective undersampled data, and that CS techniques are practical in a preclinical setting. The implementation achieved 2 to 4 times acceleration for image acquisition and satisfactory quality of image reconstruction.

Analysis of Rapid Multi-Focal Zone ARFI Imaging

PubMed Central

Rosenzweig, Stephen; Palmeri, Mark; Nightingale, Kathryn

2015-01-01

Acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging has shown promise for visualizing structure and pathology within multiple organs; however, because the contrast depends on the push beam excitation width, image quality suffers outside of the region of excitation. Multi-focal zone ARFI imaging has previously been used to extend the region of excitation (ROE), but the increased acquisition duration and acoustic exposure have limited its utility. Supersonic shear wave imaging has previously demonstrated that through technological improvements in ultrasound scanners and power supplies, it is possible to rapidly push at multiple locations prior to tracking displacements, facilitating extended depth of field shear wave sources. Similarly, ARFI imaging can utilize these same radiation force excitations to achieve tight pushing beams with a large depth of field. Finite element method simulations and experimental data are presented demonstrating that single- and rapid multi-focal zone ARFI have comparable image quality (less than 20% loss in contrast), but the multi-focal zone approach has an extended axial region of excitation. Additionally, as compared to single push sequences, the rapid multi-focal zone acquisitions improve the contrast to noise ratio by up to 40% in an example 4 mm diameter lesion. PMID:25643078

Remote driving with reduced bandwidth communication

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Depiero, Frederick W.; Noell, Timothy E.; Gee, Timothy F.

1993-01-01

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed a real-time video transmission system for low bandwidth remote operations. The system supports both continuous transmission of video for remote driving and progressive transmission of still images. Inherent in the system design is a spatiotemporal limitation to the effects of channel errors. The average data rate of the system is 64,000 bits/s, a compression of approximately 1000:1 for the black and white National Television Standard Code video. The image quality of the transmissions is maintained at a level that supports teleoperation of a high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle at speeds up to 15 mph on a moguled dirt track. Video compression is achieved by using Laplacian image pyramids and a combination of classical techniques. Certain subbands of the image pyramid are transmitted by using interframe differencing with a periodic refresh to aid in bandwidth reduction. Images are also foveated to concentrate image detail in a steerable region. The system supports dynamic video quality adjustments between frame rate, image detail, and foveation rate. A typical configuration for the system used during driving has a frame rate of 4 Hz, a compression per frame of 125:1, and a resulting latency of less than 1s.

Edge guided image reconstruction in linear scan CT by weighted alternating direction TV minimization.

PubMed

Cai, Ailong; Wang, Linyuan; Zhang, Hanming; Yan, Bin; Li, Lei; Xi, Xiaoqi; Li, Jianxin

2014-01-01

Linear scan computed tomography (CT) is a promising imaging configuration with high scanning efficiency while the data set is under-sampled and angularly limited for which high quality image reconstruction is challenging. In this work, an edge guided total variation minimization reconstruction (EGTVM) algorithm is developed in dealing with this problem. The proposed method is modeled on the combination of total variation (TV) regularization and iterative edge detection strategy. In the proposed method, the edge weights of intermediate reconstructions are incorporated into the TV objective function. The optimization is efficiently solved by applying alternating direction method of multipliers. A prudential and conservative edge detection strategy proposed in this paper can obtain the true edges while restricting the errors within an acceptable degree. Based on the comparison on both simulation studies and real CT data set reconstructions, EGTVM provides comparable or even better quality compared to the non-edge guided reconstruction and adaptive steepest descent-projection onto convex sets method. With the utilization of weighted alternating direction TV minimization and edge detection, EGTVM achieves fast and robust convergence and reconstructs high quality image when applied in linear scan CT with under-sampled data set.

New opportunities for quality enhancing of images captured by passive THz camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trofimov, Vyacheslav A.; Trofimov, Vladislav V.

2014-10-01

As it is well-known, the passive THz camera allows seeing concealed object without contact with a person and this camera is non-dangerous for a person. Obviously, efficiency of using the passive THz camera depends on its temperature resolution. This characteristic specifies possibilities of the detection for concealed object: minimal size of the object; maximal distance of the detection; image quality. Computer processing of the THz image may lead to many times improving of the image quality without any additional engineering efforts. Therefore, developing of modern computer code for its application to THz images is urgent problem. Using appropriate new methods one may expect such temperature resolution which will allow to see banknote in pocket of a person without any real contact. Modern algorithms for computer processing of THz images allow also to see object inside the human body using a temperature trace on the human skin. This circumstance enhances essentially opportunity of passive THz camera applications for counterterrorism problems. We demonstrate opportunities, achieved at present time, for the detection both of concealed objects and of clothes components due to using of computer processing of images captured by passive THz cameras, manufactured by various companies. Another important result discussed in the paper consists in observation of both THz radiation emitted by incandescent lamp and image reflected from ceramic floorplate. We consider images produced by THz passive cameras manufactured by Microsemi Corp., and ThruVision Corp., and Capital Normal University (Beijing, China). All algorithms for computer processing of the THz images under consideration in this paper were developed by Russian part of author list. Keywords: THz wave, passive imaging camera, computer processing, security screening, concealed and forbidden objects, reflected image, hand seeing, banknote seeing, ceramic floorplate, incandescent lamp.

A hybrid reconstruction algorithm for fast and accurate 4D cone-beam CT imaging.

PubMed

Yan, Hao; Zhen, Xin; Folkerts, Michael; Li, Yongbao; Pan, Tinsu; Cervino, Laura; Jiang, Steve B; Jia, Xun

2014-07-01

4D cone beam CT (4D-CBCT) has been utilized in radiation therapy to provide 4D image guidance in lung and upper abdomen area. However, clinical application of 4D-CBCT is currently limited due to the long scan time and low image quality. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new 4D-CBCT reconstruction method that restores volumetric images based on the 1-min scan data acquired with a standard 3D-CBCT protocol. The model optimizes a deformation vector field that deforms a patient-specific planning CT (p-CT), so that the calculated 4D-CBCT projections match measurements. A forward-backward splitting (FBS) method is invented to solve the optimization problem. It splits the original problem into two well-studied subproblems, i.e., image reconstruction and deformable image registration. By iteratively solving the two subproblems, FBS gradually yields correct deformation information, while maintaining high image quality. The whole workflow is implemented on a graphic-processing-unit to improve efficiency. Comprehensive evaluations have been conducted on a moving phantom and three real patient cases regarding the accuracy and quality of the reconstructed images, as well as the algorithm robustness and efficiency. The proposed algorithm reconstructs 4D-CBCT images from highly under-sampled projection data acquired with 1-min scans. Regarding the anatomical structure location accuracy, 0.204 mm average differences and 0.484 mm maximum difference are found for the phantom case, and the maximum differences of 0.3-0.5 mm for patients 1-3 are observed. As for the image quality, intensity errors below 5 and 20 HU compared to the planning CT are achieved for the phantom and the patient cases, respectively. Signal-noise-ratio values are improved by 12.74 and 5.12 times compared to results from FDK algorithm using the 1-min data and 4-min data, respectively. The computation time of the algorithm on a NVIDIA GTX590 card is 1-1.5 min per phase. High-quality 4D-CBCT imaging based on the clinically standard 1-min 3D CBCT scanning protocol is feasible via the proposed hybrid reconstruction algorithm.

Medical Image Processing Server applied to Quality Control of Nuclear Medicine.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vergara, C.; Graffigna, J. P.; Marino, E.; Omati, S.; Holleywell, P.

2016-04-01

This paper is framed within the area of medical image processing and aims to present the process of installation, configuration and implementation of a processing server of medical images (MIPS) in the Fundación Escuela de Medicina Nuclear located in Mendoza, Argentina (FUESMEN). It has been developed in the Gabinete de Tecnologia Médica (GA.TE.ME), Facultad de Ingeniería-Universidad Nacional de San Juan. MIPS is a software that using the DICOM standard, can receive medical imaging studies of different modalities or viewing stations, then it executes algorithms and finally returns the results to other devices. To achieve the objectives previously mentioned, preliminary tests were conducted in the laboratory. More over, tools were remotely installed in clinical enviroment. The appropiate protocols for setting up and using them in different services were established once defined those suitable algorithms. Finally, it’s important to focus on the implementation and training that is provided in FUESMEN, using nuclear medicine quality control processes. Results on implementation are exposed in this work.

A loop resonator for slice-selective in vivo EPR imaging in rats

PubMed Central

Hirata, Hiroshi; He, Guanglong; Deng, Yuanmu; Salikhov, Ildar; Petryakov, Sergey; Zweier, Jay L.

2008-01-01

A loop resonator was developed for 300-MHz continuous-wave electron paramagnetic resonance (CW-EPR) spectroscopy and imaging in live rats. A single-turn loop (55 mm in diameter) was used to provide sufficient space for the rat body. Efficiency for generating a radiofrequency magnetic field of 38 µT/W1/2 was achieved at the center of the loop. For the resonator itself, an unloaded quality factor of 430 was obtained. When a 350 g rat was placed in the resonator at the level of the lower abdomen, the quality factor decreased to 18. The sensitive volume in the loop was visualized with a bottle filled with an aqueous solution of the nitroxide spin probe 3-carbamoyl-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3-pyrrolin-1-yloxy (3-CP). The resonator was shown to enable EPR imaging in live rats. Imaging was performed for 3-CP that had been infused intravenously into the rat and its distribution was visualized within the lower abdomen. PMID:18006343

Intelligent fuzzy approach for fast fractal image compression

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nodehi, Ali; Sulong, Ghazali; Al-Rodhaan, Mznah; Al-Dhelaan, Abdullah; Rehman, Amjad; Saba, Tanzila

2014-12-01

Fractal image compression (FIC) is recognized as a NP-hard problem, and it suffers from a high number of mean square error (MSE) computations. In this paper, a two-phase algorithm was proposed to reduce the MSE computation of FIC. In the first phase, based on edge property, range and domains are arranged. In the second one, imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) is used according to the classified blocks. For maintaining the quality of the retrieved image and accelerating algorithm operation, we divided the solutions into two groups: developed countries and undeveloped countries. Simulations were carried out to evaluate the performance of the developed approach. Promising results thus achieved exhibit performance better than genetic algorithm (GA)-based and Full-search algorithms in terms of decreasing the number of MSE computations. The number of MSE computations was reduced by the proposed algorithm for 463 times faster compared to the Full-search algorithm, although the retrieved image quality did not have a considerable change.

2-Step scalar deadzone quantization for bitplane image coding.

PubMed

Auli-Llinas, Francesc

2013-12-01

Modern lossy image coding systems generate a quality progressive codestream that, truncated at increasing rates, produces an image with decreasing distortion. Quality progressivity is commonly provided by an embedded quantizer that employs uniform scalar deadzone quantization (USDQ) together with a bitplane coding strategy. This paper introduces a 2-step scalar deadzone quantization (2SDQ) scheme that achieves same coding performance as that of USDQ while reducing the coding passes and the emitted symbols of the bitplane coding engine. This serves to reduce the computational costs of the codec and/or to code high dynamic range images. The main insights behind 2SDQ are the use of two quantization step sizes that approximate wavelet coefficients with more or less precision depending on their density, and a rate-distortion optimization technique that adjusts the distortion decreases produced when coding 2SDQ indexes. The integration of 2SDQ in current codecs is straightforward. The applicability and efficiency of 2SDQ are demonstrated within the framework of JPEG2000.

C-SPECT - a Clinical Cardiac SPECT/Tct Platform: Design Concepts and Performance Potential

PubMed Central

Chang, Wei; Ordonez, Caesar E.; Liang, Haoning; Li, Yusheng; Liu, Jingai

2013-01-01

Because of scarcity of photons emitted from the heart, clinical cardiac SPECT imaging is mainly limited by photon statistics. The sub-optimal detection efficiency of current SPECT systems not only limits the quality of clinical cardiac SPECT imaging but also makes more advanced potential applications difficult to be realized. We propose a high-performance system platform - C-SPECT, which has its sampling geometry optimized for detection of emitted photons in quality and quantity. The C-SPECT has a stationary C-shaped gantry that surrounds the left-front side of a patient’s thorax. The stationary C-shaped collimator and detector systems in the gantry provide effective and efficient detection and sampling of photon emission. For cardiac imaging, the C-SPECT platform could achieve 2 to 4 times the system geometric efficiency of conventional SPECT systems at the same sampling resolution. This platform also includes an integrated transmission CT for attenuation correction. The ability of C-SPECT systems to perform sequential high-quality emission and transmission imaging could bring cost-effective high-performance to clinical imaging. In addition, a C-SPECT system could provide high detection efficiency to accommodate fast acquisition rate for gated and dynamic cardiac imaging. This paper describes the design concepts and performance potential of C-SPECT, and illustrates how these concepts can be implemented in a basic system. PMID:23885129

WE-G-19A-01: Radiologists and Medical Physicists: Working Together to Achieve Common Goals

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jones, A; Ma, J; Steele, J

It is vitally important that medical physicists understand the clinical questions that radiologists are trying to answer with patient images. Knowledge of the types of information the radiologist needs helps medical physicists configure imaging protocols that appropriately balance radiation dose, time, and image quality. The ability to communicate with radiologists and understand medical terminology, anatomy, and physiology is key to creating such imaging protocols. In this session, radiologists will present clinical cases and describe the information they are seeking in the clinical images. Medical physicists will then discuss how imaging protocols are configured. Learning Objectives: Understand the types of informationmore » that radiologists seek in medical images. Apply this understanding in configuring the imaging equipment to deliver this information. Develop strategies for working with physician colleagues.« less

A JPEG backward-compatible HDR image compression

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Korshunov, Pavel; Ebrahimi, Touradj

2012-10-01

High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging is expected to become one of the technologies that could shape next generation of consumer digital photography. Manufacturers are rolling out cameras and displays capable of capturing and rendering HDR images. The popularity and full public adoption of HDR content is however hindered by the lack of standards in evaluation of quality, file formats, and compression, as well as large legacy base of Low Dynamic Range (LDR) displays that are unable to render HDR. To facilitate wide spread of HDR usage, the backward compatibility of HDR technology with commonly used legacy image storage, rendering, and compression is necessary. Although many tone-mapping algorithms were developed for generating viewable LDR images from HDR content, there is no consensus on which algorithm to use and under which conditions. This paper, via a series of subjective evaluations, demonstrates the dependency of perceived quality of the tone-mapped LDR images on environmental parameters and image content. Based on the results of subjective tests, it proposes to extend JPEG file format, as the most popular image format, in a backward compatible manner to also deal with HDR pictures. To this end, the paper provides an architecture to achieve such backward compatibility with JPEG and demonstrates efficiency of a simple implementation of this framework when compared to the state of the art HDR image compression.

Redundancy Analysis of Capacitance Data of a Coplanar Electrode Array for Fast and Stable Imaging Processing

PubMed Central

Wen, Yintang; Zhang, Zhenda; Zhang, Yuyan; Sun, Dongtao

2017-01-01

A coplanar electrode array sensor is established for the imaging of composite-material adhesive-layer defect detection. The sensor is based on the capacitive edge effect, which leads to capacitance data being considerably weak and susceptible to environmental noise. The inverse problem of coplanar array electrical capacitance tomography (C-ECT) is ill-conditioning, in which a small error of capacitance data can seriously affect the quality of reconstructed images. In order to achieve a stable image reconstruction process, a redundancy analysis method for capacitance data is proposed. The proposed method is based on contribution rate and anti-interference capability. According to the redundancy analysis, the capacitance data are divided into valid and invalid data. When the image is reconstructed by valid data, the sensitivity matrix needs to be changed accordingly. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the sensitivity map, singular value decomposition (SVD) is used. Finally, the two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) images are reconstructed by the Tikhonov regularization method. Through comparison of the reconstructed images of raw capacitance data, the stability of the image reconstruction process can be improved, and the quality of reconstructed images is not degraded. As a result, much invalid data are not collected, and the data acquisition time can also be reduced. PMID:29295537

Deep learning methods to guide CT image reconstruction and reduce metal artifacts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gjesteby, Lars; Yang, Qingsong; Xi, Yan; Zhou, Ye; Zhang, Junping; Wang, Ge

2017-03-01

The rapidly-rising field of machine learning, including deep learning, has inspired applications across many disciplines. In medical imaging, deep learning has been primarily used for image processing and analysis. In this paper, we integrate a convolutional neural network (CNN) into the computed tomography (CT) image reconstruction process. Our first task is to monitor the quality of CT images during iterative reconstruction and decide when to stop the process according to an intelligent numerical observer instead of using a traditional stopping rule, such as a fixed error threshold or a maximum number of iterations. After training on ground truth images, the CNN was successful in guiding an iterative reconstruction process to yield high-quality images. Our second task is to improve a sinogram to correct for artifacts caused by metal objects. A large number of interpolation and normalization-based schemes were introduced for metal artifact reduction (MAR) over the past four decades. The NMAR algorithm is considered a state-of-the-art method, although residual errors often remain in the reconstructed images, especially in cases of multiple metal objects. Here we merge NMAR with deep learning in the projection domain to achieve additional correction in critical image regions. Our results indicate that deep learning can be a viable tool to address CT reconstruction challenges.

