Improving best-phase image quality in cardiac CT by motion correction with MAM optimization

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

Rohkohl, Christopher; Bruder, Herbert; Stierstorfer, Karl

2013-03-15

Purpose: Research in image reconstruction for cardiac CT aims at using motion correction algorithms to improve the image quality of the coronary arteries. The key to those algorithms is motion estimation, which is currently based on 3-D/3-D registration to align the structures of interest in images acquired in multiple heart phases. The need for an extended scan data range covering several heart phases is critical in terms of radiation dose to the patient and limits the clinical potential of the method. Furthermore, literature reports only slight quality improvements of the motion corrected images when compared to the most quiet phasemore » (best-phase) that was actually used for motion estimation. In this paper a motion estimation algorithm is proposed which does not require an extended scan range but works with a short scan data interval, and which markedly improves the best-phase image quality. Methods: Motion estimation is based on the definition of motion artifact metrics (MAM) to quantify motion artifacts in a 3-D reconstructed image volume. The authors use two different MAMs, entropy, and positivity. By adjusting the motion field parameters, the MAM of the resulting motion-compensated reconstruction is optimized using a gradient descent procedure. In this way motion artifacts are minimized. For a fast and practical implementation, only analytical methods are used for motion estimation and compensation. Both the MAM-optimization and a 3-D/3-D registration-based motion estimation algorithm were investigated by means of a computer-simulated vessel with a cardiac motion profile. Image quality was evaluated using normalized cross-correlation (NCC) with the ground truth template and root-mean-square deviation (RMSD). Four coronary CT angiography patient cases were reconstructed to evaluate the clinical performance of the proposed method. Results: For the MAM-approach, the best-phase image quality could be improved for all investigated heart phases, with a maximum improvement of the NCC value by 100% and of the RMSD value by 81%. The corresponding maximum improvements for the registration-based approach were 20% and 40%. In phases with very rapid motion the registration-based algorithm obtained better image quality, while the image quality of the MAM algorithm was superior in phases with less motion. The image quality improvement of the MAM optimization was visually confirmed for the different clinical cases. Conclusions: The proposed method allows a software-based best-phase image quality improvement in coronary CT angiography. A short scan data interval at the target heart phase is sufficient, no additional scan data in other cardiac phases are required. The algorithm is therefore directly applicable to any standard cardiac CT acquisition protocol.« less

WE-AB-204-09: Respiratory Motion Correction in 4D-PET by Simultaneous Motion Estimation and Image Reconstruction (SMEIR)

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

Kalantari, F; Wang, J; Li, T

2015-06-15

Purpose: In conventional 4D-PET, images from different frames are reconstructed individually and aligned by registration methods. Two issues with these approaches are: 1) Reconstruction algorithms do not make full use of all projections statistics; and 2) Image registration between noisy images can Result in poor alignment. In this study we investigated the use of simultaneous motion estimation and image reconstruction (SMEIR) method for cone beam CT for motion estimation/correction in 4D-PET. Methods: Modified ordered-subset expectation maximization algorithm coupled with total variation minimization (OSEM- TV) is used to obtain a primary motion-compensated PET (pmc-PET) from all projection data using Demons derivedmore » deformation vector fields (DVFs) as initial. Motion model update is done to obtain an optimal set of DVFs between the pmc-PET and other phases by matching the forward projection of the deformed pmc-PET and measured projections of other phases. Using updated DVFs, OSEM- TV image reconstruction is repeated and new DVFs are estimated based on updated images. 4D XCAT phantom with typical FDG biodistribution and a 10mm diameter tumor was used to evaluate the performance of the SMEIR algorithm. Results: Image quality of 4D-PET is greatly improved by the SMEIR algorithm. When all projections are used to reconstruct a 3D-PET, motion blurring artifacts are present, leading to a more than 5 times overestimation of the tumor size and 54% tumor to lung contrast ratio underestimation. This error reduced to 37% and 20% for post reconstruction registration methods and SMEIR respectively. Conclusion: SMEIR method can be used for motion estimation/correction in 4D-PET. The statistics is greatly improved since all projection data are combined together to update the image. The performance of the SMEIR algorithm for 4D-PET is sensitive to smoothness control parameters in the DVF estimation step.« less

Robotic real-time translational and rotational head motion correction during frameless stereotactic radiosurgery

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

Liu, Xinmin; Belcher, Andrew H.; Grelewicz, Zachary

Purpose: To develop a control system to correct both translational and rotational head motion deviations in real-time during frameless stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). Methods: A novel feedback control with a feed-forward algorithm was utilized to correct for the coupling of translation and rotation present in serial kinematic robotic systems. Input parameters for the algorithm include the real-time 6DOF target position, the frame pitch pivot point to target distance constant, and the translational and angular Linac beam off (gating) tolerance constants for patient safety. Testing of the algorithm was done using a 4D (XY Z + pitch) robotic stage, an infrared headmore » position sensing unit and a control computer. The measured head position signal was processed and a resulting command was sent to the interface of a four-axis motor controller, through which four stepper motors were driven to perform motion compensation. Results: The control of the translation of a brain target was decoupled with the control of the rotation. For a phantom study, the corrected position was within a translational displacement of 0.35 mm and a pitch displacement of 0.15° 100% of the time. For a volunteer study, the corrected position was within displacements of 0.4 mm and 0.2° over 98.5% of the time, while it was 10.7% without correction. Conclusions: The authors report a control design approach for both translational and rotational head motion correction. The experiments demonstrated that control performance of the 4D robotic stage meets the submillimeter and subdegree accuracy required by SRS.« less

Dynamic PET image reconstruction integrating temporal regularization associated with respiratory motion correction for applications in oncology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Merlin, Thibaut; Visvikis, Dimitris; Fernandez, Philippe; Lamare, Frédéric

2018-02-01

Respiratory motion reduces both the qualitative and quantitative accuracy of PET images in oncology. This impact is more significant for quantitative applications based on kinetic modeling, where dynamic acquisitions are associated with limited statistics due to the necessity of enhanced temporal resolution. The aim of this study is to address these drawbacks, by combining a respiratory motion correction approach with temporal regularization in a unique reconstruction algorithm for dynamic PET imaging. Elastic transformation parameters for the motion correction are estimated from the non-attenuation-corrected PET images. The derived displacement matrices are subsequently used in a list-mode based OSEM reconstruction algorithm integrating a temporal regularization between the 3D dynamic PET frames, based on temporal basis functions. These functions are simultaneously estimated at each iteration, along with their relative coefficients for each image voxel. Quantitative evaluation has been performed using dynamic FDG PET/CT acquisitions of lung cancer patients acquired on a GE DRX system. The performance of the proposed method is compared with that of a standard multi-frame OSEM reconstruction algorithm. The proposed method achieved substantial improvements in terms of noise reduction while accounting for loss of contrast due to respiratory motion. Results on simulated data showed that the proposed 4D algorithms led to bias reduction values up to 40% in both tumor and blood regions for similar standard deviation levels, in comparison with a standard 3D reconstruction. Patlak parameter estimations on reconstructed images with the proposed reconstruction methods resulted in 30% and 40% bias reduction in the tumor and lung region respectively for the Patlak slope, and a 30% bias reduction for the intercept in the tumor region (a similar Patlak intercept was achieved in the lung area). Incorporation of the respiratory motion correction using an elastic model along with a temporal regularization in the reconstruction process of the PET dynamic series led to substantial quantitative improvements and motion artifact reduction. Future work will include the integration of a linear FDG kinetic model, in order to directly reconstruct parametric images.

Dynamic PET image reconstruction integrating temporal regularization associated with respiratory motion correction for applications in oncology.

PubMed

Merlin, Thibaut; Visvikis, Dimitris; Fernandez, Philippe; Lamare, Frédéric

2018-02-13

Respiratory motion reduces both the qualitative and quantitative accuracy of PET images in oncology. This impact is more significant for quantitative applications based on kinetic modeling, where dynamic acquisitions are associated with limited statistics due to the necessity of enhanced temporal resolution. The aim of this study is to address these drawbacks, by combining a respiratory motion correction approach with temporal regularization in a unique reconstruction algorithm for dynamic PET imaging. Elastic transformation parameters for the motion correction are estimated from the non-attenuation-corrected PET images. The derived displacement matrices are subsequently used in a list-mode based OSEM reconstruction algorithm integrating a temporal regularization between the 3D dynamic PET frames, based on temporal basis functions. These functions are simultaneously estimated at each iteration, along with their relative coefficients for each image voxel. Quantitative evaluation has been performed using dynamic FDG PET/CT acquisitions of lung cancer patients acquired on a GE DRX system. The performance of the proposed method is compared with that of a standard multi-frame OSEM reconstruction algorithm. The proposed method achieved substantial improvements in terms of noise reduction while accounting for loss of contrast due to respiratory motion. Results on simulated data showed that the proposed 4D algorithms led to bias reduction values up to 40% in both tumor and blood regions for similar standard deviation levels, in comparison with a standard 3D reconstruction. Patlak parameter estimations on reconstructed images with the proposed reconstruction methods resulted in 30% and 40% bias reduction in the tumor and lung region respectively for the Patlak slope, and a 30% bias reduction for the intercept in the tumor region (a similar Patlak intercept was achieved in the lung area). Incorporation of the respiratory motion correction using an elastic model along with a temporal regularization in the reconstruction process of the PET dynamic series led to substantial quantitative improvements and motion artifact reduction. Future work will include the integration of a linear FDG kinetic model, in order to directly reconstruct parametric images.

Complex differential variance angiography with noise-bias correction for optical coherence tomography of the retina

PubMed Central

Braaf, Boy; Donner, Sabine; Nam, Ahhyun S.; Bouma, Brett E.; Vakoc, Benjamin J.

2018-01-01

Complex differential variance (CDV) provides phase-sensitive angiographic imaging for optical coherence tomography (OCT) with immunity to phase-instabilities of the imaging system and small-scale axial bulk motion. However, like all angiographic methods, measurement noise can result in erroneous indications of blood flow that confuse the interpretation of angiographic images. In this paper, a modified CDV algorithm that corrects for this noise-bias is presented. This is achieved by normalizing the CDV signal by analytically derived upper and lower limits. The noise-bias corrected CDV algorithm was implemented into an experimental 1 μm wavelength OCT system for retinal imaging that used an eye tracking scanner laser ophthalmoscope at 815 nm for compensation of lateral eye motions. The noise-bias correction improved the CDV imaging of the blood flow in tissue layers with a low signal-to-noise ratio and suppressed false indications of blood flow outside the tissue. In addition, the CDV signal normalization suppressed noise induced by galvanometer scanning errors and small-scale lateral motion. High quality cross-section and motion-corrected en face angiograms of the retina and choroid are presented. PMID:29552388

Complex differential variance angiography with noise-bias correction for optical coherence tomography of the retina.

PubMed

Braaf, Boy; Donner, Sabine; Nam, Ahhyun S; Bouma, Brett E; Vakoc, Benjamin J

2018-02-01

Complex differential variance (CDV) provides phase-sensitive angiographic imaging for optical coherence tomography (OCT) with immunity to phase-instabilities of the imaging system and small-scale axial bulk motion. However, like all angiographic methods, measurement noise can result in erroneous indications of blood flow that confuse the interpretation of angiographic images. In this paper, a modified CDV algorithm that corrects for this noise-bias is presented. This is achieved by normalizing the CDV signal by analytically derived upper and lower limits. The noise-bias corrected CDV algorithm was implemented into an experimental 1 μm wavelength OCT system for retinal imaging that used an eye tracking scanner laser ophthalmoscope at 815 nm for compensation of lateral eye motions. The noise-bias correction improved the CDV imaging of the blood flow in tissue layers with a low signal-to-noise ratio and suppressed false indications of blood flow outside the tissue. In addition, the CDV signal normalization suppressed noise induced by galvanometer scanning errors and small-scale lateral motion. High quality cross-section and motion-corrected en face angiograms of the retina and choroid are presented.

Blind multirigid retrospective motion correction of MR images.

PubMed

Loktyushin, Alexander; Nickisch, Hannes; Pohmann, Rolf; Schölkopf, Bernhard

2015-04-01

Physiological nonrigid motion is inevitable when imaging, e.g., abdominal viscera, and can lead to serious deterioration of the image quality. Prospective techniques for motion correction can handle only special types of nonrigid motion, as they only allow global correction. Retrospective methods developed so far need guidance from navigator sequences or external sensors. We propose a fully retrospective nonrigid motion correction scheme that only needs raw data as an input. Our method is based on a forward model that describes the effects of nonrigid motion by partitioning the image into patches with locally rigid motion. Using this forward model, we construct an objective function that we can optimize with respect to both unknown motion parameters per patch and the underlying sharp image. We evaluate our method on both synthetic and real data in 2D and 3D. In vivo data was acquired using standard imaging sequences. The correction algorithm significantly improves the image quality. Our compute unified device architecture (CUDA)-enabled graphic processing unit implementation ensures feasible computation times. The presented technique is the first computationally feasible retrospective method that uses the raw data of standard imaging sequences, and allows to correct for nonrigid motion without guidance from external motion sensors. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Planning and delivery of four-dimensional radiation therapy with multileaf collimators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McMahon, Ryan L.

This study is an investigation of the application of multileaf collimators (MLCs) to the treatment of moving anatomy with external beam radiation therapy. First, a method for delivering intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) to moving tumors is presented. This method uses an MLC control algorithm that calculates appropriate MLC leaf speeds in response to feedback from real-time imaging. The algorithm does not require a priori knowledge of a tumor's motion, and is based on the concept of self-correcting DMLC leaf trajectories . This gives the algorithm the distinct advantage of allowing for correction of DMLC delivery errors without interrupting delivery. The algorithm is first tested for the case of one-dimensional (1D) rigid tumor motion in the beam's eye view (BEV). For this type of motion, it is shown that the real-time tracking algorithm results in more accurate deliveries, with respect to delivered intensity, than those which ignore motion altogether. This is followed by an appropriate extension of the algorithm to two-dimensional (2D) rigid motion in the BEV. For this type of motion, it is shown that the 2D real-time tracking algorithm results in improved accuracy (in the delivered intensity) in comparison to deliveries which ignore tumor motion or only account for tumor motion which is aligned with MLC leaf travel. Finally, a method is presented for designing DMLC leaf trajectories which deliver a specified intensity over a moving tumor without overexposing critical structures which exhibit motion patterns that differ from that of the tumor. In addition to avoiding overexposure of critical organs, the method can, in the case shown, produce deliveries that are superior to anything achievable using stationary anatomy. In this regard, the method represents a systematic way to include anatomical motion as a degree of freedom in the optimization of IMRT while producing treatment plans that are deliverable with currently available technology. These results, combined with those related to the real-time MLC tracking algorithm, show that an MLC is a promising tool to investigate for the delivery of four-dimensional radiation therapy.

MR-assisted PET Motion Correction for eurological Studies in an Integrated MR-PET Scanner

PubMed Central

Catana, Ciprian; Benner, Thomas; van der Kouwe, Andre; Byars, Larry; Hamm, Michael; Chonde, Daniel B.; Michel, Christian J.; El Fakhri, Georges; Schmand, Matthias; Sorensen, A. Gregory

2011-01-01

Head motion is difficult to avoid in long PET studies, degrading the image quality and offsetting the benefit of using a high-resolution scanner. As a potential solution in an integrated MR-PET scanner, the simultaneously acquired MR data can be used for motion tracking. In this work, a novel data processing and rigid-body motion correction (MC) algorithm for the MR-compatible BrainPET prototype scanner is described and proof-of-principle phantom and human studies are presented. Methods To account for motion, the PET prompts and randoms coincidences as well as the sensitivity data are processed in the line or response (LOR) space according to the MR-derived motion estimates. After sinogram space rebinning, the corrected data are summed and the motion corrected PET volume is reconstructed from these sinograms and the attenuation and scatter sinograms in the reference position. The accuracy of the MC algorithm was first tested using a Hoffman phantom. Next, human volunteer studies were performed and motion estimates were obtained using two high temporal resolution MR-based motion tracking techniques. Results After accounting for the physical mismatch between the two scanners, perfectly co-registered MR and PET volumes are reproducibly obtained. The MR output gates inserted in to the PET list-mode allow the temporal correlation of the two data sets within 0.2 s. The Hoffman phantom volume reconstructed processing the PET data in the LOR space was similar to the one obtained processing the data using the standard methods and applying the MC in the image space, demonstrating the quantitative accuracy of the novel MC algorithm. In human volunteer studies, motion estimates were obtained from echo planar imaging and cloverleaf navigator sequences every 3 seconds and 20 ms, respectively. Substantially improved PET images with excellent delineation of specific brain structures were obtained after applying the MC using these MR-based estimates. Conclusion A novel MR-based MC algorithm was developed for the integrated MR-PET scanner. High temporal resolution MR-derived motion estimates (obtained while simultaneously acquiring anatomical or functional MR data) can be used for PET MC. An MR-based MC has the potential to improve PET as a quantitative method, increasing its reliability and reproducibility which could benefit a large number of neurological applications. PMID:21189415

Free-breathing 3D Cardiac MRI Using Iterative Image-Based Respiratory Motion Correction

PubMed Central

Moghari, Mehdi H.; Roujol, Sébastien; Chan, Raymond H.; Hong, Susie N.; Bello, Natalie; Henningsson, Markus; Ngo, Long H.; Goddu, Beth; Goepfert, Lois; Kissinger, Kraig V.; Manning, Warren J.; Nezafat, Reza

2012-01-01

Respiratory motion compensation using diaphragmatic navigator (NAV) gating with a 5 mm gating window is conventionally used for free-breathing cardiac MRI. Due to the narrow gating window, scan efficiency is low resulting in long scan times, especially for patients with irregular breathing patterns. In this work, a new retrospective motion compensation algorithm is presented to reduce the scan time for free-breathing cardiac MRI that increasing the gating window to 15 mm without compromising image quality. The proposed algorithm iteratively corrects for respiratory-induced cardiac motion by optimizing the sharpness of the heart. To evaluate this technique, two coronary MRI datasets with 1.3 mm3 resolution were acquired from 11 healthy subjects (7 females, 25±9 years); one using a NAV with a 5 mm gating window acquired in 12.0±2.0 minutes and one with a 15 mm gating window acquired in 7.1±1.0 minutes. The images acquired with a 15 mm gating window were corrected using the proposed algorithm and compared to the uncorrected images acquired with the 5 mm and 15 mm gating windows. The image quality score, sharpness, and length of the three major coronary arteries were equivalent between the corrected images and the images acquired with a 5 mm gating window (p-value>0.05), while the scan time was reduced by a factor of 1.7. PMID:23132549

Fast automatic correction of motion artifacts in shoulder MRI

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

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

2001-07-01

The ability to correct certain types of MR images for motion artifacts from the raw data alone by iterative optimization of an image quality measure has recently been demonstrated. In the first study on a large data set of clinical images, we showed that such an autocorrection technique significantly improved the quality of clinical rotator cuff images, and performed almost as well as navigator echo correction while never degrading an image. One major criticism of such techniques is that they are computationally intensive, and reports of the processing time required have ranged form a few minutes to tens of minutes per slice. In this paper we describe a variety of improvements to our algorithm as well as approaches to correct sets of adjacent slices efficiently. The resulting algorithm is able to correct 256x256x20 clinical shoulder data sets for motion at an effective rate of 1 second/image on a standard commercial workstation. Future improvements in processor speeds and/or the use of specialized hardware will translate directly to corresponding reductions in this calculation time.

Evaluating motion processing algorithms for use with functional near-infrared spectroscopy data from young children.

PubMed

Delgado Reyes, Lourdes M; Bohache, Kevin; Wijeakumar, Sobanawartiny; Spencer, John P

2018-04-01

Motion artifacts are often a significant component of the measured signal in functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) experiments. A variety of methods have been proposed to address this issue, including principal components analysis (PCA), correlation-based signal improvement (CBSI), wavelet filtering, and spline interpolation. The efficacy of these techniques has been compared using simulated data; however, our understanding of how these techniques fare when dealing with task-based cognitive data is limited. Brigadoi et al. compared motion correction techniques in a sample of adult data measured during a simple cognitive task. Wavelet filtering showed the most promise as an optimal technique for motion correction. Given that fNIRS is often used with infants and young children, it is critical to evaluate the effectiveness of motion correction techniques directly with data from these age groups. This study addresses that problem by evaluating motion correction algorithms implemented in HomER2. The efficacy of each technique was compared quantitatively using objective metrics related to the physiological properties of the hemodynamic response. Results showed that targeted PCA (tPCA), spline, and CBSI retained a higher number of trials. These techniques also performed well in direct head-to-head comparisons with the other approaches using quantitative metrics. The CBSI method corrected many of the artifacts present in our data; however, this approach produced sometimes unstable HRFs. The targeted PCA and spline methods proved to be the most robust, performing well across all comparison metrics. When compared head to head, tPCA consistently outperformed spline. We conclude, therefore, that tPCA is an effective technique for correcting motion artifacts in fNIRS data from young children.

Motion correction for improving the accuracy of dual-energy myocardial perfusion CT imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pack, Jed D.; Yin, Zhye; Xiong, Guanglei; Mittal, Priya; Dunham, Simon; Elmore, Kimberly; Edic, Peter M.; Min, James K.

2016-03-01

Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death globally [1]. Modern cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) is highly effective at identifying and assessing coronary blockages associated with CAD. The diagnostic value of this anatomical information can be substantially increased in combination with a non-invasive, low-dose, correlative, quantitative measure of blood supply to the myocardium. While CT perfusion has shown promise of providing such indications of ischemia, artifacts due to motion, beam hardening, and other factors confound clinical findings and can limit quantitative accuracy. In this paper, we investigate the impact of applying a novel motion correction algorithm to correct for motion in the myocardium. This motion compensation algorithm (originally designed to correct for the motion of the coronary arteries in order to improve CCTA images) has been shown to provide substantial improvements in both overall image quality and diagnostic accuracy of CCTA. We have adapted this technique for application beyond the coronary arteries and present an assessment of its impact on image quality and quantitative accuracy within the context of dual-energy CT perfusion imaging. We conclude that motion correction is a promising technique that can help foster the routine clinical use of dual-energy CT perfusion. When combined, the anatomical information of CCTA and the hemodynamic information from dual-energy CT perfusion should facilitate better clinical decisions about which patients would benefit from treatments such as stent placement, drug therapy, or surgery and help other patients avoid the risks and costs associated with unnecessary, invasive, diagnostic coronary angiography procedures.

Blind retrospective motion correction of MR images.

PubMed

Loktyushin, Alexander; Nickisch, Hannes; Pohmann, Rolf; Schölkopf, Bernhard

2013-12-01

Subject motion can severely degrade MR images. A retrospective motion correction algorithm, Gradient-based motion correction, which significantly reduces ghosting and blurring artifacts due to subject motion was proposed. The technique uses the raw data of standard imaging sequences; no sequence modifications or additional equipment such as tracking devices are required. Rigid motion is assumed. The approach iteratively searches for the motion trajectory yielding the sharpest image as measured by the entropy of spatial gradients. The vast space of motion parameters is efficiently explored by gradient-based optimization with a convergence guarantee. The method has been evaluated on both synthetic and real data in two and three dimensions using standard imaging techniques. MR images are consistently improved over different kinds of motion trajectories. Using a graphics processing unit implementation, computation times are in the order of a few minutes for a full three-dimensional volume. The presented technique can be an alternative or a complement to prospective motion correction methods and is able to improve images with strong motion artifacts from standard imaging sequences without requiring additional data. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., a Wiley company.

Improved algorithm for computerized detection and quantification of pulmonary emphysema at high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tylen, Ulf; Friman, Ola; Borga, Magnus; Angelhed, Jan-Erik

2001-05-01

Emphysema is characterized by destruction of lung tissue with development of small or large holes within the lung. These areas will have Hounsfield values (HU) approaching -1000. It is possible to detect and quantificate such areas using simple density mask technique. The edge enhancement reconstruction algorithm, gravity and motion of the heart and vessels during scanning causes artefacts, however. The purpose of our work was to construct an algorithm that detects such image artefacts and corrects them. The first step is to apply inverse filtering to the image removing much of the effect of the edge enhancement reconstruction algorithm. The next step implies computation of the antero-posterior density gradient caused by gravity and correction for that. Motion artefacts are in a third step corrected for by use of normalized averaging, thresholding and region growing. Twenty healthy volunteers were investigated, 10 with slight emphysema and 10 without. Using simple density mask technique it was not possible to separate persons with disease from those without. Our algorithm improved separation of the two groups considerably. Our algorithm needs further refinement, but may form a basis for further development of methods for computerized diagnosis and quantification of emphysema by HRCT.

A head motion estimation algorithm for motion artifact correction in dental CT imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hernandez, Daniel; Elsayed Eldib, Mohamed; Hegazy, Mohamed A. A.; Hye Cho, Myung; Cho, Min Hyoung; Lee, Soo Yeol

2018-03-01

A small head motion of the patient can compromise the image quality in a dental CT, in which a slow cone-beam scan is adopted. We introduce a retrospective head motion estimation method by which we can estimate the motion waveform from the projection images without employing any external motion monitoring devices. We compute the cross-correlation between every two successive projection images, which results in a sinusoid-like displacement curve over the projection view when there is no patient motion. However, the displacement curve deviates from the sinusoid-like form when patient motion occurs. We develop a method to estimate the motion waveform with a single parameter derived from the displacement curve with aid of image entropy minimization. To verify the motion estimation method, we use a lab-built micro-CT that can emulate major head motions during dental CT scans, such as tilting and nodding, in a controlled way. We find that the estimated motion waveform conforms well to the actual motion waveform. To further verify the motion estimation method, we correct the motion artifacts with the estimated motion waveform. After motion artifact correction, the corrected images look almost identical to the reference images, with structural similarity index values greater than 0.81 in the phantom and rat imaging studies.

Revised motion estimation algorithm for PROPELLER MRI.

PubMed

Pipe, James G; Gibbs, Wende N; Li, Zhiqiang; Karis, John P; Schar, Michael; Zwart, Nicholas R

2014-08-01

To introduce a new algorithm for estimating data shifts (used for both rotation and translation estimates) for motion-corrected PROPELLER MRI. The method estimates shifts for all blades jointly, emphasizing blade-pair correlations that are both strong and more robust to noise. The heads of three volunteers were scanned using a PROPELLER acquisition while they exhibited various amounts of motion. All data were reconstructed twice, using motion estimates from the original and new algorithm. Two radiologists independently and blindly compared 216 image pairs from these scans, ranking the left image as substantially better or worse than, slightly better or worse than, or equivalent to the right image. In the aggregate of 432 scores, the new method was judged substantially better than the old method 11 times, and was never judged substantially worse. The new algorithm compared favorably with the old in its ability to estimate bulk motion in a limited study of volunteer motion. A larger study of patients is planned for future work. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of rigid and deformable motion correction algorithms using dual-energy CT images in view of application to CT perfusion measurements in abdominal organs affected by breathing motion

PubMed Central

Skornitzke, S; Fritz, F; Klauss, M; Pahn, G; Hansen, J; Hirsch, J; Grenacher, L; Kauczor, H-U

2015-01-01

Objective: To compare six different scenarios for correcting for breathing motion in abdominal dual-energy CT (DECT) perfusion measurements. Methods: Rigid [RRComm(80 kVp)] and non-rigid [NRComm(80 kVp)] registration of commercially available CT perfusion software, custom non-rigid registration [NRCustom(80 kVp], demons algorithm) and a control group [CG(80 kVp)] without motion correction were evaluated using 80 kVp images. Additionally, NRCustom was applied to dual-energy (DE)-blended [NRCustom(DE)] and virtual non-contrast [NRCustom(VNC)] images, yielding six evaluated scenarios. After motion correction, perfusion maps were calculated using a combined maximum slope/Patlak model. For qualitative evaluation, three blinded radiologists independently rated motion correction quality and resulting perfusion maps on a four-point scale (4 = best, 1 = worst). For quantitative evaluation, relative changes in metric values, R2 and residuals of perfusion model fits were calculated. Results: For motion-corrected images, mean ratings differed significantly [NRCustom(80 kVp) and NRCustom(DE), 3.3; NRComm(80 kVp), 3.1; NRCustom(VNC), 2.9; RRComm(80 kVp), 2.7; CG(80 kVp), 2.7; all p < 0.05], except when comparing NRCustom(80 kVp) with NRCustom(DE) and RRComm(80 kVp) with CG(80 kVp). NRCustom(80 kVp) and NRCustom(DE) achieved the highest reduction in metric values [NRCustom(80 kVp), 48.5%; NRCustom(DE), 45.6%; NRComm(80 kVp), 29.2%; NRCustom(VNC), 22.8%; RRComm(80 kVp), 0.6%; CG(80 kVp), 0%]. Regarding perfusion maps, NRCustom(80 kVp) and NRCustom(DE) were rated highest [NRCustom(80 kVp), 3.1; NRCustom(DE), 3.0; NRComm(80 kVp), 2.8; NRCustom(VNC), 2.6; CG(80 kVp), 2.5; RRComm(80 kVp), 2.4] and had significantly higher R2 and lower residuals. Correlation between qualitative and quantitative evaluation was low to moderate. Conclusion: Non-rigid motion correction improves spatial alignment of the target region and fit of CT perfusion models. Using DE-blended and DE-VNC images for deformable registration offers no significant improvement. Advances in knowledge: Non-rigid algorithms improve the quality of abdominal CT perfusion measurements but do not benefit from DECT post processing. PMID:25465353

Motion and positional error correction for cone beam 3D-reconstruction with mobile C-arms.