Can we achieve a radionuclide radiation dose equal to or less than that of 99mTc-hydroxymethane diphosphonate bone scintigraphy with a low-dose 18F-sodium fluoride time-of-flight PET of diagnostic quality?

PubMed

Ohnona, Jessica; Michaud, Laure; Balogova, Sona; Paycha, Frédéric; Nataf, Valérie; Chauchat, Paul; Talbot, Jean-Noël; Kerrou, Khaldoun

2013-05-01

18F-Sodium fluoride is a bone tracer with a high signal-to-noise ratio, but its dosimetry is higher than that of 99mTc-labeled phosphonates at the recommended activities. The study's purpose was to determine whether the reduction by half of F-sodium fluoride-injected activity, mimicked by a short-timed reconstruction image, simulating a total dose less than or equal to that of 99mTc-hydroxymethane diphosphonate scintigraphy, had an impact on the accuracy of PET semiquantitative measurements and image quality. Whole-body time-of-flight 18F-sodium fluoride PET/computed tomography (CT) images were acquired prospectively from 40 adult patients for detection of bone metastases. 18F-Sodium fluoride was administered according to the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) and Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) practice guidelines. From the acquired 1 min/bed position list-mode data, 30-s reconstructions were extracted. Measurements of maximum standard uptake value were recorded with a region of interest applied to the same location on the 1-min and 30-s images, which were displayed side by side, and were analyzed using Bland-Altman plots. A masked reading was performed by two senior nuclear medicine physicians who counted the foci of visually increased uptake. Bland-Altman plots showed an excellent agreement between the maximum standard uptake value measurements of the 60- and 30-s images. The paired Wilcoxon test results between the corresponding 60- and 30-s images read by masked readers A and B were not significant (P=0.15 and 0.19, respectively). Reducing acquisition duration by half or injecting half of the activity recommended by the EANM and SNM practice guidelines can lead to 18F-sodium fluoride time-of-flight PET images of diagnostic quality, achieving a radiation dose less than or equal to that of 99mTc-labeled phosphonates.

Real-time compression of raw computed tomography data: technology, architecture, and benefits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wegener, Albert; Chandra, Naveen; Ling, Yi; Senzig, Robert; Herfkens, Robert

2009-02-01

Compression of computed tomography (CT) projection samples reduces slip ring and disk drive costs. A lowcomplexity, CT-optimized compression algorithm called Prism CTTM achieves at least 1.59:1 and up to 2.75:1 lossless compression on twenty-six CT projection data sets. We compare the lossless compression performance of Prism CT to alternative lossless coders, including Lempel-Ziv, Golomb-Rice, and Huffman coders using representative CT data sets. Prism CT provides the best mean lossless compression ratio of 1.95:1 on the representative data set. Prism CT compression can be integrated into existing slip rings using a single FPGA. Prism CT decompression operates at 100 Msamp/sec using one core of a dual-core Xeon CPU. We describe a methodology to evaluate the effects of lossy compression on image quality to achieve even higher compression ratios. We conclude that lossless compression of raw CT signals provides significant cost savings and performance improvements for slip rings and disk drive subsystems in all CT machines. Lossy compression should be considered in future CT data acquisition subsystems because it provides even more system benefits above lossless compression while achieving transparent diagnostic image quality. This result is demonstrated on a limited dataset using appropriately selected compression ratios and an experienced radiologist.

Entropy-aware projected Landweber reconstruction for quantized block compressive sensing of aerial imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Hao; Li, Kangda; Wang, Bing; Tang, Hainie; Gong, Xiaohui

2017-01-01

A quantized block compressive sensing (QBCS) framework, which incorporates the universal measurement, quantization/inverse quantization, entropy coder/decoder, and iterative projected Landweber reconstruction, is summarized. Under the QBCS framework, this paper presents an improved reconstruction algorithm for aerial imagery, QBCS, with entropy-aware projected Landweber (QBCS-EPL), which leverages the full-image sparse transform without Wiener filter and an entropy-aware thresholding model for wavelet-domain image denoising. Through analyzing the functional relation between the soft-thresholding factors and entropy-based bitrates for different quantization methods, the proposed model can effectively remove wavelet-domain noise of bivariate shrinkage and achieve better image reconstruction quality. For the overall performance of QBCS reconstruction, experimental results demonstrate that the proposed QBCS-EPL algorithm significantly outperforms several existing algorithms. With the experiment-driven methodology, the QBCS-EPL algorithm can obtain better reconstruction quality at a relatively moderate computational cost, which makes it more desirable for aerial imagery applications.

First refraction contrast imaging via Laser-Compton Scattering X-ray at KEK

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sakaue, Kazuyuki; Aoki, Tatsuro; Washio, Masakazu

2012-07-31

Laser-Compton Scattering (LCS) is one of the most feasible techniques for high quality, high brightness, and compact X-ray source. High energy electron beam produced by accelerators scatters off the laser photon at a small spot. As a laser target, we have been developing a pulsedlaser storage cavity for increasing an X-ray flux. The X-ray flux was still inadequate that was 2.1 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 5}/sec, however, we performed first refraction contrast imaging in order to evaluate the quality of LCS X-ray. Edge enhanced contrast imaging was achieved by changing the distance from sample to detector. The edge enhancement indicates that themore » LCS X-ray has small source size, i.e. high brightness. We believe that the result has demonstrated good feasibility of linac-based high brightness X-ray sources via laser-electron Compton scatterings.« less

A high-stability scanning tunneling microscope achieved by an isolated tiny scanner with low voltage imaging capability.

PubMed

Wang, Qi; Hou, Yubin; Wang, Junting; Lu, Qingyou

2013-11-01

We present a novel homebuilt scanning tunneling microscope (STM) with high quality atomic resolution. It is equipped with a small but powerful GeckoDrive piezoelectric motor which drives a miniature and detachable scanning part to implement coarse approach. The scanning part is a tiny piezoelectric tube scanner (industry type: PZT-8, whose d31 coefficient is one of the lowest) housed in a slightly bigger polished sapphire tube, which is riding on and spring clamped against the knife edges of a tungsten slot. The STM so constructed shows low back-lashing and drifting and high repeatability and immunity to external vibrations. These are confirmed by its low imaging voltages, low distortions in the spiral scanned images, and high atomic resolution quality even when the STM is placed on the ground of the fifth floor without any external or internal vibration isolation devices.

Surface radiation dose comparison of a dedicated extremity cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) device and a multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) machine in pediatric ankle and wrist phantoms

PubMed Central

Nagy, Eszter; Apfaltrer, Georg; Riccabona, Michael; Singer, Georg; Stücklschweiger, Georg; Guss, Helmuth; Sorantin, Erich

2017-01-01

Objectives To evaluate and compare surface doses of a cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and a multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) device in pediatric ankle and wrist phantoms. Methods Thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD) were used to measure and compare surface doses between CBCT and MDCT in a left ankle and a right wrist pediatric phantom. In both modalities adapted pediatric dose protocols were utilized to achieve realistic imaging conditions. All measurements were repeated three times to prove test-retest reliability. Additionally, objective and subjective image quality parameters were assessed. Results Average surface doses were 3.8 ±2.1 mGy for the ankle, and 2.2 ±1.3 mGy for the wrist in CBCT. The corresponding surface doses in optimized MDCT were 4.5 ±1.3 mGy for the ankle, and 3.4 ±0.7 mGy for the wrist. Overall, mean surface dose was significantly lower in CBCT (3.0 ±1.9 mGy vs. 3.9 ±1.2 mGy, p<0.001). Subjectively rated general image quality was not significantly different between the study protocols (p = 0.421), whereas objectively measured image quality parameters were in favor of CBCT (p<0.001). Conclusions Adapted extremity CBCT imaging protocols have the potential to fall below optimized pediatric ankle and wrist MDCT doses at comparable image qualities. These possible dose savings warrant further development and research in pediatric extremity CBCT applications. PMID:28570626

A practical method to standardise and optimise the Philips DoseRight 2.0 CT automatic exposure control system.

PubMed

Wood, T J; Moore, C S; Stephens, A; Saunderson, J R; Beavis, A W

2015-09-01

Given the increasing use of computed tomography (CT) in the UK over the last 30 years, it is essential to ensure that all imaging protocols are optimised to keep radiation doses as low as reasonably practicable, consistent with the intended clinical task. However, the complexity of modern CT equipment can make this task difficult to achieve in practice. Recent results of local patient dose audits have shown discrepancies between two Philips CT scanners that use the DoseRight 2.0 automatic exposure control (AEC) system in the 'automatic' mode of operation. The use of this system can result in drifting dose and image quality performance over time as it is designed to evolve based on operator technique. The purpose of this study was to develop a practical technique for configuring examination protocols on four CT scanners that use the DoseRight 2.0 AEC system in the 'manual' mode of operation. This method used a uniform phantom to generate reference images which form the basis for how the AEC system calculates exposure factors for any given patient. The results of this study have demonstrated excellent agreement in the configuration of the CT scanners in terms of average patient dose and image quality when using this technique. This work highlights the importance of CT protocol harmonisation in a modern Radiology department to ensure both consistent image quality and radiation dose. Following this study, the average radiation dose for a range of CT examinations has been reduced without any negative impact on clinical image quality.

Rapid portal imaging with a high-efficiency, large field-of-view detector.

PubMed

Mosleh-Shirazi, M A; Evans, P M; Swindell, W; Symonds-Tayler, J R; Webb, S; Partridge, M

1998-12-01

The design, construction, and performance evaluation of an electronic portal imaging device (EPID) are described. The EPID has the same imaging geometry as the current mirror-based systems except for the x-ray detection stage, where a two-dimensional (2D) array of 1 cm thick CsI(Tl) detector elements are utilized. The approximately 18% x-ray quantum efficiency of the scintillation detector and its 30 x 40 cm2 field-of-view at the isocenter are greater than other area-imaging EPIDs. The imaging issues addressed are theoretical and measured signal-to-noise ratio, linearity of the imaging chain, influence of frame-summing on image quality and image calibration. Portal images of test objects and a humanoid phantom are used to measure the performance of the system. An image quality similar to the current devices is achieved but with a lower dose. With approximately 1 cGy dose delivered by a 6 MV beam, a 2 mm diam structure of 1.3% contrast and an 18 mm diam object of 0.125% contrast can be resolved without using image-enhancement methods. A spatial resolution of about 2 mm at the isocenter is demonstrated. The capability of the system to perform fast sequential imaging, synchronized with the radiation pulses, makes it suitable for patient motion studies and verification of intensity-modulated beams as well as its application in cone-beam megavoltage computed tomography.

Design and implementation of a scene-dependent dynamically selfadaptable wavefront coding imaging system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carles, Guillem; Ferran, Carme; Carnicer, Artur; Bosch, Salvador

2012-01-01

A computational imaging system based on wavefront coding is presented. Wavefront coding provides an extension of the depth-of-field at the expense of a slight reduction of image quality. This trade-off results from the amount of coding used. By using spatial light modulators, a flexible coding is achieved which permits it to be increased or decreased as needed. In this paper a computational method is proposed for evaluating the output of a wavefront coding imaging system equipped with a spatial light modulator, with the aim of thus making it possible to implement the most suitable coding strength for a given scene. This is achieved in an unsupervised manner, thus the whole system acts as a dynamically selfadaptable imaging system. The program presented here controls the spatial light modulator and the camera, and also processes the images in a synchronised way in order to implement the dynamic system in real time. A prototype of the system was implemented in the laboratory and illustrative examples of the performance are reported in this paper. Program summaryProgram title: DynWFC (Dynamic WaveFront Coding) Catalogue identifier: AEKC_v1_0 Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEKC_v1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.html No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 10 483 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 2 437 713 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: Labview 8.5 and NI Vision and MinGW C Compiler Computer: Tested on PC Intel ® Pentium ® Operating system: Tested on Windows XP Classification: 18 Nature of problem: The program implements an enhanced wavefront coding imaging system able to adapt the degree of coding to the requirements of a specific scene. The program controls the acquisition by a camera, the display of a spatial light modulator and the image processing operations synchronously. The spatial light modulator is used to implement the phase mask with flexibility given the trade-off between depth-of-field extension and image quality achieved. The action of the program is to evaluate the depth-of-field requirements of the specific scene and subsequently control the coding established by the spatial light modulator, in real time.

Next-generation pushbroom filter radiometers for remote sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tarde, Richard W.; Dittman, Michael G.; Kvaran, Geir E.

2012-09-01

Individual focal plane size, yield, and quality continue to improve, as does the technology required to combine these into large tiled formats. As a result, next-generation pushbroom imagers are replacing traditional scanning technologies in remote sensing applications. Pushbroom architecture has inherently better radiometric sensitivity and significantly reduced payload mass, power, and volume than previous generation scanning technologies. However, the architecture creates challenges achieving the required radiometric accuracy performance. Achieving good radiometric accuracy, including image spectral and spatial uniformity, requires creative optical design, high quality focal planes and filters, careful consideration of on-board calibration sources, and state-of-the-art ground test facilities. Ball Aerospace built the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) next-generation Operational Landsat Imager (OLI) payload. Scheduled to launch in 2013, OLI provides imagery consistent with the historical Landsat spectral, spatial, radiometric, and geometric data record and completes the generational technology upgrade from the Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) whiskbroom technology to modern pushbroom technology afforded by advanced focal planes. We explain how Ball's capabilities allowed producing the innovative next-generational OLI pushbroom filter radiometer that meets challenging radiometric accuracy or calibration requirements. OLI will improve the multi-decadal land surface observation dataset dating back to the 1972 launch of ERTS-1 or Landsat 1.

On the analysis of time-of-flight spin-echo modulated dark-field imaging data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sales, Morten; Plomp, Jeroen; Bouwman, Wim G.; Tremsin, Anton S.; Habicht, Klaus; Strobl, Markus

2017-06-01

Spin-Echo Modulated Small Angle Neutron Scattering with spatial resolution, i.e. quantitative Spin-Echo Dark Field Imaging, is an emerging technique coupling neutron imaging with spatially resolved quantitative small angle scattering information. However, the currently achieved relatively large modulation periods of the order of millimeters are superimposed to the images of the samples. So far this required an independent reduction and analyses of the image and scattering information encoded in the measured data and is involving extensive curve fitting routines. Apart from requiring a priori decisions potentially limiting the information content that is extractable also a straightforward judgment of the data quality and information content is hindered. In contrast we propose a significantly simplified routine directly applied to the measured data, which does not only allow an immediate first assessment of data quality and delaying decisions on potentially information content limiting further reduction steps to a later and better informed state, but also, as results suggest, generally better analyses. In addition the method enables to drop the spatial resolution detector requirement for non-spatially resolved Spin-Echo Modulated Small Angle Neutron Scattering.

An embedded processor for real-time atmoshperic compensation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bodnar, Michael R.; Curt, Petersen F.; Ortiz, Fernando E.; Carrano, Carmen J.; Kelmelis, Eric J.

2009-05-01

Imaging over long distances is crucial to a number of defense and security applications, such as homeland security and launch tracking. However, the image quality obtained from current long-range optical systems can be severely degraded by the turbulent atmosphere in the path between the region under observation and the imager. While this obscured image information can be recovered using post-processing techniques, the computational complexity of such approaches has prohibited deployment in real-time scenarios. To overcome this limitation, we have coupled a state-of-the-art atmospheric compensation algorithm, the average-bispectrum speckle method, with a powerful FPGA-based embedded processing board. The end result is a light-weight, lower-power image processing system that improves the quality of long-range imagery in real-time, and uses modular video I/O to provide a flexible interface to most common digital and analog video transport methods. By leveraging the custom, reconfigurable nature of the FPGA, a 20x speed increase over a modern desktop PC was achieved in a form-factor that is compact, low-power, and field-deployable.