PubMed

Bodensteiner, C; Darolti, C; Schumacher, H; Matthäus, L; Schweikard, A

2007-01-01

CT-images acquired by mobile C-arm devices can contain artefacts caused by positioning errors. We propose a data driven method based on iterative 3D-reconstruction and 2D/3D-registration to correct projection data inconsistencies. With a 2D/3D-registration algorithm, transformations are computed to align the acquired projection images to a previously reconstructed volume. In an iterative procedure, the reconstruction algorithm uses the results of the registration step. This algorithm also reduces small motion artefacts within 3D-reconstructions. Experiments with simulated projections from real patient data show the feasibility of the proposed method. In addition, experiments with real projection data acquired with an experimental robotised C-arm device have been performed with promising results.

Pilot study on real-time motion detection in UAS video data by human observer and image exploitation algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hild, Jutta; Krüger, Wolfgang; Brüstle, Stefan; Trantelle, Patrick; Unmüßig, Gabriel; Voit, Michael; Heinze, Norbert; Peinsipp-Byma, Elisabeth; Beyerer, Jürgen

2017-05-01

Real-time motion video analysis is a challenging and exhausting task for the human observer, particularly in safety and security critical domains. Hence, customized video analysis systems providing functions for the analysis of subtasks like motion detection or target tracking are welcome. While such automated algorithms relieve the human operators from performing basic subtasks, they impose additional interaction duties on them. Prior work shows that, e.g., for interaction with target tracking algorithms, a gaze-enhanced user interface is beneficial. In this contribution, we present an investigation on interaction with an independent motion detection (IDM) algorithm. Besides identifying an appropriate interaction technique for the user interface - again, we compare gaze-based and traditional mouse-based interaction - we focus on the benefit an IDM algorithm might provide for an UAS video analyst. In a pilot study, we exposed ten subjects to the task of moving target detection in UAS video data twice, once performing with automatic support, once performing without it. We compare the two conditions considering performance in terms of effectiveness (correct target selections). Additionally, we report perceived workload (measured using the NASA-TLX questionnaire) and user satisfaction (measured using the ISO 9241-411 questionnaire). The results show that a combination of gaze input and automated IDM algorithm provides valuable support for the human observer, increasing the number of correct target selections up to 62% and reducing workload at the same time.

Beam-induced motion correction for sub-megadalton cryo-EM particles.

PubMed

Scheres, Sjors Hw

2014-08-13

In electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM), the electron beam that is used for imaging also causes the sample to move. This motion blurs the images and limits the resolution attainable by single-particle analysis. In a previous Research article (Bai et al., 2013) we showed that correcting for this motion by processing movies from fast direct-electron detectors allowed structure determination to near-atomic resolution from 35,000 ribosome particles. In this Research advance article, we show that an improved movie processing algorithm is applicable to a much wider range of specimens. The new algorithm estimates straight movement tracks by considering multiple particles that are close to each other in the field of view, and models the fall-off of high-resolution information content by radiation damage in a dose-dependent manner. Application of the new algorithm to four data sets illustrates its potential for significantly improving cryo-EM structures, even for particles that are smaller than 200 kDa. Copyright © 2014, Scheres.

Local respiratory motion correction for PET/CT imaging: Application to lung cancer

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

Lamare, F., E-mail: frederic.lamare@chu-bordeaux.fr; Fernandez, P.; Fayad, H.

Purpose: Despite multiple methodologies already proposed to correct respiratory motion in the whole PET imaging field of view (FOV), such approaches have not found wide acceptance in clinical routine. An alternative can be the local respiratory motion correction (LRMC) of data corresponding to a given volume of interest (VOI: organ or tumor). Advantages of LRMC include the use of a simple motion model, faster execution times, and organ specific motion correction. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of LMRC using various motion models for oncology (lung lesion) applications. Methods: Both simulated (NURBS based 4D cardiac-torso phantom)more » and clinical studies (six patients) were used in the evaluation of the proposed LRMC approach. PET data were acquired in list-mode and synchronized with respiration. The implemented approach consists first in defining a VOI on the reconstructed motion average image. Gated PET images of the VOI are subsequently reconstructed using only lines of response passing through the selected VOI and are used in combination with a center of gravity or an affine/elastic registration algorithm to derive the transformation maps corresponding to the respiration effects. Those are finally integrated in the reconstruction process to produce a motion free image over the lesion regions. Results: Although the center of gravity or affine algorithm achieved similar performance for individual lesion motion correction, the elastic model, applied either locally or to the whole FOV, led to an overall superior performance. The spatial tumor location was altered by 89% and 81% for the elastic model applied locally or to the whole FOV, respectively (compared to 44% and 39% for the center of gravity and affine models, respectively). This resulted in similar associated overall tumor volume changes of 84% and 80%, respectively (compared to 75% and 71% for the center of gravity and affine models, respectively). The application of the nonrigid deformation model in LRMC led to over an order of magnitude gain in computational efficiency of the correction relative to the application of the deformable model to the whole FOV. Conclusions: The results of this study support the use of LMRC as a flexible and efficient correction approach for respiratory motion effects for single lesions in the thoracic area.« less

MRI-Based Nonrigid Motion Correction in Simultaneous PET/MRI

PubMed Central

Chun, Se Young; Reese, Timothy G.; Ouyang, Jinsong; Guerin, Bastien; Catana, Ciprian; Zhu, Xuping; Alpert, Nathaniel M.; El Fakhri, Georges

2014-01-01

Respiratory and cardiac motion is the most serious limitation to whole-body PET, resulting in spatial resolution close to 1 cm. Furthermore, motion-induced inconsistencies in the attenuation measurements often lead to significant artifacts in the reconstructed images. Gating can remove motion artifacts at the cost of increased noise. This paper presents an approach to respiratory motion correction using simultaneous PET/MRI to demonstrate initial results in phantoms, rabbits, and nonhuman primates and discusses the prospects for clinical application. Methods Studies with a deformable phantom, a free-breathing primate, and rabbits implanted with radioactive beads were performed with simultaneous PET/MRI. Motion fields were estimated from concurrently acquired tagged MR images using 2 B-spline nonrigid image registration methods and incorporated into a PET list-mode ordered-subsets expectation maximization algorithm. Using the measured motion fields to transform both the emission data and the attenuation data, we could use all the coincidence data to reconstruct any phase of the respiratory cycle. We compared the resulting SNR and the channelized Hotelling observer (CHO) detection signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the motion-corrected reconstruction with the results obtained from standard gating and uncorrected studies. Results Motion correction virtually eliminated motion blur without reducing SNR, yielding images with SNR comparable to those obtained by gating with 5–8 times longer acquisitions in all studies. The CHO study in dynamic phantoms demonstrated a significant improvement (166%–276%) in lesion detection SNR with MRI-based motion correction as compared with gating (P < 0.001). This improvement was 43%–92% for large motion compared with lesion detection without motion correction (P < 0.001). CHO SNR in the rabbit studies confirmed these results. Conclusion Tagged MRI motion correction in simultaneous PET/MRI significantly improves lesion detection compared with respiratory gating and no motion correction while reducing radiation dose. In vivo primate and rabbit studies confirmed the improvement in PET image quality and provide the rationale for evaluation in simultaneous whole-body PET/MRI clinical studies. PMID:22743250

NoRMCorre: An online algorithm for piecewise rigid motion correction of calcium imaging data.

PubMed

Pnevmatikakis, Eftychios A; Giovannucci, Andrea

2017-11-01

Motion correction is a challenging pre-processing problem that arises early in the analysis pipeline of calcium imaging data sequences. The motion artifacts in two-photon microscopy recordings can be non-rigid, arising from the finite time of raster scanning and non-uniform deformations of the brain medium. We introduce an algorithm for fast Non-Rigid Motion Correction (NoRMCorre) based on template matching. NoRMCorre operates by splitting the field of view (FOV) into overlapping spatial patches along all directions. The patches are registered at a sub-pixel resolution for rigid translation against a regularly updated template. The estimated alignments are subsequently up-sampled to create a smooth motion field for each frame that can efficiently approximate non-rigid artifacts in a piecewise-rigid manner. Existing approaches either do not scale well in terms of computational performance or are targeted to non-rigid artifacts arising just from the finite speed of raster scanning, and thus cannot correct for non-rigid motion observable in datasets from a large FOV. NoRMCorre can be run in an online mode resulting in comparable to or even faster than real time motion registration of streaming data. We evaluate its performance with simple yet intuitive metrics and compare against other non-rigid registration methods on simulated data and in vivo two-photon calcium imaging datasets. Open source Matlab and Python code is also made available. The proposed method and accompanying code can be useful for solving large scale image registration problems in calcium imaging, especially in the presence of non-rigid deformations. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Improved workflow for quantification of left ventricular volumes and mass using free-breathing motion corrected cine imaging.

PubMed

Cross, Russell; Olivieri, Laura; O'Brien, Kendall; Kellman, Peter; Xue, Hui; Hansen, Michael

2016-02-25

Traditional cine imaging for cardiac functional assessment requires breath-holding, which can be problematic in some situations. Free-breathing techniques have relied on multiple averages or real-time imaging, producing images that can be spatially and/or temporally blurred. To overcome this, methods have been developed to acquire real-time images over multiple cardiac cycles, which are subsequently motion corrected and reformatted to yield a single image series displaying one cardiac cycle with high temporal and spatial resolution. Application of these algorithms has required significant additional reconstruction time. The use of distributed computing was recently proposed as a way to improve clinical workflow with such algorithms. In this study, we have deployed a distributed computing version of motion corrected re-binning reconstruction for free-breathing evaluation of cardiac function. Twenty five patients and 25 volunteers underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) for evaluation of left ventricular end-systolic volume (ESV), end-diastolic volume (EDV), and end-diastolic mass. Measurements using motion corrected re-binning were compared to those using breath-held SSFP and to free-breathing SSFP with multiple averages, and were performed by two independent observers. Pearson correlation coefficients and Bland-Altman plots tested agreement across techniques. Concordance correlation coefficient and Bland-Altman analysis tested inter-observer variability. Total scan plus reconstruction times were tested for significant differences using paired t-test. Measured volumes and mass obtained by motion corrected re-binning and by averaged free-breathing SSFP compared favorably to those obtained by breath-held SSFP (r = 0.9863/0.9813 for EDV, 0.9550/0.9685 for ESV, 0.9952/0.9771 for mass). Inter-observer variability was good with concordance correlation coefficients between observers across all acquisition types suggesting substantial agreement. Both motion corrected re-binning and averaged free-breathing SSFP acquisition and reconstruction times were shorter than breath-held SSFP techniques (p < 0.0001). On average, motion corrected re-binning required 3 min less than breath-held SSFP imaging, a 37% reduction in acquisition and reconstruction time. The motion corrected re-binning image reconstruction technique provides robust cardiac imaging that can be used for quantification that compares favorably to breath-held SSFP as well as multiple average free-breathing SSFP, but can be obtained in a fraction of the time when using cloud-based distributed computing reconstruction.

Direct reconstruction of parametric images for brain PET with event-by-event motion correction: evaluation in two tracers across count levels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Germino, Mary; Gallezot, Jean-Dominque; Yan, Jianhua; Carson, Richard E.

2017-07-01

Parametric images for dynamic positron emission tomography (PET) are typically generated by an indirect method, i.e. reconstructing a time series of emission images, then fitting a kinetic model to each voxel time activity curve. Alternatively, ‘direct reconstruction’, incorporates the kinetic model into the reconstruction algorithm itself, directly producing parametric images from projection data. Direct reconstruction has been shown to achieve parametric images with lower standard error than the indirect method. Here, we present direct reconstruction for brain PET using event-by-event motion correction of list-mode data, applied to two tracers. Event-by-event motion correction was implemented for direct reconstruction in the Parametric Motion-compensation OSEM List-mode Algorithm for Resolution-recovery reconstruction. The direct implementation was tested on simulated and human datasets with tracers [11C]AFM (serotonin transporter) and [11C]UCB-J (synaptic density), which follow the 1-tissue compartment model. Rigid head motion was tracked with the Vicra system. Parametric images of K 1 and distribution volume (V T  =  K 1/k 2) were compared to those generated by the indirect method by regional coefficient of variation (CoV). Performance across count levels was assessed using sub-sampled datasets. For simulated and real datasets at high counts, the two methods estimated K 1 and V T with comparable accuracy. At lower count levels, the direct method was substantially more robust to outliers than the indirect method. Compared to the indirect method, direct reconstruction reduced regional K 1 CoV by 35-48% (simulated dataset), 39-43% ([11C]AFM dataset) and 30-36% ([11C]UCB-J dataset) across count levels (averaged over regions at matched iteration); V T CoV was reduced by 51-58%, 54-60% and 30-46%, respectively. Motion correction played an important role in the dataset with larger motion: correction increased regional V T by 51% on average in the [11C]UCB-J dataset. Direct reconstruction of dynamic brain PET with event-by-event motion correction is achievable and dramatically more robust to noise in V T images than the indirect method.

A study of redundancy management strategy for tetrad strap-down inertial systems. [error detection codes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hruby, R. J.; Bjorkman, W. S.; Schmidt, S. F.; Carestia, R. A.

1979-01-01

Algorithms were developed that attempt to identify which sensor in a tetrad configuration has experienced a step failure. An algorithm is also described that provides a measure of the confidence with which the correct identification was made. Experimental results are presented from real-time tests conducted on a three-axis motion facility utilizing an ortho-skew tetrad strapdown inertial sensor package. The effects of prediction errors and of quantization on correct failure identification are discussed as well as an algorithm for detecting second failures through prediction.

TARGETED PRINCIPLE COMPONENT ANALYSIS: A NEW MOTION ARTIFACT CORRECTION APPROACH FOR NEAR-INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY

PubMed Central

YÜCEL, MERYEM A.; SELB, JULIETTE; COOPER, ROBERT J.; BOAS, DAVID A.

2014-01-01

As near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) broadens its application area to different age and disease groups, motion artifacts in the NIRS signal due to subject movement is becoming an important challenge. Motion artifacts generally produce signal fluctuations that are larger than physiological NIRS signals, thus it is crucial to correct for them before obtaining an estimate of stimulus evoked hemodynamic responses. There are various methods for correction such as principle component analysis (PCA), wavelet-based filtering and spline interpolation. Here, we introduce a new approach to motion artifact correction, targeted principle component analysis (tPCA), which incorporates a PCA filter only on the segments of data identified as motion artifacts. It is expected that this will overcome the issues of filtering desired signals that plagues standard PCA filtering of entire data sets. We compared the new approach with the most effective motion artifact correction algorithms on a set of data acquired simultaneously with a collodion-fixed probe (low motion artifact content) and a standard Velcro probe (high motion artifact content). Our results show that tPCA gives statistically better results in recovering hemodynamic response function (HRF) as compared to wavelet-based filtering and spline interpolation for the Velcro probe. It results in a significant reduction in mean-squared error (MSE) and significant enhancement in Pearson’s correlation coefficient to the true HRF. The collodion-fixed fiber probe with no motion correction performed better than the Velcro probe corrected for motion artifacts in terms of MSE and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Thus, if the experimental study permits, the use of a collodion-fixed fiber probe may be desirable. If the use of a collodion-fixed probe is not feasible, then we suggest the use of tPCA in the processing of motion artifact contaminated data. PMID:25360181

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

Naseri, M; Rajabi, H; Wang, J

Purpose: Respiration causes lesion smearing, image blurring and quality degradation, affecting lesion contrast and the ability to define correct lesion size. The spatial resolution of current multi pinhole SPECT (MPHS) scanners is sub-millimeter. Therefore, the effect of motion is more noticeable in comparison to conventional SPECT scanner. Gated imaging aims to reduce motion artifacts. A major issue in gating is the lack of statistics and individual reconstructed frames are noisy. The increased noise in each frame, deteriorates the quantitative accuracy of the MPHS Images. The objective of this work, is to enhance the image quality in 4D-MPHS imaging, by 4Dmore » image reconstruction. Methods: The new algorithm requires deformation vector fields (DVFs) that are calculated by non-rigid Demons registration. The algorithm is based on the motion-incorporated version of ordered subset expectation maximization (OSEM) algorithm. This iterative algorithm is capable to make full use of all projections to reconstruct each individual frame. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm a simulation study was conducted. A fast ray tracing method was used to generate MPHS projections of a 4D digital mouse phantom with a small tumor in liver in eight different respiratory phases. To evaluate the 4D-OSEM algorithm potential, tumor to liver activity ratio was compared with other image reconstruction methods including 3D-MPHS and post reconstruction registered with Demons-derived DVFs. Results: Image quality of 4D-MPHS is greatly improved by the 4D-OSEM algorithm. When all projections are used to reconstruct a 3D-MPHS, motion blurring artifacts are present, leading to overestimation of the tumor size and 24% tumor contrast underestimation. This error reduced to 16% and 10% for post reconstruction registration methods and 4D-OSEM respectively. Conclusion: 4D-OSEM method can be used for motion correction in 4D-MPHS. The statistics and quantification are improved since all projection data are combined together to update the image.« less

PROMO – Real-time Prospective Motion Correction in MRI using Image-based Tracking

PubMed Central

White, Nathan; Roddey, Cooper; Shankaranarayanan, Ajit; Han, Eric; Rettmann, Dan; Santos, Juan; Kuperman, Josh; Dale, Anders

2010-01-01

Artifacts caused by patient motion during scanning remain a serious problem in most MRI applications. The prospective motion correction technique attempts to address this problem at its source by keeping the measurement coordinate system fixed with respect to the patient throughout the entire scan process. In this study, a new image-based approach for prospective motion correction is described, which utilizes three orthogonal 2D spiral navigator acquisitions (SP-Navs) along with a flexible image-based tracking method based on the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) algorithm for online motion measurement. The SP-Nav/EKF framework offers the advantages of image-domain tracking within patient-specific regions-of-interest and reduced sensitivity to off-resonance-induced corruption of rigid-body motion estimates. The performance of the method was tested using offline computer simulations and online in vivo head motion experiments. In vivo validation results covering a broad range of staged head motions indicate a steady-state error of the SP-Nav/EKF motion estimates of less than 10 % of the motion magnitude, even for large compound motions that included rotations over 15 degrees. A preliminary in vivo application in 3D inversion recovery spoiled gradient echo (IR-SPGR) and 3D fast spin echo (FSE) sequences demonstrates the effectiveness of the SP-Nav/EKF framework for correcting 3D rigid-body head motion artifacts prospectively in high-resolution 3D MRI scans. PMID:20027635

A rigid motion correction method for helical computed tomography (CT)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, J.-H.; Nuyts, J.; Kyme, A.; Kuncic, Z.; Fulton, R.

2015-03-01

We propose a method to compensate for six degree-of-freedom rigid motion in helical CT of the head. The method is demonstrated in simulations and in helical scans performed on a 16-slice CT scanner. Scans of a Hoffman brain phantom were acquired while an optical motion tracking system recorded the motion of the bed and the phantom. Motion correction was performed by restoring projection consistency using data from the motion tracking system, and reconstructing with an iterative fully 3D algorithm. Motion correction accuracy was evaluated by comparing reconstructed images with a stationary reference scan. We also investigated the effects on accuracy of tracker sampling rate, measurement jitter, interpolation of tracker measurements, and the synchronization of motion data and CT projections. After optimization of these aspects, motion corrected images corresponded remarkably closely to images of the stationary phantom with correlation and similarity coefficients both above 0.9. We performed a simulation study using volunteer head motion and found similarly that our method is capable of compensating effectively for realistic human head movements. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first practical demonstration of generalized rigid motion correction in helical CT. Its clinical value, which we have yet to explore, may be significant. For example it could reduce the necessity for repeat scans and resource-intensive anesthetic and sedation procedures in patient groups prone to motion, such as young children. It is not only applicable to dedicated CT imaging, but also to hybrid PET/CT and SPECT/CT, where it could also ensure an accurate CT image for lesion localization and attenuation correction of the functional image data.

Bilayer segmentation of webcam videos using tree-based classifiers.

PubMed

Yin, Pei; Criminisi, Antonio; Winn, John; Essa, Irfan

2011-01-01

This paper presents an automatic segmentation algorithm for video frames captured by a (monocular) webcam that closely approximates depth segmentation from a stereo camera. The frames are segmented into foreground and background layers that comprise a subject (participant) and other objects and individuals. The algorithm produces correct segmentations even in the presence of large background motion with a nearly stationary foreground. This research makes three key contributions: First, we introduce a novel motion representation, referred to as "motons," inspired by research in object recognition. Second, we propose estimating the segmentation likelihood from the spatial context of motion. The estimation is efficiently learned by random forests. Third, we introduce a general taxonomy of tree-based classifiers that facilitates both theoretical and experimental comparisons of several known classification algorithms and generates new ones. In our bilayer segmentation algorithm, diverse visual cues such as motion, motion context, color, contrast, and spatial priors are fused by means of a conditional random field (CRF) model. Segmentation is then achieved by binary min-cut. Experiments on many sequences of our videochat application demonstrate that our algorithm, which requires no initialization, is effective in a variety of scenes, and the segmentation results are comparable to those obtained by stereo systems.

MRI-assisted PET motion correction for neurologic studies in an integrated MR-PET scanner.

PubMed

Catana, Ciprian; Benner, Thomas; van der Kouwe, Andre; Byars, Larry; Hamm, Michael; Chonde, Daniel B; Michel, Christian J; El Fakhri, Georges; Schmand, Matthias; Sorensen, A Gregory

2011-01-01

Head motion is difficult to avoid in long PET studies, degrading the image quality and offsetting the benefit of using a high-resolution scanner. As a potential solution in an integrated MR-PET scanner, the simultaneously acquired MRI data can be used for motion tracking. In this work, a novel algorithm for data processing and rigid-body motion correction (MC) for the MRI-compatible BrainPET prototype scanner is described, and proof-of-principle phantom and human studies are presented. To account for motion, the PET prompt and random coincidences and sensitivity data for postnormalization were processed in the line-of-response (LOR) space according to the MRI-derived motion estimates. The processing time on the standard BrainPET workstation is approximately 16 s for each motion estimate. After rebinning in the sinogram space, the motion corrected data were summed, and the PET volume was reconstructed using the attenuation and scatter sinograms in the reference position. The accuracy of the MC algorithm was first tested using a Hoffman phantom. Next, human volunteer studies were performed, and motion estimates were obtained using 2 high-temporal-resolution MRI-based motion-tracking techniques. After accounting for the misalignment between the 2 scanners, perfectly coregistered MRI and PET volumes were reproducibly obtained. The MRI output gates inserted into the PET list-mode allow the temporal correlation of the 2 datasets within 0.2 ms. The Hoffman phantom volume reconstructed by processing the PET data in the LOR space was similar to the one obtained by processing the data using the standard methods and applying the MC in the image space, demonstrating the quantitative accuracy of the procedure. In human volunteer studies, motion estimates were obtained from echo planar imaging and cloverleaf navigator sequences every 3 s and 20 ms, respectively. Motion-deblurred PET images, with excellent delineation of specific brain structures, were obtained using these 2 MRI-based estimates. An MRI-based MC algorithm was implemented for an integrated MR-PET scanner. High-temporal-resolution MRI-derived motion estimates (obtained while simultaneously acquiring anatomic or functional MRI data) can be used for PET MC. An MRI-based MC method has the potential to improve PET image quality, increasing its reliability, reproducibility, and quantitative accuracy, and to benefit many neurologic applications.

Correction of patient motion in cone-beam CT using 3D-2D registration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ouadah, S.; Jacobson, M.; Stayman, J. W.; Ehtiati, T.; Weiss, C.; Siewerdsen, J. H.

2017-12-01

Cone-beam CT (CBCT) is increasingly common in guidance of interventional procedures, but can be subject to artifacts arising from patient motion during fairly long (~5-60 s) scan times. We present a fiducial-free method to mitigate motion artifacts using 3D-2D image registration that simultaneously corrects residual errors in the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of geometric calibration. The 3D-2D registration process registers each projection to a prior 3D image by maximizing gradient orientation using the covariance matrix adaptation-evolution strategy optimizer. The resulting rigid transforms are applied to the system projection matrices, and a 3D image is reconstructed via model-based iterative reconstruction. Phantom experiments were conducted using a Zeego robotic C-arm to image a head phantom undergoing 5-15 cm translations and 5-15° rotations. To further test the algorithm, clinical images were acquired with a CBCT head scanner in which long scan times were susceptible to significant patient motion. CBCT images were reconstructed using a penalized likelihood objective function. For phantom studies the structural similarity (SSIM) between motion-free and motion-corrected images was  >0.995, with significant improvement (p  <  0.001) compared to the SSIM values of uncorrected images. Additionally, motion-corrected images exhibited a point-spread function with full-width at half maximum comparable to that of the motion-free reference image. Qualitative comparison of the motion-corrupted and motion-corrected clinical images demonstrated a significant improvement in image quality after motion correction. This indicates that the 3D-2D registration method could provide a useful approach to motion artifact correction under assumptions of local rigidity, as in the head, pelvis, and extremities. The method is highly parallelizable, and the automatic correction of residual geometric calibration errors provides added benefit that could be valuable in routine use.

Correction of motion artifacts in OCT-AFI data collected in airways (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abouei, Elham; Lane, Pierre M.; Pahlevaninezhad, Hamid; Lee, Anthony; Lam, Stephen; MacAulay, Calum E.

2016-03-01

Abstract: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) provides in vivo imaging with near-histologic resolution of tissue morphology. OCT has been successfully employed in clinical practice in non-pulmonary fields of medicine such as ophthalmology and cardiology. Studies suggest that OCT has the potential to be a powerful tool for the detection and localization of malignant and non-malignant pulmonary diseases. The combination of OCT with autofluorescence imaging (AFI) provides valuable information about the structural and metabolic state of tissues. Successful application of OCT or OCT-AFI to the field of pulmonary medicine requires overcoming several challenges. This work address those associated with motion: cardiac cycle, breathing and non-uniform rotation distortion (NURD) artifacts. Mechanically rotated endoscopic probes often suffer from image degradation due to NURD. In addition cardiac and breathing motion artifacts may be present in-vivo that are not seen ex-vivo. These motion artifacts can be problematic in OCT-AFI systems with slower acquisition rates and have been observed to generate identifiable prominent artifacts which make confident interpretation of observed structures (blood vessels, etc) difficult. Understanding and correcting motion artifact could improve the image quality and interpretation. In this work, the motion artifacts in pulmonary OCT-AFI data sets are estimated in both AFI and OCT images using a locally adaptive registration algorithm that can be used to correct/reduce such artifacts. Performance of the algorithm is evaluated on images of a NURD phantom and on in-vivo OCT-AFI datasets of peripheral lung airways.