Ultrasound speckle reduction based on fractional order differentiation.

PubMed

Shao, Dangguo; Zhou, Ting; Liu, Fan; Yi, Sanli; Xiang, Yan; Ma, Lei; Xiong, Xin; He, Jianfeng

2017-07-01

Ultrasound images show a granular pattern of noise known as speckle that diminishes their quality and results in difficulties in diagnosis. To preserve edges and features, this paper proposes a fractional differentiation-based image operator to reduce speckle in ultrasound. An image de-noising model based on fractional partial differential equations with balance relation between k (gradient modulus threshold that controls the conduction) and v (the order of fractional differentiation) was constructed by the effective combination of fractional calculus theory and a partial differential equation, and the numerical algorithm of it was achieved using a fractional differential mask operator. The proposed algorithm has better speckle reduction and structure preservation than the three existing methods [P-M model, the speckle reducing anisotropic diffusion (SRAD) technique, and the detail preserving anisotropic diffusion (DPAD) technique]. And it is significantly faster than bilateral filtering (BF) in producing virtually the same experimental results. Ultrasound phantom testing and in vivo imaging show that the proposed method can improve the quality of an ultrasound image in terms of tissue SNR, CNR, and FOM values.

Fast Segmentation of Stained Nuclei in Terabyte-Scale, Time Resolved 3D Microscopy Image Stacks

PubMed Central

Stegmaier, Johannes; Otte, Jens C.; Kobitski, Andrei; Bartschat, Andreas; Garcia, Ariel; Nienhaus, G. Ulrich; Strähle, Uwe; Mikut, Ralf

2014-01-01

Automated analysis of multi-dimensional microscopy images has become an integral part of modern research in life science. Most available algorithms that provide sufficient segmentation quality, however, are infeasible for a large amount of data due to their high complexity. In this contribution we present a fast parallelized segmentation method that is especially suited for the extraction of stained nuclei from microscopy images, e.g., of developing zebrafish embryos. The idea is to transform the input image based on gradient and normal directions in the proximity of detected seed points such that it can be handled by straightforward global thresholding like Otsu’s method. We evaluate the quality of the obtained segmentation results on a set of real and simulated benchmark images in 2D and 3D and show the algorithm’s superior performance compared to other state-of-the-art algorithms. We achieve an up to ten-fold decrease in processing times, allowing us to process large data sets while still providing reasonable segmentation results. PMID:24587204

Noninvasive imaging of bone microarchitecture

PubMed Central

Patsch, Janina M.; Burghardt, Andrew J.; Kazakia, Galateia; Majumdar, Sharmila

2015-01-01

The noninvasive quantification of peripheral compartment-specific bone microarchitecture is feasible with high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) and high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HR-MRI). In addition to classic morphometric indices, both techniques provide a suitable basis for virtual biomechanical testing using finite element (FE) analyses. Methodical limitations, morphometric parameter definition, and motion artifacts have to be considered to achieve optimal data interpretation from imaging studies. With increasing availability of in vivo high-resolution bone imaging techniques, special emphasis should be put on quality control including multicenter, cross-site validations. Importantly, conclusions from interventional studies investigating the effects of antiosteoporotic drugs on bone microarchitecture should be drawn with care, ideally involving imaging scientists, translational researchers, and clinicians. PMID:22172043

Image-classification-based global dimming algorithm for LED backlights in LCDs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qibin, Feng; Huijie, He; Dong, Han; Lei, Zhang; Guoqiang, Lv

2015-07-01

Backlight dimming can help LCDs reduce power consumption and improve CR. With fixed parameters, dimming algorithm cannot achieve satisfied effects for all kinds of images. The paper introduces an image-classification-based global dimming algorithm. The proposed classification method especially for backlight dimming is based on luminance and CR of input images. The parameters for backlight dimming level and pixel compensation are adaptive with image classifications. The simulation results show that the classification based dimming algorithm presents 86.13% power reduction improvement compared with dimming without classification, with almost same display quality. The prototype is developed. There are no perceived distortions when playing videos. The practical average power reduction of the prototype TV is 18.72%, compared with common TV without dimming.

Evaluation of slice accelerations using multiband echo planar imaging at 3 Tesla

PubMed Central

Xu, Junqian; Moeller, Steen; Auerbach, Edward J.; Strupp, John; Smith, Stephen M.; Feinberg, David A.; Yacoub, Essa; Uğurbil, Kâmil

2013-01-01

We evaluate residual aliasing among simultaneously excited and acquired slices in slice accelerated multiband (MB) echo planar imaging (EPI). No in-plane accelerations were used in order to maximize and evaluate achievable slice acceleration factors at 3 Tesla. We propose a novel leakage (L-) factor to quantify the effects of signal leakage between simultaneously acquired slices. With a standard 32-channel receiver coil at 3 Tesla, we demonstrate that slice acceleration factors of up to eight (MB = 8) with blipped controlled aliasing in parallel imaging (CAIPI), in the absence of in-plane accelerations, can be used routinely with acceptable image quality and integrity for whole brain imaging. Spectral analyses of single-shot fMRI time series demonstrate that temporal fluctuations due to both neuronal and physiological sources were distinguishable and comparable up to slice-acceleration factors of nine (MB = 9). The increased temporal efficiency could be employed to achieve, within a given acquisition period, higher spatial resolution, increased fMRI statistical power, multiple TEs, faster sampling of temporal events in a resting state fMRI time series, increased sampling of q-space in diffusion imaging, or more quiet time during a scan. PMID:23899722

Aerial photography flight quality assessment with GPS/INS and DEM data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Haitao; Zhang, Bing; Shang, Jiali; Liu, Jiangui; Li, Dong; Chen, Yanyan; Zuo, Zhengli; Chen, Zhengchao

2018-01-01

The flight altitude, ground coverage, photo overlap, and other acquisition specifications of an aerial photography flight mission directly affect the quality and accuracy of the subsequent mapping tasks. To ensure smooth post-flight data processing and fulfill the pre-defined mapping accuracy, flight quality assessments should be carried out in time. This paper presents a novel and rigorous approach for flight quality evaluation of frame cameras with GPS/INS data and DEM, using geometric calculation rather than image analysis as in the conventional methods. This new approach is based mainly on the collinearity equations, in which the accuracy of a set of flight quality indicators is derived through a rigorous error propagation model and validated with scenario data. Theoretical analysis and practical flight test of an aerial photography mission using an UltraCamXp camera showed that the calculated photo overlap is accurate enough for flight quality assessment of 5 cm ground sample distance image, using the SRTMGL3 DEM and the POSAV510 GPS/INS data. An even better overlap accuracy could be achieved for coarser-resolution aerial photography. With this new approach, the flight quality evaluation can be conducted on site right after landing, providing accurate and timely information for decision making.

Scale Control and Quality Management of Printed Image Parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Novoselskaya, O. A.; Kolesnikov, V. L.; Solov'eva, T. V.; Nagornova, I. V.; Babluyk, E. B.; Trapeznikova, O. V.

2017-06-01

The article provides a comparison of the main valuation techniques for a regulated parameter of printability of the offset paper by current standards GOST 24356 and ISO 3783: 2006. The results of development and implementation of a complex test scale for management and control the quality of printed production are represented. The estimation scale is introduced. It includes normalized parameters of print optical density, print uniformity, picking out speed, the value of dot gain, print contrast with the added criteria of minimizing microtexts, a paper slip, resolution threshold and effusing ability of paper surface. The results of analysis allow directionally form surface properties of the substrate to facilitate achieving the required quality of the printed image parameters, i. e. optical density of a print at a predetermined level not less than 1.3, the print uniformity with minimal deviation of dot gain about the order of 10 per cents.

A large flat panel multifunction display for military and space applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pruitt, James S.

1992-09-01

A flat panel multifunction display (MFD) that offers the size and reliability benefits of liquid crystal display technology while achieving near-CRT display quality is presented. Display generation algorithms that provide exceptional display quality are being implemented in custom VLSI components to minimize MFD size. A high-performance processor converts user-specified display lists to graphics commands used by these components, resulting in high-speed updates of two-dimensional and three-dimensional images. The MFD uses the MIL-STD-1553B data bus for compatibility with virtually all avionics systems. The MFD can generate displays directly from display lists received from the MIL-STD-1553B bus. Complex formats can be stored in the MFD and displayed using parameters from the data bus. The MFD also accepts direct video input and performs special processing on this input to enhance image quality.

SU-D-206-04: Iterative CBCT Scatter Shading Correction Without Prior Information

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bai, Y; Wu, P; Mao, T

2016-06-15

Purpose: To estimate and remove the scatter contamination in the acquired projection of cone-beam CT (CBCT), to suppress the shading artifacts and improve the image quality without prior information. Methods: The uncorrected CBCT images containing shading artifacts are reconstructed by applying the standard FDK algorithm on CBCT raw projections. The uncorrected image is then segmented to generate an initial template image. To estimate scatter signal, the differences are calculated by subtracting the simulated projections of the template image from the raw projections. Since scatter signals are dominantly continuous and low-frequency in the projection domain, they are estimated by low-pass filteringmore » the difference signals and subtracted from the raw CBCT projections to achieve the scatter correction. Finally, the corrected CBCT image is reconstructed from the corrected projection data. Since an accurate template image is not readily segmented from the uncorrected CBCT image, the proposed scheme is iterated until the produced template is not altered. Results: The proposed scheme is evaluated on the Catphan©600 phantom data and CBCT images acquired from a pelvis patient. The result shows that shading artifacts have been effectively suppressed by the proposed method. Using multi-detector CT (MDCT) images as reference, quantitative analysis is operated to measure the quality of corrected images. Compared to images without correction, the method proposed reduces the overall CT number error from over 200 HU to be less than 50 HU and can increase the spatial uniformity. Conclusion: An iterative strategy without relying on the prior information is proposed in this work to remove the shading artifacts due to scatter contamination in the projection domain. The method is evaluated in phantom and patient studies and the result shows that the image quality is remarkably improved. The proposed method is efficient and practical to address the poor image quality issue of CBCT images. This work is supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. LR16F010001), National High-tech R&D Program for Young Scientists by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant No. 2015AA020917).« less

Optimization of exposure index values for the antero-posterior pelvis and antero-posterior knee examination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Butler, M. L.; Rainford, L.; Last, J.; Brennan, P. C.

2009-02-01

Introduction The American Association of Medical Physicists is currently standardizing the exposure index (EI) value. Recent studies have questioned whether the EI value offered by manufacturers is optimal. This current work establishes optimum EIs for the antero-posterior (AP) projections of a pelvis and knee on a Carestream Health (Kodak) CR system and compares these with manufacturers recommended EI values from a patient dose and image quality perspective. Methodology Human cadavers were used to produce images of clinically relevant standards. Several exposures were taken to achieve various EI values and corresponding entrance surface doses (ESD) were measured using thermoluminescent dosimeters. Image quality was assessed by 5 experienced clinicians using anatomical criteria judged against a reference image. Visualization of image specific common abnormalities was also analyzed to establish diagnostic efficacy. Results A rise in ESD for both examinations, consistent with increasing EI was shown. Anatomic image quality was deemed to be acceptable at an EI of 1560 for the AP pelvis and 1590 for the AP knee. From manufacturers recommended values, a significant reduction in ESD (p=0.02) of 38% and 33% for the pelvis and knee respectively was noted. Initial pathological analysis suggests that diagnostic efficacy at lower EI values may be projection-specific. Conclusion The data in this study emphasize the need for clinical centres to consider establishing their own EI guidelines, and not necessarily relying on manufacturers recommendations. Normal and abnormal images must be used in this process.

Quantitative phase imaging of living cells with a swept laser source

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Shichao; Zhu, Yizheng

2016-03-01

Digital holographic phase microscopy is a well-established quantitative phase imaging technique. However, interference artifacts from inside the system, typically induced by elements whose optical thickness are within the source coherence length, limit the imaging quality as well as sensitivity. In this paper, a swept laser source based technique is presented. Spectra acquired at a number of wavelengths, after Fourier Transform, can be used to identify the sources of the interference artifacts. With proper tuning of the optical pathlength difference between sample and reference arms, it is possible to avoid these artifacts and achieve sensitivity below 0.3nm. Performance of the proposed technique is examined in live cell imaging.

Free and open source software for the manipulation of digital images.

PubMed

Solomon, Robert W

2009-06-01

Free and open source software is a type of software that is nearly as powerful as commercial software but is freely downloadable. This software can do almost everything that the expensive programs can. GIMP (gnu image manipulation program) is the free program that is comparable to Photoshop, and versions are available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux platforms. This article briefly describes how GIMP can be installed and used to manipulate radiology images. It is no longer necessary to budget large amounts of money for high-quality software to achieve the goals of image processing and document creation because free and open source software is available for the user to download at will.

Use of iris recognition camera technology for the quantification of corneal opacification in mucopolysaccharidoses.

PubMed

Aslam, Tariq Mehmood; Shakir, Savana; Wong, James; Au, Leon; Ashworth, Jane

2012-12-01

Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) can cause corneal opacification that is currently difficult to objectively quantify. With newer treatments for MPS comes an increased need for a more objective, valid and reliable index of disease severity for clinical and research use. Clinical evaluation by slit lamp is very subjective and techniques based on colour photography are difficult to standardise. In this article the authors present evidence for the utility of dedicated image analysis algorithms applied to images obtained by a highly sophisticated iris recognition camera that is small, manoeuvrable and adapted to achieve rapid, reliable and standardised objective imaging in a wide variety of patients while minimising artefactual interference in image quality.

Improvement of single detector proton radiography by incorporating intensity of time-resolved dose rate functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Rongxiao; Jee, Kyung-Wook; Cascio, Ethan; Sharp, Gregory C.; Flanz, Jacob B.; Lu, Hsiao-Ming

2018-01-01

Proton radiography, which images patients with the same type of particles as those with which they are to be treated, is a promising approach to image guidance and water equivalent path length (WEPL) verification in proton radiation therapy. We have shown recently that proton radiographs could be obtained by measuring time-resolved dose rate functions (DRFs) using an x-ray amorphous silicon flat panel. The WEPL values were derived solely from the root-mean-square (RMS) of DRFs, while the intensity information in the DRFs was filtered out. In this work, we explored the use of such intensity information for potential improvement in WEPL accuracy and imaging quality. Three WEPL derivation methods based on, respectively, the RMS only, the intensity only, and the intensity-weighted RMS were tested and compared in terms of the quality of obtained radiograph images and the accuracy of WEPL values. A Gammex CT calibration phantom containing inserts made of various tissue substitute materials with independently measured relative stopping powers (RSP) was used to assess the imaging performances. Improved image quality with enhanced interfaces was achieved while preserving the accuracy by using intensity information in the calibration. Other objects, including an anthropomorphic head phantom, a proton therapy range compensator, a frozen lamb’s head and an ‘image quality phantom’ were also imaged. Both the RMS only and the intensity-weighted RMS methods derived RSPs within  ±  1% for most of the Gammex phantom inserts, with a mean absolute percentage error of 0.66% for all inserts. In the case of the insert with a titanium rod, the method based on RMS completely failed, whereas that based on the intensity-weighted RMS was qualitatively valid. The use of intensity greatly enhanced the interfaces between different materials in the obtained WEPL images, suggesting the potential for image guidance in areas such as patient positioning and tumor tracking by proton radiography.