Data-driven event-by-event respiratory motion correction using TOF PET list-mode centroid of distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ren, Silin; Jin, Xiao; Chan, Chung; Jian, Yiqiang; Mulnix, Tim; Liu, Chi; E Carson, Richard

2017-06-01

Data-driven respiratory gating techniques were developed to correct for respiratory motion in PET studies, without the help of external motion tracking systems. Due to the greatly increased image noise in gated reconstructions, it is desirable to develop a data-driven event-by-event respiratory motion correction method. In this study, using the Centroid-of-distribution (COD) algorithm, we established a data-driven event-by-event respiratory motion correction technique using TOF PET list-mode data, and investigated its performance by comparing with an external system-based correction method. Ten human scans with the pancreatic β-cell tracer 18F-FP-(+)-DTBZ were employed. Data-driven respiratory motions in superior-inferior (SI) and anterior-posterior (AP) directions were first determined by computing the centroid of all radioactive events during each short time frame with further processing. The Anzai belt system was employed to record respiratory motion in all studies. COD traces in both SI and AP directions were first compared with Anzai traces by computing the Pearson correlation coefficients. Then, respiratory gated reconstructions based on either COD or Anzai traces were performed to evaluate their relative performance in capturing respiratory motion. Finally, based on correlations of displacements of organ locations in all directions and COD information, continuous 3D internal organ motion in SI and AP directions was calculated based on COD traces to guide event-by-event respiratory motion correction in the MOLAR reconstruction framework. Continuous respiratory correction results based on COD were compared with that based on Anzai, and without motion correction. Data-driven COD traces showed a good correlation with Anzai in both SI and AP directions for the majority of studies, with correlation coefficients ranging from 63% to 89%. Based on the determined respiratory displacements of pancreas between end-expiration and end-inspiration from gated reconstructions, there was no significant difference between COD-based and Anzai-based methods. Finally, data-driven COD-based event-by-event respiratory motion correction yielded comparable results to that based on Anzai respiratory traces, in terms of contrast recovery and reduced motion-induced blur. Data-driven event-by-event respiratory motion correction using COD showed significant image quality improvement compared with reconstructions with no motion correction, and gave comparable results to the Anzai-based method.

Data-driven event-by-event respiratory motion correction using TOF PET list-mode centroid of distribution.

PubMed

Ren, Silin; Jin, Xiao; Chan, Chung; Jian, Yiqiang; Mulnix, Tim; Liu, Chi; Carson, Richard E

2017-06-21

Data-driven respiratory gating techniques were developed to correct for respiratory motion in PET studies, without the help of external motion tracking systems. Due to the greatly increased image noise in gated reconstructions, it is desirable to develop a data-driven event-by-event respiratory motion correction method. In this study, using the Centroid-of-distribution (COD) algorithm, we established a data-driven event-by-event respiratory motion correction technique using TOF PET list-mode data, and investigated its performance by comparing with an external system-based correction method. Ten human scans with the pancreatic β-cell tracer 18 F-FP-(+)-DTBZ were employed. Data-driven respiratory motions in superior-inferior (SI) and anterior-posterior (AP) directions were first determined by computing the centroid of all radioactive events during each short time frame with further processing. The Anzai belt system was employed to record respiratory motion in all studies. COD traces in both SI and AP directions were first compared with Anzai traces by computing the Pearson correlation coefficients. Then, respiratory gated reconstructions based on either COD or Anzai traces were performed to evaluate their relative performance in capturing respiratory motion. Finally, based on correlations of displacements of organ locations in all directions and COD information, continuous 3D internal organ motion in SI and AP directions was calculated based on COD traces to guide event-by-event respiratory motion correction in the MOLAR reconstruction framework. Continuous respiratory correction results based on COD were compared with that based on Anzai, and without motion correction. Data-driven COD traces showed a good correlation with Anzai in both SI and AP directions for the majority of studies, with correlation coefficients ranging from 63% to 89%. Based on the determined respiratory displacements of pancreas between end-expiration and end-inspiration from gated reconstructions, there was no significant difference between COD-based and Anzai-based methods. Finally, data-driven COD-based event-by-event respiratory motion correction yielded comparable results to that based on Anzai respiratory traces, in terms of contrast recovery and reduced motion-induced blur. Data-driven event-by-event respiratory motion correction using COD showed significant image quality improvement compared with reconstructions with no motion correction, and gave comparable results to the Anzai-based method.

Effects of light refraction on the accuracy of camera calibration and reconstruction in underwater motion analysis.

PubMed

Kwon, Young-Hoo; Casebolt, Jeffrey B

2006-01-01

One of the most serious obstacles to accurate quantification of the underwater motion of a swimmer's body is image deformation caused by refraction. Refraction occurs at the water-air interface plane (glass) owing to the density difference. Camera calibration-reconstruction algorithms commonly used in aquatic research do not have the capability to correct this refraction-induced nonlinear image deformation and produce large reconstruction errors. The aim of this paper is to provide a through review of: the nature of the refraction-induced image deformation and its behaviour in underwater object-space plane reconstruction; the intrinsic shortcomings of the Direct Linear Transformation (DLT) method in underwater motion analysis; experimental conditions that interact with refraction; and alternative algorithms and strategies that can be used to improve the calibration-reconstruction accuracy. Although it is impossible to remove the refraction error completely in conventional camera calibration-reconstruction methods, it is possible to improve the accuracy to some extent by manipulating experimental conditions or calibration frame characteristics. Alternative algorithms, such as the localized DLT and the double-plane method are also available for error reduction. The ultimate solution for the refraction problem is to develop underwater camera calibration and reconstruction algorithms that have the capability to correct refraction.

Effects of light refraction on the accuracy of camera calibration and reconstruction in underwater motion analysis.

PubMed

Kwon, Young-Hoo; Casebolt, Jeffrey B

2006-07-01

One of the most serious obstacles to accurate quantification of the underwater motion of a swimmer's body is image deformation caused by refraction. Refraction occurs at the water-air interface plane (glass) owing to the density difference. Camera calibration-reconstruction algorithms commonly used in aquatic research do not have the capability to correct this refraction-induced nonlinear image deformation and produce large reconstruction errors. The aim of this paper is to provide a thorough review of: the nature of the refraction-induced image deformation and its behaviour in underwater object-space plane reconstruction; the intrinsic shortcomings of the Direct Linear Transformation (DLT) method in underwater motion analysis; experimental conditions that interact with refraction; and alternative algorithms and strategies that can be used to improve the calibration-reconstruction accuracy. Although it is impossible to remove the refraction error completely in conventional camera calibration-reconstruction methods, it is possible to improve the accuracy to some extent by manipulating experimental conditions or calibration frame characteristics. Alternative algorithms, such as the localized DLT and the double-plane method are also available for error reduction. The ultimate solution for the refraction problem is to develop underwater camera calibration and reconstruction algorithms that have the capability to correct refraction.

Turboprop IDEAL: a motion-resistant fat-water separation technique.

PubMed

Huo, Donglai; Li, Zhiqiang; Aboussouan, Eric; Karis, John P; Pipe, James G

2009-01-01

Suppression of the fat signal in MRI is very important for many clinical applications. Multi-point water-fat separation methods, such as IDEAL (Iterative Decomposition of water and fat with Echo Asymmetry and Least-squares estimation), can robustly separate water and fat signal, but inevitably increase scan time, making separated images more easily affected by patient motions. PROPELLER (Periodically Rotated Overlapping ParallEL Lines with Enhanced Reconstruction) and Turboprop techniques offer an effective approach to correct for motion artifacts. By combining these techniques together, we demonstrate that the new TP-IDEAL method can provide reliable water-fat separation with robust motion correction. The Turboprop sequence was modified to acquire source images, and motion correction algorithms were adjusted to assure the registration between different echo images. Theoretical calculations were performed to predict the optimal shift and spacing of the gradient echoes. Phantom images were acquired, and results were compared with regular FSE-IDEAL. Both T1- and T2-weighted images of the human brain were used to demonstrate the effectiveness of motion correction. TP-IDEAL images were also acquired for pelvis, knee, and foot, showing great potential of this technique for general clinical applications.

Influence of the motion correction algorithm on the quality and interpretability of images of single-source 64-detector coronary CT angiography among patients grouped by heart rate.

PubMed

Machida, Haruhiko; Lin, Xiao-Zhu; Fukui, Rika; Shen, Yun; Suzuki, Shigeru; Tanaka, Isao; Ishikawa, Takuya; Tate, Etsuko; Ueno, Eiko

2015-02-01

We retrospectively investigated the effect of the motion correction algorithm (MCA) on image quality and interpretability by heart rate (HR) in coronary CT angiography (CCTA). For 105 patients (6 HR groups) undergoing CCTA, 2 readers independently graded the image quality of the 4 major coronary arteries reconstructed with and without MCA at diastole with HR ≤64 bpm and at systole and diastole ≥65 bpm using a 5-point scale. For each HR group and cardiac phase, we compared per-vessel and per-segment image quality using Wilcoxon signed rank test and percentages of interpretable image quality (scores 3-5) among without MCA at diastole with HR ≤64 bpm, as a reference, with MCA at diastole ≤69 bpm and at systole 70-79 bpm using the chi-square test. The motion correction algorithm reconstruction provided similar or better image quality and interpretability in all groups, with 96-100 % per-vessel (P = 0.008 for the right coronary artery; otherwise, P > 0.05) and 99 % per-segment interpretable image quality (P = 0.0002) at diastole with HR ≤69 bpm and at systole 70-79 bpm compared to the reference (88-100 and 97 %, respectively). MCA reconstruction preserved image quality and interpretability of CCTA with HR ≤79 bpm.

Particle Tracking Facilitates Real Time Capable Motion Correction in 2D or 3D Two-Photon Imaging of Neuronal Activity.

PubMed

Aghayee, Samira; Winkowski, Daniel E; Bowen, Zachary; Marshall, Erin E; Harrington, Matt J; Kanold, Patrick O; Losert, Wolfgang

2017-01-01

The application of 2-photon laser scanning microscopy (TPLSM) techniques to measure the dynamics of cellular calcium signals in populations of neurons is an extremely powerful technique for characterizing neural activity within the central nervous system. The use of TPLSM on awake and behaving subjects promises new insights into how neural circuit elements cooperatively interact to form sensory perceptions and generate behavior. A major challenge in imaging such preparations is unavoidable animal and tissue movement, which leads to shifts in the imaging location (jitter). The presence of image motion can lead to artifacts, especially since quantification of TPLSM images involves analysis of fluctuations in fluorescence intensities for each neuron, determined from small regions of interest (ROIs). Here, we validate a new motion correction approach to compensate for motion of TPLSM images in the superficial layers of auditory cortex of awake mice. We use a nominally uniform fluorescent signal as a secondary signal to complement the dynamic signals from genetically encoded calcium indicators. We tested motion correction for single plane time lapse imaging as well as multiplane (i.e., volume) time lapse imaging of cortical tissue. Our procedure of motion correction relies on locating the brightest neurons and tracking their positions over time using established techniques of particle finding and tracking. We show that our tracking based approach provides subpixel resolution without compromising speed. Unlike most established methods, our algorithm also captures deformations of the field of view and thus can compensate e.g., for rotations. Object tracking based motion correction thus offers an alternative approach for motion correction, one that is well suited for real time spike inference analysis and feedback control, and for correcting for tissue distortions.

Particle Tracking Facilitates Real Time Capable Motion Correction in 2D or 3D Two-Photon Imaging of Neuronal Activity

PubMed Central

Aghayee, Samira; Winkowski, Daniel E.; Bowen, Zachary; Marshall, Erin E.; Harrington, Matt J.; Kanold, Patrick O.; Losert, Wolfgang

2017-01-01

The application of 2-photon laser scanning microscopy (TPLSM) techniques to measure the dynamics of cellular calcium signals in populations of neurons is an extremely powerful technique for characterizing neural activity within the central nervous system. The use of TPLSM on awake and behaving subjects promises new insights into how neural circuit elements cooperatively interact to form sensory perceptions and generate behavior. A major challenge in imaging such preparations is unavoidable animal and tissue movement, which leads to shifts in the imaging location (jitter). The presence of image motion can lead to artifacts, especially since quantification of TPLSM images involves analysis of fluctuations in fluorescence intensities for each neuron, determined from small regions of interest (ROIs). Here, we validate a new motion correction approach to compensate for motion of TPLSM images in the superficial layers of auditory cortex of awake mice. We use a nominally uniform fluorescent signal as a secondary signal to complement the dynamic signals from genetically encoded calcium indicators. We tested motion correction for single plane time lapse imaging as well as multiplane (i.e., volume) time lapse imaging of cortical tissue. Our procedure of motion correction relies on locating the brightest neurons and tracking their positions over time using established techniques of particle finding and tracking. We show that our tracking based approach provides subpixel resolution without compromising speed. Unlike most established methods, our algorithm also captures deformations of the field of view and thus can compensate e.g., for rotations. Object tracking based motion correction thus offers an alternative approach for motion correction, one that is well suited for real time spike inference analysis and feedback control, and for correcting for tissue distortions. PMID:28860973

Motion correction of PET brain images through deconvolution: II. Practical implementation and algorithm optimization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Raghunath, N.; Faber, T. L.; Suryanarayanan, S.; Votaw, J. R.

2009-02-01

Image quality is significantly degraded even by small amounts of patient motion in very high-resolution PET scanners. When patient motion is known, deconvolution methods can be used to correct the reconstructed image and reduce motion blur. This paper describes the implementation and optimization of an iterative deconvolution method that uses an ordered subset approach to make it practical and clinically viable. We performed ten separate FDG PET scans using the Hoffman brain phantom and simultaneously measured its motion using the Polaris Vicra tracking system (Northern Digital Inc., Ontario, Canada). The feasibility and effectiveness of the technique was studied by performing scans with different motion and deconvolution parameters. Deconvolution resulted in visually better images and significant improvement as quantified by the Universal Quality Index (UQI) and contrast measures. Finally, the technique was applied to human studies to demonstrate marked improvement. Thus, the deconvolution technique presented here appears promising as a valid alternative to existing motion correction methods for PET. It has the potential for deblurring an image from any modality if the causative motion is known and its effect can be represented in a system matrix.

Respiratory motion correction in emission tomography image reconstruction.

PubMed

Reyes, Mauricio; Malandain, Grégoire; Koulibaly, Pierre Malick; González Ballester, Miguel A; Darcourt, Jacques

2005-01-01

In Emission Tomography imaging, respiratory motion causes artifacts in lungs and cardiac reconstructed images, which lead to misinterpretations and imprecise diagnosis. Solutions like respiratory gating, correlated dynamic PET techniques, list-mode data based techniques and others have been tested with improvements over the spatial activity distribution in lungs lesions, but with the disadvantages of requiring additional instrumentation or discarding part of the projection data used for reconstruction. The objective of this study is to incorporate respiratory motion correction directly into the image reconstruction process, without any additional acquisition protocol consideration. To this end, we propose an extension to the Maximum Likelihood Expectation Maximization (MLEM) algorithm that includes a respiratory motion model, which takes into account the displacements and volume deformations produced by the respiratory motion during the data acquisition process. We present results from synthetic simulations incorporating real respiratory motion as well as from phantom and patient data.

Alignment algorithms and per-particle CTF correction for single particle cryo-electron tomography.

PubMed

Galaz-Montoya, Jesús G; Hecksel, Corey W; Baldwin, Philip R; Wang, Eryu; Weaver, Scott C; Schmid, Michael F; Ludtke, Steven J; Chiu, Wah

2016-06-01

Single particle cryo-electron tomography (cryoSPT) extracts features from cryo-electron tomograms, followed by 3D classification, alignment and averaging to generate improved 3D density maps of such features. Robust methods to correct for the contrast transfer function (CTF) of the electron microscope are necessary for cryoSPT to reach its resolution potential. Many factors can make CTF correction for cryoSPT challenging, such as lack of eucentricity of the specimen stage, inherent low dose per image, specimen charging, beam-induced specimen motions, and defocus gradients resulting both from specimen tilting and from unpredictable ice thickness variations. Current CTF correction methods for cryoET make at least one of the following assumptions: that the defocus at the center of the image is the same across the images of a tiltseries, that the particles all lie at the same Z-height in the embedding ice, and/or that the specimen, the cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) grid and/or the carbon support are flat. These experimental conditions are not always met. We have developed a CTF correction algorithm for cryoSPT without making any of the aforementioned assumptions. We also introduce speed and accuracy improvements and a higher degree of automation to the subtomogram averaging algorithms available in EMAN2. Using motion-corrected images of isolated virus particles as a benchmark specimen, recorded with a DE20 direct detection camera, we show that our CTF correction and subtomogram alignment routines can yield subtomogram averages close to 4/5 Nyquist frequency of the detector under our experimental conditions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Alignment Algorithms and Per-Particle CTF Correction for Single Particle Cryo-Electron Tomography

PubMed Central

Galaz-Montoya, Jesús G.; Hecksel, Corey W.; Baldwin, Philip R.; Wang, Eryu; Weaver, Scott C.; Schmid, Michael F.; Ludtke, Steven J.; Chiu, Wah

2016-01-01

Single particle cryo-electron tomography (cryoSPT) extracts features from cryo-electron tomograms, followed by 3D classification, alignment and averaging to generate improved 3D density maps of such features. Robust methods to correct for the contrast transfer function (CTF) of the electron microscope are necessary for cryoSPT to reach its resolution potential. Many factors can make CTF correction for cryoSPT challenging, such as lack of eucentricity of the specimen stage, inherent low dose per image, specimen charging, beam-induced specimen motions, and defocus gradients resulting both from specimen tilting and from unpredictable ice thickness variations. Current CTF correction methods for cryoET make at least one of the following assumptions: that the defocus at the center of the image is the same across the images of a tiltseries, that the particles all lie at the same Z-height in the embedding ice, and/or that the specimen grid and carbon support are flat. These experimental conditions are not always met. We have developed a CTF correction algorithm for cryoSPT without making any of the aforementioned assumptions. We also introduce speed and accuracy improvements and a higher degree of automation to the subtomogram averaging algorithms available in EMAN2. Using motion-corrected images of isolated virus particles as a benchmark specimen, recorded with a DE20 direct detection camera, we show that our CTF correction and subtomogram alignment routines can yield subtomogram averages close to 4/5 Nyquist frequency of the detector under our experimental conditions. PMID:27016284

List-mode PET image reconstruction for motion correction using the Intel XEON PHI co-processor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ryder, W. J.; Angelis, G. I.; Bashar, R.; Gillam, J. E.; Fulton, R.; Meikle, S.

2014-03-01

List-mode image reconstruction with motion correction is computationally expensive, as it requires projection of hundreds of millions of rays through a 3D array. To decrease reconstruction time it is possible to use symmetric multiprocessing computers or graphics processing units. The former can have high financial costs, while the latter can require refactoring of algorithms. The Xeon Phi is a new co-processor card with a Many Integrated Core architecture that can run 4 multiple-instruction, multiple data threads per core with each thread having a 512-bit single instruction, multiple data vector register. Thus, it is possible to run in the region of 220 threads simultaneously. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the Xeon Phi co-processor card is a viable alternative to an x86 Linux server for accelerating List-mode PET image reconstruction for motion correction. An existing list-mode image reconstruction algorithm with motion correction was ported to run on the Xeon Phi coprocessor with the multi-threading implemented using pthreads. There were no differences between images reconstructed using the Phi co-processor card and images reconstructed using the same algorithm run on a Linux server. However, it was found that the reconstruction runtimes were 3 times greater for the Phi than the server. A new version of the image reconstruction algorithm was developed in C++ using OpenMP for mutli-threading and the Phi runtimes decreased to 1.67 times that of the host Linux server. Data transfer from the host to co-processor card was found to be a rate-limiting step; this needs to be carefully considered in order to maximize runtime speeds. When considering the purchase price of a Linux workstation with Xeon Phi co-processor card and top of the range Linux server, the former is a cost-effective computation resource for list-mode image reconstruction. A multi-Phi workstation could be a viable alternative to cluster computers at a lower cost for medical imaging applications.

Effect of motion artifacts and their correction on near-infrared spectroscopy oscillation data: a study in healthy subjects and stroke patients.

PubMed

Selb, Juliette; Yücel, Meryem A; Phillip, Dorte; Schytz, Henrik W; Iversen, Helle K; Vangel, Mark; Ashina, Messoud; Boas, David A

2015-05-01

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy is prone to contamination by motion artifacts (MAs). Motion correction algorithms have previously been proposed and their respective performance compared for evoked rain activation studies. We study instead the effect of MAs on "oscillation" data which is at the basis of functional connectivity and autoregulation studies. We use as our metric of interest the interhemispheric correlation (IHC), the correlation coefficient between symmetrical time series of oxyhemoglobin oscillations. We show that increased motion content results in a decreased IHC. Using a set of motion-free data on which we add real MAs, we find that the best motion correction approach consists of discarding the segments of MAs following a careful approach to minimize the contamination due to band-pass filtering of data from "bad" segments spreading into adjacent "good" segments. Finally, we compare the IHC in a stroke group and in a healthy group that we artificially contaminated with the MA content of the stroke group, in order to avoid the confounding effect of increased motion incidence in the stroke patients. After motion correction, the IHC remains lower in the stroke group in the frequency band around 0.1 and 0.04 Hz, suggesting a physiological origin for the difference. We emphasize the importance of considering MAs as a confounding factor in oscillation-based functional near-infrared spectroscopy studies.

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

Wollaber, Allan Benton; Park, HyeongKae; Lowrie, Robert Byron

Recent efforts at Los Alamos National Laboratory to develop a moment-based, scale-bridging [or high-order (HO)–low-order (LO)] algorithm for solving large varieties of the transport (kinetic) systems have shown promising results. A part of our ongoing effort is incorporating this methodology into the framework of the Eulerian Applications Project to achieve algorithmic acceleration of radiationhydrodynamics simulations in production software. By starting from the thermal radiative transfer equations with a simple material-motion correction, we derive a discretely consistent energy balance equation (LO equation). We demonstrate that the corresponding LO system for the Monte Carlo HO solver is closely related to the originalmore » LO system without material-motion corrections. We test the implementation on a radiative shock problem and show consistency between the energy densities and temperatures in the HO and LO solutions as well as agreement with the semianalytic solution. We also test the approach on a more challenging two-dimensional problem and demonstrate accuracy enhancements and algorithmic speedups. This paper extends a recent conference paper by including multigroup effects.« less

A method of depth image based human action recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Pei; Cheng, Wanli

2017-05-01

In this paper, we propose an action recognition algorithm framework based on human skeleton joint information. In order to extract the feature of human motion, we use the information of body posture, speed and acceleration of movement to construct spatial motion feature that can describe and reflect the joint. On the other hand, we use the classical temporal pyramid matching algorithm to construct temporal feature and describe the motion sequence variation from different time scales. Then, we use bag of words to represent these actions, which is to present every action in the histogram by clustering these extracted feature. Finally, we employ Hidden Markov Model to train and test the extracted motion features. In the experimental part, the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed model are comprehensively verified on two well-known datasets.

In vivo retinal imaging for fixational eye motion detection using a high-speed digital micromirror device (DMD)-based ophthalmoscope.

PubMed

Vienola, Kari V; Damodaran, Mathi; Braaf, Boy; Vermeer, Koenraad A; de Boer, Johannes F

2018-02-01

Retinal motion detection with an accuracy of 0.77 arcmin corresponding to 3.7 µm on the retina is demonstrated with a novel digital micromirror device based ophthalmoscope. By generating a confocal image as a reference, eye motion could be measured from consecutively measured subsampled frames. The subsampled frames provide 7.7 millisecond snapshots of the retina without motion artifacts between the image points of the subsampled frame, distributed over the full field of view. An ophthalmoscope pattern projection speed of 130 Hz enabled a motion detection bandwidth of 65 Hz. A model eye with a scanning mirror was built to test the performance of the motion detection algorithm. Furthermore, an in vivo motion trace was obtained from a healthy volunteer. The obtained eye motion trace clearly shows the three main types of fixational eye movements. Lastly, the obtained eye motion trace was used to correct for the eye motion in consecutively obtained subsampled frames to produce an averaged confocal image correct for motion artefacts.

In vivo retinal imaging for fixational eye motion detection using a high-speed digital micromirror device (DMD)-based ophthalmoscope

PubMed Central

Vienola, Kari V.; Damodaran, Mathi; Braaf, Boy; Vermeer, Koenraad A.; de Boer, Johannes F.

2018-01-01

Retinal motion detection with an accuracy of 0.77 arcmin corresponding to 3.7 µm on the retina is demonstrated with a novel digital micromirror device based ophthalmoscope. By generating a confocal image as a reference, eye motion could be measured from consecutively measured subsampled frames. The subsampled frames provide 7.7 millisecond snapshots of the retina without motion artifacts between the image points of the subsampled frame, distributed over the full field of view. An ophthalmoscope pattern projection speed of 130 Hz enabled a motion detection bandwidth of 65 Hz. A model eye with a scanning mirror was built to test the performance of the motion detection algorithm. Furthermore, an in vivo motion trace was obtained from a healthy volunteer. The obtained eye motion trace clearly shows the three main types of fixational eye movements. Lastly, the obtained eye motion trace was used to correct for the eye motion in consecutively obtained subsampled frames to produce an averaged confocal image correct for motion artefacts. PMID:29552396

Generalized algebraic scene-based nonuniformity correction algorithm.

PubMed

Ratliff, Bradley M; Hayat, Majeed M; Tyo, J Scott

2005-02-01

A generalization of a recently developed algebraic scene-based nonuniformity correction algorithm for focal plane array (FPA) sensors is presented. The new technique uses pairs of image frames exhibiting arbitrary one- or two-dimensional translational motion to compute compensator quantities that are then used to remove nonuniformity in the bias of the FPA response. Unlike its predecessor, the generalization does not require the use of either a blackbody calibration target or a shutter. The algorithm has a low computational overhead, lending itself to real-time hardware implementation. The high-quality correction ability of this technique is demonstrated through application to real IR data from both cooled and uncooled infrared FPAs. A theoretical and experimental error analysis is performed to study the accuracy of the bias compensator estimates in the presence of two main sources of error.

An algebraic algorithm for nonuniformity correction in focal-plane arrays.

PubMed

Ratliff, Bradley M; Hayat, Majeed M; Hardie, Russell C

2002-09-01

A scene-based algorithm is developed to compensate for bias nonuniformity in focal-plane arrays. Nonuniformity can be extremely problematic, especially for mid- to far-infrared imaging systems. The technique is based on use of estimates of interframe subpixel shifts in an image sequence, in conjunction with a linear-interpolation model for the motion, to extract information on the bias nonuniformity algebraically. The performance of the proposed algorithm is analyzed by using real infrared and simulated data. One advantage of this technique is its simplicity; it requires relatively few frames to generate an effective correction matrix, thereby permitting the execution of frequent on-the-fly nonuniformity correction as drift occurs. Additionally, the performance is shown to exhibit considerable robustness with respect to lack of the common types of temporal and spatial irradiance diversity that are typically required by statistical scene-based nonuniformity correction techniques.

Application of side-oblique image-motion blur correction to Kuaizhou-1 agile optical images.

PubMed

Sun, Tao; Long, Hui; Liu, Bao-Cheng; Li, Ying

2016-03-21

Given the recent development of agile optical satellites for rapid-response land observation, side-oblique image-motion (SOIM) detection and blur correction have become increasingly essential for improving the radiometric quality of side-oblique images. The Chinese small-scale agile mapping satellite Kuaizhou-1 (KZ-1) was developed by the Harbin Institute of Technology and launched for multiple emergency applications. Like other agile satellites, KZ-1 suffers from SOIM blur, particularly in captured images with large side-oblique angles. SOIM detection and blur correction are critical for improving the image radiometric accuracy. This study proposes a SOIM restoration method based on segmental point spread function detection. The segment region width is determined by satellite parameters such as speed, height, integration time, and side-oblique angle. The corresponding algorithms and a matrix form are proposed for SOIM blur correction. Radiometric objective evaluation indices are used to assess the restoration quality. Beijing regional images from KZ-1 are used as experimental data. The radiometric quality is found to increase greatly after SOIM correction. Thus, the proposed method effectively corrects image motion for KZ-1 agile optical satellites.

Marker-less multi-frame motion tracking and compensation in PET-brain imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lindsay, C.; Mukherjee, J. M.; Johnson, K.; Olivier, P.; Song, X.; Shao, L.; King, M. A.

2015-03-01

In PET brain imaging, patient motion can contribute significantly to the degradation of image quality potentially leading to diagnostic and therapeutic problems. To mitigate the image artifacts resulting from patient motion, motion must be detected and tracked then provided to a motion correction algorithm. Existing techniques to track patient motion fall into one of two categories: 1) image-derived approaches and 2) external motion tracking (EMT). Typical EMT requires patients to have markers in a known pattern on a rigid too attached to their head, which are then tracked by expensive and bulky motion tracking camera systems or stereo cameras. This has made marker-based EMT unattractive for routine clinical application. Our main contributions are the development of a marker-less motion tracking system that uses lowcost, small depth-sensing cameras which can be installed in the bore of the imaging system. Our motion tracking system does not require anything to be attached to the patient and can track the rigid transformation (6-degrees of freedom) of the patient's head at a rate 60 Hz. We show that our method can not only be used in with Multi-frame Acquisition (MAF) PET motion correction, but precise timing can be employed to determine only the necessary frames needed for correction. This can speeds up reconstruction by eliminating the unnecessary subdivision of frames.

Hand-writing motion tracking with vision-inertial sensor fusion: calibration and error correction.

PubMed

Zhou, Shengli; Fei, Fei; Zhang, Guanglie; Liu, Yunhui; Li, Wen J

2014-08-25

The purpose of this study was to improve the accuracy of real-time ego-motion tracking through inertial sensor and vision sensor fusion. Due to low sampling rates supported by web-based vision sensor and accumulation of errors in inertial sensors, ego-motion tracking with vision sensors is commonly afflicted by slow updating rates, while motion tracking with inertial sensor suffers from rapid deterioration in accuracy with time. This paper starts with a discussion of developed algorithms for calibrating two relative rotations of the system using only one reference image. Next, stochastic noises associated with the inertial sensor are identified using Allan Variance analysis, and modeled according to their characteristics. Finally, the proposed models are incorporated into an extended Kalman filter for inertial sensor and vision sensor fusion. Compared with results from conventional sensor fusion models, we have shown that ego-motion tracking can be greatly enhanced using the proposed error correction model.

Efficient physics-based tracking of heart surface motion for beating heart surgery robotic systems.

PubMed

Bogatyrenko, Evgeniya; Pompey, Pascal; Hanebeck, Uwe D

2011-05-01

Tracking of beating heart motion in a robotic surgery system is required for complex cardiovascular interventions. A heart surface motion tracking method is developed, including a stochastic physics-based heart surface model and an efficient reconstruction algorithm. The algorithm uses the constraints provided by the model that exploits the physical characteristics of the heart. The main advantage of the model is that it is more realistic than most standard heart models. Additionally, no explicit matching between the measurements and the model is required. The application of meshless methods significantly reduces the complexity of physics-based tracking. Based on the stochastic physical model of the heart surface, this approach considers the motion of the intervention area and is robust to occlusions and reflections. The tracking algorithm is evaluated in simulations and experiments on an artificial heart. Providing higher accuracy than the standard model-based methods, it successfully copes with occlusions and provides high performance even when all measurements are not available. Combining the physical and stochastic description of the heart surface motion ensures physically correct and accurate prediction. Automatic initialization of the physics-based cardiac motion tracking enables system evaluation in a clinical environment.

Topography-Dependent Motion Compensation: Application to UAVSAR Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Cathleen E.; Hensley, Scott; Michel, Thierry

2009-01-01

The UAVSAR L-band synthetic aperture radar system has been designed for repeat track interferometry in support of Earth science applications that require high-precision measurements of small surface deformations over timescales from hours to years. Conventional motion compensation algorithms, which are based upon assumptions of a narrow beam and flat terrain, yield unacceptably large errors in areas with even moderate topographic relief, i.e., in most areas of interest. This often limits the ability to achieve sub-centimeter surface change detection over significant portions of an acquired scene. To reduce this source of error in the interferometric phase, we have implemented an advanced motion compensation algorithm that corrects for the scene topography and radar beam width. Here we discuss the algorithm used, its implementation in the UAVSAR data processor, and the improvement in interferometric phase and correlation achieved in areas with significant topographic relief.

MER-DIMES : a planetary landing application of computer vision

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cheng, Yang; Johnson, Andrew; Matthies, Larry

2005-01-01

During the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) landings, the Descent Image Motion Estimation System (DIMES) was used for horizontal velocity estimation. The DIMES algorithm combines measurements from a descent camera, a radar altimeter and an inertial measurement unit. To deal with large changes in scale and orientation between descent images, the algorithm uses altitude and attitude measurements to rectify image data to level ground plane. Feature selection and tracking is employed in the rectified data to compute the horizontal motion between images. Differences of motion estimates are then compared to inertial measurements to verify correct feature tracking. DIMES combines sensor data from multiple sources in a novel way to create a low-cost, robust and computationally efficient velocity estimation solution, and DIMES is the first use of computer vision to control a spacecraft during planetary landing. In this paper, the detailed implementation of the DIMES algorithm and the results from the two landings on Mars are presented.

Markerless rat head motion tracking using structured light for brain PET imaging of unrestrained awake small animals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miranda, Alan; Staelens, Steven; Stroobants, Sigrid; Verhaeghe, Jeroen

2017-03-01

Preclinical positron emission tomography (PET) imaging in small animals is generally performed under anesthesia to immobilize the animal during scanning. More recently, for rat brain PET studies, methods to perform scans of unrestrained awake rats are being developed in order to avoid the unwanted effects of anesthesia on the brain response. Here, we investigate the use of a projected structure stereo camera to track the motion of the rat head during the PET scan. The motion information is then used to correct the PET data. The stereo camera calculates a 3D point cloud representation of the scene and the tracking is performed by point cloud matching using the iterative closest point algorithm. The main advantage of the proposed motion tracking is that no intervention, e.g. for marker attachment, is needed. A manually moved microDerenzo phantom experiment and 3 awake rat [18F]FDG experiments were performed to evaluate the proposed tracking method. The tracking accuracy was 0.33 mm rms. After motion correction image reconstruction, the microDerenzo phantom was recovered albeit with some loss of resolution. The reconstructed FWHM of the 2.5 and 3 mm rods increased with 0.94 and 0.51 mm respectively in comparison with the motion-free case. In the rat experiments, the average tracking success rate was 64.7%. The correlation of relative brain regional [18F]FDG uptake between the anesthesia and awake scan reconstructions was increased from on average 0.291 (not significant) before correction to 0.909 (p  <  0.0001) after motion correction. Markerless motion tracking using structured light can be successfully used for tracking of the rat head for motion correction in awake rat PET scans.

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

Singh, M.; Al-Dayeh, L.; Patel, P.

It is well known that even small movements of the head can lead to artifacts in fMRI. Corrections for these movements are usually made by a registration algorithm which accounts for translational and rotational motion of the head under a rigid body assumption. The brain, however, is not entirely rigid and images are prone to local deformations due to CSF motion, susceptibility effects, local changes in blood flow and inhomogeneities in the magnetic and gradient fields. Since nonrigid body motion is not adequately corrected by approaches relying on simple rotational and translational corrections, we have investigated a general approach wheremore » an n{sup th} order polynomial is used to map all images onto a common reference image. The coefficients of the polynomial transformation were determined through minimization of the ratio of the variance to the mean of each pixel. Simulation studies were conducted to validate the technique. Results of experimental studies using polynomial transformation for 2D and 3D registration show lower variance to mean ratio compared to simple rotational and translational corrections.« less

The image evaluation of iterative motion correction reconstruction algorithm PROPELLER T2-weighted imaging compared with MultiVane T2-weighted imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Suk-Jun; Yu, Seung-Man

2017-08-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness and clinical applications of MultiVaneXD which was applying iterative motion correction reconstruction algorithm T2-weighted images compared with MultiVane images taken with a 3T MRI. A total of 20 patients with suspected pathologies of the liver and pancreatic-biliary system based on clinical and laboratory findings underwent upper abdominal MRI, acquired using the MultiVane and MultiVaneXD techniques. Two reviewers analyzed the MultiVane and MultiVaneXD T2-weighted images qualitatively and quantitatively. Each reviewer evaluated vessel conspicuity by observing motion artifacts and the sharpness of the portal vein, hepatic vein, and upper organs. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) were calculated by one reviewer for quantitative analysis. The interclass correlation coefficient was evaluated to measure inter-observer reliability. There were significant differences between MultiVane and MultiVaneXD in motion artifact evaluation. Furthermore, MultiVane was given a better score than MultiVaneXD in abdominal organ sharpness and vessel conspicuity, but the difference was insignificant. The reliability coefficient values were over 0.8 in every evaluation. MultiVaneXD (2.12) showed a higher value than did MultiVane (1.98), but the difference was insignificant ( p = 0.135). MultiVaneXD is a motion correction method that is more advanced than MultiVane, and it produced an increased SNR, resulting in a greater ability to detect focal abdominal lesions.

Experimental verification of a 4D MLEM reconstruction algorithm used for in-beam PET measurements in particle therapy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stützer, K.; Bert, C.; Enghardt, W.; Helmbrecht, S.; Parodi, K.; Priegnitz, M.; Saito, N.; Fiedler, F.

2013-08-01

In-beam positron emission tomography (PET) has been proven to be a reliable technique in ion beam radiotherapy for the in situ and non-invasive evaluation of the correct dose deposition in static tumour entities. In the presence of intra-fractional target motion an appropriate time-resolved (four-dimensional, 4D) reconstruction algorithm has to be used to avoid reconstructed activity distributions suffering from motion-related blurring artefacts and to allow for a dedicated dose monitoring. Four-dimensional reconstruction algorithms from diagnostic PET imaging that can properly handle the typically low counting statistics of in-beam PET data have been adapted and optimized for the characteristics of the double-head PET scanner BASTEI installed at GSI Helmholtzzentrum Darmstadt, Germany (GSI). Systematic investigations with moving radioactive sources demonstrate the more effective reduction of motion artefacts by applying a 4D maximum likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM) algorithm instead of the retrospective co-registration of phasewise reconstructed quasi-static activity distributions. Further 4D MLEM results are presented from in-beam PET measurements of irradiated moving phantoms which verify the accessibility of relevant parameters for the dose monitoring of intra-fractionally moving targets. From in-beam PET listmode data sets acquired together with a motion surrogate signal, valuable images can be generated by the 4D MLEM reconstruction for different motion patterns and motion-compensated beam delivery techniques.

A Method of Time-Intensity Curve Calculation for Vascular Perfusion of Uterine Fibroids Based on Subtraction Imaging with Motion Correction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Xinjian; Wu, Ruoyu; Li, Tao; Zhao, Dawei; Shan, Xin; Wang, Puling; Peng, Song; Li, Faqi; Wu, Baoming

2016-12-01

The time-intensity curve (TIC) from contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) image sequence of uterine fibroids provides important parameter information for qualitative and quantitative evaluation of efficacy of treatment such as high-intensity focused ultrasound surgery. However, respiration and other physiological movements inevitably affect the process of CEUS imaging, and this reduces the accuracy of TIC calculation. In this study, a method of TIC calculation for vascular perfusion of uterine fibroids based on subtraction imaging with motion correction is proposed. First, the fibroid CEUS recording video was decoded into frame images based on the record frame rate. Next, the Brox optical flow algorithm was used to estimate the displacement field and correct the motion between two frames based on warp technique. Then, subtraction imaging was performed to extract the positional distribution of vascular perfusion (PDOVP). Finally, the average gray of all pixels in the PDOVP from each image was determined, and this was considered the TIC of CEUS image sequence. Both the correlation coefficient and mutual information of the results with proposed method were larger than those determined using the original method. PDOVP extraction results have been improved significantly after motion correction. The variance reduction rates were all positive, indicating that the fluctuations of TIC had become less pronounced, and the calculation accuracy has been improved after motion correction. This proposed method can effectively overcome the influence of motion mainly caused by respiration and allows precise calculation of TIC.

Quantifying and correcting motion artifacts in MRI

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bones, Philip J.; Maclaren, Julian R.; Millane, Rick P.; Watts, Richard

2006-08-01

Patient motion during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can produce significant artifacts in a reconstructed image. Since measurements are made in the spatial frequency domain ('k-space'), rigid-body translational motion results in phase errors in the data samples while rotation causes location errors. A method is presented to detect and correct these errors via a modified sampling strategy, thereby achieving more accurate image reconstruction. The strategy involves sampling vertical and horizontal strips alternately in k-space and employs phase correlation within the overlapping segments to estimate translational motion. An extension, also based on correlation, is employed to estimate rotational motion. Results from simulations with computer-generated phantoms suggest that the algorithm is robust up to realistic noise levels. The work is being extended to physical phantoms. Provided that a reference image is available and the object is of limited extent, it is shown that a measure related to the amount of energy outside the support can be used to objectively compare the severity of motion-induced artifacts.

Non-rigid Motion Correction in 3D Using Autofocusing with Localized Linear Translations

PubMed Central

Cheng, Joseph Y.; Alley, Marcus T.; Cunningham, Charles H.; Vasanawala, Shreyas S.; Pauly, John M.; Lustig, Michael

2012-01-01

MR scans are sensitive to motion effects due to the scan duration. To properly suppress artifacts from non-rigid body motion, complex models with elements such as translation, rotation, shear, and scaling have been incorporated into the reconstruction pipeline. However, these techniques are computationally intensive and difficult to implement for online reconstruction. On a sufficiently small spatial scale, the different types of motion can be well-approximated as simple linear translations. This formulation allows for a practical autofocusing algorithm that locally minimizes a given motion metric – more specifically, the proposed localized gradient-entropy metric. To reduce the vast search space for an optimal solution, possible motion paths are limited to the motion measured from multi-channel navigator data. The novel navigation strategy is based on the so-called “Butterfly” navigators which are modifications to the spin-warp sequence that provide intrinsic translational motion information with negligible overhead. With a 32-channel abdominal coil, sufficient number of motion measurements were found to approximate possible linear motion paths for every image voxel. The correction scheme was applied to free-breathing abdominal patient studies. In these scans, a reduction in artifacts from complex, non-rigid motion was observed. PMID:22307933

An improved non-uniformity correction algorithm and its hardware implementation on FPGA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rong, Shenghui; Zhou, Huixin; Wen, Zhigang; Qin, Hanlin; Qian, Kun; Cheng, Kuanhong

2017-09-01

The Non-uniformity of Infrared Focal Plane Arrays (IRFPA) severely degrades the infrared image quality. An effective non-uniformity correction (NUC) algorithm is necessary for an IRFPA imaging and application system. However traditional scene-based NUC algorithm suffers the image blurring and artificial ghosting. In addition, few effective hardware platforms have been proposed to implement corresponding NUC algorithms. Thus, this paper proposed an improved neural-network based NUC algorithm by the guided image filter and the projection-based motion detection algorithm. First, the guided image filter is utilized to achieve the accurate desired image to decrease the artificial ghosting. Then a projection-based moving detection algorithm is utilized to determine whether the correction coefficients should be updated or not. In this way the problem of image blurring can be overcome. At last, an FPGA-based hardware design is introduced to realize the proposed NUC algorithm. A real and a simulated infrared image sequences are utilized to verify the performance of the proposed algorithm. Experimental results indicated that the proposed NUC algorithm can effectively eliminate the fix pattern noise with less image blurring and artificial ghosting. The proposed hardware design takes less logic elements in FPGA and spends less clock cycles to process one frame of image.

Automatic EEG-assisted retrospective motion correction for fMRI (aE-REMCOR).

PubMed

Wong, Chung-Ki; Zotev, Vadim; Misaki, Masaya; Phillips, Raquel; Luo, Qingfei; Bodurka, Jerzy

2016-04-01

Head motions during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) impair fMRI data quality and introduce systematic artifacts that can affect interpretation of fMRI results. Electroencephalography (EEG) recordings performed simultaneously with fMRI provide high-temporal-resolution information about ongoing brain activity as well as head movements. Recently, an EEG-assisted retrospective motion correction (E-REMCOR) method was introduced. E-REMCOR utilizes EEG motion artifacts to correct the effects of head movements in simultaneously acquired fMRI data on a slice-by-slice basis. While E-REMCOR is an efficient motion correction approach, it involves an independent component analysis (ICA) of the EEG data and identification of motion-related ICs. Here we report an automated implementation of E-REMCOR, referred to as aE-REMCOR, which we developed to facilitate the application of E-REMCOR in large-scale EEG-fMRI studies. The aE-REMCOR algorithm, implemented in MATLAB, enables an automated preprocessing of the EEG data, an ICA decomposition, and, importantly, an automatic identification of motion-related ICs. aE-REMCOR has been used to perform retrospective motion correction for 305 fMRI datasets from 16 subjects, who participated in EEG-fMRI experiments conducted on a 3T MRI scanner. Performance of aE-REMCOR has been evaluated based on improvement in temporal signal-to-noise ratio (TSNR) of the fMRI data, as well as correction efficiency defined in terms of spike reduction in fMRI motion parameters. The results show that aE-REMCOR is capable of substantially reducing head motion artifacts in fMRI data. In particular, when there are significant rapid head movements during the scan, a large TSNR improvement and high correction efficiency can be achieved. Depending on a subject's motion, an average TSNR improvement over the brain upon the application of aE-REMCOR can be as high as 27%, with top ten percent of the TSNR improvement values exceeding 55%. The average correction efficiency over the 305 fMRI scans is 18% and the largest achieved efficiency is 71%. The utility of aE-REMCOR on the resting state fMRI connectivity of the default mode network is also examined. The motion-induced position-dependent error in the DMN connectivity analysis is shown to be reduced when aE-REMCOR is utilized. These results demonstrate that aE-REMCOR can be conveniently and efficiently used to improve fMRI motion correction in large clinical EEG-fMRI studies. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Multigroup Radiation-Hydrodynamics with a High-Order, Low-Order Method

DOE PAGES

Wollaber, Allan Benton; Park, HyeongKae; Lowrie, Robert Byron; ...

2016-12-09

Recent efforts at Los Alamos National Laboratory to develop a moment-based, scale-bridging [or high-order (HO)–low-order (LO)] algorithm for solving large varieties of the transport (kinetic) systems have shown promising results. A part of our ongoing effort is incorporating this methodology into the framework of the Eulerian Applications Project to achieve algorithmic acceleration of radiationhydrodynamics simulations in production software. By starting from the thermal radiative transfer equations with a simple material-motion correction, we derive a discretely consistent energy balance equation (LO equation). We demonstrate that the corresponding LO system for the Monte Carlo HO solver is closely related to the originalmore » LO system without material-motion corrections. We test the implementation on a radiative shock problem and show consistency between the energy densities and temperatures in the HO and LO solutions as well as agreement with the semianalytic solution. We also test the approach on a more challenging two-dimensional problem and demonstrate accuracy enhancements and algorithmic speedups. This paper extends a recent conference paper by including multigroup effects.« less

Investigation of television transmission using adaptive delta modulation principles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schilling, D. L.

1976-01-01

The results are presented of a study on the use of the delta modulator as a digital encoder of television signals. The computer simulation of different delta modulators was studied in order to find a satisfactory delta modulator. After finding a suitable delta modulator algorithm via computer simulation, the results were analyzed and then implemented in hardware to study its ability to encode real time motion pictures from an NTSC format television camera. The effects of channel errors on the delta modulated video signal were tested along with several error correction algorithms via computer simulation. A very high speed delta modulator was built (out of ECL logic), incorporating the most promising of the correction schemes, so that it could be tested on real time motion pictures. Delta modulators were investigated which could achieve significant bandwidth reduction without regard to complexity or speed. The first scheme investigated was a real time frame to frame encoding scheme which required the assembly of fourteen, 131,000 bit long shift registers as well as a high speed delta modulator. The other schemes involved the computer simulation of two dimensional delta modulator algorithms.

Estimating non-circular motions in barred galaxies using numerical N-body simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Randriamampandry, T. H.; Combes, F.; Carignan, C.; Deg, N.

2015-12-01

The observed velocities of the gas in barred galaxies are a combination of the azimuthally averaged circular velocity and non-circular motions, primarily caused by gas streaming along the bar. These non-circular flows must be accounted for before the observed velocities can be used in mass modelling. In this work, we examine the performance of the tilted-ring method and the DISKFIT algorithm for transforming velocity maps of barred spiral galaxies into rotation curves (RCs) using simulated data. We find that the tilted-ring method, which does not account for streaming motions, under-/overestimates the circular motions when the bar is parallel/perpendicular to the projected major axis. DISKFIT, which does include streaming motions, is limited to orientations where the bar is not aligned with either the major or minor axis of the image. Therefore, we propose a method of correcting RCs based on numerical simulations of galaxies. We correct the RC derived from the tilted-ring method based on a numerical simulation of a galaxy with similar properties and projections as the observed galaxy. Using observations of NGC 3319, which has a bar aligned with the major axis, as a test case, we show that the inferred mass models from the uncorrected and corrected RCs are significantly different. These results show the importance of correcting for the non-circular motions and demonstrate that new methods of accounting for these motions are necessary as current methods fail for specific bar alignments.

Simulating an underwater vehicle self-correcting guidance system with Simulink

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, Hui; Zhang, Yu-Wen; Li, Wen-Zhe

2008-09-01

Underwater vehicles have already adopted self-correcting directional guidance algorithms based on multi-beam self-guidance systems, not waiting for research to determine the most effective algorithms. The main challenges facing research on these guidance systems have been effective modeling of the guidance algorithm and a means to analyze the simulation results. A simulation structure based on Simulink that dealt with both issues was proposed. Initially, a mathematical model of relative motion between the vehicle and the target was developed, which was then encapsulated as a subsystem. Next, steps for constructing a model of the self-correcting guidance algorithm based on the Stateflow module were examined in detail. Finally, a 3-D model of the vehicle and target was created in VRML, and by processing mathematical results, the model was shown moving in a visual environment. This process gives more intuitive results for analyzing the simulation. The results showed that the simulation structure performs well. The simulation program heavily used modularization and encapsulation, so has broad applicability to simulations of other dynamic systems.

Dynamic-MLC leaf control utilizing on-flight intensity calculations: a robust method for real-time IMRT delivery over moving rigid targets.

PubMed

McMahon, Ryan; Papiez, Lech; Rangaraj, Dharanipathy

2007-08-01

An algorithm is presented that allows for the control of multileaf collimation (MLC) leaves based entirely on real-time calculations of the intensity delivered over the target. The algorithm is capable of efficiently correcting generalized delivery errors without requiring the interruption of delivery (self-correcting trajectories), where a generalized delivery error represents anything that causes a discrepancy between the delivered and intended intensity profiles. The intensity actually delivered over the target is continually compared to its intended value. For each pair of leaves, these comparisons are used to guide the control of the following leaf and keep this discrepancy below a user-specified value. To demonstrate the basic principles of the algorithm, results of corrected delivery are shown for a leading leaf positional error during dynamic-MLC (DMLC) IMRT delivery over a rigid moving target. It is then shown that, with slight modifications, the algorithm can be used to track moving targets in real time. The primary results of this article indicate that the algorithm is capable of accurately delivering DMLC IMRT over a rigid moving target whose motion is (1) completely unknown prior to delivery and (2) not faster than the maximum MLC leaf velocity over extended periods of time. These capabilities are demonstrated for clinically derived intensity profiles and actual tumor motion data, including situations when the target moves in some instances faster than the maximum admissible MLC leaf velocity. The results show that using the algorithm while calculating the delivered intensity every 50 ms will provide a good level of accuracy when delivering IMRT over a rigid moving target translating along the direction of MLC leaf travel. When the maximum velocities of the MLC leaves and target were 4 and 4.2 cm/s, respectively, the resulting error in the two intensity profiles used was 0.1 +/- 3.1% and -0.5 +/- 2.8% relative to the maximum of the intensity profiles. For the same target motion, the error was shown to increase rapidly as (1) the maximum MLC leaf velocity was reduced below 75% of the maximum target velocity and (2) the system response time was increased.

Patient motion effects on the quantification of regional myocardial blood flow with dynamic PET imaging.

PubMed

Hunter, Chad R R N; Klein, Ran; Beanlands, Rob S; deKemp, Robert A

2016-04-01

Patient motion is a common problem during dynamic positron emission tomography (PET) scans for quantification of myocardial blood flow (MBF). The purpose of this study was to quantify the prevalence of body motion in a clinical setting and evaluate with realistic phantoms the effects of motion on blood flow quantification, including CT attenuation correction (CTAC) artifacts that result from PET-CT misalignment. A cohort of 236 sequential patients was analyzed for patient motion under resting and peak stress conditions by two independent observers. The presence of motion, affected time-frames, and direction of motion was recorded; discrepancy between observers was resolved by consensus review. Based on these results, patient body motion effects on MBF quantification were characterized using the digital NURBS-based cardiac-torso phantom, with characteristic time activity curves (TACs) assigned to the heart wall (myocardium) and blood regions. Simulated projection data were corrected for attenuation and reconstructed using filtered back-projection. All simulations were performed without noise added, and a single CT image was used for attenuation correction and aligned to the early- or late-frame PET images. In the patient cohort, mild motion of 0.5 ± 0.1 cm occurred in 24% and moderate motion of 1.0 ± 0.3 cm occurred in 38% of patients. Motion in the superior/inferior direction accounted for 45% of all detected motion, with 30% in the superior direction. Anterior/posterior motion was predominant (29%) in the posterior direction. Left/right motion occurred in 24% of cases, with similar proportions in the left and right directions. Computer simulation studies indicated that errors in MBF can approach 500% for scans with severe patient motion (up to 2 cm). The largest errors occurred when the heart wall was shifted left toward the adjacent lung region, resulting in a severe undercorrection for attenuation of the heart wall. Simulations also indicated that the magnitude of MBF errors resulting from motion in the superior/inferior and anterior/posterior directions was similar (up to 250%). Body motion effects were more detrimental for higher resolution PET imaging (2 vs 10 mm full-width at half-maximum), and for motion occurring during the mid-to-late time-frames. Motion correction of the reconstructed dynamic image series resulted in significant reduction in MBF errors, but did not account for the residual PET-CTAC misalignment artifacts. MBF bias was reduced further using global partial-volume correction, and using dynamic alignment of the PET projection data to the CT scan for accurate attenuation correction during image reconstruction. Patient body motion can produce MBF estimation errors up to 500%. To reduce these errors, new motion correction algorithms must be effective in identifying motion in the left/right direction, and in the mid-to-late time-frames, since these conditions produce the largest errors in MBF, particularly for high resolution PET imaging. Ideally, motion correction should be done before or during image reconstruction to eliminate PET-CTAC misalignment artifacts.

Vector Graph Assisted Pedestrian Dead Reckoning Using an Unconstrained Smartphone

PubMed Central

Qian, Jiuchao; Pei, Ling; Ma, Jiabin; Ying, Rendong; Liu, Peilin

2015-01-01

The paper presents a hybrid indoor positioning solution based on a pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) approach using built-in sensors on a smartphone. To address the challenges of flexible and complex contexts of carrying a phone while walking, a robust step detection algorithm based on motion-awareness has been proposed. Given the fact that step length is influenced by different motion states, an adaptive step length estimation algorithm based on motion recognition is developed. Heading estimation is carried out by an attitude acquisition algorithm, which contains a two-phase filter to mitigate the distortion of magnetic anomalies. In order to estimate the heading for an unconstrained smartphone, principal component analysis (PCA) of acceleration is applied to determine the offset between the orientation of smartphone and the actual heading of a pedestrian. Moreover, a particle filter with vector graph assisted particle weighting is introduced to correct the deviation in step length and heading estimation. Extensive field tests, including four contexts of carrying a phone, have been conducted in an office building to verify the performance of the proposed algorithm. Test results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve sub-meter mean error in all contexts. PMID:25738763

Hand-Writing Motion Tracking with Vision-Inertial Sensor Fusion: Calibration and Error Correction

PubMed Central

Zhou, Shengli; Fei, Fei; Zhang, Guanglie; Liu, Yunhui; Li, Wen J.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to improve the accuracy of real-time ego-motion tracking through inertial sensor and vision sensor fusion. Due to low sampling rates supported by web-based vision sensor and accumulation of errors in inertial sensors, ego-motion tracking with vision sensors is commonly afflicted by slow updating rates, while motion tracking with inertial sensor suffers from rapid deterioration in accuracy with time. This paper starts with a discussion of developed algorithms for calibrating two relative rotations of the system using only one reference image. Next, stochastic noises associated with the inertial sensor are identified using Allan Variance analysis, and modeled according to their characteristics. Finally, the proposed models are incorporated into an extended Kalman filter for inertial sensor and vision sensor fusion. Compared with results from conventional sensor fusion models, we have shown that ego-motion tracking can be greatly enhanced using the proposed error correction model. PMID:25157546

Real-time prediction and gating of respiratory motion using an extended Kalman filter and Gaussian process regression

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bukhari, W.; Hong, S.-M.