SU-F-18C-01: Minimum Detectability Analysis for Comprehensive Sized Based Optimization of Image Quality and Radiation Dose Across CT Protocols

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Smitherman, C; Chen, B; Samei, E

2014-06-15

Purpose: This work involved a comprehensive modeling of task-based performance of CT across a wide range of protocols. The approach was used for optimization and consistency of dose and image quality within a large multi-vendor clinical facility. Methods: 150 adult protocols from the Duke University Medical Center were grouped into sub-protocols with similar acquisition characteristics. A size based image quality phantom (Duke Mercury Phantom) was imaged using these sub-protocols for a range of clinically relevant doses on two CT manufacturer platforms (Siemens, GE). The images were analyzed to extract task-based image quality metrics such as the Task Transfer Function (TTF),more » Noise Power Spectrum, and Az based on designer nodule task functions. The data were analyzed in terms of the detectability of a lesion size/contrast as a function of dose, patient size, and protocol. A graphical user interface (GUI) was developed to predict image quality and dose to achieve a minimum level of detectability. Results: Image quality trends with variations in dose, patient size, and lesion contrast/size were evaluated and calculated data behaved as predicted. The GUI proved effective to predict the Az values representing radiologist confidence for a targeted lesion, patient size, and dose. As an example, an abdomen pelvis exam for the GE scanner, with a task size/contrast of 5-mm/50-HU, and an Az of 0.9 requires a dose of 4.0, 8.9, and 16.9 mGy for patient diameters of 25, 30, and 35 cm, respectively. For a constant patient diameter of 30 cm, the minimum detected lesion size at those dose levels would be 8.4, 5, and 3.9 mm, respectively. Conclusion: The designed CT protocol optimization platform can be used to evaluate minimum detectability across dose levels and patient diameters. The method can be used to improve individual protocols as well as to improve protocol consistency across CT scanners.« less

A Stochastic Imaging Technique for Spatio-Spectral Characterization of Special Nuclear Material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamel, Michael C.

Radiation imaging is advantageous for detecting, locating and characterizing special nuclear material (SNM) in complex environments. A dual-particle imager (DPI) has been designed that is capable of detecting gamma-ray and neutron signatures from shielded SNM. The system combines liquid organic and NaI(Tl) scintillators to form a combined Compton and neutron scatter camera. Effective image reconstruction of detected particles is a crucial component for maximizing the performance of the system; however, a key deficiency exists in the widely used list-mode maximum-likelihood estimation-maximization (MLEM) image reconstruction technique. The steady-state solution produced by this iterative method will have poor quality compared to solutions produced with fewer iterations. A stopping condition is required to achieve a better solution but these conditions fail to achieve maximum image quality. Stochastic origin ensembles (SOE) imaging is a good candidate to address this problem as it uses Markov chain Monte Carlo to reach a stochastic steady-state solution that has image quality comparable to the best MLEM solution. The application of SOE to the DPI is presented in this work. SOE was originally applied in medical imaging applications with no mechanism to isolate spectral information based on location. This capability is critical for non-proliferation applications as complex radiation environments with multiple sources are often encountered. This dissertation extends the SOE algorithm to produce spatially dependent spectra and presents experimental result showing that the technique was effective for isolating a 4.1-kg mass of weapons grade plutonium (WGPu) when other neutron and gamma-ray sources were present. This work also demonstrates the DPI as an effective tool for localizing and characterizing highly enriched uranium (HEU). A series of experiments were performed with the DPI using a deuterium-deuterium (DD) and deuterium-tritium (DT) neutron generator, as well as AmLi, to interrogate a 13.7-kg sphere of HEU. In all cases, the neutrons and gamma rays produced from induced fission were successfully discriminated from the interrogating particles to localize the HEU. For characterization, the fast neutron and gamma-ray spectra were recorded from multiple HEU configurations with low-Z and high-Z moderation. Further characterization of the configurations used the measured neutron lifetime to show that the DPI can be used to infer multiplication.

High-volume image quality assessment systems: tuning performance with an interactive data visualization tool

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bresnahan, Patricia A.; Pukinskis, Madeleine; Wiggins, Michael

1999-03-01

Image quality assessment systems differ greatly with respect to the number and types of mags they need to evaluate, and their overall architectures. Managers of these systems, however, all need to be able to tune and evaluate system performance, requirements often overlooked or under-designed during project planning. Performance tuning tools allow users to define acceptable quality standards for image features and attributes by adjusting parameter settings. Performance analysis tools allow users to evaluate and/or predict how well a system performs in a given parameter state. While image assessment algorithms are becoming quite sophisticated, duplicating or surpassing the human decision making process in their speed and reliability, they often require a greater investment in 'training' or fine tuning of parameters in order to achieve optimum performance. This process may involve the analysis of hundreds or thousands of images, generating a large database of files and statistics that can be difficult to sort through and interpret. Compounding the difficulty is the fact that personnel charged with tuning and maintaining the production system may not have the statistical or analytical background required for the task. Meanwhile, hardware innovations have greatly increased the volume of images that can be handled in a given time frame, magnifying the consequences of running a production site with an inadequately tuned system. In this paper, some general requirements for a performance evaluation and tuning data visualization system are discussed. A custom engineered solution to the tuning and evaluation problem is then presented, developed within the context of a high volume image quality assessment, data entry, OCR, and image archival system. A key factor influencing the design of the system was the context-dependent definition of image quality, as perceived by a human interpreter. This led to the development of a five-level, hierarchical approach to image quality evaluation. Lower-level pass-fail conditions and decision rules were coded into the system. Higher-level image quality states were defined by allowing the users to interactively adjust the system's sensitivity to various image attributes by manipulating graphical controls. Results were presented in easily interpreted bar graphs. These graphs were mouse- sensitive, allowing the user to more fully explore the subsets of data indicated by various color blocks. In order to simplify the performance evaluation and tuning process, users could choose to view the results of (1) the existing system parameter state, (2) the results of any arbitrary parameter values they chose, or (3) the results of a quasi-optimum parameter state, derived by applying a decision rule to a large set of possible parameter states. Giving managers easy- to-use tools for defining the more subjective aspects of quality resulted in a system that responded to contextual cues that are difficult to hard-code. It had the additional advantage of allowing the definition of quality to evolve over time, as users became more knowledgeable as to the strengths and limitations of an automated quality inspection system.

Impact of tumour motion compensation and delineation methods on FDG PET-based dose painting plan quality for NSCLC radiation therapy.

PubMed

Thomas, Hannah Mary; Kinahan, Paul E; Samuel, James Jebaseelan E; Bowen, Stephen R

2018-02-01

To quantitatively estimate the impact of different methods for both boost volume delineation and respiratory motion compensation of [18F] FDG PET/CT images on the fidelity of planned non-uniform 'dose painting' plans to the prescribed boost dose distribution. Six locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients were retrospectively reviewed. To assess the impact of respiratory motion, time-averaged (3D AVG), respiratory phase-gated (4D GATED) and motion-encompassing (4D MIP) PET images were used. The boost volumes were defined using manual contour (MANUAL), fixed threshold (FIXED) and gradient search algorithm (GRADIENT). The dose painting prescription of 60 Gy base dose to the planning target volume and an integral dose of 14 Gy (total 74 Gy) was discretized into seven treatment planning substructures and linearly redistributed according to the relative SUV at every voxel in the boost volume. Fifty-four dose painting plan combinations were generated and conformity was evaluated using quality index VQ0.95-1.05, which represents the sum of planned dose voxels within 5% deviation from the prescribed dose. Trends in plan quality and magnitude of achievable dose escalation were recorded. Different segmentation techniques produced statistically significant variations in maximum planned dose (P < 0.02), as well as plan quality between segmentation methods for 4D GATED and 4D MIP PET images (P < 0.05). No statistically significant differences in plan quality and maximum dose were observed between motion-compensated PET-based plans (P > 0.75). Low variability in plan quality was observed for FIXED threshold plans, while MANUAL and GRADIENT plans achieved higher dose with lower plan quality indices. The dose painting plans were more sensitive to segmentation of boost volumes than PET motion compensation in this study sample. Careful consideration of boost target delineation and motion compensation strategies should guide the design of NSCLC dose painting trials. © 2017 The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists.

Functional cardiac magnetic resonance microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brau, Anja Christina Sophie

2003-07-01

The study of small animal models of human cardiovascular disease is critical to our understanding of the origin, progression, and treatment of this pervasive disease. Complete analysis of disease pathophysiology in these animal models requires measuring structural and functional changes at the level of the whole heart---a task for which an appropriate non-invasive imaging method is needed. The purpose of this work was thus to develop an imaging technique to support in vivo characterization of cardiac structure and function in rat and mouse models of cardiovascular disease. Whereas clinical cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides accurate assessment of the human heart, the extension of cardiac MRI from humans to rodents presents several formidable scaling challenges. Acquiring images of the mouse heart with organ definition and fluidity of contraction comparable to that achieved in humans requires an increase in spatial resolution by a factor of 3000 and an increase in temporal resolution by a factor of ten. No single technical innovation can meet the demanding imaging requirements imposed by the small animal. A functional cardiac magnetic resonance microscopy technique was developed by integrating improvements in physiological control, imaging hardware, biological synchronization of imaging, and pulse sequence design to achieve high-quality images of the murine heart with high spatial and temporal resolution. The specific methods and results from three different sets of imaging experiments are presented: (1) 2D functional imaging in the rat with spatial resolution of 175 mum2 x 1 mm and temporal resolution of 10 ms; (2) 3D functional imaging in the rat with spatial resolution of 100 mum 2 x 500 mum and temporal resolution of 30 ms; and (3) 2D functional imaging in the mouse with spatial resolution down to 100 mum2 x 1 mm and temporal resolution of 10 ms. The cardiac microscopy technique presented here represents a novel collection of technologies capable of acquiring routine high-quality images of murine cardiac structure and function with minimal artifacts and markedly higher spatial resolution compared to conventional techniques. This work is poised to serve a valuable role in the evaluation of cardiovascular disease and should find broad application in studies ranging from basic pathophysiology to drug discovery.

I-ImaS: intelligent imaging sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Griffiths, J.; Royle, G.; Esbrand, C.; Hall, G.; Turchetta, R.; Speller, R.

2010-08-01

Conventional x-radiography uniformly irradiates the relevant region of the patient. Across that region, however, there is likely to be significant variation in both the thickness and pathological composition of the tissues present, which means that the x-ray exposure conditions selected, and consequently the image quality achieved, are a compromise. The I-ImaS concept eliminates this compromise by intelligently scanning the patient to identify the important diagnostic features, which are then used to adaptively control the x-ray exposure conditions at each point in the patient. In this way optimal image quality is achieved throughout the region of interest whilst maintaining or reducing the dose. An I-ImaS system has been built under an EU Framework 6 project and has undergone pre-clinical testing. The system is based upon two rows of sensors controlled via an FPGA based DAQ board. Each row consists of a 160 mm × 1 mm linear array of ten scintillator coated 3T CMOS APS devices with 32 μm pixels and a readable array of 520 × 40 pixels. The first sensor row scans the patient using a fraction of the total radiation dose to produce a preview image, which is then interrogated to identify the optimal exposure conditions at each point in the image. A signal is then sent to control a beam filter mechanism to appropriately moderate x-ray beam intensity at the patient as the second row of sensors follows behind. Tests performed on breast tissue sections found that the contrast-to-noise ratio in over 70% of the images was increased by an average of 15% at an average dose reduction of 9%. The same technology is currently also being applied to baggage scanning for airport security.

1.5 versus 3 versus 7 Tesla in abdominal MRI: A comparative study.

PubMed

Laader, Anja; Beiderwellen, Karsten; Kraff, Oliver; Maderwald, Stefan; Wrede, Karsten; Ladd, Mark E; Lauenstein, Thomas C; Forsting, Michael; Quick, Harald H; Nassenstein, Kai; Umutlu, Lale

2017-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the feasibility as well as potential impact of altered magnetic field properties on image quality and potential artifacts of 1.5 Tesla, 3 Tesla and 7 Tesla non-enhanced abdominal MRI. Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging of the upper abdomen was performed in 10 healthy volunteers on a 1.5 Tesla, a 3 Tesla and a 7 Tesla MR system. The study protocol comprised a (1) T1-weighted fat-saturated spoiled gradient-echo sequence (2D FLASH), (2) T1-weighted fat-saturated volumetric interpolated breath hold examination sequence (3D VIBE), (3) T1-weighted 2D in and opposed phase sequence, (4) True fast imaging with steady-state precession sequence (TrueFISP) and (5) T2-weighted turbo spin-echo (TSE) sequence. For comparison reasons field of view and acquisition times were kept comparable for each correlating sequence at all three field strengths, while trying to achieve the highest possible spatial resolution. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were tested for significant differences. While 1.5 and 3 Tesla MRI revealed comparable results in all assessed features and sequences, 7 Tesla MRI yielded considerable differences in T1 and T2 weighted imaging. Benefits of 7 Tesla MRI encompassed an increased higher spatial resolution and a non-enhanced hyperintense vessel signal at 7 Tesla, potentially offering a more accurate diagnosis of abdominal parenchymatous and vasculature disease. 7 Tesla MRI was also shown to be more impaired by artifacts, including residual B1 inhomogeneities, susceptibility and chemical shift artifacts, resulting in reduced overall image quality and overall image impairment ratings. While 1.5 and 3 Tesla T2w imaging showed equivalently high image quality, 7 Tesla revealed strong impairments in its diagnostic value. Our results demonstrate the feasibility and overall comparable imaging ability of T1-weighted 7 Tesla abdominal MRI towards 3 Tesla and 1.5 Tesla MRI, yielding a promising diagnostic potential for non-enhanced Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA). 1.5 Tesla and 3 Tesla offer comparably high-quality T2w imaging, showing superior diagnostic quality over 7 Tesla MRI.

1.5 versus 3 versus 7 Tesla in abdominal MRI: A comparative study

PubMed Central

Beiderwellen, Karsten; Kraff, Oliver; Maderwald, Stefan; Wrede, Karsten; Ladd, Mark E.; Lauenstein, Thomas C.; Forsting, Michael; Quick, Harald H.; Nassenstein, Kai; Umutlu, Lale

2017-01-01

Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the feasibility as well as potential impact of altered magnetic field properties on image quality and potential artifacts of 1.5 Tesla, 3 Tesla and 7 Tesla non-enhanced abdominal MRI. Materials and methods Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging of the upper abdomen was performed in 10 healthy volunteers on a 1.5 Tesla, a 3 Tesla and a 7 Tesla MR system. The study protocol comprised a (1) T1-weighted fat-saturated spoiled gradient-echo sequence (2D FLASH), (2) T1-weighted fat-saturated volumetric interpolated breath hold examination sequence (3D VIBE), (3) T1-weighted 2D in and opposed phase sequence, (4) True fast imaging with steady-state precession sequence (TrueFISP) and (5) T2-weighted turbo spin-echo (TSE) sequence. For comparison reasons field of view and acquisition times were kept comparable for each correlating sequence at all three field strengths, while trying to achieve the highest possible spatial resolution. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were tested for significant differences. Results While 1.5 and 3 Tesla MRI revealed comparable results in all assessed features and sequences, 7 Tesla MRI yielded considerable differences in T1 and T2 weighted imaging. Benefits of 7 Tesla MRI encompassed an increased higher spatial resolution and a non-enhanced hyperintense vessel signal at 7 Tesla, potentially offering a more accurate diagnosis of abdominal parenchymatous and vasculature disease. 7 Tesla MRI was also shown to be more impaired by artifacts, including residual B1 inhomogeneities, susceptibility and chemical shift artifacts, resulting in reduced overall image quality and overall image impairment ratings. While 1.5 and 3 Tesla T2w imaging showed equivalently high image quality, 7 Tesla revealed strong impairments in its diagnostic value. Conclusions Our results demonstrate the feasibility and overall comparable imaging ability of T1-weighted 7 Tesla abdominal MRI towards 3 Tesla and 1.5 Tesla MRI, yielding a promising diagnostic potential for non-enhanced Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA). 1.5 Tesla and 3 Tesla offer comparably high-quality T2w imaging, showing superior diagnostic quality over 7 Tesla MRI. PMID:29125850

An Audit of Second-Trimester Fetal Anomaly Scans Based on a Novel Image-Scoring Method in the Southwest Region of the Netherlands.

PubMed

Ursem, Nicolette T C; Peters, Ingrid A; Kraan-van der Est, Mieke N; Reijerink-Verheij, Jacqueline C I Y; Knapen, Maarten F C M; Cohen-Overbeek, Titia E

2017-06-01

Since 2007 the second-trimester fetal anomaly scan is offered to all pregnant women as part of the national prenatal screening program in the Netherlands. Dutch population-based screening programs generally have a well-described system to achieve quality assurance. Because of the absence of a uniform system to monitor the actual performance of the fetal anomaly scan in 2012, we developed a standardized image-scoring method. The aim of this study was to evaluate the scanning performance of all sonographers in the southwestern region of the Netherlands using this image-scoring method. Each sonographer was requested to set up a digital portfolio. A portfolio consists of five logbooks from five different pregnant women, each containing 25 fetal anatomical structures and six biometric measures of randomly selected fetal anomaly scans. During the study period, 425 logbooks of 85 sonographers were assessed as part of the audit process. Seventy-three out of 85 sonographers (86%) met the criteria in the primary audit, and 12 sonographers required individual hands-on training. A successful assessment was achieved for 11 sonographers in the re-audit and one sonographer ceased her contract. Moreover, 2.1% of the required images were not digitally stored and therefore could not be reviewed. Quality assessment using the image-scoring method demonstrated that most of the sonographers met the expectations of the audit process, but those who had subpar performance met the expectations after retraining. © 2017 by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.

Radiographer Level of Simulation Training, Critical Thinking Skills, Self-Efficacy, and Clinical Competence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chiu, Jennifer G.

2013-01-01

Radiography is an essential part of the healthcare continuum and ensuring the competency of each technologist is essential. A clinically competent technologist is vital in achieving quality diagnostic images to accurate diagnosis disease and pathology to develop treatment plans leading to improved patient outcomes. The purpose of this study was…

Aberration correction in wide-field fluorescence microscopy by segmented-pupil image interferometry.

PubMed

Scrimgeour, Jan; Curtis, Jennifer E

2012-06-18

We present a new technique for the correction of optical aberrations in wide-field fluorescence microscopy. Segmented-Pupil Image Interferometry (SPII) uses a liquid crystal spatial light modulator placed in the microscope's pupil plane to split the wavefront originating from a fluorescent object into an array of individual beams. Distortion of the wavefront arising from either system or sample aberrations results in displacement of the images formed from the individual pupil segments. Analysis of image registration allows for the local tilt in the wavefront at each segment to be corrected with respect to a central reference. A second correction step optimizes the image intensity by adjusting the relative phase of each pupil segment through image interferometry. This ensures that constructive interference between all segments is achieved at the image plane. Improvements in image quality are observed when Segmented-Pupil Image Interferometry is applied to correct aberrations arising from the microscope's optical path.

Handheld real-time volumetric imaging of the spine: technology development.

PubMed

Tiouririne, Mohamed; Nguyen, Sarah; Hossack, John A; Owen, Kevin; William Mauldin, F

2014-03-01

Technical difficulties, poor image quality and reliance on pattern identifications represent some of the drawbacks of two-dimensional ultrasound imaging of spinal bone anatomy. To overcome these limitations, this study sought to develop real-time volumetric imaging of the spine using a portable handheld device. The device measured 19.2 cm × 9.2 cm × 9.0 cm and imaged at 5 MHz centre frequency. 2D imaging under conventional ultrasound and volumetric (3D) imaging in real time was achieved and verified by inspection using a custom spine phantom. Further device performance was assessed and revealed a 75-min battery life and an average frame rate of 17.7 Hz in volumetric imaging mode. The results suggest that real-time volumetric imaging of the spine is a feasible technique for more intuitive visualization of the spine. These results may have important ramifications for a large array of neuraxial procedures.

The 'Alternative Quality Contract,' based on a global budget, lowered medical spending and improved quality.

PubMed

Song, Zirui; Safran, Dana Gelb; Landon, Bruce E; Landrum, Mary Beth; He, Yulei; Mechanic, Robert E; Day, Matthew P; Chernew, Michael E

2012-08-01

Seven provider organizations in Massachusetts entered the Blue Cross Blue Shield Alternative Quality Contract in 2009, followed by four more organizations in 2010. This contract, based on a global budget and pay-for-performance for achieving certain quality benchmarks, places providers at risk for excessive spending and rewards them for quality, similar to the new Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations in Medicare. We analyzed changes in spending and quality associated with the Alternative Quality Contract and found that the rate of increase in spending slowed compared to control groups, more so in the second year than in the first. Overall, participation in the contract over two years led to savings of 2.8 percent (1.9 percent in year 1 and 3.3 percent in year 2) compared to spending in nonparticipating groups. Savings were accounted for by lower prices achieved through shifting procedures, imaging, and tests to facilities with lower fees, as well as reduced utilization among some groups. Quality of care also improved compared to control organizations, with chronic care management, adult preventive care, and pediatric care within the contracting groups improving more in year 2 than in year 1. These results suggest that global budgets with pay-for-performance can begin to slow underlying growth in medical spending while improving quality of care.

A digital ISO expansion technique for digital cameras

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoo, Youngjin; Lee, Kangeui; Choe, Wonhee; Park, SungChan; Lee, Seong-Deok; Kim, Chang-Yong

2010-01-01

Market's demands of digital cameras for higher sensitivity capability under low-light conditions are remarkably increasing nowadays. The digital camera market is now a tough race for providing higher ISO capability. In this paper, we explore an approach for increasing maximum ISO capability of digital cameras without changing any structure of an image sensor or CFA. Our method is directly applied to the raw Bayer pattern CFA image to avoid non-linearity characteristics and noise amplification which are usually deteriorated after ISP (Image Signal Processor) of digital cameras. The proposed method fuses multiple short exposed images which are noisy, but less blurred. Our approach is designed to avoid the ghost artifact caused by hand-shaking and object motion. In order to achieve a desired ISO image quality, both low frequency chromatic noise and fine-grain noise that usually appear in high ISO images are removed and then we modify the different layers which are created by a two-scale non-linear decomposition of an image. Once our approach is performed on an input Bayer pattern CFA image, the resultant Bayer image is further processed by ISP to obtain a fully processed RGB image. The performance of our proposed approach is evaluated by comparing SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio), MTF50 (Modulation Transfer Function), color error ~E*ab and visual quality with reference images whose exposure times are properly extended into a variety of target sensitivity.

Self-recovery reversible image watermarking algorithm

PubMed Central

Sun, He; Gao, Shangbing; Jin, Shenghua

2018-01-01

The integrity of image content is essential, although most watermarking algorithms can achieve image authentication but not automatically repair damaged areas or restore the original image. In this paper, a self-recovery reversible image watermarking algorithm is proposed to recover the tampered areas effectively. First of all, the original image is divided into homogeneous blocks and non-homogeneous blocks through multi-scale decomposition, and the feature information of each block is calculated as the recovery watermark. Then, the original image is divided into 4×4 non-overlapping blocks classified into smooth blocks and texture blocks according to image textures. Finally, the recovery watermark generated by homogeneous blocks and error-correcting codes is embedded into the corresponding smooth block by mapping; watermark information generated by non-homogeneous blocks and error-correcting codes is embedded into the corresponding non-embedded smooth block and the texture block via mapping. The correlation attack is detected by invariant moments when the watermarked image is attacked. To determine whether a sub-block has been tampered with, its feature is calculated and the recovery watermark is extracted from the corresponding block. If the image has been tampered with, it can be recovered. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively recover the tampered areas with high accuracy and high quality. The algorithm is characterized by sound visual quality and excellent image restoration. PMID:29920528

Improving quality of arterial spin labeling MR imaging at 3 Tesla with a 32-channel coil and parallel imaging.

PubMed

Ferré, Jean-Christophe; Petr, Jan; Bannier, Elise; Barillot, Christian; Gauvrit, Jean-Yves

2012-05-01

To compare 12-channel and 32-channel phased-array coils and to determine the optimal parallel imaging (PI) technique and factor for brain perfusion imaging using Pulsed Arterial Spin labeling (PASL) at 3 Tesla (T). Twenty-seven healthy volunteers underwent 10 different PASL perfusion PICORE Q2TIPS scans at 3T using 12-channel and 32-channel coils without PI and with GRAPPA or mSENSE using factor 2. PI with factor 3 and 4 were used only with the 32-channel coil. Visual quality was assessed using four parameters. Quantitative analyses were performed using temporal noise, contrast-to-noise and signal-to-noise ratios (CNR, SNR). Compared with 12-channel acquisition, the scores for 32-channel acquisition were significantly higher for overall visual quality, lower for noise and higher for SNR and CNR. With the 32-channel coil, artifact compromise achieved the best score with PI factor 2. Noise increased, SNR and CNR decreased with PI factor. However mSENSE 2 scores were not always significantly different from acquisition without PI. For PASL at 3T, the 32-channel coil at 3T provided better quality than the 12-channel coil. With the 32-channel coil, mSENSE 2 seemed to offer the best compromise for decreasing artifacts without significantly reducing SNR, CNR. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Quality control in cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) EFOMP-ESTRO-IAEA protocol (summary report).

PubMed

de Las Heras Gala, Hugo; Torresin, Alberto; Dasu, Alexandru; Rampado, Osvaldo; Delis, Harry; Hernández Girón, Irene; Theodorakou, Chrysoula; Andersson, Jonas; Holroyd, John; Nilsson, Mats; Edyvean, Sue; Gershan, Vesna; Hadid-Beurrier, Lama; Hoog, Christopher; Delpon, Gregory; Sancho Kolster, Ismael; Peterlin, Primož; Garayoa Roca, Julia; Caprile, Paola; Zervides, Costas

2017-07-01

The aim of the guideline presented in this article is to unify the test parameters for image quality evaluation and radiation output in all types of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) systems. The applications of CBCT spread over dental and interventional radiology, guided surgery and radiotherapy. The chosen tests provide the means to objectively evaluate the performance and monitor the constancy of the imaging chain. Experience from all involved associations has been collected to achieve a consensus that is rigorous and helpful for the practice. The guideline recommends to assess image quality in terms of uniformity, geometrical precision, voxel density values (or Hounsfield units where available), noise, low contrast resolution and spatial resolution measurements. These tests usually require the use of a phantom and evaluation software. Radiation output can be determined with a kerma-area product meter attached to the tube case. Alternatively, a solid state dosimeter attached to the flat panel and a simple geometric relationship can be used to calculate the dose to the isocentre. Summary tables including action levels and recommended frequencies for each test, as well as relevant references, are provided. If the radiation output or image quality deviates from expected values, or exceeds documented action levels for a given system, a more in depth system analysis (using conventional tests) and corrective maintenance work may be required. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Optical Drug Monitoring: Photoacoustic Imaging of Nanosensors to Monitor Therapeutic Lithium In Vivo

PubMed Central

Cash, Kevin J.; Li, Chiye; Xia, Jun; Wang, Lihong V.; Clark, Heather A.

2015-01-01

Personalized medicine could revolutionize how primary care physicians treat chronic disease and how researchers study fundamental biological questions. To realize this goal we need to develop more robust, modular tools and imaging approaches for in vivo monitoring of analytes. In this report, we demonstrate that synthetic nanosensors can measure physiologic parameters with photoacoustic contrast, and we apply that platform to continuously track lithium levels in vivo. Photoacoustic imaging achieves imaging depths that are unattainable with fluorescence or multiphoton microscopy. We validated the photoacoustic results that illustrate the superior imaging depth and quality of photoacoustic imaging with optical measurements. This powerful combination of techniques will unlock the ability to measure analyte changes in deep tissue and will open up photoacoustic imaging as a diagnostic tool for continuous physiological tracking of a wide range of analytes. PMID:25588028

Optical drug monitoring: photoacoustic imaging of nanosensors to monitor therapeutic lithium in vivo.

PubMed

Cash, Kevin J; Li, Chiye; Xia, Jun; Wang, Lihong V; Clark, Heather A

2015-02-24

Personalized medicine could revolutionize how primary care physicians treat chronic disease and how researchers study fundamental biological questions. To realize this goal, we need to develop more robust, modular tools and imaging approaches for in vivo monitoring of analytes. In this report, we demonstrate that synthetic nanosensors can measure physiologic parameters with photoacoustic contrast, and we apply that platform to continuously track lithium levels in vivo. Photoacoustic imaging achieves imaging depths that are unattainable with fluorescence or multiphoton microscopy. We validated the photoacoustic results that illustrate the superior imaging depth and quality of photoacoustic imaging with optical measurements. This powerful combination of techniques will unlock the ability to measure analyte changes in deep tissue and will open up photoacoustic imaging as a diagnostic tool for continuous physiological tracking of a wide range of analytes.

Color image definition evaluation method based on deep learning method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Di; Li, YingChun

2018-01-01

In order to evaluate different blurring levels of color image and improve the method of image definition evaluation, this paper proposed a method based on the depth learning framework and BP neural network classification model, and presents a non-reference color image clarity evaluation method. Firstly, using VGG16 net as the feature extractor to extract 4,096 dimensions features of the images, then the extracted features and labeled images are employed in BP neural network to train. And finally achieve the color image definition evaluation. The method in this paper are experimented by using images from the CSIQ database. The images are blurred at different levels. There are 4,000 images after the processing. Dividing the 4,000 images into three categories, each category represents a blur level. 300 out of 400 high-dimensional features are trained in VGG16 net and BP neural network, and the rest of 100 samples are tested. The experimental results show that the method can take full advantage of the learning and characterization capability of deep learning. Referring to the current shortcomings of the major existing image clarity evaluation methods, which manually design and extract features. The method in this paper can extract the images features automatically, and has got excellent image quality classification accuracy for the test data set. The accuracy rate is 96%. Moreover, the predicted quality levels of original color images are similar to the perception of the human visual system.

Cardiac SPECT/CCTA hybrid imaging : One answer to two questions?

PubMed

Kaufmann, P A; Buechel, R R

2016-08-01

Noninvasive cardiac imaging has witnessed tremendous advances in the recent past, particularly with regard to coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) where substantial improvements in image quality have been achieved while at the same time patients' radiation dose exposure has been reduced to the sub-millisievert range. Similarly, for single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) the introduction of novel cadmium-zinc-telluride-based semiconductor detectors has significantly improved system sensitivity and image quality, enabling fast image acquisition within less than 2-3 min or reduction of radiation dose exposure to less than 5 mSv. However, neither imaging modality alone is able to fully cover the two aspects of coronary artery disease (CAD), that is, morphology and function. Both modalities have distinct advantages and shortcomings: While CCTA may prove a superb modality for excluding CAD through its excellent negative predictive value, it does not allow for assessment of hemodynamic relevance if obstructive coronary lesions are detected. Conversely, SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging cannot provide any information on the presence or absence of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis. This article aims to highlight the great potential of cardiac hybrid imaging that allows for a comprehensive evaluation of CAD through combination of both morphological and functional information by fusing SPECT with CCTA.

Design of high energy laser pulse delivery in a multimode fiber for photoacoustic tomography.

PubMed

Ai, Min; Shu, Weihang; Salcudean, Tim; Rohling, Robert; Abolmaesumi, Purang; Tang, Shuo

2017-07-24

In photoacoustic tomography (PAT), delivering high energy pulses through optical fiber is critical for achieving high quality imaging. A fiber coupling scheme with a beam homogenizer is demonstrated for coupling high energy pulses in a single multimode fiber. This scheme can benefit PAT applications that require miniaturized illumination or internal illumination with a small fiber. The beam homogenizer is achieved by using a cross cylindrical lens array, which provides a periodic spatial modulation on the phase of the input light. Thus the lens array acts as a phase grating which diffracts the beam into a 2D diffraction pattern. Both theoretical analysis and experiments demonstrate that the focused beam can be split into a 2D spot array that can reduce the peak power on the fiber tip surface and thus enhance the coupling performance. The theoretical analysis of the intensity distribution of the focused beam is carried out by Fourier optics. In experiments, coupled energy at 48 mJ/pulse and 60 mJ/pulse have been achieved and the corresponding coupling efficiency is 70% and 90% in a 1000-μm and a 1500-μm-core-diameter fiber, respectively. The high energy pulses delivered by the multimode fiber are further tested for PAT imaging in phantoms. PAT imaging of a printed dot array shows a large illumination area of 7 cm 2 under 5 mm thick chicken breast tissue. In vivo imaging is also demonstrated on the human forearm. The large improvement in coupling energy can potentially benefit PAT with single fiber delivery to achieve large area imaging and deep penetration detection.

Low bit-rate image compression via adaptive down-sampling and constrained least squares upconversion.