2015-01-01

Motion-adaptive radiotherapy aims to deliver a conformal dose to the target tumour with minimal normal tissue exposure by compensating for tumour motion in real time. The prediction as well as the gating of respiratory motion have received much attention over the last two decades for reducing the targeting error of the treatment beam due to respiratory motion. In this article, we present a real-time algorithm for predicting and gating respiratory motion that utilizes a model-based and a model-free Bayesian framework by combining them in a cascade structure. The algorithm, named EKF-GPR+, implements a gating function without pre-specifying a particular region of the patient’s breathing cycle. The algorithm first employs an extended Kalman filter (LCM-EKF) to predict the respiratory motion and then uses a model-free Gaussian process regression (GPR) to correct the error of the LCM-EKF prediction. The GPR is a non-parametric Bayesian algorithm that yields predictive variance under Gaussian assumptions. The EKF-GPR+ algorithm utilizes the predictive variance from the GPR component to capture the uncertainty in the LCM-EKF prediction error and systematically identify breathing points with a higher probability of large prediction error in advance. This identification allows us to pause the treatment beam over such instances. EKF-GPR+ implements the gating function by using simple calculations based on the predictive variance with no additional detection mechanism. A sparse approximation of the GPR algorithm is employed to realize EKF-GPR+ in real time. Extensive numerical experiments are performed based on a large database of 304 respiratory motion traces to evaluate EKF-GPR+. The experimental results show that the EKF-GPR+ algorithm effectively reduces the prediction error in a root-mean-square (RMS) sense by employing the gating function, albeit at the cost of a reduced duty cycle. As an example, EKF-GPR+ reduces the patient-wise RMS error to 37%, 39% and 42% in percent ratios relative to no prediction for a duty cycle of 80% at lookahead lengths of 192 ms, 384 ms and 576 ms, respectively. The experiments also confirm that EKF-GPR+ controls the duty cycle with reasonable accuracy.

Real-time prediction and gating of respiratory motion in 3D space using extended Kalman filters and Gaussian process regression network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bukhari, W.; Hong, S.-M.

2016-03-01

The prediction as well as the gating of respiratory motion have received much attention over the last two decades for reducing the targeting error of the radiation treatment beam due to respiratory motion. In this article, we present a real-time algorithm for predicting respiratory motion in 3D space and realizing a gating function without pre-specifying a particular phase of the patient’s breathing cycle. The algorithm, named EKF-GPRN+ , first employs an extended Kalman filter (EKF) independently along each coordinate to predict the respiratory motion and then uses a Gaussian process regression network (GPRN) to correct the prediction error of the EKF in 3D space. The GPRN is a nonparametric Bayesian algorithm for modeling input-dependent correlations between the output variables in multi-output regression. Inference in GPRN is intractable and we employ variational inference with mean field approximation to compute an approximate predictive mean and predictive covariance matrix. The approximate predictive mean is used to correct the prediction error of the EKF. The trace of the approximate predictive covariance matrix is utilized to capture the uncertainty in EKF-GPRN+ prediction error and systematically identify breathing points with a higher probability of large prediction error in advance. This identification enables us to pause the treatment beam over such instances. EKF-GPRN+ implements a gating function by using simple calculations based on the trace of the predictive covariance matrix. Extensive numerical experiments are performed based on a large database of 304 respiratory motion traces to evaluate EKF-GPRN+ . The experimental results show that the EKF-GPRN+ algorithm reduces the patient-wise prediction error to 38%, 40% and 40% in root-mean-square, compared to no prediction, at lookahead lengths of 192 ms, 384 ms and 576 ms, respectively. The EKF-GPRN+ algorithm can further reduce the prediction error by employing the gating function, albeit at the cost of reduced duty cycle. The error reduction allows the clinical target volume to planning target volume (CTV-PTV) margin to be reduced, leading to decreased normal-tissue toxicity and possible dose escalation. The CTV-PTV margin is also evaluated to quantify clinical benefits of EKF-GPRN+ prediction.

New inverse synthetic aperture radar algorithm for translational motion compensation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bocker, Richard P.; Henderson, Thomas B.; Jones, Scott A.; Frieden, B. R.

1991-10-01

Inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) is an imaging technique that shows real promise in classifying airborne targets in real time under all weather conditions. Over the past few years a large body of ISAR data has been collected and considerable effort has been expended to develop algorithms to form high-resolution images from this data. One important goal of workers in this field is to develop software that will do the best job of imaging under the widest range of conditions. The success of classifying targets using ISAR is predicated upon forming highly focused radar images of these targets. Efforts to develop highly focused imaging computer software have been challenging, mainly because the imaging depends on and is affected by the motion of the target, which in general is not precisely known. Specifically, the target generally has both rotational motion about some axis and translational motion as a whole with respect to the radar. The slant-range translational motion kinematic quantities must be first accurately estimated from the data and compensated before the image can be focused. Following slant-range motion compensation, the image is further focused by determining and correcting for target rotation. The use of the burst derivative measure is proposed as a means to improve the computational efficiency of currently used ISAR algorithms. The use of this measure in motion compensation ISAR algorithms for estimating the slant-range translational motion kinematic quantities of an uncooperative target is described. Preliminary tests have been performed on simulated as well as actual ISAR data using both a Sun 4 workstation and a parallel processing transputer array. Results indicate that the burst derivative measure gives significant improvement in processing speed over the traditional entropy measure now employed.

Phase Retrieval Using a Genetic Algorithm on the Systematic Image-Based Optical Alignment Testbed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Taylor, Jaime R.

2003-01-01

NASA s Marshall Space Flight Center s Systematic Image-Based Optical Alignment (SIBOA) Testbed was developed to test phase retrieval algorithms and hardware techniques. Individuals working with the facility developed the idea of implementing phase retrieval by breaking the determination of the tip/tilt of each mirror apart from the piston motion (or translation) of each mirror. Presented in this report is an algorithm that determines the optimal phase correction associated only with the piston motion of the mirrors. A description of the Phase Retrieval problem is first presented. The Systematic Image-Based Optical Alignment (SIBOA) Testbeb is then described. A Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) is necessary to transfer the incoming wavefront (or estimate of phase error) into the spatial frequency domain to compare it with the image. A method for reducing the DFT to seven scalar/matrix multiplications is presented. A genetic algorithm is then used to search for the phase error. The results of this new algorithm on a test problem are presented.

Adaptive vehicle motion estimation and prediction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Liang; Thorpe, Chuck E.

1999-01-01

Accurate motion estimation and reliable maneuver prediction enable an automated car to react quickly and correctly to the rapid maneuvers of the other vehicles, and so allow safe and efficient navigation. In this paper, we present a car tracking system which provides motion estimation, maneuver prediction and detection of the tracked car. The three strategies employed - adaptive motion modeling, adaptive data sampling, and adaptive model switching probabilities - result in an adaptive interacting multiple model algorithm (AIMM). The experimental results on simulated and real data demonstrate that our tracking system is reliable, flexible, and robust. The adaptive tracking makes the system intelligent and useful in various autonomous driving tasks.

A priori motion models for four-dimensional reconstruction in gated cardiac SPECT

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

Lalush, D.S.; Tsui, B.M.W.; Cui, Lin

1996-12-31

We investigate the benefit of incorporating a priori assumptions about cardiac motion in a fully four-dimensional (4D) reconstruction algorithm for gated cardiac SPECT. Previous work has shown that non-motion-specific 4D Gibbs priors enforcing smoothing in time and space can control noise while preserving resolution. In this paper, we evaluate methods for incorporating known heart motion in the Gibbs prior model. The new model is derived by assigning motion vectors to each 4D voxel, defining the movement of that volume of activity into the neighboring time frames. Weights for the Gibbs cliques are computed based on these {open_quotes}most likely{close_quotes} motion vectors.more » To evaluate, we employ the mathematical cardiac-torso (MCAT) phantom with a new dynamic heart model that simulates the beating and twisting motion of the heart. Sixteen realistically-simulated gated datasets were generated, with noise simulated to emulate a real Tl-201 gated SPECT study. Reconstructions were performed using several different reconstruction algorithms, all modeling nonuniform attenuation and three-dimensional detector response. These include ML-EM with 4D filtering, 4D MAP-EM without prior motion assumption, and 4D MAP-EM with prior motion assumptions. The prior motion assumptions included both the correct motion model and incorrect models. Results show that reconstructions using the 4D prior model can smooth noise and preserve time-domain resolution more effectively than 4D linear filters. We conclude that modeling of motion in 4D reconstruction algorithms can be a powerful tool for smoothing noise and preserving temporal resolution in gated cardiac studies.« less

High-Resolution Multi-Shot Spiral Diffusion Tensor Imaging with Inherent Correction of Motion-Induced Phase Errors

PubMed Central

Truong, Trong-Kha; Guidon, Arnaud

2014-01-01

Purpose To develop and compare three novel reconstruction methods designed to inherently correct for motion-induced phase errors in multi-shot spiral diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) without requiring a variable-density spiral trajectory or a navigator echo. Theory and Methods The first method simply averages magnitude images reconstructed with sensitivity encoding (SENSE) from each shot, whereas the second and third methods rely on SENSE to estimate the motion-induced phase error for each shot, and subsequently use either a direct phase subtraction or an iterative conjugate gradient (CG) algorithm, respectively, to correct for the resulting artifacts. Numerical simulations and in vivo experiments on healthy volunteers were performed to assess the performance of these methods. Results The first two methods suffer from a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or from residual artifacts in the reconstructed diffusion-weighted images and fractional anisotropy maps. In contrast, the third method provides high-quality, high-resolution DTI results, revealing fine anatomical details such as a radial diffusion anisotropy in cortical gray matter. Conclusion The proposed SENSE+CG method can inherently and effectively correct for phase errors, signal loss, and aliasing artifacts caused by both rigid and nonrigid motion in multi-shot spiral DTI, without increasing the scan time or reducing the SNR. PMID:23450457

The effect of regularization in motion compensated PET image reconstruction: a realistic numerical 4D simulation study.

PubMed

Tsoumpas, C; Polycarpou, I; Thielemans, K; Buerger, C; King, A P; Schaeffter, T; Marsden, P K

2013-03-21

Following continuous improvement in PET spatial resolution, respiratory motion correction has become an important task. Two of the most common approaches that utilize all detected PET events to motion-correct PET data are the reconstruct-transform-average method (RTA) and motion-compensated image reconstruction (MCIR). In RTA, separate images are reconstructed for each respiratory frame, subsequently transformed to one reference frame and finally averaged to produce a motion-corrected image. In MCIR, the projection data from all frames are reconstructed by including motion information in the system matrix so that a motion-corrected image is reconstructed directly. Previous theoretical analyses have explained why MCIR is expected to outperform RTA. It has been suggested that MCIR creates less noise than RTA because the images for each separate respiratory frame will be severely affected by noise. However, recent investigations have shown that in the unregularized case RTA images can have fewer noise artefacts, while MCIR images are more quantitatively accurate but have the common salt-and-pepper noise. In this paper, we perform a realistic numerical 4D simulation study to compare the advantages gained by including regularization within reconstruction for RTA and MCIR, in particular using the median-root-prior incorporated in the ordered subsets maximum a posteriori one-step-late algorithm. In this investigation we have demonstrated that MCIR with proper regularization parameters reconstructs lesions with less bias and root mean square error and similar CNR and standard deviation to regularized RTA. This finding is reproducible for a variety of noise levels (25, 50, 100 million counts), lesion sizes (8 mm, 14 mm diameter) and iterations. Nevertheless, regularized RTA can also be a practical solution for motion compensation as a proper level of regularization reduces both bias and mean square error.

Concurrent Respiratory Motion Correction of Abdominal PET and DCE-MRI using a Compressed Sensing Approach.

PubMed

Fuin, Niccolo; Catalano, Onofrio Antonio; Scipioni, Michele; Canjels, Lisanne P W; Izquierdo, David; Pedemonte, Stefano; Catana, Ciprian

2018-01-25

Purpose: We present an approach for concurrent reconstruction of respiratory motion compensated abdominal DCE-MRI and PET data in an integrated PET/MR scanner. The MR and PET reconstructions share the same motion vector fields (MVFs) derived from radial MR data; the approach is robust to changes in respiratory pattern and do not increase the total acquisition time. Methods: PET and DCE-MRI data of 12 oncological patients were simultaneously acquired for 6 minutes on an integrated PET/MR system after administration of 18 F-FDG and gadoterate meglumine. Golden-angle radial MR data were continuously acquired simultaneously with PET data and sorted into multiple motion phases based on a respiratory signal derived directly from the radial MR data. The resulting multidimensional dataset was reconstructed using a compressed sensing approach that exploits sparsity among respiratory phases. MVFs obtained using the full 6-minute (MC_6-min) and only the last 1 minute (MC_1-min) of data were incorporated into the PET reconstruction to obtain motion-corrected PET images and in an MR iterative reconstruction algorithm to produce a series of motion-corrected DCE-MRI images (moco_GRASP). The motion-correction methods (MC_6-min and MC_1-min) were evaluated by qualitative analysis of the MR images and quantitative analysis of maximum and mean standardized uptake values (SUV max , SUVmean), contrast, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and lesion volume in the PET images. Results: Motion corrected MC_6-min PET images demonstrated 30%, 23%, 34% and 18% increases in average SUV max , SUVmean, contrast and SNR, and an average 40% reduction in lesion volume with respect to the non-motion-corrected PET images. The changes in these figures of merit were smaller but still substantial for the MC_1-min protocol: 19%, 10%, 15% and 9% increases in average SUV max , SUVmean, contrast and SNR; and a 28% reduction in lesion volume. Moco_GRASP images were deemed of acceptable or better diagnostic image quality with respect to conventional breath hold cartesian VIBE acquisitions. Conclusion: We presented a method that allows the simultaneous acquisition of respiratory motion-corrected diagnostic quality DCE-MRI and quantitatively accurate PET data in an integrated PET/MR scanner with negligible prolongation in acquisition time compared to routine PET/DCE-MRI protocols. Copyright © 2018 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Inc.

Investigating the Effects of Motion Streaks on pQCT-Derived Leg Muscle Density and Its Association With Fractures.

PubMed

Chan, Adrian C H; Adachi, Jonathan D; Papaioannou, Alexandra; Wong, Andy Kin On

Lower peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT)-derived leg muscle density has been associated with fragility fractures in postmenopausal women. Limb movement during image acquisition may result in motion streaks in muscle that could dilute this relationship. This cross-sectional study examined a subset of women from the Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study. pQCT leg scans were qualitatively graded (1-5) for motion severity. Muscle and motion streak were segmented using semi-automated (watershed) and fully automated (threshold-based) methods, computing area, and density. Binary logistic regression evaluated odds ratios (ORs) for fragility or all-cause fractures related to each of these measures with covariate adjustment. Among the 223 women examined (mean age: 72.7 ± 7.1 years, body mass index: 26.30 ± 4.97 kg/m 2 ), muscle density was significantly lower after removing motion (p < 0.001) for both methods. Motion streak areas segmented using the semi-automated method correlated better with visual motion grades (rho = 0.90, p < 0.01) compared to the fully automated method (rho = 0.65, p < 0.01). Although the analysis-reanalysis precision of motion streak area segmentation using the semi-automated method is above 5% error (6.44%), motion-corrected muscle density measures remained well within 2% analytical error. The effect of motion-correction on strengthening the association between muscle density and fragility fractures was significant when motion grade was ≥3 (p interaction <0.05). This observation was most dramatic for the semi-automated algorithm (OR: 1.62 [0.82,3.17] before to 2.19 [1.05,4.59] after correction). Although muscle density showed an overall association with all-cause fractures (OR: 1.49 [1.05,2.12]), the effect of motion-correction was again, most impactful within individuals with scans showing grade 3 or above motion. Correcting for motion in pQCT leg scans strengthened the relationship between muscle density and fragility fractures, particularly in scans with motion grades of 3 or above. Motion streaks are not confounders to the relationship between pQCT-derived leg muscle density and fractures, but may introduce heterogeneity in muscle density measurements, rendering associations with fractures to be weaker. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Patient motion effects on the quantification of regional myocardial blood flow with dynamic PET imaging

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

Hunter, Chad R. R. N.; Kemp, Robert A. de, E-mail: RAdeKemp@ottawaheart.ca; Klein, Ran

Purpose: Patient motion is a common problem during dynamic positron emission tomography (PET) scans for quantification of myocardial blood flow (MBF). The purpose of this study was to quantify the prevalence of body motion in a clinical setting and evaluate with realistic phantoms the effects of motion on blood flow quantification, including CT attenuation correction (CTAC) artifacts that result from PET–CT misalignment. Methods: A cohort of 236 sequential patients was analyzed for patient motion under resting and peak stress conditions by two independent observers. The presence of motion, affected time-frames, and direction of motion was recorded; discrepancy between observers wasmore » resolved by consensus review. Based on these results, patient body motion effects on MBF quantification were characterized using the digital NURBS-based cardiac-torso phantom, with characteristic time activity curves (TACs) assigned to the heart wall (myocardium) and blood regions. Simulated projection data were corrected for attenuation and reconstructed using filtered back-projection. All simulations were performed without noise added, and a single CT image was used for attenuation correction and aligned to the early- or late-frame PET images. Results: In the patient cohort, mild motion of 0.5 ± 0.1 cm occurred in 24% and moderate motion of 1.0 ± 0.3 cm occurred in 38% of patients. Motion in the superior/inferior direction accounted for 45% of all detected motion, with 30% in the superior direction. Anterior/posterior motion was predominant (29%) in the posterior direction. Left/right motion occurred in 24% of cases, with similar proportions in the left and right directions. Computer simulation studies indicated that errors in MBF can approach 500% for scans with severe patient motion (up to 2 cm). The largest errors occurred when the heart wall was shifted left toward the adjacent lung region, resulting in a severe undercorrection for attenuation of the heart wall. Simulations also indicated that the magnitude of MBF errors resulting from motion in the superior/inferior and anterior/posterior directions was similar (up to 250%). Body motion effects were more detrimental for higher resolution PET imaging (2 vs 10 mm full-width at half-maximum), and for motion occurring during the mid-to-late time-frames. Motion correction of the reconstructed dynamic image series resulted in significant reduction in MBF errors, but did not account for the residual PET–CTAC misalignment artifacts. MBF bias was reduced further using global partial-volume correction, and using dynamic alignment of the PET projection data to the CT scan for accurate attenuation correction during image reconstruction. Conclusions: Patient body motion can produce MBF estimation errors up to 500%. To reduce these errors, new motion correction algorithms must be effective in identifying motion in the left/right direction, and in the mid-to-late time-frames, since these conditions produce the largest errors in MBF, particularly for high resolution PET imaging. Ideally, motion correction should be done before or during image reconstruction to eliminate PET-CTAC misalignment artifacts.« less

The effect of interference on delta modulation encoded video signals

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schilling, D. L.

1979-01-01

The results of a study on the use of the delta modulator as a digital encoder of television signals are presented. The computer simulation was studied of different delta modulators in order to find a satisfactory delta modulator. After finding a suitable delta modulator algorithm via computer simulation, the results are analyzed and then implemented in hardware to study the ability to encode real time motion pictures from an NTSC format television camera. The effects were investigated of channel errors on the delta modulated video signal and several error correction algorithms were tested via computer simulation. A very high speed delta modulator was built (out of ECL logic), incorporating the most promising of the correction schemes, so that it could be tested on real time motion pictures. The final area of investigation concerned itself with finding delta modulators which could achieve significant bandwidth reduction without regard to complexity or speed. The first such scheme to be investigated was a real time frame to frame encoding scheme which required the assembly of fourteen, 131,000 bit long shift registers as well as a high speed delta modulator. The other schemes involved two dimensional delta modulator algorithms.

Alignment of cryo-EM movies of individual particles by optimization of image translations.

PubMed

Rubinstein, John L; Brubaker, Marcus A

2015-11-01

Direct detector device (DDD) cameras have revolutionized single particle electron cryomicroscopy (cryo-EM). In addition to an improved camera detective quantum efficiency, acquisition of DDD movies allows for correction of movement of the specimen, due to both instabilities in the microscope specimen stage and electron beam-induced movement. Unlike specimen stage drift, beam-induced movement is not always homogeneous within an image. Local correlation in the trajectories of nearby particles suggests that beam-induced motion is due to deformation of the ice layer. Algorithms have already been described that can correct movement for large regions of frames and for >1 MDa protein particles. Another algorithm allows individual <1 MDa protein particle trajectories to be estimated, but requires rolling averages to be calculated from frames and fits linear trajectories for particles. Here we describe an algorithm that allows for individual <1 MDa particle images to be aligned without frame averaging or linear trajectories. The algorithm maximizes the overall correlation of the shifted frames with the sum of the shifted frames. The optimum in this single objective function is found efficiently by making use of analytically calculated derivatives of the function. To smooth estimates of particle trajectories, rapid changes in particle positions between frames are penalized in the objective function and weighted averaging of nearby trajectories ensures local correlation in trajectories. This individual particle motion correction, in combination with weighting of Fourier components to account for increasing radiation damage in later frames, can be used to improve 3-D maps from single particle cryo-EM. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Scene-based nonuniformity correction with video sequences and registration.

PubMed

Hardie, R C; Hayat, M M; Armstrong, E; Yasuda, B

2000-03-10

We describe a new, to our knowledge, scene-based nonuniformity correction algorithm for array detectors. The algorithm relies on the ability to register a sequence of observed frames in the presence of the fixed-pattern noise caused by pixel-to-pixel nonuniformity. In low-to-moderate levels of nonuniformity, sufficiently accurate registration may be possible with standard scene-based registration techniques. If the registration is accurate, and motion exists between the frames, then groups of independent detectors can be identified that observe the same irradiance (or true scene value). These detector outputs are averaged to generate estimates of the true scene values. With these scene estimates, and the corresponding observed values through a given detector, a curve-fitting procedure is used to estimate the individual detector response parameters. These can then be used to correct for detector nonuniformity. The strength of the algorithm lies in its simplicity and low computational complexity. Experimental results, to illustrate the performance of the algorithm, include the use of visible-range imagery with simulated nonuniformity and infrared imagery with real nonuniformity.

Correcting Spatial Variance of RCM for GEO SAR Imaging Based on Time-Frequency Scaling.

PubMed

Yu, Ze; Lin, Peng; Xiao, Peng; Kang, Lihong; Li, Chunsheng

2016-07-14

Compared with low-Earth orbit synthetic aperture radar (SAR), a geosynchronous (GEO) SAR can have a shorter revisit period and vaster coverage. However, relative motion between this SAR and targets is more complicated, which makes range cell migration (RCM) spatially variant along both range and azimuth. As a result, efficient and precise imaging becomes difficult. This paper analyzes and models spatial variance for GEO SAR in the time and frequency domains. A novel algorithm for GEO SAR imaging with a resolution of 2 m in both the ground cross-range and range directions is proposed, which is composed of five steps. The first is to eliminate linear azimuth variance through the first azimuth time scaling. The second is to achieve RCM correction and range compression. The third is to correct residual azimuth variance by the second azimuth time-frequency scaling. The fourth and final steps are to accomplish azimuth focusing and correct geometric distortion. The most important innovation of this algorithm is implementation of the time-frequency scaling to correct high-order azimuth variance. As demonstrated by simulation results, this algorithm can accomplish GEO SAR imaging with good and uniform imaging quality over the entire swath.

Correcting Spatial Variance of RCM for GEO SAR Imaging Based on Time-Frequency Scaling

PubMed Central

Yu, Ze; Lin, Peng; Xiao, Peng; Kang, Lihong; Li, Chunsheng

2016-01-01

Compared with low-Earth orbit synthetic aperture radar (SAR), a geosynchronous (GEO) SAR can have a shorter revisit period and vaster coverage. However, relative motion between this SAR and targets is more complicated, which makes range cell migration (RCM) spatially variant along both range and azimuth. As a result, efficient and precise imaging becomes difficult. This paper analyzes and models spatial variance for GEO SAR in the time and frequency domains. A novel algorithm for GEO SAR imaging with a resolution of 2 m in both the ground cross-range and range directions is proposed, which is composed of five steps. The first is to eliminate linear azimuth variance through the first azimuth time scaling. The second is to achieve RCM correction and range compression. The third is to correct residual azimuth variance by the second azimuth time-frequency scaling. The fourth and final steps are to accomplish azimuth focusing and correct geometric distortion. The most important innovation of this algorithm is implementation of the time-frequency scaling to correct high-order azimuth variance. As demonstrated by simulation results, this algorithm can accomplish GEO SAR imaging with good and uniform imaging quality over the entire swath. PMID:27428974

Cardiac motion correction based on partial angle reconstructed images in x-ray CT

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

Kim, Seungeon; Chang, Yongjin; Ra, Jong Beom, E-mail: jbra@kaist.ac.kr

2015-05-15

Purpose: Cardiac x-ray CT imaging is still challenging due to heart motion, which cannot be ignored even with the current rotation speed of the equipment. In response, many algorithms have been developed to compensate remaining motion artifacts by estimating the motion using projection data or reconstructed images. In these algorithms, accurate motion estimation is critical to the compensated image quality. In addition, since the scan range is directly related to the radiation dose, it is preferable to minimize the scan range in motion estimation. In this paper, the authors propose a novel motion estimation and compensation algorithm using a sinogrammore » with a rotation angle of less than 360°. The algorithm estimates the motion of the whole heart area using two opposite 3D partial angle reconstructed (PAR) images and compensates the motion in the reconstruction process. Methods: A CT system scans the thoracic area including the heart over an angular range of 180° + α + β, where α and β denote the detector fan angle and an additional partial angle, respectively. The obtained cone-beam projection data are converted into cone-parallel geometry via row-wise fan-to-parallel rebinning. Two conjugate 3D PAR images, whose center projection angles are separated by 180°, are then reconstructed with an angular range of β, which is considerably smaller than a short scan range of 180° + α. Although these images include limited view angle artifacts that disturb accurate motion estimation, they have considerably better temporal resolution than a short scan image. Hence, after preprocessing these artifacts, the authors estimate a motion model during a half rotation for a whole field of view via nonrigid registration between the images. Finally, motion-compensated image reconstruction is performed at a target phase by incorporating the estimated motion model. The target phase is selected as that corresponding to a view angle that is orthogonal to the center view angles of two conjugate PAR images. To evaluate the proposed algorithm, digital XCAT and physical dynamic cardiac phantom datasets are used. The XCAT phantom datasets were generated with heart rates of 70 and 100 bpm, respectively, by assuming a system rotation time of 300 ms. A physical dynamic cardiac phantom was scanned using a slowly rotating XCT system so that the effective heart rate will be 70 bpm for a system rotation speed of 300 ms. Results: In the XCAT phantom experiment, motion-compensated 3D images obtained from the proposed algorithm show coronary arteries with fewer motion artifacts for all phases. Moreover, object boundaries contaminated by motion are well restored. Even though object positions and boundary shapes are still somewhat different from the ground truth in some cases, the authors see that visibilities of coronary arteries are improved noticeably and motion artifacts are reduced considerably. The physical phantom study also shows that the visual quality of motion-compensated images is greatly improved. Conclusions: The authors propose a novel PAR image-based cardiac motion estimation and compensation algorithm. The algorithm requires an angular scan range of less than 360°. The excellent performance of the proposed algorithm is illustrated by using digital XCAT and physical dynamic cardiac phantom datasets.« less

Respiratory motion correction in dynamic MRI using robust data decomposition registration - application to DCE-MRI.