PubMed

Wu, Xiaolin; Zhang, Xiangjun; Wang, Xiaohan

2009-03-01

Recently, many researchers started to challenge a long-standing practice of digital photography: oversampling followed by compression and pursuing more intelligent sparse sampling techniques. In this paper, we propose a practical approach of uniform down sampling in image space and yet making the sampling adaptive by spatially varying, directional low-pass prefiltering. The resulting down-sampled prefiltered image remains a conventional square sample grid, and, thus, it can be compressed and transmitted without any change to current image coding standards and systems. The decoder first decompresses the low-resolution image and then upconverts it to the original resolution in a constrained least squares restoration process, using a 2-D piecewise autoregressive model and the knowledge of directional low-pass prefiltering. The proposed compression approach of collaborative adaptive down-sampling and upconversion (CADU) outperforms JPEG 2000 in PSNR measure at low to medium bit rates and achieves superior visual quality, as well. The superior low bit-rate performance of the CADU approach seems to suggest that oversampling not only wastes hardware resources and energy, and it could be counterproductive to image quality given a tight bit budget.

Global Contrast Based Salient Region Detection.

PubMed

Cheng, Ming-Ming; Mitra, Niloy J; Huang, Xiaolei; Torr, Philip H S; Hu, Shi-Min

2015-03-01

Automatic estimation of salient object regions across images, without any prior assumption or knowledge of the contents of the corresponding scenes, enhances many computer vision and computer graphics applications. We introduce a regional contrast based salient object detection algorithm, which simultaneously evaluates global contrast differences and spatial weighted coherence scores. The proposed algorithm is simple, efficient, naturally multi-scale, and produces full-resolution, high-quality saliency maps. These saliency maps are further used to initialize a novel iterative version of GrabCut, namely SaliencyCut, for high quality unsupervised salient object segmentation. We extensively evaluated our algorithm using traditional salient object detection datasets, as well as a more challenging Internet image dataset. Our experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm consistently outperforms 15 existing salient object detection and segmentation methods, yielding higher precision and better recall rates. We also show that our algorithm can be used to efficiently extract salient object masks from Internet images, enabling effective sketch-based image retrieval (SBIR) via simple shape comparisons. Despite such noisy internet images, where the saliency regions are ambiguous, our saliency guided image retrieval achieves a superior retrieval rate compared with state-of-the-art SBIR methods, and additionally provides important target object region information.

An optimal algorithm for reconstructing images from binary measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Feng; Lu, Yue M.; Sbaiz, Luciano; Vetterli, Martin

2010-01-01

We have studied a camera with a very large number of binary pixels referred to as the gigavision camera [1] or the gigapixel digital film camera [2, 3]. Potential advantages of this new camera design include improved dynamic range, thanks to its logarithmic sensor response curve, and reduced exposure time in low light conditions, due to its highly sensitive photon detection mechanism. We use maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) to reconstruct a high quality conventional image from the binary sensor measurements of the gigavision camera. We prove that when the threshold T is "1", the negative loglikelihood function is a convex function. Therefore, optimal solution can be achieved using convex optimization. Base on filter bank techniques, fast algorithms are given for computing the gradient and the multiplication of a vector and Hessian matrix of the negative log-likelihood function. We show that with a minor change, our algorithm also works for estimating conventional images from multiple binary images. Numerical experiments with synthetic 1-D signals and images verify the effectiveness and quality of the proposed algorithm. Experimental results also show that estimation performance can be improved by increasing the oversampling factor or the number of binary images.

Integrating prior information into microwave tomography Part 1: Impact of detail on image quality.

PubMed

Kurrant, Douglas; Baran, Anastasia; LoVetri, Joe; Fear, Elise

2017-12-01

The authors investigate the impact that incremental increases in the level of detail of patient-specific prior information have on image quality and the convergence behavior of an inversion algorithm in the context of near-field microwave breast imaging. A methodology is presented that uses image quality measures to characterize the ability of the algorithm to reconstruct both internal structures and lesions embedded in fibroglandular tissue. The approach permits key aspects that impact the quality of reconstruction of these structures to be identified and quantified. This provides insight into opportunities to improve image reconstruction performance. Patient-specific information is acquired using radar-based methods that form a regional map of the breast. This map is then incorporated into a microwave tomography algorithm. Previous investigations have demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach to improve image quality when applied to data generated with two-dimensional (2D) numerical models. The present study extends this work by generating prior information that is customized to vary the degree of structural detail to facilitate the investigation of the role of prior information in image formation. Numerical 2D breast models constructed from magnetic resonance (MR) scans, and reconstructions formed with a three-dimensional (3D) numerical breast model are used to assess if trends observed for the 2D results can be extended to 3D scenarios. For the blind reconstruction scenario (i.e., no prior information), the breast surface is not accurately identified and internal structures are not clearly resolved. A substantial improvement in image quality is achieved by incorporating the skin surface map and constraining the imaging domain to the breast. Internal features within the breast appear in the reconstructed image. However, it is challenging to discriminate between adipose and glandular regions and there are inaccuracies in both the structural properties of the glandular region and the dielectric properties reconstructed within this structure. Using a regional map with a skin layer only marginally improves this situation. Increasing the structural detail in the prior information to include internal features leads to reconstructions for which the interface that delineates the fat and gland regions can be inferred. Different features within the glandular region corresponding to tissues with varying relative permittivity values, such as a lesion embedded within glandular structure, emerge in the reconstructed images. Including knowledge of the breast surface and skin layer leads to a substantial improvement in image quality compared to the blind case, but the images have limited diagnostic utility for applications such as tumor response tracking. The diagnostic utility of the reconstruction technique is improved considerably when patient-specific structural information is used. This qualitative observation is supported quantitatively with image metrics. © 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Design of a concise Féry-prism hyperspectral imaging system based on multi-configuration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Wei; Nie, Yun-feng; Zhou, Jin-song

2013-08-01

In order to meet the needs of space borne and airborne hyperspectral imaging system for light weight, simplification and high spatial resolution, a novel design of Féry-prism hyperspectral imaging system based on Zemax multi-configuration method is presented. The novel structure is well arranged by analyzing optical monochromatic aberrations theoretically, and the optical structure of this design is concise. The fundamental of this design is Offner relay configuration, whereas the secondary mirror is replaced by Féry-prism with curved surfaces and a reflective front face. By reflection, the light beam passes through the Féry-prism twice, which promotes spectral resolution and enhances image quality at the same time. The result shows that the system can achieve light weight and simplification, compared to other hyperspectral imaging systems. Composed of merely two spherical mirrors and one achromatized Féry-prism to perform both dispersion and imaging functions, this structure is concise and compact. The average spectral resolution is 6.2nm; The MTFs for 0.45~1.00um spectral range are greater than 0.75, RMSs are less than 2.4um; The maximal smile is less than 10% pixel, while the keystones is less than 2.8% pixel; image quality approximates the diffraction limit. The design result shows that hyperspectral imaging system with one modified Féry-prism substituting the secondary mirror of Offner relay configuration is feasible from the perspective of both theory and practice, and possesses the merits of simple structure, convenient optical alignment, and good image quality, high resolution in space and spectra, adjustable dispersive nonlinearity. The system satisfies the requirements of airborne or space borne hyperspectral imaging system.

Split Bregman multicoil accelerated reconstruction technique: A new framework for rapid reconstruction of cardiac perfusion MRI

PubMed Central

Kamesh Iyer, Srikant; Tasdizen, Tolga; Likhite, Devavrat; DiBella, Edward

2016-01-01

Purpose: Rapid reconstruction of undersampled multicoil MRI data with iterative constrained reconstruction method is a challenge. The authors sought to develop a new substitution based variable splitting algorithm for faster reconstruction of multicoil cardiac perfusion MRI data. Methods: The new method, split Bregman multicoil accelerated reconstruction technique (SMART), uses a combination of split Bregman based variable splitting and iterative reweighting techniques to achieve fast convergence. Total variation constraints are used along the spatial and temporal dimensions. The method is tested on nine ECG-gated dog perfusion datasets, acquired with a 30-ray golden ratio radial sampling pattern and ten ungated human perfusion datasets, acquired with a 24-ray golden ratio radial sampling pattern. Image quality and reconstruction speed are evaluated and compared to a gradient descent (GD) implementation and to multicoil k-t SLR, a reconstruction technique that uses a combination of sparsity and low rank constraints. Results: Comparisons based on blur metric and visual inspection showed that SMART images had lower blur and better texture as compared to the GD implementation. On average, the GD based images had an ∼18% higher blur metric as compared to SMART images. Reconstruction of dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) cardiac perfusion images using the SMART method was ∼6 times faster than standard gradient descent methods. k-t SLR and SMART produced images with comparable image quality, though SMART was ∼6.8 times faster than k-t SLR. Conclusions: The SMART method is a promising approach to reconstruct good quality multicoil images from undersampled DCE cardiac perfusion data rapidly. PMID:27036592

Otitis Media Diagnosis for Developing Countries Using Tympanic Membrane Image-Analysis.

PubMed

Myburgh, Hermanus C; van Zijl, Willemien H; Swanepoel, DeWet; Hellström, Sten; Laurent, Claude

2016-03-01

Otitis media is one of the most common childhood diseases worldwide, but because of lack of doctors and health personnel in developing countries it is often misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all. This may lead to serious, and life-threatening complications. There is, thus a need for an automated computer based image-analyzing system that could assist in making accurate otitis media diagnoses anywhere. A method for automated diagnosis of otitis media is proposed. The method uses image-processing techniques to classify otitis media. The system is trained using high quality pre-assessed images of tympanic membranes, captured by digital video-otoscopes, and classifies undiagnosed images into five otitis media categories based on predefined signs. Several verification tests analyzed the classification capability of the method. An accuracy of 80.6% was achieved for images taken with commercial video-otoscopes, while an accuracy of 78.7% was achieved for images captured on-site with a low cost custom-made video-otoscope. The high accuracy of the proposed otitis media classification system compares well with the classification accuracy of general practitioners and pediatricians (~64% to 80%) using traditional otoscopes, and therefore holds promise for the future in making automated diagnosis of otitis media in medically underserved populations.

Otitis Media Diagnosis for Developing Countries Using Tympanic Membrane Image-Analysis

PubMed Central

Myburgh, Hermanus C.; van Zijl, Willemien H.; Swanepoel, DeWet; Hellström, Sten; Laurent, Claude

2016-01-01

Background Otitis media is one of the most common childhood diseases worldwide, but because of lack of doctors and health personnel in developing countries it is often misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all. This may lead to serious, and life-threatening complications. There is, thus a need for an automated computer based image-analyzing system that could assist in making accurate otitis media diagnoses anywhere. Methods A method for automated diagnosis of otitis media is proposed. The method uses image-processing techniques to classify otitis media. The system is trained using high quality pre-assessed images of tympanic membranes, captured by digital video-otoscopes, and classifies undiagnosed images into five otitis media categories based on predefined signs. Several verification tests analyzed the classification capability of the method. Findings An accuracy of 80.6% was achieved for images taken with commercial video-otoscopes, while an accuracy of 78.7% was achieved for images captured on-site with a low cost custom-made video-otoscope. Interpretation The high accuracy of the proposed otitis media classification system compares well with the classification accuracy of general practitioners and pediatricians (~ 64% to 80%) using traditional otoscopes, and therefore holds promise for the future in making automated diagnosis of otitis media in medically underserved populations. PMID:27077122

Efficient burst image compression using H.265/HEVC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roodaki-Lavasani, Hoda; Lainema, Jani

2014-02-01

New imaging use cases are emerging as more powerful camera hardware is entering consumer markets. One family of such use cases is based on capturing multiple pictures instead of just one when taking a photograph. That kind of a camera operation allows e.g. selecting the most successful shot from a sequence of images, showing what happened right before or after the shot was taken or combining the shots by computational means to improve either visible characteristics of the picture (such as dynamic range or focus) or the artistic aspects of the photo (e.g. by superimposing pictures on top of each other). Considering that photographic images are typically of high resolution and quality and the fact that these kind of image bursts can consist of at least tens of individual pictures, an efficient compression algorithm is desired. However, traditional video coding approaches fail to provide the random access properties these use cases require to achieve near-instantaneous access to the pictures in the coded sequence. That feature is critical to allow users to browse the pictures in an arbitrary order or imaging algorithms to extract desired pictures from the sequence quickly. This paper proposes coding structures that provide such random access properties while achieving coding efficiency superior to existing image coders. The results indicate that using HEVC video codec with a single reference picture fixed for the whole sequence can achieve nearly as good compression as traditional IPPP coding structures. It is also shown that the selection of the reference frame can further improve the coding efficiency.

Image deblurring using a joint entropy prior in x-ray luminescence computed tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Su, Chang; Dutta, Joyita; Zhang, Hui; El Fakhri, Georges; Li, Quanzheng

2017-03-01

X-ray luminescence computed tomography (XLCT) is an emerging hybrid imaging modality that can provide functional and anatomical images at the same time. Traditional narrow beam XLCT can achieve high spatial resolution as well as high sensitivity. However, by treating the CCD camera as a single pixel detector, this kind of scheme resembles the first generation of CT scanner which results in a long scanning time and a high radiation dose. Although cone beam or fan beam XLCT has the ability to mitigate this problem with an optical propagation model introduced, image quality is affected because the inverse problem is ill-conditioned. Much effort has been done to improve the image quality through hardware improvements or by developing new reconstruction techniques for XLCT. The objective of this work is to further enhance the already reconstructed image by introducing anatomical information through retrospective processing. The deblurring process used a spatially variant point spread function (PSF) model and a joint entropy based anatomical prior derived from a CT image acquired using the same XLCT system. A numerical experiment was conducted with a real mouse CT image from the Digimouse phantom used as the anatomical prior. The resultant images of bone and lung regions showed sharp edges and good consistency with the CT image. Activity error was reduced by 52.3% even for nanophosphor lesion size as small as 0.8mm.

Constraint factor graph cut-based active contour method for automated cellular image segmentation in RNAi screening.

PubMed

Chen, C; Li, H; Zhou, X; Wong, S T C

2008-05-01

Image-based, high throughput genome-wide RNA interference (RNAi) experiments are increasingly carried out to facilitate the understanding of gene functions in intricate biological processes. Automated screening of such experiments generates a large number of images with great variations in image quality, which makes manual analysis unreasonably time-consuming. Therefore, effective techniques for automatic image analysis are urgently needed, in which segmentation is one of the most important steps. This paper proposes a fully automatic method for cells segmentation in genome-wide RNAi screening images. The method consists of two steps: nuclei and cytoplasm segmentation. Nuclei are extracted and labelled to initialize cytoplasm segmentation. Since the quality of RNAi image is rather poor, a novel scale-adaptive steerable filter is designed to enhance the image in order to extract long and thin protrusions on the spiky cells. Then, constraint factor GCBAC method and morphological algorithms are combined to be an integrated method to segment tight clustered cells. Compared with the results obtained by using seeded watershed and the ground truth, that is, manual labelling results by experts in RNAi screening data, our method achieves higher accuracy. Compared with active contour methods, our method consumes much less time. The positive results indicate that the proposed method can be applied in automatic image analysis of multi-channel image screening data.

Implementation of Enterprise Imaging Strategy at a Chinese Tertiary Hospital.

PubMed

Li, Shanshan; Liu, Yao; Yuan, Yifang; Li, Jia; Wei, Lan; Wang, Yuelong; Fei, Xiaolu

2018-01-04

Medical images have become increasingly important in clinical practice and medical research, and the need to manage images at the hospital level has become urgent in China. To unify patient identification in examinations from different medical specialties, increase convenient access to medical images under authentication, and make medical images suitable for further artificial intelligence investigations, we implemented an enterprise imaging strategy by adopting an image integration platform as the main tool at Xuanwu Hospital. Workflow re-engineering and business system transformation was also performed to ensure the quality and content of the imaging data. More than 54 million medical images and approximately 1 million medical reports were integrated, and uniform patient identification, images, and report integration were made available to the medical staff and were accessible via a mobile application, which were achieved by implementing the enterprise imaging strategy. However, to integrate all medical images of different specialties at a hospital and ensure that the images and reports are qualified for data mining, some further policy and management measures are still needed.

Fusion of multi-spectral and panchromatic images based on 2D-PWVD and SSIM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tan, Dongjie; Liu, Yi; Hou, Ruonan; Xue, Bindang

2016-03-01

A combined method using 2D pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution (2D-PWVD) and structural similarity(SSIM) index is proposed for fusion of low resolution multi-spectral (MS) image and high resolution panchromatic (PAN) image. First, the intensity component of multi-spectral image is extracted with generalized IHS transform. Then, the spectrum diagrams of the intensity components of multi-spectral image and panchromatic image are obtained with 2D-PWVD. Different fusion rules are designed for different frequency information of the spectrum diagrams. SSIM index is used to evaluate the high frequency information of the spectrum diagrams for assigning the weights in the fusion processing adaptively. After the new spectrum diagram is achieved according to the fusion rule, the final fusion image can be obtained by inverse 2D-PWVD and inverse GIHS transform. Experimental results show that, the proposed method can obtain high quality fusion images.