PubMed

Hamy, Valentin; Dikaios, Nikolaos; Punwani, Shonit; Melbourne, Andrew; Latifoltojar, Arash; Makanyanga, Jesica; Chouhan, Manil; Helbren, Emma; Menys, Alex; Taylor, Stuart; Atkinson, David

2014-02-01

Motion correction in Dynamic Contrast Enhanced (DCE-) MRI is challenging because rapid intensity changes can compromise common (intensity based) registration algorithms. In this study we introduce a novel registration technique based on robust principal component analysis (RPCA) to decompose a given time-series into a low rank and a sparse component. This allows robust separation of motion components that can be registered, from intensity variations that are left unchanged. This Robust Data Decomposition Registration (RDDR) is demonstrated on both simulated and a wide range of clinical data. Robustness to different types of motion and breathing choices during acquisition is demonstrated for a variety of imaged organs including liver, small bowel and prostate. The analysis of clinically relevant regions of interest showed both a decrease of error (15-62% reduction following registration) in tissue time-intensity curves and improved areas under the curve (AUC60) at early enhancement. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of a new motion correction algorithm in PET/CT: combining the entire acquired PET data to create a single three-dimensional motion-corrected PET/CT image.

PubMed

Minamimoto, Ryogo; Mitsumoto, Takuya; Miyata, Yoko; Sunaoka, Fumio; Morooka, Miyako; Okasaki, Momoko; Iagaru, Andrei; Kubota, Kazuo

2016-02-01

This study evaluated the potential of Q.Freeze algorithm for reducing motion artifacts, in comparison with ungated imaging (UG) and respiratory-gated imaging (RG). Twenty-nine patients with 53 lesions who had undergone RG F-FDG PET/CT were included in this study. Using PET list mode data, five series of PET images [UG, RG, and QF images with an acquisition duration of 3 min (QF3), 5 min (QF5), and 10 min (QF10)] were reconstructed retrospectively. The image quality was evaluated first. Next, quantitative metrics [maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), mean standardized uptake value (SUVmean), SD, metabolic tumor volume, signal to noise ratio, or lesion to background ratio] were calculated for the liver, background, and each lesion, and the results were compared across the series. QF10 and QF5 showed better image quality compared with all other images. SUVmax in the liver, background, and lesions was lower with QF10 and QF5 than with the others, but there were no statistically significant differences in SUVmean and the lesion to background ratios. The SD with UG and RG was significantly higher than that with QF5 and QF10. The metabolic tumor volume in QF3 and QF5 was significantly lower than that in UG. The Q.Freeze algorithm can improve the quality of PET imaging compared with RG and UG.

Automated artifact detection and removal for improved tensor estimation in motion-corrupted DTI data sets using the combination of local binary patterns and 2D partial least squares.

PubMed

Zhou, Zhenyu; Liu, Wei; Cui, Jiali; Wang, Xunheng; Arias, Diana; Wen, Ying; Bansal, Ravi; Hao, Xuejun; Wang, Zhishun; Peterson, Bradley S; Xu, Dongrong

2011-02-01

Signal variation in diffusion-weighted images (DWIs) is influenced both by thermal noise and by spatially and temporally varying artifacts, such as rigid-body motion and cardiac pulsation. Motion artifacts are particularly prevalent when scanning difficult patient populations, such as human infants. Although some motion during data acquisition can be corrected using image coregistration procedures, frequently individual DWIs are corrupted beyond repair by sudden, large amplitude motion either within or outside of the imaging plane. We propose a novel approach to identify and reject outlier images automatically using local binary patterns (LBP) and 2D partial least square (2D-PLS) to estimate diffusion tensors robustly. This method uses an enhanced LBP algorithm to extract texture features from a local texture feature of the image matrix from the DWI data. Because the images have been transformed to local texture matrices, we are able to extract discriminating information that identifies outliers in the data set by extending a traditional one-dimensional PLS algorithm to a two-dimension operator. The class-membership matrix in this 2D-PLS algorithm is adapted to process samples that are image matrix, and the membership matrix thus represents varying degrees of importance of local information within the images. We also derive the analytic form of the generalized inverse of the class-membership matrix. We show that this method can effectively extract local features from brain images obtained from a large sample of human infants to identify images that are outliers in their textural features, permitting their exclusion from further processing when estimating tensors using the DWIs. This technique is shown to be superior in performance when compared with visual inspection and other common methods to address motion-related artifacts in DWI data. This technique is applicable to correct motion artifact in other magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques (e.g., the bootstrapping estimation) that use univariate or multivariate regression methods to fit MRI data to a pre-specified model. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Fast flow-based algorithm for creating density-equalizing map projections

PubMed Central

Gastner, Michael T.; Seguy, Vivien; More, Pratyush

2018-01-01

Cartograms are maps that rescale geographic regions (e.g., countries, districts) such that their areas are proportional to quantitative demographic data (e.g., population size, gross domestic product). Unlike conventional bar or pie charts, cartograms can represent correctly which regions share common borders, resulting in insightful visualizations that can be the basis for further spatial statistical analysis. Computer programs can assist data scientists in preparing cartograms, but developing an algorithm that can quickly transform every coordinate on the map (including points that are not exactly on a border) while generating recognizable images has remained a challenge. Methods that translate the cartographic deformations into physics-inspired equations of motion have become popular, but solving these equations with sufficient accuracy can still take several minutes on current hardware. Here we introduce a flow-based algorithm whose equations of motion are numerically easier to solve compared with previous methods. The equations allow straightforward parallelization so that the calculation takes only a few seconds even for complex and detailed input. Despite the speedup, the proposed algorithm still keeps the advantages of previous techniques: With comparable quantitative measures of shape distortion, it accurately scales all areas, correctly fits the regions together, and generates a map projection for every point. We demonstrate the use of our algorithm with applications to the 2016 US election results, the gross domestic products of Indian states and Chinese provinces, and the spatial distribution of deaths in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea between 2011 and 2014. PMID:29463721

Quantitative assessment of tumor angiogenesis using real-time motion-compensated contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging

PubMed Central

Pysz, Marybeth A.; Guracar, Ismayil; Foygel, Kira; Tian, Lu; Willmann, Jürgen K.

2015-01-01

Purpose To develop and test a real-time motion compensation algorithm for contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging of tumor angiogenesis on a clinical ultrasound system. Materials and methods The Administrative Institutional Panel on Laboratory Animal Care approved all experiments. A new motion correction algorithm measuring the sum of absolute differences in pixel displacements within a designated tracking box was implemented in a clinical ultrasound machine. In vivo angiogenesis measurements (expressed as percent contrast area) with and without motion compensated maximum intensity persistence (MIP) ultrasound imaging were analyzed in human colon cancer xenografts (n = 64) in mice. Differences in MIP ultrasound imaging signal with and without motion compensation were compared and correlated with displacements in x- and y-directions. The algorithm was tested in an additional twelve colon cancer xenograft-bearing mice with (n = 6) and without (n = 6) anti-vascular therapy (ASA-404). In vivo MIP percent contrast area measurements were quantitatively correlated with ex vivo microvessel density (MVD) analysis. Results MIP percent contrast area was significantly different (P < 0.001) with and without motion compensation. Differences in percent contrast area correlated significantly (P < 0.001) with x- and y-displacements. MIP percent contrast area measurements were more reproducible with motion compensation (ICC = 0.69) than without (ICC = 0.51) on two consecutive ultrasound scans. Following anti-vascular therapy, motion-compensated MIP percent contrast area significantly (P = 0.03) decreased by 39.4 ± 14.6 % compared to non-treated mice and correlated well with ex vivo MVD analysis (Rho = 0.70; P = 0.05). Conclusion Real-time motion-compensated MIP ultrasound imaging allows reliable and accurate quantification and monitoring of angiogenesis in tumors exposed to breathing-induced motion artifacts. PMID:22535383

Quantitative assessment of tumor angiogenesis using real-time motion-compensated contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging.

PubMed

Pysz, Marybeth A; Guracar, Ismayil; Foygel, Kira; Tian, Lu; Willmann, Jürgen K

2012-09-01

To develop and test a real-time motion compensation algorithm for contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging of tumor angiogenesis on a clinical ultrasound system. The Administrative Institutional Panel on Laboratory Animal Care approved all experiments. A new motion correction algorithm measuring the sum of absolute differences in pixel displacements within a designated tracking box was implemented in a clinical ultrasound machine. In vivo angiogenesis measurements (expressed as percent contrast area) with and without motion compensated maximum intensity persistence (MIP) ultrasound imaging were analyzed in human colon cancer xenografts (n = 64) in mice. Differences in MIP ultrasound imaging signal with and without motion compensation were compared and correlated with displacements in x- and y-directions. The algorithm was tested in an additional twelve colon cancer xenograft-bearing mice with (n = 6) and without (n = 6) anti-vascular therapy (ASA-404). In vivo MIP percent contrast area measurements were quantitatively correlated with ex vivo microvessel density (MVD) analysis. MIP percent contrast area was significantly different (P < 0.001) with and without motion compensation. Differences in percent contrast area correlated significantly (P < 0.001) with x- and y-displacements. MIP percent contrast area measurements were more reproducible with motion compensation (ICC = 0.69) than without (ICC = 0.51) on two consecutive ultrasound scans. Following anti-vascular therapy, motion-compensated MIP percent contrast area significantly (P = 0.03) decreased by 39.4 ± 14.6 % compared to non-treated mice and correlated well with ex vivo MVD analysis (Rho = 0.70; P = 0.05). Real-time motion-compensated MIP ultrasound imaging allows reliable and accurate quantification and monitoring of angiogenesis in tumors exposed to breathing-induced motion artifacts.

Radiometrically accurate scene-based nonuniformity correction for array sensors.

PubMed

Ratliff, Bradley M; Hayat, Majeed M; Tyo, J Scott

2003-10-01

A novel radiometrically accurate scene-based nonuniformity correction (NUC) algorithm is described. The technique combines absolute calibration with a recently reported algebraic scene-based NUC algorithm. The technique is based on the following principle: First, detectors that are along the perimeter of the focal-plane array are absolutely calibrated; then the calibration is transported to the remaining uncalibrated interior detectors through the application of the algebraic scene-based algorithm, which utilizes pairs of image frames exhibiting arbitrary global motion. The key advantage of this technique is that it can obtain radiometric accuracy during NUC without disrupting camera operation. Accurate estimates of the bias nonuniformity can be achieved with relatively few frames, which can be fewer than ten frame pairs. Advantages of this technique are discussed, and a thorough performance analysis is presented with use of simulated and real infrared imagery.

Very Long Baseline Interferometry Applied to Polar Motion, Relativity and Geodesy. Ph.D. Thesis - Maryland Univ.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ma, C.

1978-01-01

The causes and effects of diurnal polar motion are described. An algorithm is developed for modeling the effects on very long baseline interferometry observables. Five years of radio-frequency very long baseline interferometry data from stations in Massachusetts, California, and Sweden are analyzed for diurnal polar motion. It is found that the effect is larger than predicted by McClure. Corrections to the standard nutation series caused by the deformability of the earth have a significant effect on the estimated diurnal polar motion scaling factor and the post-fit residual scatter. Simulations of high precision very long baseline interferometry experiments taking into account both measurement uncertainty and modeled errors are described.

Repurposing the Microsoft Kinect for Windows v2 for external head motion tracking for brain PET.

PubMed

Noonan, P J; Howard, J; Hallett, W A; Gunn, R N

2015-11-21

Medical imaging systems such as those used in positron emission tomography (PET) are capable of spatial resolutions that enable the imaging of small, functionally important brain structures. However, the quality of data from PET brain studies is often limited by subject motion during acquisition. This is particularly challenging for patients with neurological disorders or with dynamic research studies that can last 90 min or more. Restraining head movement during the scan does not eliminate motion entirely and can be unpleasant for the subject. Head motion can be detected and measured using a variety of techniques that either use the PET data itself or an external tracking system. Advances in computer vision arising from the video gaming industry could offer significant benefits when re-purposed for medical applications. A method for measuring rigid body type head motion using the Microsoft Kinect v2 is described with results presenting  ⩽0.5 mm spatial accuracy. Motion data is measured in real-time at 30 Hz using the KinectFusion algorithm. Non-rigid motion is detected using the residual alignment energy data of the KinectFusion algorithm allowing for unreliable motion to be discarded. Motion data is aligned to PET listmode data using injected pulse sequences into the PET/CT gantry allowing for correction of rigid body motion. Pilot data from a clinical dynamic PET/CT examination is shown.

Repurposing the Microsoft Kinect for Windows v2 for external head motion tracking for brain PET

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noonan, P. J.; Howard, J.; Hallett, W. A.; Gunn, R. N.

2015-11-01

Medical imaging systems such as those used in positron emission tomography (PET) are capable of spatial resolutions that enable the imaging of small, functionally important brain structures. However, the quality of data from PET brain studies is often limited by subject motion during acquisition. This is particularly challenging for patients with neurological disorders or with dynamic research studies that can last 90 min or more. Restraining head movement during the scan does not eliminate motion entirely and can be unpleasant for the subject. Head motion can be detected and measured using a variety of techniques that either use the PET data itself or an external tracking system. Advances in computer vision arising from the video gaming industry could offer significant benefits when re-purposed for medical applications. A method for measuring rigid body type head motion using the Microsoft Kinect v2 is described with results presenting  ⩽0.5 mm spatial accuracy. Motion data is measured in real-time at 30 Hz using the KinectFusion algorithm. Non-rigid motion is detected using the residual alignment energy data of the KinectFusion algorithm allowing for unreliable motion to be discarded. Motion data is aligned to PET listmode data using injected pulse sequences into the PET/CT gantry allowing for correction of rigid body motion. Pilot data from a clinical dynamic PET/CT examination is shown.

Ionospheric Correction of InSAR for Accurate Ice Motion Mapping at High Latitudes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liao, H.; Meyer, F. J.

2016-12-01

Monitoring the motion of the large ice sheets is of great importance for determining ice mass balance and its contribution to sea level rise. Recently the first comprehensive ice motion of the Greenland and the Antarctica have been generated with InSAR. However, these studies have indicated that the performance of InSAR-based ice motion mapping is limited by the presence of the ionosphere. This is particularly true at high latitudes and for low-frequency SAR data. Filter-based and empirical methods (e.g., removing polynomials), which have often been used to mitigate ionospheric effects, are often ineffective in these areas due to the typically strong spatial variability of ionospheric phase delay in high latitudes and due to the risk of removing true deformation signals from the observations. In this study, we will first present an outline of our split-spectrum InSAR-based ionospheric correction approach and particularly highlight how our method improves upon published techniques, such as the multiple sub-band approach to boost estimation accuracy as well as advanced error correction and filtering algorithms. We applied our work flow to a large number of ionosphere-affected dataset over the large ice sheets to estimate the benefit of ionospheric correction on ice motion mapping accuracy. Appropriate test sites over Greenland and the Antarctic have been chosen through cooperation with authors (UW, Ian Joughin) of previous ice motion studies. To demonstrate the magnitude of ionospheric noise and to showcase the performance of ionospheric correction, we will show examples of ionospheric-affected InSAR data and our ionosphere corrected result for comparison in visual. We also compared the corrected phase data to known ice velocity fields quantitatively for the analyzed areas from experts in ice velocity mapping. From our studies we found that ionospheric correction significantly reduces biases in ice velocity estimates and boosts accuracy by a factor that depends on a set of system (range bandwidth, temporal and spatial baseline) and processing parameters (e.g., filtering strength and sub-band configuration). A case study in Greenland is attached below.

Toward fully automated processing of dynamic susceptibility contrast perfusion MRI for acute ischemic cerebral stroke.

PubMed

Kim, Jinsuh; Leira, Enrique C; Callison, Richard C; Ludwig, Bryan; Moritani, Toshio; Magnotta, Vincent A; Madsen, Mark T

2010-05-01

We developed fully automated software for dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MR perfusion-weighted imaging (PWI) to efficiently and reliably derive critical hemodynamic information for acute stroke treatment decisions. Brain MR PWI was performed in 80 consecutive patients with acute nonlacunar ischemic stroke within 24h after onset of symptom from January 2008 to August 2009. These studies were automatically processed to generate hemodynamic parameters that included cerebral blood flow and cerebral blood volume, and the mean transit time (MTT). To develop reliable software for PWI analysis, we used computationally robust algorithms including the piecewise continuous regression method to determine bolus arrival time (BAT), log-linear curve fitting, arrival time independent deconvolution method and sophisticated motion correction methods. An optimal arterial input function (AIF) search algorithm using a new artery-likelihood metric was also developed. Anatomical locations of the automatically determined AIF were reviewed and validated. The automatically computed BAT values were statistically compared with estimated BAT by a single observer. In addition, gamma-variate curve-fitting errors of AIF and inter-subject variability of AIFs were analyzed. Lastly, two observes independently assessed the quality and area of hypoperfusion mismatched with restricted diffusion area from motion corrected MTT maps and compared that with time-to-peak (TTP) maps using the standard approach. The AIF was identified within an arterial branch and enhanced areas of perfusion deficit were visualized in all evaluated cases. Total processing time was 10.9+/-2.5s (mean+/-s.d.) without motion correction and 267+/-80s (mean+/-s.d.) with motion correction on a standard personal computer. The MTT map produced with our software adequately estimated brain areas with perfusion deficit and was significantly less affected by random noise of the PWI when compared with the TTP map. Results of image quality assessment by two observers revealed that the MTT maps exhibited superior quality over the TTP maps (88% good rating of MTT as compared to 68% of TTP). Our software allowed fully automated deconvolution analysis of DSC PWI using proven efficient algorithms that can be applied to acute stroke treatment decisions. Our streamlined method also offers promise for further development of automated quantitative analysis of the ischemic penumbra. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Real-time registration of 3D to 2D ultrasound images for image-guided prostate biopsy.

PubMed

Gillies, Derek J; Gardi, Lori; De Silva, Tharindu; Zhao, Shuang-Ren; Fenster, Aaron

2017-09-01

During image-guided prostate biopsy, needles are targeted at tissues that are suspicious of cancer to obtain specimen for histological examination. Unfortunately, patient motion causes targeting errors when using an MR-transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) fusion approach to augment the conventional biopsy procedure. This study aims to develop an automatic motion correction algorithm approaching the frame rate of an ultrasound system to be used in fusion-based prostate biopsy systems. Two modes of operation have been investigated for the clinical implementation of the algorithm: motion compensation using a single user initiated correction performed prior to biopsy, and real-time continuous motion compensation performed automatically as a background process. Retrospective 2D and 3D TRUS patient images acquired prior to biopsy gun firing were registered using an intensity-based algorithm utilizing normalized cross-correlation and Powell's method for optimization. 2D and 3D images were downsampled and cropped to estimate the optimal amount of image information that would perform registrations quickly and accurately. The optimal search order during optimization was also analyzed to avoid local optima in the search space. Error in the algorithm was computed using target registration errors (TREs) from manually identified homologous fiducials in a clinical patient dataset. The algorithm was evaluated for real-time performance using the two different modes of clinical implementations by way of user initiated and continuous motion compensation methods on a tissue mimicking prostate phantom. After implementation in a TRUS-guided system with an image downsampling factor of 4, the proposed approach resulted in a mean ± std TRE and computation time of 1.6 ± 0.6 mm and 57 ± 20 ms respectively. The user initiated mode performed registrations with in-plane, out-of-plane, and roll motions computation times of 108 ± 38 ms, 60 ± 23 ms, and 89 ± 27 ms, respectively, and corresponding registration errors of 0.4 ± 0.3 mm, 0.2 ± 0.4 mm, and 0.8 ± 0.5°. The continuous method performed registration significantly faster (P < 0.05) than the user initiated method, with observed computation times of 35 ± 8 ms, 43 ± 16 ms, and 27 ± 5 ms for in-plane, out-of-plane, and roll motions, respectively, and corresponding registration errors of 0.2 ± 0.3 mm, 0.7 ± 0.4 mm, and 0.8 ± 1.0°. The presented method encourages real-time implementation of motion compensation algorithms in prostate biopsy with clinically acceptable registration errors. Continuous motion compensation demonstrated registration accuracy with submillimeter and subdegree error, while performing < 50 ms computation times. Image registration technique approaching the frame rate of an ultrasound system offers a key advantage to be smoothly integrated to the clinical workflow. In addition, this technique could be used further for a variety of image-guided interventional procedures to treat and diagnose patients by improving targeting accuracy. © 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Robust dynamic 3-D measurements with motion-compensated phase-shifting profilometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feng, Shijie; Zuo, Chao; Tao, Tianyang; Hu, Yan; Zhang, Minliang; Chen, Qian; Gu, Guohua

2018-04-01

Phase-shifting profilometry (PSP) is a widely used approach to high-accuracy three-dimensional shape measurements. However, when it comes to moving objects, phase errors induced by the movement often result in severe artifacts even though a high-speed camera is in use. From our observations, there are three kinds of motion artifacts: motion ripples, motion-induced phase unwrapping errors, and motion outliers. We present a novel motion-compensated PSP to remove the artifacts for dynamic measurements of rigid objects. The phase error of motion ripples is analyzed for the N-step phase-shifting algorithm and is compensated using the statistical nature of the fringes. The phase unwrapping errors are corrected exploiting adjacent reliable pixels, and the outliers are removed by comparing the original phase map with a smoothed phase map. Compared with the three-step PSP, our method can improve the accuracy by more than 95% for objects in motion.

Motion compensation for fully 4D PET reconstruction using PET superset data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verhaeghe, J.; Gravel, P.; Mio, R.; Fukasawa, R.; Rosa-Neto, P.; Soucy, J.-P.; Thompson, C. J.; Reader, A. J.

2010-07-01

Fully 4D PET image reconstruction is receiving increasing research interest due to its ability to significantly reduce spatiotemporal noise in dynamic PET imaging. However, thus far in the literature, the important issue of correcting for subject head motion has not been considered. Specifically, as a direct consequence of using temporally extensive basis functions, a single instance of movement propagates to impair the reconstruction of multiple time frames, even if no further movement occurs in those frames. Existing 3D motion compensation strategies have not yet been adapted to 4D reconstruction, and as such the benefits of 4D algorithms have not yet been reaped in a clinical setting where head movement undoubtedly occurs. This work addresses this need, developing a motion compensation method suitable for fully 4D reconstruction methods which exploits an optical tracking system to measure the head motion along with PET superset data to store the motion compensated data. List-mode events are histogrammed as PET superset data according to the measured motion, and a specially devised normalization scheme for motion compensated reconstruction from the superset data is required. This work proceeds to propose the corresponding time-dependent normalization modifications which are required for a major class of fully 4D image reconstruction algorithms (those which use linear combinations of temporal basis functions). Using realistically simulated as well as real high-resolution PET data from the HRRT, we demonstrate both the detrimental impact of subject head motion in fully 4D PET reconstruction and the efficacy of our proposed modifications to 4D algorithms. Benefits are shown both for the individual PET image frames as well as for parametric images of tracer uptake and volume of distribution for 18F-FDG obtained from Patlak analysis.

Determining the 3-D structure and motion of objects using a scanning laser range sensor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nandhakumar, N.; Smith, Philip W.

1993-01-01

In order for the EVAHR robot to autonomously track and grasp objects, its vision system must be able to determine the 3-D structure and motion of an object from a sequence of sensory images. This task is accomplished by the use of a laser radar range sensor which provides dense range maps of the scene. Unfortunately, the currently available laser radar range cameras use a sequential scanning approach which complicates image analysis. Although many algorithms have been developed for recognizing objects from range images, none are suited for use with single beam, scanning, time-of-flight sensors because all previous algorithms assume instantaneous acquisition of the entire image. This assumption is invalid since the EVAHR robot is equipped with a sequential scanning laser range sensor. If an object is moving while being imaged by the device, the apparent structure of the object can be significantly distorted due to the significant non-zero delay time between sampling each image pixel. If an estimate of the motion of the object can be determined, this distortion can be eliminated; but, this leads to the motion-structure paradox - most existing algorithms for 3-D motion estimation use the structure of objects to parameterize their motions. The goal of this research is to design a rigid-body motion recovery technique which overcomes this limitation. The method being developed is an iterative, linear, feature-based approach which uses the non-zero image acquisition time constraint to accurately recover the motion parameters from the distorted structure of the 3-D range maps. Once the motion parameters are determined, the structural distortion in the range images is corrected.

Motion compensation for fully 4D PET reconstruction using PET superset data.

PubMed

Verhaeghe, J; Gravel, P; Mio, R; Fukasawa, R; Rosa-Neto, P; Soucy, J-P; Thompson, C J; Reader, A J

2010-07-21

Fully 4D PET image reconstruction is receiving increasing research interest due to its ability to significantly reduce spatiotemporal noise in dynamic PET imaging. However, thus far in the literature, the important issue of correcting for subject head motion has not been considered. Specifically, as a direct consequence of using temporally extensive basis functions, a single instance of movement propagates to impair the reconstruction of multiple time frames, even if no further movement occurs in those frames. Existing 3D motion compensation strategies have not yet been adapted to 4D reconstruction, and as such the benefits of 4D algorithms have not yet been reaped in a clinical setting where head movement undoubtedly occurs. This work addresses this need, developing a motion compensation method suitable for fully 4D reconstruction methods which exploits an optical tracking system to measure the head motion along with PET superset data to store the motion compensated data. List-mode events are histogrammed as PET superset data according to the measured motion, and a specially devised normalization scheme for motion compensated reconstruction from the superset data is required. This work proceeds to propose the corresponding time-dependent normalization modifications which are required for a major class of fully 4D image reconstruction algorithms (those which use linear combinations of temporal basis functions). Using realistically simulated as well as real high-resolution PET data from the HRRT, we demonstrate both the detrimental impact of subject head motion in fully 4D PET reconstruction and the efficacy of our proposed modifications to 4D algorithms. Benefits are shown both for the individual PET image frames as well as for parametric images of tracer uptake and volume of distribution for (18)F-FDG obtained from Patlak analysis.

Spatio-temporal colour correction of strongly degraded movies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Islam, A. B. M. Tariqul; Farup, Ivar

2011-01-01

The archives of motion pictures represent an important part of precious cultural heritage. Unfortunately, these cinematography collections are vulnerable to different distortions such as colour fading which is beyond the capability of photochemical restoration process. Spatial colour algorithms-Retinex and ACE provide helpful tool in restoring strongly degraded colour films but, there are some challenges associated with these algorithms. We present an automatic colour correction technique for digital colour restoration of strongly degraded movie material. The method is based upon the existing STRESS algorithm. In order to cope with the problem of highly correlated colour channels, we implemented a preprocessing step in which saturation enhancement is performed in a PCA space. Spatial colour algorithms tend to emphasize all details in the images, including dust and scratches. Surprisingly, we found that the presence of these defects does not affect the behaviour of the colour correction algorithm. Although the STRESS algorithm is already in itself more efficient than traditional spatial colour algorithms, it is still computationally expensive. To speed it up further, we went beyond the spatial domain of the frames and extended the algorithm to the temporal domain. This way, we were able to achieve an 80 percent reduction of the computational time compared to processing every single frame individually. We performed two user experiments and found that the visual quality of the resulting frames was significantly better than with existing methods. Thus, our method outperforms the existing ones in terms of both visual quality and computational efficiency.

Improved frame-based estimation of head motion in PET brain imaging.

PubMed

Mukherjee, J M; Lindsay, C; Mukherjee, A; Olivier, P; Shao, L; King, M A; Licho, R

2016-05-01

Head motion during PET brain imaging can cause significant degradation of image quality. Several authors have proposed ways to compensate for PET brain motion to restore image quality and improve quantitation. Head restraints can reduce movement but are unreliable; thus the need for alternative strategies such as data-driven motion estimation or external motion tracking. Herein, the authors present a data-driven motion estimation method using a preprocessing technique that allows the usage of very short duration frames, thus reducing the intraframe motion problem commonly observed in the multiple frame acquisition method. The list mode data for PET acquisition is uniformly divided into 5-s frames and images are reconstructed without attenuation correction. Interframe motion is estimated using a 3D multiresolution registration algorithm and subsequently compensated for. For this study, the authors used 8 PET brain studies that used F-18 FDG as the tracer and contained minor or no initial motion. After reconstruction and prior to motion estimation, known motion was introduced to each frame to simulate head motion during a PET acquisition. To investigate the trade-off in motion estimation and compensation with respect to frames of different length, the authors summed 5-s frames accordingly to produce 10 and 60 s frames. Summed images generated from the motion-compensated reconstructed frames were then compared to the original PET image reconstruction without motion compensation. The authors found that our method is able to compensate for both gradual and step-like motions using frame times as short as 5 s with a spatial accuracy of 0.2 mm on average. Complex volunteer motion involving all six degrees of freedom was estimated with lower accuracy (0.3 mm on average) than the other types investigated. Preprocessing of 5-s images was necessary for successful image registration. Since their method utilizes nonattenuation corrected frames, it is not susceptible to motion introduced between CT and PET acquisitions. The authors have shown that they can estimate motion for frames with time intervals as short as 5 s using nonattenuation corrected reconstructed FDG PET brain images. Intraframe motion in 60-s frames causes degradation of accuracy to about 2 mm based on the motion type.

Detection and correction of patient movement in prostate brachytherapy seed reconstruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lam, Steve T.; Cho, Paul S.; Marks, Robert J., II; Narayanan, Sreeram

2005-05-01

Intraoperative dosimetry of prostate brachytherapy can help optimize the dose distribution and potentially improve clinical outcome. Evaluation of dose distribution during the seed implant procedure requires the knowledge of 3D seed coordinates. Fluoroscopy-based seed localization is a viable option. From three x-ray projections obtained at different gantry angles, 3D seed positions can be determined. However, when local anaesthesia is used for prostate brachytherapy, the patient movement during fluoroscopy image capture becomes a practical problem. If uncorrected, the errors introduced by patient motion between image captures would cause seed mismatches. Subsequently, the seed reconstruction algorithm would either fail to reconstruct or yield erroneous results. We have developed an algorithm that permits detection and correction of patient movement that may occur between fluoroscopy image captures. The patient movement is decomposed into translational shifts along the tabletop and rotation about an axis perpendicular to the tabletop. The property of spatial invariance of the co-planar imaging geometry is used for lateral movement correction. Cranio-caudal movement is corrected by analysing the perspective invariance along the x-ray axis. Rotation is estimated by an iterative method. The method can detect and correct for the range of patient movement commonly seen in the clinical environment. The algorithm has been implemented for routine clinical use as the preprocessing step for seed reconstruction.

Optimization of real-time rigid registration motion compensation for prostate biopsies using 2D/3D ultrasound

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gillies, Derek J.; Gardi, Lori; Zhao, Ren; Fenster, Aaron

2017-03-01

During image-guided prostate biopsy, needles are targeted at suspicious tissues to obtain specimens that are later examined histologically for cancer. Patient motion causes inaccuracies when using MR-transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) image fusion approaches used to augment the conventional biopsy procedure. Motion compensation using a single, user initiated correction can be performed to temporarily compensate for prostate motion, but a real-time continuous registration offers an improvement to clinical workflow by reducing user interaction and procedure time. An automatic motion compensation method, approaching the frame rate of a TRUS-guided system, has been developed for use during fusion-based prostate biopsy to improve image guidance. 2D and 3D TRUS images of a prostate phantom were registered using an intensity based algorithm utilizing normalized cross-correlation and Powell's method for optimization with user initiated and continuous registration techniques. The user initiated correction performed with observed computation times of 78 ± 35 ms, 74 ± 28 ms, and 113 ± 49 ms for in-plane, out-of-plane, and roll motions, respectively, corresponding to errors of 0.5 ± 0.5 mm, 1.5 ± 1.4 mm, and 1.5 ± 1.6°. The continuous correction performed significantly faster (p < 0.05) than the user initiated method, with observed computation times of 31 ± 4 ms, 32 ± 4 ms, and 31 ± 6 ms for in-plane, out-of-plane, and roll motions, respectively, corresponding to errors of 0.2 ± 0.2 mm, 0.6 ± 0.5 mm, and 0.8 ± 0.4°.

Genetic Algorithm Phase Retrieval for the Systematic Image-Based Optical Alignment Testbed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Taylor, Jaime; Rakoczy, John; Steincamp, James

2003-01-01

Phase retrieval requires calculation of the real-valued phase of the pupil fimction from the image intensity distribution and characteristics of an optical system. Genetic 'algorithms were used to solve two one-dimensional phase retrieval problem. A GA successfully estimated the coefficients of a polynomial expansion of the phase when the number of coefficients was correctly specified. A GA also successfully estimated the multiple p h e s of a segmented optical system analogous to the seven-mirror Systematic Image-Based Optical Alignment (SIBOA) testbed located at NASA s Marshall Space Flight Center. The SIBOA testbed was developed to investigate phase retrieval techniques. Tiphilt and piston motions of the mirrors accomplish phase corrections. A constant phase over each mirror can be achieved by an independent tip/tilt correction: the phase Conection term can then be factored out of the Discrete Fourier Tranform (DFT), greatly reducing computations.

Evaluation of respiratory and cardiac motion correction schemes in dual gated PET/CT cardiac imaging.

PubMed

Lamare, F; Le Maitre, A; Dawood, M; Schäfers, K P; Fernandez, P; Rimoldi, O E; Visvikis, D

2014-07-01

Cardiac imaging suffers from both respiratory and cardiac motion. One of the proposed solutions involves double gated acquisitions. Although such an approach may lead to both respiratory and cardiac motion compensation there are issues associated with (a) the combination of data from cardiac and respiratory motion bins, and (b) poor statistical quality images as a result of using only part of the acquired data. The main objective of this work was to evaluate different schemes of combining binned data in order to identify the best strategy to reconstruct motion free cardiac images from dual gated positron emission tomography (PET) acquisitions. A digital phantom study as well as seven human studies were used in this evaluation. PET data were acquired in list mode (LM). A real-time position management system and an electrocardiogram device were used to provide the respiratory and cardiac motion triggers registered within the LM file. Acquired data were subsequently binned considering four and six cardiac gates, or the diastole only in combination with eight respiratory amplitude gates. PET images were corrected for attenuation, but no randoms nor scatter corrections were included. Reconstructed images from each of the bins considered above were subsequently used in combination with an affine or an elastic registration algorithm to derive transformation parameters allowing the combination of all acquired data in a particular position in the cardiac and respiratory cycles. Images were assessed in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast, image profile, coefficient-of-variation (COV), and relative difference of the recovered activity concentration. Regardless of the considered motion compensation strategy, the nonrigid motion model performed better than the affine model, leading to higher SNR and contrast combined with a lower COV. Nevertheless, when compensating for respiration only, no statistically significant differences were observed in the performance of the two motion models considered. Superior image SNR and contrast were seen using the affine respiratory motion model in combination with the diastole cardiac bin in comparison to the use of the whole cardiac cycle. In contrast, when simultaneously correcting for cardiac beating and respiration, the elastic respiratory motion model outperformed the affine model. In this context, four cardiac bins associated with eight respiratory amplitude bins seemed to be adequate. Considering the compensation of respiratory motion effects only, both affine and elastic based approaches led to an accurate resizing and positioning of the myocardium. The use of the diastolic phase combined with an affine model based respiratory motion correction may therefore be a simple approach leading to significant quality improvements in cardiac PET imaging. However, the best performance was obtained with the combined correction for both cardiac and respiratory movements considering all the dual-gated bins independently through the use of an elastic model based motion compensation.

Residual motion compensation in ECG-gated interventional cardiac vasculature reconstruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schwemmer, C.; Rohkohl, C.; Lauritsch, G.; Müller, K.; Hornegger, J.

2013-06-01

Three-dimensional reconstruction of cardiac vasculature from angiographic C-arm CT (rotational angiography) data is a major challenge. Motion artefacts corrupt image quality, reducing usability for diagnosis and guidance. Many state-of-the-art approaches depend on retrospective ECG-gating of projection data for image reconstruction. A trade-off has to be made regarding the size of the ECG-gating window. A large temporal window is desirable to avoid undersampling. However, residual motion will occur in a large window, causing motion artefacts. We present an algorithm to correct for residual motion. Our approach is based on a deformable 2D-2D registration between the forward projection of an initial, ECG-gated reconstruction, and the original projection data. The approach is fully automatic and does not require any complex segmentation of vasculature, or landmarks. The estimated motion is compensated for during the backprojection step of a subsequent reconstruction. We evaluated the method using the publicly available CAVAREV platform and on six human clinical datasets. We found a better visibility of structure, reduced motion artefacts, and increased sharpness of the vessels in the compensated reconstructions compared to the initial reconstructions. At the time of writing, our algorithm outperforms the leading result of the CAVAREV ranking list. For the clinical datasets, we found an average reduction of motion artefacts by 13 ± 6%. Vessel sharpness was improved by 25 ± 12% on average.

Hybrid ECG-gated versus non-gated 512-slice CT angiography of the aorta and coronary artery: image quality and effect of a motion correction algorithm.

PubMed

Lee, Ji Won; Kim, Chang Won; Lee, Geewon; Lee, Han Cheol; Kim, Sang-Pil; Choi, Bum Sung; Jeong, Yeon Joo

2018-02-01

Background Using the hybrid electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated computed tomography (CT) technique, assessment of entire aorta, coronary arteries, and aortic valve can be possible using single-bolus contrast administration within a single acquisition. Purpose To compare the image quality of hybrid ECG-gated and non-gated CT angiography of the aorta and evaluate the effect of a motion correction algorithm (MCA) on coronary artery image quality in a hybrid ECG-gated aorta CT group. Material and Methods In total, 104 patients (76 men; mean age = 65.8 years) prospectively randomized into two groups (Group 1 = hybrid ECG-gated CT; Group 2 = non-gated CT) underwent wide-detector array aorta CT. Image quality, assessed using a four-point scale, was compared between the groups. Coronary artery image quality was compared between the conventional reconstruction and motion correction reconstruction subgroups in Group 1. Results Group 1 showed significant advantages over Group 2 in aortic wall, cardiac chamber, aortic valve, coronary ostia, and main coronary arteries image quality (all P < 0.001). All Group 1 patients had diagnostic image quality of the aortic wall and left ostium. The MCA significantly improved the image quality of the three main coronary arteries ( P < 0.05). Moreover, per-vessel interpretability improved from 92.3% to 97.1% with the MCA ( P = 0.013). Conclusion Hybrid ECG-gated CT significantly improved the heart and aortic wall image quality and the MCA can further improve the image quality and interpretability of coronary arteries.

Frequency-locked pulse sequencer for high-frame-rate monochromatic tissue motion imaging.

PubMed

Azar, Reza Zahiri; Baghani, Ali; Salcudean, Septimiu E; Rohling, Robert

2011-04-01

To overcome the inherent low frame rate of conventional ultrasound, we have previously presented a system that can be implemented on conventional ultrasound scanners for high-frame-rate imaging of monochromatic tissue motion. The system employs a sector subdivision technique in the sequencer to increase the acquisition rate. To eliminate the delays introduced during data acquisition, a motion phase correction algorithm has also been introduced to create in-phase displacement images. Previous experimental results from tissue- mimicking phantoms showed that the system can achieve effective frame rates of up to a few kilohertz on conventional ultrasound systems. In this short communication, we present a new pulse sequencing strategy that facilitates high-frame-rate imaging of monochromatic motion such that the acquired echo signals are inherently in-phase. The sequencer uses the knowledge of the excitation frequency to synchronize the acquisition of the entire imaging plane to that of an external exciter. This sequencing approach eliminates any need for synchronization or phase correction and has applications in tissue elastography, which we demonstrate with tissue-mimicking phantoms. © 2011 IEEE

A brain phantom for motion-corrected PROPELLER showing image contrast and construction similar to those of in vivo MRI.

PubMed

Saotome, Kousaku; Matsushita, Akira; Matsumoto, Koji; Kato, Yoshiaki; Nakai, Kei; Murata, Koichi; Yamamoto, Tetsuya; Sankai, Yoshiyuki; Matsumura, Akira

2017-02-01

A fast spin-echo sequence based on the Periodically Rotated Overlapping Parallel Lines with Enhanced Reconstruction (PROPELLER) technique is a magnetic resonance (MR) imaging data acquisition and reconstruction method for correcting motion during scans. Previous studies attempted to verify the in vivo capabilities of motion-corrected PROPELLER in real clinical situations. However, such experiments are limited by repeated, stray head motion by research participants during the prescribed and precise head motion protocol of a PROPELLER acquisition. Therefore, our purpose was to develop a brain phantom set for motion-corrected PROPELLER. The profile curves of the signal intensities on the in vivo T 2 -weighted image (T 2 WI) and 3-D rapid prototyping technology were used to produce the phantom. In addition, we used a homemade driver system to achieve in-plane motion at the intended timing. We calculated the Pearson's correlation coefficient (R 2 ) between the signal intensities of the in vivo T 2 WI and the phantom T 2 WI and clarified the rotation precision of the driver system. In addition, we used the phantom set to perform initial experiments to show the rotational angle and frequency dependences of PROPELLER. The in vivo and phantom T 2 WIs were visually congruent, with a significant correlation (R 2 ) of 0.955 (p<.001). The rotational precision of the driver system was within 1 degree of tolerance. The experiment on the rotational angle dependency showed image discrepancies between the rotational angles. The experiment on the rotational frequency dependency showed that the reconstructed images became increasingly blurred by the corruption of the blades as the number of motions increased. In this study, we developed a phantom that showed image contrasts and construction similar to the in vivo T 2 WI. In addition, our homemade driver system achieved precise in-plane motion at the intended timing. Our proposed phantom set could perform systematic experiments with a real clinical MR image, which to date has not been possible in in vivo studies. Further investigation should focus on the improvement of the motion-correction algorithm in PROPELLER using our phantom set for what would traditionally be considered problematic patients (children, emergency patients, elderly, those with dementia, and so on). Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Very fast motion planning for highly dexterous-articulated robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Challou, Daniel J.; Gini, Maria; Kumar, Vipin

1994-01-01

Due to the inherent danger of space exploration, the need for greater use of teleoperated and autonomous robotic systems in space-based applications has long been apparent. Autonomous and semi-autonomous robotic devices have been proposed for carrying out routine functions associated with scientific experiments aboard the shuttle and space station. Finally, research into the use of such devices for planetary exploration continues. To accomplish their assigned tasks, all such autonomous and semi-autonomous devices will require the ability to move themselves through space without hitting themselves or the objects which surround them. In space it is important to execute the necessary motions correctly when they are first attempted because repositioning is expensive in terms of both time and resources (e.g., fuel). Finally, such devices will have to function in a variety of different environments. Given these constraints, a means for fast motion planning to insure the correct movement of robotic devices would be ideal. Unfortunately, motion planning algorithms are rarely used in practice because of their computational complexity. Fast methods have been developed for detecting imminent collisions, but the more general problem of motion planning remains computationally intractable. However, in this paper we show how the use of multicomputers and appropriate parallel algorithms can substantially reduce the time required to synthesize paths for dexterous articulated robots with a large number of joints. We have developed a parallel formulation of the Randomized Path Planner proposed by Barraquand and Latombe. We have shown that our parallel formulation is capable of formulating plans in a few seconds or less on various parallel architectures including: the nCUBE2 multicomputer with up to 1024 processors (nCUBE2 is a registered trademark of the nCUBE corporation), and a network of workstations.

Algorithm for Automatic Behavior Quantification of Laboratory Mice Using High-Frame-Rate Videos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nie, Yuman; Takaki, Takeshi; Ishii, Idaku; Matsuda, Hiroshi

In this paper, we propose an algorithm for automatic behavior quantification in laboratory mice to quantify several model behaviors. The algorithm can detect repetitive motions of the fore- or hind-limbs at several or dozens of hertz, which are too rapid for the naked eye, from high-frame-rate video images. Multiple repetitive motions can always be identified from periodic frame-differential image features in four segmented regions — the head, left side, right side, and tail. Even when a mouse changes its posture and orientation relative to the camera, these features can still be extracted from the shift- and orientation-invariant shape of the mouse silhouette by using the polar coordinate system and adjusting the angle coordinate according to the head and tail positions. The effectiveness of the algorithm is evaluated by analyzing long-term 240-fps videos of four laboratory mice for six typical model behaviors: moving, rearing, immobility, head grooming, left-side scratching, and right-side scratching. The time durations for the model behaviors determined by the algorithm have detection/correction ratios greater than 80% for all the model behaviors. This shows good quantification results for actual animal testing.

A novel rotational invariants target recognition method for rotating motion blurred images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lan, Jinhui; Gong, Meiling; Dong, Mingwei; Zeng, Yiliang; Zhang, Yuzhen

2017-11-01

The imaging of the image sensor is blurred due to the rotational motion of the carrier and reducing the target recognition rate greatly. Although the traditional mode that restores the image first and then identifies the target can improve the recognition rate, it takes a long time to recognize. In order to solve this problem, a rotating fuzzy invariants extracted model was constructed that recognizes target directly. The model includes three metric layers. The object description capability of metric algorithms that contain gray value statistical algorithm, improved round projection transformation algorithm and rotation-convolution moment invariants in the three metric layers ranges from low to high, and the metric layer with the lowest description ability among them is as the input which can eliminate non pixel points of target region from degenerate image gradually. Experimental results show that the proposed model can improve the correct target recognition rate of blurred image and optimum allocation between the computational complexity and function of region.

Correcting nonlinear drift distortion of scanning probe and scanning transmission electron microscopies from image pairs with orthogonal scan directions

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

Ophus, Colin; Ciston, Jim; Nelson, Chris T.

Unwanted motion of the probe with respect to the sample is a ubiquitous problem in scanning probe and scanning transmission electron microscopies, causing both linear and nonlinear artifacts in experimental images. We have designed a procedure to correct these artifacts by using orthogonal scan pairs to align each measurement line-by-line along the slow scan direction, by fitting contrast variation along the lines. We demonstrate the accuracy of our algorithm on both synthetic and experimental data and provide an implementation of our method.

Correcting nonlinear drift distortion of scanning probe and scanning transmission electron microscopies from image pairs with orthogonal scan directions

DOE PAGES

Ophus, Colin; Ciston, Jim; Nelson, Chris T.

2015-12-10

Unwanted motion of the probe with respect to the sample is a ubiquitous problem in scanning probe and scanning transmission electron microscopies, causing both linear and nonlinear artifacts in experimental images. We have designed a procedure to correct these artifacts by using orthogonal scan pairs to align each measurement line-by-line along the slow scan direction, by fitting contrast variation along the lines. We demonstrate the accuracy of our algorithm on both synthetic and experimental data and provide an implementation of our method.

An Online Tilt Estimation and Compensation Algorithm for a Small Satellite Camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Da-Hyun; Hwang, Jai-hyuk

2018-04-01

In the case of a satellite camera designed to execute an Earth observation mission, even after a pre-launch precision alignment process has been carried out, misalignment will occur due to external factors during the launch and in the operating environment. In particular, for high-resolution satellite cameras, which require submicron accuracy for alignment between optical components, misalignment is a major cause of image quality degradation. To compensate for this, most high-resolution satellite cameras undergo a precise realignment process called refocusing before and during the operation process. However, conventional Earth observation satellites only execute refocusing upon de-space. Thus, in this paper, an online tilt estimation and compensation algorithm that can be utilized after de-space correction is executed. Although the sensitivity of the optical performance degradation due to the misalignment is highest in de-space, the MTF can be additionally increased by correcting tilt after refocusing. The algorithm proposed in this research can be used to estimate the amount of tilt that occurs by taking star images, and it can also be used to carry out automatic tilt corrections by employing a compensation mechanism that gives angular motion to the secondary mirror. Crucially, this algorithm is developed using an online processing system so that it can operate without communication with the ground.

Improved frame-based estimation of head motion in PET brain imaging

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

Mukherjee, J. M., E-mail: joyeeta.mitra@umassmed.edu; Lindsay, C.; King, M. A.

Purpose: Head motion during PET brain imaging can cause significant degradation of image quality. Several authors have proposed ways to compensate for PET brain motion to restore image quality and improve quantitation. Head restraints can reduce movement but are unreliable; thus the need for alternative strategies such as data-driven motion estimation or external motion tracking. Herein, the authors present a data-driven motion estimation method using a preprocessing technique that allows the usage of very short duration frames, thus reducing the intraframe motion problem commonly observed in the multiple frame acquisition method. Methods: The list mode data for PET acquisition ismore » uniformly divided into 5-s frames and images are reconstructed without attenuation correction. Interframe motion is estimated using a 3D multiresolution registration algorithm and subsequently compensated for. For this study, the authors used 8 PET brain studies that used F-18 FDG as the tracer and contained minor or no initial motion. After reconstruction and prior to motion estimation, known motion was introduced to each frame to simulate head motion during a PET acquisition. To investigate the trade-off in motion estimation and compensation with respect to frames of different length, the authors summed 5-s frames accordingly to produce 10 and 60 s frames. Summed images generated from the motion-compensated reconstructed frames were then compared to the original PET image reconstruction without motion compensation. Results: The authors found that our method is able to compensate for both gradual and step-like motions using frame times as short as 5 s with a spatial accuracy of 0.2 mm on average. Complex volunteer motion involving all six degrees of freedom was estimated with lower accuracy (0.3 mm on average) than the other types investigated. Preprocessing of 5-s images was necessary for successful image registration. Since their method utilizes nonattenuation corrected frames, it is not susceptible to motion introduced between CT and PET acquisitions. Conclusions: The authors have shown that they can estimate motion for frames with time intervals as short as 5 s using nonattenuation corrected reconstructed FDG PET brain images. Intraframe motion in 60-s frames causes degradation of accuracy to about 2 mm based on the motion type.« less

Improved frame-based estimation of head motion in PET brain imaging

PubMed Central

Mukherjee, J. M.; Lindsay, C.; Mukherjee, A.; Olivier, P.; Shao, L.; King, M. A.; Licho, R.

2016-01-01

Purpose: Head motion during PET brain imaging can cause significant degradation of image quality. Several authors have proposed ways to compensate for PET brain motion to restore image quality and improve quantitation. Head restraints can reduce movement but are unreliable; thus the need for alternative strategies such as data-driven motion estimation or external motion tracking. Herein, the authors present a data-driven motion estimation method using a preprocessing technique that allows the usage of very short duration frames, thus reducing the intraframe motion problem commonly observed in the multiple frame acquisition method. Methods: The list mode data for PET acquisition is uniformly divided into 5-s frames and images are reconstructed without attenuation correction. Interframe motion is estimated using a 3D multiresolution registration algorithm and subsequently compensated for. For this study, the authors used 8 PET brain studies that used F-18 FDG as the tracer and contained minor or no initial motion. After reconstruction and prior to motion estimation, known motion was introduced to each frame to simulate head motion during a PET acquisition. To investigate the trade-off in motion estimation and compensation with respect to frames of different length, the authors summed 5-s frames accordingly to produce 10 and 60 s frames. Summed images generated from the motion-compensated reconstructed frames were then compared to the original PET image reconstruction without motion compensation. Results: The authors found that our method is able to compensate for both gradual and step-like motions using frame times as short as 5 s with a spatial accuracy of 0.2 mm on average. Complex volunteer motion involving all six degrees of freedom was estimated with lower accuracy (0.3 mm on average) than the other types investigated. Preprocessing of 5-s images was necessary for successful image registration. Since their method utilizes nonattenuation corrected frames, it is not susceptible to motion introduced between CT and PET acquisitions. Conclusions: The authors have shown that they can estimate motion for frames with time intervals as short as 5 s using nonattenuation corrected reconstructed FDG PET brain images. Intraframe motion in 60-s frames causes degradation of accuracy to about 2 mm based on the motion type. PMID:27147355

Evaluation of respiratory and cardiac motion correction schemes in dual gated PET/CT cardiac imaging

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

Lamare, F., E-mail: frederic.lamare@chu-bordeaux.fr; Fernandez, P.; CNRS, INCIA, UMR 5287, F-33400 Talence

Purpose: Cardiac imaging suffers from both respiratory and cardiac motion. One of the proposed solutions involves double gated acquisitions. Although such an approach may lead to both respiratory and cardiac motion compensation there are issues associated with (a) the combination of data from cardiac and respiratory motion bins, and (b) poor statistical quality images as a result of using only part of the acquired data. The main objective of this work was to evaluate different schemes of combining binned data in order to identify the best strategy to reconstruct motion free cardiac images from dual gated positron emission tomography (PET)more » acquisitions. Methods: A digital phantom study as well as seven human studies were used in this evaluation. PET data were acquired in list mode (LM). A real-time position management system and an electrocardiogram device were used to provide the respiratory and cardiac motion triggers registered within the LM file. Acquired data were subsequently binned considering four and six cardiac gates, or the diastole only in combination with eight respiratory amplitude gates. PET images were corrected for attenuation, but no randoms nor scatter corrections were included. Reconstructed images from each of the bins considered above were subsequently used in combination with an affine or an elastic registration algorithm to derive transformation parameters allowing the combination of all acquired data in a particular position in the cardiac and respiratory cycles. Images were assessed in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast, image profile, coefficient-of-variation (COV), and relative difference of the recovered activity concentration. Results: Regardless of the considered motion compensation strategy, the nonrigid motion model performed better than the affine model, leading to higher SNR and contrast combined with a lower COV. Nevertheless, when compensating for respiration only, no statistically significant differences were observed in the performance of the two motion models considered. Superior image SNR and contrast were seen using the affine respiratory motion model in combination with the diastole cardiac bin in comparison to the use of the whole cardiac cycle. In contrast, when simultaneously correcting for cardiac beating and respiration, the elastic respiratory motion model outperformed the affine model. In this context, four cardiac bins associated with eight respiratory amplitude bins seemed to be adequate. Conclusions: Considering the compensation of respiratory motion effects only, both affine and elastic based approaches led to an accurate resizing and positioning of the myocardium. The use of the diastolic phase combined with an affine model based respiratory motion correction may therefore be a simple approach leading to significant quality improvements in cardiac PET imaging. However, the best performance was obtained with the combined correction for both cardiac and respiratory movements considering all the dual-gated bins independently through the use of an elastic model based motion compensation.« less

Towards frameless maskless SRS through real-time 6DoF robotic motion compensation.

PubMed

Belcher, Andrew H; Liu, Xinmin; Chmura, Steven; Yenice, Kamil; Wiersma, Rodney D

2017-11-13

Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) uses precise dose placement to treat conditions of the CNS. Frame-based SRS uses a metal head ring fixed to the patient's skull to provide high treatment accuracy, but patient comfort and clinical workflow may suffer. Frameless SRS, while potentially more convenient, may increase uncertainty of treatment accuracy and be physiologically confining to some patients. By incorporating highly precise robotics and advanced software algorithms into frameless treatments, we present a novel frameless and maskless SRS system where a robot provides real-time 6DoF head motion stabilization allowing positional accuracies to match or exceed those of traditional frame-based SRS. A 6DoF parallel kinematics robot was developed and integrated with a real-time infrared camera in a closed loop configuration. A novel compensation algorithm was developed based on an iterative closest-path correction approach. The robotic SRS system was tested on six volunteers, whose motion was monitored and compensated for in real-time over 15 min simulated treatments. The system's effectiveness in maintaining the target's 6DoF position within preset thresholds was determined by comparing volunteer head motion with and without compensation. Comparing corrected and uncorrected motion, the 6DoF robotic system showed an overall improvement factor of 21 in terms of maintaining target position within 0.5 mm and 0.5 degree thresholds. Although the system's effectiveness varied among the volunteers examined, for all volunteers tested the target position remained within the preset tolerances 99.0% of the time when robotic stabilization was used, compared to 4.7% without robotic stabilization. The pre-clinical robotic SRS compensation system was found to be effective at responding to sub-millimeter and sub-degree cranial motions for all volunteers examined. The system's success with volunteers has demonstrated its capability for implementation with frameless and maskless SRS treatments, potentially able to achieve the same or better treatment accuracies compared to traditional frame-based approaches.