3-D Image Encryption Based on Rubik's Cube and RC6 Algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Helmy, Mai; El-Rabaie, El-Sayed M.; Eldokany, Ibrahim M.; El-Samie, Fathi E. Abd

2017-12-01

A novel encryption algorithm based on the 3-D Rubik's cube is proposed in this paper to achieve 3D encryption of a group of images. This proposed encryption algorithm begins with RC6 as a first step for encrypting multiple images, separately. After that, the obtained encrypted images are further encrypted with the 3-D Rubik's cube. The RC6 encrypted images are used as the faces of the Rubik's cube. From the concepts of image encryption, the RC6 algorithm adds a degree of diffusion, while the Rubik's cube algorithm adds a degree of permutation. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed encryption algorithm is efficient, and it exhibits strong robustness and security. The encrypted images are further transmitted over wireless Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system and decrypted at the receiver side. Evaluation of the quality of the decrypted images at the receiver side reveals good results.

[Comparison of radiation dose reduction of prospective ECG-gated one beat scan using 320 area detector CT coronary angiography and prospective ECG-gated helical scan with high helical pitch (FlashScan) using 64 multidetector-row CT coronary angiography].

PubMed

Matsutani, Hideyuki; Sano, Tomonari; Kondo, Takeshi; Fujimoto, Shinichiro; Sekine, Takako; Arai, Takehiro; Morita, Hitomi; Takase, Shinichi

2010-12-20

A high radiation dose associated with 64 multidetector-row computed tomography (64-MDCT) is a major concern for physicians and patients alike. A new 320 row area detector computed tomography (ADCT) can obtain a view of the entire heart with one rotation (0.35 s) without requiring the helical method. As such, ADCT is expected to reduce the radiation dose. We studied image quality and radiation dose of ADCT compared to that of 64-MDCT in patients with a low heart rate (HR≤60). Three hundred eighty-five consecutive patients underwent 64-MDCT and 379 patients, ADCT. Patients with an arrhythmia were excluded. Prospective ECG-gated helical scan with high HP (FlashScan) in 64 was used for MDCT and prospective ECG-gated conventional one beat scan, for 320-ADCT. Image quality was visually evaluated by an image quality score. Radiation dose was estimated by DLP (mGy･cm) for 64-MDCT and DLP.e (mGy･cm) for 320-ADCT. Radiation dose of 320-ADCT (208±48 mGy･cm) was significantly (P<0.0001) lower than that of 64-MDCT (484±112 mGy･cm), and image quality score of 320-ADCT (3.0±0.2) was significantly (P=0.0011) higher than that of 64-MDCT (2.9±0.4). Scan time of 320-ADCT (1.4±0.1 s) was also significantly (P<0.0001) shorter than that of 64-MDCT (6.8±0.6 s). 320-ADCT can achieve not only a reduction in radiation dose but also a superior image quality and shortening of scan time compared to 64-MDCT.

Renal magnetic resonance angiography at 3.0 Tesla using a 32-element phased-array coil system and parallel imaging in 2 directions.

PubMed

Fenchel, Michael; Nael, Kambiz; Deshpande, Vibhas S; Finn, J Paul; Kramer, Ulrich; Miller, Stephan; Ruehm, Stefan; Laub, Gerhard

2006-09-01

The aim of the present study was to assess the feasibility of renal magnetic resonance angiography at 3.0 T using a phased-array coil system with 32-coil elements. Specifically, high parallel imaging factors were used for an increased spatial resolution and anatomic coverage of the whole abdomen. Signal-to-noise values and the g-factor distribution of the 32 element coil were examined in phantom studies for the magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) sequence. Eleven volunteers (6 men, median age of 30.0 years) were examined on a 3.0-T MR scanner (Magnetom Trio, Siemens Medical Solutions, Malvern, PA) using a 32-element phased-array coil (prototype from In vivo Corp.). Contrast-enhanced 3D-MRA (TR 2.95 milliseconds, TE 1.12 milliseconds, flip angle 25-30 degrees , bandwidth 650 Hz/pixel) was acquired with integrated generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisition (GRAPPA), in both phase- and slice-encoding direction. Images were assessed by 2 independent observers with regard to image quality, noise and presence of artifacts. Signal-to-noise levels of 22.2 +/- 22.0 and 57.9 +/- 49.0 were measured with (GRAPPAx6) and without parallel-imaging, respectively. The mean g-factor of the 32-element coil for GRAPPA with an acceleration of 3 and 2 in the phase-encoding and slice-encoding direction, respectively, was 1.61. High image quality was found in 9 of 11 volunteers (2.6 +/- 0.8) with good overall interobserver agreement (k = 0.87). Relatively low image quality with higher noise levels were encountered in 2 volunteers. MRA at 3.0 T using a 32-element phased-array coil is feasible in healthy volunteers. High diagnostic image quality and extended anatomic coverage could be achieved with application of high parallel imaging factors.

Zoom Reconstruction Tool: Evaluation of Image Quality and Influence on the Diagnosis of Root Fracture.

PubMed

Queiroz, Polyane Mazucatto; Santaella, Gustavo Machado; Capelozza, Ana Lúcia Alvares; Rosalen, Pedro Luiz; Freitas, Deborah Queiroz; Haiter-Neto, Francisco

2018-04-01

This study evaluated the image quality and the diagnosis of root fractures when using the Zoom Reconstruction tool (J Morita, Kyoto, Japan). A utility wax phantom with a metal sample inside was used for objective evaluation, and a mandible with 27 single-rooted teeth (with and without obturation and with and without vertical or horizontal fractures) was used for diagnostic evaluation. The images were acquired in 3 protocols: protocol 1, field of view (FOV) of 4 × 4 cm and a voxel size of 0.08 mm; protocol 2, FOV of 10 × 10 cm and a voxel size of 0.2 mm; and protocol 3, Zoom Reconstruction of images from protocol 2 (FOV of 4 × 4 cm and a voxel size of 0.08 mm). The objective evaluation was achieved by measuring the image noise, and the diagnosis of fractures was performed by 3 evaluators. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was used to calculate accuracy, and analysis of variance compared the accuracy and image quality of the protocols. Regarding quality, protocol 1 was superior to protocol 2 (P < .0001) and Zoom Reconstruction (P < .0001). Additionally, images of protocol 2 presented less noise than the Zoom Reconstruction image (P < .0001); however, for diagnosis, Zoom Reconstruction was superior in relation to protocol 2 (P = .011) and did not differ from protocol 1 (P = .228) for the diagnosis of a vertical root fracture in filled teeth. The Zoom Reconstruction tool allows better accuracy for vertical root fracture detection in filled teeth, making it possible to obtain a higher-resolution image from a lower-resolution examination without having to expose the patient to more radiation. Copyright © 2017 American Association of Endodontists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Optimized respiratory-resolved motion-compensated 3D Cartesian coronary MR angiography.

PubMed

Correia, Teresa; Ginami, Giulia; Cruz, Gastão; Neji, Radhouene; Rashid, Imran; Botnar, René M; Prieto, Claudia

2018-04-22

To develop a robust and efficient reconstruction framework that provides high-quality motion-compensated respiratory-resolved images from free-breathing 3D whole-heart Cartesian coronary magnetic resonance angiography (CMRA) acquisitions. Recently, XD-GRASP (eXtra-Dimensional Golden-angle RAdial Sparse Parallel MRI) was proposed to achieve 100% scan efficiency and provide respiratory-resolved 3D radial CMRA images by exploiting sparsity in the respiratory dimension. Here, a reconstruction framework for Cartesian CMRA imaging is proposed, which provides respiratory-resolved motion-compensated images by incorporating 2D beat-to-beat translational motion information to increase sparsity in the respiratory dimension. The motion information is extracted from interleaved image navigators and is also used to compensate for 2D translational motion within each respiratory phase. The proposed Optimized Respiratory-resolved Cartesian Coronary MR Angiography (XD-ORCCA) method was tested on 10 healthy subjects and 2 patients with cardiovascular disease, and compared against XD-GRASP. The proposed XD-ORCCA provides high-quality respiratory-resolved images, allowing clear visualization of the right and left coronary arteries, even for irregular breathing patterns. Compared with XD-GRASP, the proposed method improves the visibility and sharpness of both coronaries. Significant differences (p < .05) in visible vessel length and proximal vessel sharpness were found between the 2 methods. The XD-GRASP method provides good-quality images in the absence of intraphase motion. However, motion blurring is observed in XD-GRASP images for respiratory phases with larger motion amplitudes and subjects with irregular breathing patterns. A robust respiratory-resolved motion-compensated framework for Cartesian CMRA has been proposed and tested in healthy subjects and patients. The proposed XD-ORCCA provides high-quality images for all respiratory phases, independently of the regularity of the breathing pattern. © 2018 The Authors Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Externally calibrated parallel imaging for 3D multispectral imaging near metallic implants using broadband ultrashort echo time imaging.

PubMed

Wiens, Curtis N; Artz, Nathan S; Jang, Hyungseok; McMillan, Alan B; Reeder, Scott B

2017-06-01

To develop an externally calibrated parallel imaging technique for three-dimensional multispectral imaging (3D-MSI) in the presence of metallic implants. A fast, ultrashort echo time (UTE) calibration acquisition is proposed to enable externally calibrated parallel imaging techniques near metallic implants. The proposed calibration acquisition uses a broadband radiofrequency (RF) pulse to excite the off-resonance induced by the metallic implant, fully phase-encoded imaging to prevent in-plane distortions, and UTE to capture rapidly decaying signal. The performance of the externally calibrated parallel imaging reconstructions was assessed using phantoms and in vivo examples. Phantom and in vivo comparisons to self-calibrated parallel imaging acquisitions show that significant reductions in acquisition times can be achieved using externally calibrated parallel imaging with comparable image quality. Acquisition time reductions are particularly large for fully phase-encoded methods such as spectrally resolved fully phase-encoded three-dimensional (3D) fast spin-echo (SR-FPE), in which scan time reductions of up to 8 min were obtained. A fully phase-encoded acquisition with broadband excitation and UTE enabled externally calibrated parallel imaging for 3D-MSI, eliminating the need for repeated calibration regions at each frequency offset. Significant reductions in acquisition time can be achieved, particularly for fully phase-encoded methods like SR-FPE. Magn Reson Med 77:2303-2309, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

SU-C-202-07: Protocol and Hardware for Improved Flood Field Calibration of TrueBeam FFF Cine Imaging

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Adamson, J; Faught, A; Yin, F

2016-06-15

Purpose: Flattening filter free photon energies are commonly used for high dose treatments such as SBRT, where localization accuracy is essential. Often, MV cine imaging may be employed to verify correct localization. TrueBeam Electronic Portal Imaging Devices (EPIDs) equipped with the 40×30cm{sup 2} Image Detection Unit (IDU) are prone to image saturation at the image center especially for higher dose rates. While saturation often does not occur for cine imaging during treatment because the beam is attenuated by the patient, the flood field calibration is affected when the standard calibration procedure is followed. Here we describe the hardware and protocolmore » to achieve improved image quality for this model of TrueBeam EPID. Methods: A stainless steel filter of uniform thickness was designed to have sufficient attenuation to avoid panel saturation for both 6XFFF and 10XFFF at the maximum dose rates (1400 MU/min & 2400 MU/min, respectively). The cine imaging flood field calibration was then acquired with the filter in place for the FFF energies under the standard calibration geometry (SDD=150cm). Image quality during MV cine was assessed with & without the modified flood field calibration using a low contrast resolution phantom and an anthropomorphic phantom. Results: When the flood field is acquired using the standard procedure (no filter in place), a pixel gain artifact is clearly present in the image center (r=3cm for 10XFFF at 2400 MU/min) which appears similar to and may be mis-attributed to panel saturation in the subject image. The artifact obscured all low contrast inserts at the image center and was also visible on the anthropomorphic phantom. Using the filter for flood field calibration eliminated the artifact. Conclusion: Use of a modified flood field calibration procedure improves image quality for cine MV imaging with TrueBeams equipped with the 40×30cm{sup 2} IDU.« less

VizieR Online Data Catalog: gr photometry of Sextans A and Sextans B (Bellazzini+, 2014)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bellazzini, M.; Beccari, G.; Fraternali, F.; Oosterloo, T. A.; Sollima, A.; Testa, V.; Galleti, S.; Perina, S.; Faccini, M.; Cusano, F.

2014-04-01

The tables present deep LBT/LBC g and r photometry of the stars having image quality parameters (provided by DAOPHOTII) CHI<=2 and SHARP within magnitude-dependent contours traced to include the bulk of stellar objects. The observations were achieved on the night og 2012-02-21 with the Large Binocular Camera at the Large Binocular Telescope in binocular mode; g images were acquired with the blue arm and r images with the red arm of the telescope/camera. The astrometry and the photometry were calibrated with stars in common with SDSS-DR9 (V/139). (2 data files).

Multirotor micro air vehicle autonomous landing system based on image markers recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Skoczylas, Marcin; Gadomer, Lukasz; Walendziuk, Wojciech

2017-08-01

In this paper the idea of an autonomic drone landing system which bases on different markers detection, is presented. The issue of safe autonomic drone landing is one of the major aspects connected with drone missions. The idea of the proposed system is to detect the landing place, marked with an image called marker, using one of the image recognition algorithms, and heading during the landing procedure to this place. Choosing the proper marker, which allows the greatest quality of the recognition system, is the main problem faced in this paper. Seven markers are tested and compared. The achieved results are described and discussed.

Real-time, T-ray imaging using a sub-terahertz gyrotron

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Seong-Tae; Torrezan, Antonio C.; Sirigiri, Jagadishwar R.; Shapiro, Michael A.; Temkin, Richard J.

2012-06-01

We demonstrated real-time, active, T-ray imaging using a 0.46 THz gyrotron capable of producing 16 W in continuous wave operation and a pyroelectric array camera with 124-by-124 pixels. An expanded Gaussian beam from the gyrotron was used to maintain the power density above the detection level of the pyroelectric array over the area of the irradiated object. Real-time imaging at a video rate of 48 Hz was achieved through the use of the built-in chopper of the camera. Potential applications include fast scanning for security purposes and for quality control of dry or frozen foods.

Study on the quality assurance of diagnostic X-ray machines and assessment of the absorbed dose to patients

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hassan, G. M.; Rabie, N.; Mustafa, K. A.; Abdel-Khalik, S. S.

2012-09-01

Radiation exposure and image quality in X-ray diagnostic radiology provide a clear understanding of the relationship between the radiation dose delivered to a patient and image quality in optimizing medical diagnostic radiology. Because a certain amount of radiation is unavoidably delivered to patients, this should be as low as reasonably achievable. Several X-ray diagnostic machines were used at different medical diagnostic centers in Egypt for studying the beam quality and the dose delivered to the patient. This article studies the factors affecting the beam quality, such as the kilo-volt peak (kVp), exposure time (mSc), tube current (mAs) and the absorbed dose in (μGy) for different examinations. The maximum absorbed dose measured per mAs was 594±239 and 12.5±3.7 μGy for the abdomen and the chest, respectively, while the absorbed dose at the elbow was 18±6 μGy, which was the minimum dose recorded. The compound and expanded uncertainties accompanying these measurements were 4±0.35% and 8±0.7%, respectively. The measurements were done through quality control tests as acceptance procedures.

Priori mask guided image reconstruction (p-MGIR) for ultra-low dose cone-beam computed tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Justin C.; Zhang, Hao; Chen, Yunmei; Fan, Qiyong; Kahler, Darren L.; Liu, Chihray; Lu, Bo

2015-11-01

Recently, the compressed sensing (CS) based iterative reconstruction method has received attention because of its ability to reconstruct cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images with good quality using sparsely sampled or noisy projections, thus enabling dose reduction. However, some challenges remain. In particular, there is always a tradeoff between image resolution and noise/streak artifact reduction based on the amount of regularization weighting that is applied uniformly across the CBCT volume. The purpose of this study is to develop a novel low-dose CBCT reconstruction algorithm framework called priori mask guided image reconstruction (p-MGIR) that allows reconstruction of high-quality low-dose CBCT images while preserving the image resolution. In p-MGIR, the unknown CBCT volume was mathematically modeled as a combination of two regions: (1) where anatomical structures are complex, and (2) where intensities are relatively uniform. The priori mask, which is the key concept of the p-MGIR algorithm, was defined as the matrix that distinguishes between the two separate CBCT regions where the resolution needs to be preserved and where streak or noise needs to be suppressed. We then alternately updated each part of image by solving two sub-minimization problems iteratively, where one minimization was focused on preserving the edge information of the first part while the other concentrated on the removal of noise/artifacts from the latter part. To evaluate the performance of the p-MGIR algorithm, a numerical head-and-neck phantom, a Catphan 600 physical phantom, and a clinical head-and-neck cancer case were used for analysis. The results were compared with the standard Feldkamp-Davis-Kress as well as conventional CS-based algorithms. Examination of the p-MGIR algorithm showed that high-quality low-dose CBCT images can be reconstructed without compromising the image resolution. For both phantom and the patient cases, the p-MGIR is able to achieve a clinically-reasonable image with 60 projections. Therefore, a clinically-viable, high-resolution head-and-neck CBCT image can be obtained while cutting the dose by 83%. Moreover, the image quality obtained using p-MGIR is better than the quality obtained using other algorithms. In this work, we propose a novel low-dose CBCT reconstruction algorithm called p-MGIR. It can be potentially used as a CBCT reconstruction algorithm with low dose scan requests

The research of knitting needle status monitoring setup

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Lu; Liao, Xiao-qing; Zhu, Yong-kang; Yang, Wei; Zhang, Pei; Zhao, Yong-kai; Huang, Hui-jie

2013-09-01

In textile production, quality control and testing is the key to ensure the process and improve the efficiency. Defect of the knitting needles is the main factor affecting the quality of the appearance of textiles. Defect detection method based on machine vision and image processing technology is universal. This approach does not effectively identify the defect generated by damaged knitting needles and raise the alarm. We developed a knitting needle status monitoring setup using optical imaging, photoelectric detection and weak signal processing technology to achieve real-time monitoring of weaving needles' position. Depending on the shape of the knitting needle, we designed a kind of Glass Optical Fiber (GOF) light guides with a rectangular port used for transmission of the signal light. To be able to capture the signal of knitting needles accurately, we adopt a optical 4F system which has better imaging quality and simple structure and there is a rectangle image on the focal plane after the system. When a knitting needle passes through position of the rectangle image, the reflected light from needle surface will back to the GOF light guides along the same optical system. According to the intensity of signals, the computer control unit distinguish that the knitting needle is broken or curving. The experimental results show that this system can accurately detect the broken needles and the curving needles on the knitting machine in operating condition.

Automated reference-free detection of motion artifacts in magnetic resonance images.

PubMed

Küstner, Thomas; Liebgott, Annika; Mauch, Lukas; Martirosian, Petros; Bamberg, Fabian; Nikolaou, Konstantin; Yang, Bin; Schick, Fritz; Gatidis, Sergios

2018-04-01

Our objectives were to provide an automated method for spatially resolved detection and quantification of motion artifacts in MR images of the head and abdomen as well as a quality control of the trained architecture. T1-weighted MR images of the head and the upper abdomen were acquired in 16 healthy volunteers under rest and under motion. Images were divided into overlapping patches of different sizes achieving spatial separation. Using these patches as input data, a convolutional neural network (CNN) was trained to derive probability maps for the presence of motion artifacts. A deep visualization offers a human-interpretable quality control of the trained CNN. Results were visually assessed on probability maps and as classification accuracy on a per-patch, per-slice and per-volunteer basis. On visual assessment, a clear difference of probability maps was observed between data sets with and without motion. The overall accuracy of motion detection on a per-patch/per-volunteer basis reached 97%/100% in the head and 75%/100% in the abdomen, respectively. Automated detection of motion artifacts in MRI is feasible with good accuracy in the head and abdomen. The proposed method provides quantification and localization of artifacts as well as a visualization of the learned content. It may be extended to other anatomic areas and used for quality assurance of MR images.

Imaging performance of a LaBr3-based PET scanner

PubMed Central

Daube-Witherspoon, M E; Surti, S; Perkins, A; Kyba, C C M; Wiener, R; Werner, M E; Kulp, R; Karp, J S

2010-01-01

A prototype time-of-flight (TOF) PET scanner based on cerium-doped lanthanum bromide [LaBr3 (5% Ce)] has been developed. LaBr3 has high light output, excellent energy resolution, and fast timing properties that have been predicted to lead to good image quality. Intrinsic performance measurements of spatial resolution, sensitivity, and scatter fraction demonstrate good conventional PET performance; the results agree with previous simulation studies. Phantom measurements show the excellent image quality achievable with the prototype system. Phantom measurements and corresponding simulations show a faster and more uniform convergence rate, as well as more uniform quantification, for TOF reconstruction of the data, which have 375-ps intrinsic timing resolution, compared to non-TOF images. Measurements and simulations of a hot and cold sphere phantom show that the 7% energy resolution helps to mitigate residual errors in the scatter estimate because a high energy threshold (>480 keV) can be used to restrict the amount of scatter accepted without a loss of true events. Preliminary results with incorporation of a model of detector blurring in the iterative reconstruction algorithm show improved contrast recovery but also point out the importance of an accurate resolution model of the tails of LaBr3’s point spread function. The LaBr3 TOF-PET scanner has demonstrated the impact of superior timing and energy resolutions on image quality. PMID:19949259

Factors affecting feasibility and quality of second-trimester ultrasound scans in obese pregnant women.

PubMed

Fuchs, F; Houllier, M; Voulgaropoulos, A; Levaillant, J-M; Colmant, C; Bouyer, J; Senat, M-V

2013-01-01

To evaluate the feasibility of completing in one session a second-trimester ultrasound scan in obese pregnant women, to compare the quality of images obtained with those of non-obese women and to analyze factors that can improve the completion rate. This prospective study, from 2009 to 2011, included all obese pregnant women (prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) > 30 kg/m2) who had an ultrasound examination at 20-24 weeks in our department, and a control group of pregnant women with normal BMI (20-24.9 kg/m2) who had the same examination. A single operator reviewed the standardized ultrasound images (three biometric and six to assess key anatomical features) required under French guidelines, to assess their presence, evaluate the quality of all images and score the quality of the six anatomical images. Each image was assessed according to between four and six criteria, each worth one point. We sought excellent quality, defined as the frequency of maximum points for a given image type. The factors associated with completing the scan in one session were evaluated with multivariate logistic regression. The obese group included 223 women and the control group 60; a complete scan in one session was achieved in 70.4% and 81.7% of these, respectively (P = 0.08). The completion rate for each image type was at least 95% in the control group and 90% in the obese group, except for diaphragm and right outflow tract images. Significant factors associated with completing the scan in the multivariate model were: having 10 additional minutes for the scan (P = 0.03), moving the fetus so that the back was in posterior or lateral position (P = 0.01), more experienced sonographer (P = 0.03) and thinner maternal abdominal wall thickness (P = 0.01). Overall, the excellence rate varied from 35% to 92% in the normal BMI group and from 18% to 58% in the obese group, and was significantly lower in the latter for all images except abdominal circumference (P = 0.26) and spine (P = 0.06). Anatomical quality scores were also significantly lower in the obese group (22.3 vs. 27.2; P = 0.001). Although ultrasound scans of obese pregnant women are feasible, image quality and global anatomical scores are significantly lower among obese than normal-weight women. However, certain simple improvements may increase fetal visualization. Copyright © 2013 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Design of an interventional magnetic resonance imaging coil for cerebral surgery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Yue; Wang, Wen-Tao; Wang, Wei-Min

2012-11-01

In clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the design of the radiofrequency (RF) coil is very important. For certain applications, the appropriate coil can produce an improved image quality. However, it is difficult to achieve a uniform B1 field and a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) simultaneously. In this article, we design an interventional transmitter-and-receiver RF coil for cerebral surgery. This coil adopts a disassembly structure that can be assembled and disassembled repeatedly on the cerebral surgery gantry to reduce the amount of interference from the MRI during surgery. The simulation results and the imaging experiments demonstrate that this coil can produce a uniform RF field, a high SNR, and a large imaging range to meet the requirements of the cerebral surgery.

New segmentation-based tone mapping algorithm for high dynamic range image

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duan, Weiwei; Guo, Huinan; Zhou, Zuofeng; Huang, Huimin; Cao, Jianzhong

2017-07-01

The traditional tone mapping algorithm for the display of high dynamic range (HDR) image has the drawback of losing the impression of brightness, contrast and color information. To overcome this phenomenon, we propose a new tone mapping algorithm based on dividing the image into different exposure regions in this paper. Firstly, the over-exposure region is determined using the Local Binary Pattern information of HDR image. Then, based on the peak and average gray of the histogram, the under-exposure and normal-exposure region of HDR image are selected separately. Finally, the different exposure regions are mapped by differentiated tone mapping methods to get the final result. The experiment results show that the proposed algorithm achieve the better performance both in visual quality and objective contrast criterion than other algorithms.

Evaluation of modulation transfer function of optical lens system by support vector regression methodologies - A comparative study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petković, Dalibor; Shamshirband, Shahaboddin; Saboohi, Hadi; Ang, Tan Fong; Anuar, Nor Badrul; Rahman, Zulkanain Abdul; Pavlović, Nenad T.

2014-07-01

The quantitative assessment of image quality is an important consideration in any type of imaging system. The modulation transfer function (MTF) is a graphical description of the sharpness and contrast of an imaging system or of its individual components. The MTF is also known and spatial frequency response. The MTF curve has different meanings according to the corresponding frequency. The MTF of an optical system specifies the contrast transmitted by the system as a function of image size, and is determined by the inherent optical properties of the system. In this study, the polynomial and radial basis function (RBF) are applied as the kernel function of Support Vector Regression (SVR) to estimate and predict estimate MTF value of the actual optical system according to experimental tests. Instead of minimizing the observed training error, SVR_poly and SVR_rbf attempt to minimize the generalization error bound so as to achieve generalized performance. The experimental results show that an improvement in predictive accuracy and capability of generalization can be achieved by the SVR_rbf approach in compare to SVR_poly soft computing methodology.

Reduction of speckle noise from optical coherence tomography images using multi-frame weighted nuclear norm minimization method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thapa, Damber; Raahemifar, Kaamran; Lakshminarayanan, Vasudevan

2015-12-01

In this paper, we propose a speckle noise reduction method for spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) images called multi-frame weighted nuclear norm minimization (MWNNM). This method is a direct extension of weighted nuclear norm minimization (WNNM) in the multi-frame framework since an adequately denoised image could not be achieved with single-frame denoising methods. The MWNNM method exploits multiple B-scans collected from a small area of a SD-OCT volumetric image, and then denoises and averages them together to obtain a high signal-to-noise ratio B-scan. The results show that the image quality metrics obtained by denoising and averaging only five nearby B-scans with MWNNM method is considerably better than those of the average image obtained by registering and averaging 40 azimuthally repeated B-scans.

View compensated compression of volume rendered images for remote visualization.

PubMed

Lalgudi, Hariharan G; Marcellin, Michael W; Bilgin, Ali; Oh, Han; Nadar, Mariappan S

2009-07-01

Remote visualization of volumetric images has gained importance over the past few years in medical and industrial applications. Volume visualization is a computationally intensive process, often requiring hardware acceleration to achieve a real time viewing experience. One remote visualization model that can accomplish this would transmit rendered images from a server, based on viewpoint requests from a client. For constrained server-client bandwidth, an efficient compression scheme is vital for transmitting high quality rendered images. In this paper, we present a new view compensation scheme that utilizes the geometric relationship between viewpoints to exploit the correlation between successive rendered images. The proposed method obviates motion estimation between rendered images, enabling significant reduction to the complexity of a compressor. Additionally, the view compensation scheme, in conjunction with JPEG2000 performs better than AVC, the state of the art video compression standard.

A survey of landmine detection using hyperspectral imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Makki, Ihab; Younes, Rafic; Francis, Clovis; Bianchi, Tiziano; Zucchetti, Massimo

2017-02-01

Hyperspectral imaging is a trending technique in remote sensing that finds its application in many different areas, such as agriculture, mapping, target detection, food quality monitoring, etc. This technique gives the ability to remotely identify the composition of each pixel of the image. Therefore, it is a natural candidate for the purpose of landmine detection, thanks to its inherent safety and fast response time. In this paper, we will present the results of several studies that employed hyperspectral imaging for the purpose of landmine detection, discussing the different signal processing techniques used in this framework for hyperspectral image processing and target detection. Our purpose is to highlight the progresses attained in the detection of landmines using hyperspectral imaging and to identify possible perspectives for future work, in order to achieve a better detection in real-time operation mode.

Reduction of radiation exposure while maintaining high-quality fluoroscopic images during interventional cardiology using novel x-ray tube technology with extra beam filtering.

PubMed

den Boer, A; de Feyter, P J; Hummel, W A; Keane, D; Roelandt, J R

1994-06-01

Radiographic technology plays an integral role in interventional cardiology. The number of interventions continues to increase, and the associated radiation exposure to patients and personnel is of major concern. This study was undertaken to determine whether a newly developed x-ray tube deploying grid-switched pulsed fluoroscopy and extra beam filtering can achieve a reduction in radiation exposure while maintaining fluoroscopic images of high quality. Three fluoroscopic techniques were compared: continuous fluoroscopy, pulsed fluoroscopy, and a newly developed high-output pulsed fluoroscopy with extra filtering. To ascertain differences in the quality of images and to determine differences in patient entrance and investigator radiation exposure, the radiated volume curve was measured to determine the required high voltage levels (kVpeak) for different object sizes for each fluoroscopic mode. The fluoroscopic data of 124 patient procedures were combined. The data were analyzed for radiographic projections, image intensifier field size, and x-ray tube kilovoltage levels (kVpeak). On the basis of this analysis, a reference procedure was constructed. The reference procedure was tested on a phantom or dummy patient by all three fluoroscopic modes. The phantom was so designed that the kilovoltage requirements for each projection were comparable to those needed for the average patient. Radiation exposure of the operator and patient was measured during each mode. The patient entrance dose was measured in air, and the operator dose was measured by 18 dosimeters on a dummy operator. Pulsed compared with continuous fluoroscopy could be performed with improved image quality at lower kilovoltages. The patient entrance dose was reduced by 21% and the operator dose by 54%. High-output pulsed fluoroscopy with extra beam filtering compared with continuous fluoroscopy improved the image quality, lowered the kilovoltage requirements, and reduced the patient entrance dose by 55% and the operator dose by 69%. High-output pulsed fluoroscopy with a grid-switched tube and extra filtering improves the image quality and significantly reduces both the operator dose and patient dose.

Non-contact respiration monitoring for in-vivo murine micro computed tomography: characterization and imaging applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burk, Laurel M.; Lee, Yueh Z.; Wait, J. Matthew; Lu, Jianping; Zhou, Otto Z.

2012-09-01

A cone beam micro-CT has previously been utilized along with a pressure-tracking respiration sensor to acquire prospectively gated images of both wild-type mice and various adult murine disease models. While the pressure applied to the abdomen of the subject by this sensor is small and is generally without physiological effect, certain disease models of interest, as well as very young animals, are prone to atelectasis with added pressure, or they generate too weak a respiration signal with this method to achieve optimal prospective gating. In this work we present a new fibre-optic displacement sensor which monitors respiratory motion of a subject without requiring physical contact. The sensor outputs an analogue signal which can be used for prospective respiration gating in micro-CT imaging. The device was characterized and compared against a pneumatic air chamber pressure sensor for the imaging of adult wild-type mice. The resulting images were found to be of similar quality with respect to physiological motion blur; the quality of the respiration signal trace obtained using the non-contact sensor was comparable to that of the pressure sensor and was superior for gating purposes due to its better signal-to-noise ratio. The non-contact sensor was then used to acquire in-vivo micro-CT images of a murine model for congenital diaphragmatic hernia and of 11-day-old mouse pups. In both cases, quality CT images were successfully acquired using this new respiration sensor. Despite the presence of beam hardening artefacts arising from the presence of a fibre-optic cable in the imaging field, we believe this new technique for respiration monitoring and gating presents an opportunity for in-vivo imaging of disease models which were previously considered too delicate for established animal handling methods.