Towards frameless maskless SRS through real-time 6DoF robotic motion compensation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Belcher, Andrew H.; Liu, Xinmin; Chmura, Steven; Yenice, Kamil; Wiersma, Rodney D.

2017-12-01

Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) uses precise dose placement to treat conditions of the CNS. Frame-based SRS uses a metal head ring fixed to the patient’s skull to provide high treatment accuracy, but patient comfort and clinical workflow may suffer. Frameless SRS, while potentially more convenient, may increase uncertainty of treatment accuracy and be physiologically confining to some patients. By incorporating highly precise robotics and advanced software algorithms into frameless treatments, we present a novel frameless and maskless SRS system where a robot provides real-time 6DoF head motion stabilization allowing positional accuracies to match or exceed those of traditional frame-based SRS. A 6DoF parallel kinematics robot was developed and integrated with a real-time infrared camera in a closed loop configuration. A novel compensation algorithm was developed based on an iterative closest-path correction approach. The robotic SRS system was tested on six volunteers, whose motion was monitored and compensated for in real-time over 15 min simulated treatments. The system’s effectiveness in maintaining the target’s 6DoF position within preset thresholds was determined by comparing volunteer head motion with and without compensation. Comparing corrected and uncorrected motion, the 6DoF robotic system showed an overall improvement factor of 21 in terms of maintaining target position within 0.5 mm and 0.5 degree thresholds. Although the system’s effectiveness varied among the volunteers examined, for all volunteers tested the target position remained within the preset tolerances 99.0% of the time when robotic stabilization was used, compared to 4.7% without robotic stabilization. The pre-clinical robotic SRS compensation system was found to be effective at responding to sub-millimeter and sub-degree cranial motions for all volunteers examined. The system’s success with volunteers has demonstrated its capability for implementation with frameless and maskless SRS treatments, potentially able to achieve the same or better treatment accuracies compared to traditional frame-based approaches.

Kinematic Model-Based Pedestrian Dead Reckoning for Heading Correction and Lower Body Motion Tracking.

PubMed

Lee, Min Su; Ju, Hojin; Song, Jin Woo; Park, Chan Gook

2015-11-06

In this paper, we present a method for finding the enhanced heading and position of pedestrians by fusing the Zero velocity UPdaTe (ZUPT)-based pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) and the kinematic constraints of the lower human body. ZUPT is a well known algorithm for PDR, and provides a sufficiently accurate position solution for short term periods, but it cannot guarantee a stable and reliable heading because it suffers from magnetic disturbance in determining heading angles, which degrades the overall position accuracy as time passes. The basic idea of the proposed algorithm is integrating the left and right foot positions obtained by ZUPTs with the heading and position information from an IMU mounted on the waist. To integrate this information, a kinematic model of the lower human body, which is calculated by using orientation sensors mounted on both thighs and calves, is adopted. We note that the position of the left and right feet cannot be apart because of the kinematic constraints of the body, so the kinematic model generates new measurements for the waist position. The Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) on the waist data that estimates and corrects error states uses these measurements and magnetic heading measurements, which enhances the heading accuracy. The updated position information is fed into the foot mounted sensors, and reupdate processes are performed to correct the position error of each foot. The proposed update-reupdate technique consequently ensures improved observability of error states and position accuracy. Moreover, the proposed method provides all the information about the lower human body, so that it can be applied more effectively to motion tracking. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified via experimental results, which show that a 1.25% Return Position Error (RPE) with respect to walking distance is achieved.

Accelerometer-based method for correcting signal baseline changes caused by motion artifacts in medical near-infrared spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Virtanen, Jaakko; Noponen, Tommi; Kotilahti, Kalle; Virtanen, Juha; Ilmoniemi, Risto J.

2011-08-01

In medical near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), movements of the subject often cause large step changes in the baselines of the measured light attenuation signals. This prevents comparison of hemoglobin concentration levels before and after movement. We present an accelerometer-based motion artifact removal (ABAMAR) algorithm for correcting such baseline motion artifacts (BMAs). ABAMAR can be easily adapted to various long-term monitoring applications of NIRS. We applied ABAMAR to NIRS data collected in 23 all-night sleep measurements and containing BMAs from involuntary movements during sleep. For reference, three NIRS researchers independently identified BMAs from the data. To determine whether the use of an accelerometer improves BMA detection accuracy, we compared ABAMAR to motion detection based on peaks in the moving standard deviation (SD) of NIRS data. The number of BMAs identified by ABAMAR was similar to the number detected by the humans, and 79% of the artifacts identified by ABAMAR were confirmed by at least two humans. While the moving SD of NIRS data could also be used for motion detection, on average 2 out of the 10 largest SD peaks in NIRS data each night occurred without the presence of movement. Thus, using an accelerometer improves BMA detection accuracy in NIRS.

On-sky performance of the tip-tilt correction system for GLAS using an EMCCD camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Skvarč, Jure; Tulloch, Simon

2008-07-01

Adaptive optics systems based on laser guide stars still need a natural guide star (NGS) to correct for the image motion caused by the atmosphere and by imperfect telescope tracking. The ability to properly compensate for this motion using a faint NGS is critical to achieve large sky coverage. For the laser guide system (GLAS) on the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope we designed and tested in the laboratory and on-sky a tip-tilt correction system based on a PC running Linux and an EMCCD technology camera. The control software allows selection of different centroiding algorithms and loop control methods as well as the control parameters. Parameter analysis has been performed using tip-tilt only correction before the laser commissioning and the selected sets of parameters were then used during commissioning of the laser guide star system. We have established the SNR of the guide star as a function of magnitude, depending on the image sampling frequency and on the dichroic used in the optical system; achieving a measurable improvement using full AO correction with NGSes down to magnitude range R=16.5 to R=18. A minimum SNR of about 10 was established to be necessary for a useful correction. The system was used to produce 0.16 arcsecond images in H band using bright NGS and laser correction during GLAS commissioning runs.

Design a software real-time operation platform for wave piercing catamarans motion control using linear quadratic regulator based genetic algorithm.

PubMed

Liang, Lihua; Yuan, Jia; Zhang, Songtao; Zhao, Peng

2018-01-01

This work presents optimal linear quadratic regulator (LQR) based on genetic algorithm (GA) to solve the two degrees of freedom (2 DoF) motion control problem in head seas for wave piercing catamarans (WPC). The proposed LQR based GA control strategy is to select optimal weighting matrices (Q and R). The seakeeping performance of WPC based on proposed algorithm is challenged because of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) system of uncertain coefficient problems. Besides the kinematical constraint problems of WPC, the external conditions must be considered, like the sea disturbance and the actuators (a T-foil and two flaps) control. Moreover, this paper describes the MATLAB and LabVIEW software plats to simulate the reduction effects of WPC. Finally, the real-time (RT) NI CompactRIO embedded controller is selected to test the effectiveness of the actuators based on proposed techniques. In conclusion, simulation and experimental results prove the correctness of the proposed algorithm. The percentage of heave and pitch reductions are more than 18% in different high speeds and bad sea conditions. And the results also verify the feasibility of NI CompactRIO embedded controller.

Design a software real-time operation platform for wave piercing catamarans motion control using linear quadratic regulator based genetic algorithm

PubMed Central

Liang, Lihua; Zhang, Songtao; Zhao, Peng

2018-01-01

This work presents optimal linear quadratic regulator (LQR) based on genetic algorithm (GA) to solve the two degrees of freedom (2 DoF) motion control problem in head seas for wave piercing catamarans (WPC). The proposed LQR based GA control strategy is to select optimal weighting matrices (Q and R). The seakeeping performance of WPC based on proposed algorithm is challenged because of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) system of uncertain coefficient problems. Besides the kinematical constraint problems of WPC, the external conditions must be considered, like the sea disturbance and the actuators (a T-foil and two flaps) control. Moreover, this paper describes the MATLAB and LabVIEW software plats to simulate the reduction effects of WPC. Finally, the real-time (RT) NI CompactRIO embedded controller is selected to test the effectiveness of the actuators based on proposed techniques. In conclusion, simulation and experimental results prove the correctness of the proposed algorithm. The percentage of heave and pitch reductions are more than 18% in different high speeds and bad sea conditions. And the results also verify the feasibility of NI CompactRIO embedded controller. PMID:29709008

A Novel Ship-Tracking Method for GF-4 Satellite Sequential Images.

PubMed

Yao, Libo; Liu, Yong; He, You

2018-06-22

The geostationary remote sensing satellite has the capability of wide scanning, persistent observation and operational response, and has tremendous potential for maritime target surveillance. The GF-4 satellite is the first geostationary orbit (GEO) optical remote sensing satellite with medium resolution in China. In this paper, a novel ship-tracking method in GF-4 satellite sequential imagery is proposed. The algorithm has three stages. First, a local visual saliency map based on local peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) is used to detect ships in a single frame of GF-4 satellite sequential images. Second, the accuracy positioning of each potential target is realized by a dynamic correction using the rational polynomial coefficients (RPCs) and automatic identification system (AIS) data of ships. Finally, an improved multiple hypotheses tracking (MHT) algorithm with amplitude information is used to track ships by further removing the false targets, and to estimate ships’ motion parameters. The algorithm has been tested using GF-4 sequential images and AIS data. The results of the experiment demonstrate that the algorithm achieves good tracking performance in GF-4 satellite sequential images and estimates the motion information of ships accurately.

Evaluation of Rigid-Body Motion Compensation in Cardiac Perfusion SPECT Employing Polar-Map Quantification

PubMed Central

Pretorius, P. Hendrik; Johnson, Karen L.; King, Michael A.

2016-01-01

We have recently been successful in the development and testing of rigid-body motion tracking, estimation and compensation for cardiac perfusion SPECT based on a visual tracking system (VTS). The goal of this study was to evaluate in patients the effectiveness of our rigid-body motion compensation strategy. Sixty-four patient volunteers were asked to remain motionless or execute some predefined body motion during an additional second stress perfusion acquisition. Acquisitions were performed using the standard clinical protocol with 64 projections acquired through 180 degrees. All data were reconstructed with an ordered-subsets expectation-maximization (OSEM) algorithm using 4 projections per subset and 5 iterations. All physical degradation factors were addressed (attenuation, scatter, and distance dependent resolution), while a 3-dimensional Gaussian rotator was used during reconstruction to correct for six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) rigid-body motion estimated by the VTS. Polar map quantification was employed to evaluate compensation techniques. In 54.7% of the uncorrected second stress studies there was a statistically significant difference in the polar maps, and in 45.3% this made a difference in the interpretation of segmental perfusion. Motion correction reduced the impact of motion such that with it 32.8 % of the polar maps were statistically significantly different, and in 14.1% this difference changed the interpretation of segmental perfusion. The improvement shown in polar map quantitation translated to visually improved uniformity of the SPECT slices. PMID:28042170

Towards quantitative PET/MRI: a review of MR-based attenuation correction techniques.

PubMed

Hofmann, Matthias; Pichler, Bernd; Schölkopf, Bernhard; Beyer, Thomas

2009-03-01

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a fully quantitative technology for imaging metabolic pathways and dynamic processes in vivo. Attenuation correction of raw PET data is a prerequisite for quantification and is typically based on separate transmission measurements. In PET/CT attenuation correction, however, is performed routinely based on the available CT transmission data. Recently, combined PET/magnetic resonance (MR) has been proposed as a viable alternative to PET/CT. Current concepts of PET/MRI do not include CT-like transmission sources and, therefore, alternative methods of PET attenuation correction must be found. This article reviews existing approaches to MR-based attenuation correction (MR-AC). Most groups have proposed MR-AC algorithms for brain PET studies and more recently also for torso PET/MR imaging. Most MR-AC strategies require the use of complementary MR and transmission images, or morphology templates generated from transmission images. We review and discuss these algorithms and point out challenges for using MR-AC in clinical routine. MR-AC is work-in-progress with potentially promising results from a template-based approach applicable to both brain and torso imaging. While efforts are ongoing in making clinically viable MR-AC fully automatic, further studies are required to realize the potential benefits of MR-based motion compensation and partial volume correction of the PET data.

Fiducial marker-based correction for involuntary motion in weight-bearing C-arm CT scanning of knees. II. Experiment.

PubMed

Choi, Jang-Hwan; Maier, Andreas; Keil, Andreas; Pal, Saikat; McWalter, Emily J; Beaupré, Gary S; Gold, Garry E; Fahrig, Rebecca

2014-06-01

A C-arm CT system has been shown to be capable of scanning a single cadaver leg under loaded conditions by virtue of its highly flexible acquisition trajectories. In Part I of this study, using the 4D XCAT-based numerical simulation, the authors predicted that the involuntary motion in the lower body of subjects in weight-bearing positions would seriously degrade image quality and the authors suggested three motion compensation methods by which the reconstructions could be corrected to provide diagnostic image quality. Here, the authors demonstrate that a flat-panel angiography system is appropriate for scanning both legs of subjects in vivo under weight-bearing conditions and further evaluate the three motion-correction algorithms using in vivo data. The geometry of a C-arm CT system for a horizontal scan trajectory was calibrated using the PDS-2 phantom. The authors acquired images of two healthy volunteers while lying supine on a table, standing, and squatting at several knee flexion angles. In order to identify the involuntary motion of the lower body, nine 1-mm-diameter tantalum fiducial markers were attached around the knee. The static mean marker position in 3D, a reference for motion compensation, was estimated by back-projecting detected markers in multiple projections using calibrated projection matrices and identifying the intersection points in 3D of the back-projected rays. Motion was corrected using three different methods (described in detail previously): (1) 2D projection shifting, (2) 2D deformable projection warping, and (3) 3D rigid body warping. For quantitative image quality analysis, SSIM indices for the three methods were compared using the supine data as a ground truth. A 2D Euclidean distance-based metric of subjects' motion ranged from 0.85 mm (±0.49 mm) to 3.82 mm (±2.91 mm) (corresponding to 2.76 to 12.41 pixels) resulting in severe motion artifacts in 3D reconstructions. Shifting in 2D, 2D warping, and 3D warping improved the SSIM in the central slice by 20.22%, 16.83%, and 25.77% in the data with the largest motion among the five datasets (SCAN5); improvement in off-center slices was 18.94%, 29.14%, and 36.08%, respectively. The authors showed that C-arm CT control can be implemented for nonstandard horizontal trajectories which enabled us to scan and successfully reconstruct both legs of volunteers in weight-bearing positions. As predicted using theoretical models, the proposed motion correction methods improved image quality by reducing motion artifacts in reconstructions; 3D warping performed better than the 2D methods, especially in off-center slices.

Fiducial marker-based correction for involuntary motion in weight-bearing C-arm CT scanning of knees. II. Experiment

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

Choi, Jang-Hwan; Maier, Andreas; Keil, Andreas

2014-06-15

Purpose: A C-arm CT system has been shown to be capable of scanning a single cadaver leg under loaded conditions by virtue of its highly flexible acquisition trajectories. In Part I of this study, using the 4D XCAT-based numerical simulation, the authors predicted that the involuntary motion in the lower body of subjects in weight-bearing positions would seriously degrade image quality and the authors suggested three motion compensation methods by which the reconstructions could be corrected to provide diagnostic image quality. Here, the authors demonstrate that a flat-panel angiography system is appropriate for scanning both legs of subjectsin vivo undermore » weight-bearing conditions and further evaluate the three motion-correction algorithms using in vivo data. Methods: The geometry of a C-arm CT system for a horizontal scan trajectory was calibrated using the PDS-2 phantom. The authors acquired images of two healthy volunteers while lying supine on a table, standing, and squatting at several knee flexion angles. In order to identify the involuntary motion of the lower body, nine 1-mm-diameter tantalum fiducial markers were attached around the knee. The static mean marker position in 3D, a reference for motion compensation, was estimated by back-projecting detected markers in multiple projections using calibrated projection matrices and identifying the intersection points in 3D of the back-projected rays. Motion was corrected using three different methods (described in detail previously): (1) 2D projection shifting, (2) 2D deformable projection warping, and (3) 3D rigid body warping. For quantitative image quality analysis, SSIM indices for the three methods were compared using the supine data as a ground truth. Results: A 2D Euclidean distance-based metric of subjects’ motion ranged from 0.85 mm (±0.49 mm) to 3.82 mm (±2.91 mm) (corresponding to 2.76 to 12.41 pixels) resulting in severe motion artifacts in 3D reconstructions. Shifting in 2D, 2D warping, and 3D warping improved the SSIM in the central slice by 20.22%, 16.83%, and 25.77% in the data with the largest motion among the five datasets (SCAN5); improvement in off-center slices was 18.94%, 29.14%, and 36.08%, respectively. Conclusions: The authors showed that C-arm CT control can be implemented for nonstandard horizontal trajectories which enabled us to scan and successfully reconstruct both legs of volunteers in weight-bearing positions. As predicted using theoretical models, the proposed motion correction methods improved image quality by reducing motion artifacts in reconstructions; 3D warping performed better than the 2D methods, especially in off-center slices.« less

Human Actions Analysis: Templates Generation, Matching and Visualization Applied to Motion Capture of Highly-Skilled Karate Athletes

PubMed Central

Piekarczyk, Marcin; Ogiela, Marek R.

2017-01-01

The aim of this paper is to propose and evaluate the novel method of template generation, matching, comparing and visualization applied to motion capture (kinematic) analysis. To evaluate our approach, we have used motion capture recordings (MoCap) of two highly-skilled black belt karate athletes consisting of 560 recordings of various karate techniques acquired with wearable sensors. We have evaluated the quality of generated templates; we have validated the matching algorithm that calculates similarities and differences between various MoCap data; and we have examined visualizations of important differences and similarities between MoCap data. We have concluded that our algorithms works the best when we are dealing with relatively short (2–4 s) actions that might be averaged and aligned with the dynamic time warping framework. In practice, the methodology is designed to optimize the performance of some full body techniques performed in various sport disciplines, for example combat sports and martial arts. We can also use this approach to generate templates or to compare the correct performance of techniques between various top sportsmen in order to generate a knowledge base of reference MoCap videos. The motion template generated by our method can be used for action recognition purposes. We have used the DTW classifier with angle-based features to classify various karate kicks. We have performed leave-one-out action recognition for the Shorin-ryu and Oyama karate master separately. In this case, 100% actions were correctly classified. In another experiment, we used templates generated from Oyama master recordings to classify Shorin-ryu master recordings and vice versa. In this experiment, the overall recognition rate was 94.2%, which is a very good result for this type of complex action. PMID:29125560

Experimental Evaluation of a Braille-Reading-Inspired Finger Motion Adaptive Algorithm.

PubMed

Ulusoy, Melda; Sipahi, Rifat

2016-01-01

Braille reading is a complex process involving intricate finger-motion patterns and finger-rubbing actions across Braille letters for the stimulation of appropriate nerves. Although Braille reading is performed by smoothly moving the finger from left-to-right, research shows that even fluent reading requires right-to-left movements of the finger, known as "reversal". Reversals are crucial as they not only enhance stimulation of nerves for correctly reading the letters, but they also show one to re-read the letters that were missed in the first pass. Moreover, it is known that reversals can be performed as often as in every sentence and can start at any location in a sentence. Here, we report experimental results on the feasibility of an algorithm that can render a machine to automatically adapt to reversal gestures of one's finger. Through Braille-reading-analogous tasks, the algorithm is tested with thirty sighted subjects that volunteered in the study. We find that the finger motion adaptive algorithm (FMAA) is useful in achieving cooperation between human finger and the machine. In the presence of FMAA, subjects' performance metrics associated with the tasks have significantly improved as supported by statistical analysis. In light of these encouraging results, preliminary experiments are carried out with five blind subjects with the aim to put the algorithm to test. Results obtained from carefully designed experiments showed that subjects' Braille reading accuracy in the presence of FMAA was more favorable then when FMAA was turned off. Utilization of FMAA in future generation Braille reading devices thus holds strong promise.

Experimental Evaluation of a Braille-Reading-Inspired Finger Motion Adaptive Algorithm

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Braille reading is a complex process involving intricate finger-motion patterns and finger-rubbing actions across Braille letters for the stimulation of appropriate nerves. Although Braille reading is performed by smoothly moving the finger from left-to-right, research shows that even fluent reading requires right-to-left movements of the finger, known as “reversal”. Reversals are crucial as they not only enhance stimulation of nerves for correctly reading the letters, but they also show one to re-read the letters that were missed in the first pass. Moreover, it is known that reversals can be performed as often as in every sentence and can start at any location in a sentence. Here, we report experimental results on the feasibility of an algorithm that can render a machine to automatically adapt to reversal gestures of one’s finger. Through Braille-reading-analogous tasks, the algorithm is tested with thirty sighted subjects that volunteered in the study. We find that the finger motion adaptive algorithm (FMAA) is useful in achieving cooperation between human finger and the machine. In the presence of FMAA, subjects’ performance metrics associated with the tasks have significantly improved as supported by statistical analysis. In light of these encouraging results, preliminary experiments are carried out with five blind subjects with the aim to put the algorithm to test. Results obtained from carefully designed experiments showed that subjects’ Braille reading accuracy in the presence of FMAA was more favorable then when FMAA was turned off. Utilization of FMAA in future generation Braille reading devices thus holds strong promise. PMID:26849058

Stochastic solution to quantum dynamics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

John, Sarah; Wilson, John W.

1994-01-01

The quantum Liouville equation in the Wigner representation is solved numerically by using Monte Carlo methods. For incremental time steps, the propagation is implemented as a classical evolution in phase space modified by a quantum correction. The correction, which is a momentum jump function, is simulated in the quasi-classical approximation via a stochastic process. The technique, which is developed and validated in two- and three- dimensional momentum space, extends an earlier one-dimensional work. Also, by developing a new algorithm, the application to bound state motion in an anharmonic quartic potential shows better agreement with exact solutions in two-dimensional phase space.

Customizing Extensor Reconstruction in Vascularized Toe Joint Transfers to Finger Proximal Interphalangeal Joints: A Strategic Approach for Correcting Extensor Lag.

PubMed

Loh, Charles Yuen Yung; Hsu, Chung-Chen; Lin, Cheng-Hung; Chen, Shih-Heng; Lien, Shwu-Huei; Lin, Chih-Hung; Wei, Fu-Chan; Lin, Yu-Te

2017-04-01

Vascularized toe proximal interphalangeal joint transfer allows the restoration of damaged joints. However, extensor lag and poor arc of motion have been reported. The authors present their outcomes of treatment according to a novel reconstructive algorithm that addresses extensor lag and allows for consistent results postoperatively. Vascularized toe joint transfers were performed in a consecutive series of 26 digits in 25 patients. The average age was 30.5 years, with 14 right and 12 left hands. Reconstructed digits included eight index, 10 middle, and eight ring fingers. Simultaneous extensor reconstructions were performed and eight were centralization of lateral bands, five were direct extensor digitorum longus-to-extensor digitorum communis repairs, and 13 were central slip reconstructions. The average length of follow-up was 16.7 months. The average extension lag was 17.9 degrees. The arc of motion was 57.7 degrees (81.7 percent functional use of pretransfer toe proximal interphalangeal joint arc of motion). There was no significant difference in the reconstructed proximal interphalangeal joint arc of motion for the handedness (p = 0.23), recipient digits (p = 0.37), or surgical experience in vascularized toe joint transfer (p = 0.25). The outcomes of different techniques of extensor mechanism reconstruction were similar in terms of extensor lag, arc of motion, and reconstructed finger arc of motion compared with the pretransfer toe proximal interphalangeal joint arc of motion. With this treatment algorithm, consistent outcomes can be produced with minimal extensor lag and maximum use of potential toe proximal interphalangeal joint arc of motion. Therapeutic, IV.

Reducing respiratory motion artifacts in positron emission tomography through retrospective stacking

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

Thorndyke, Brian; Schreibmann, Eduard; Koong, Albert

Respiratory motion artifacts in positron emission tomography (PET) imaging can alter lesion intensity profiles, and result in substantially reduced activity and contrast-to-noise ratios (CNRs). We propose a corrective algorithm, coined 'retrospective stacking' (RS), to restore image quality without requiring additional scan time. Retrospective stacking uses b-spline deformable image registration to combine amplitude-binned PET data along the entire respiratory cycle into a single respiratory end point. We applied the method to a phantom model consisting of a small, hot vial oscillating within a warm background, as well as to {sup 18}FDG-PET images of a pancreatic and a liver patient. Comparisons weremore » made using cross-section visualizations, activity profiles, and CNRs within the region of interest. Retrospective stacking was found to properly restore the lesion location and intensity profile in all cases. In addition, RS provided CNR improvements up to three-fold over gated images, and up to five-fold over ungated data. These phantom and patient studies demonstrate that RS can correct for lesion motion and deformation, while substantially improving tumor visibility and background noise.« less

In vivo imaging of the rodent eye with swept source/Fourier domain OCT

PubMed Central

Liu, Jonathan J.; Grulkowski, Ireneusz; Kraus, Martin F.; Potsaid, Benjamin; Lu, Chen D.; Baumann, Bernhard; Duker, Jay S.; Hornegger, Joachim; Fujimoto, James G.

2013-01-01

Swept source/Fourier domain OCT is demonstrated for in vivo imaging of the rodent eye. Using commercial swept laser technology, we developed a prototype OCT imaging system for small animal ocular imaging operating in the 1050 nm wavelength range at an axial scan rate of 100 kHz with ~6 µm axial resolution. The high imaging speed enables volumetric imaging with high axial scan densities, measuring high flow velocities in vessels, and repeated volumetric imaging over time. The 1050 nm wavelength light provides increased penetration into tissue compared to standard commercial OCT systems at 850 nm. The long imaging range enables multiple operating modes for imaging the retina, posterior eye, as well as anterior eye and full eye length. A registration algorithm using orthogonally scanned OCT volumetric data sets which can correct motion on a per A-scan basis is applied to compensate motion and merge motion corrected volumetric data for enhanced OCT image quality. Ultrahigh speed swept source OCT is a promising technique for imaging the rodent eye, proving comprehensive information on the cornea, anterior segment, lens, vitreous, posterior segment, retina and choroid. PMID:23412778

Beam Stability R&D for the APS MBA Upgrade

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

Sereno, Nicholas S.; Arnold, Ned D.; Bui, Hanh D.

2015-01-01

Beam diagnostics required for the APS Multi-bend acromat (MBA) are driven by ambitious beam stability requirements. The major AC stability challenge is to correct rms beam motion to 10% the rms beam size at the insertion device source points from0.01 to 1000 Hz. The vertical plane represents the biggest challenge forAC stability, which is required to be 400 nm rms for a 4-micron vertical beam size. In addition to AC stability, long-term drift over a period of seven days is required to be 1 micron or less. Major diagnostics R&D components include improved rf beam position processing using commercially availablemore » FPGA-based BPM processors, new X-ray beam position monitors based on hard X-ray fluorescence from copper and Compton scattering off diamond, mechanical motion sensing to detect and correct long-term vacuum chamber drift, a new feedback system featuring a tenfold increase in sampling rate, and a several-fold increase in the number of fast correctors and BPMs in the feedback algorithm. Feedback system development represents a major effort, and we are pursuing development of a novel algorithm that integrates orbit correction for both slow and fast correctors down to DC simultaneously. Finally, a new data acquisition system (DAQ) is being developed to simultaneously acquire streaming data from all diagnostics as well as the feedback processors for commissioning and fault diagnosis. Results of studies and the design effort are reported.« less

3D refraction correction and extraction of clinical parameters from spectral domain optical coherence tomography of the cornea.

PubMed

Zhao, Mingtao; Kuo, Anthony N; Izatt, Joseph A

2010-04-26

Capable of three-dimensional imaging of the cornea with micrometer-scale resolution, spectral domain-optical coherence tomography (SDOCT) offers potential advantages over Placido ring and Scheimpflug photography based systems for accurate extraction of quantitative keratometric parameters. In this work, an SDOCT scanning protocol and motion correction algorithm were implemented to minimize the effects of patient motion during data acquisition. Procedures are described for correction of image data artifacts resulting from 3D refraction of SDOCT light in the cornea and from non-idealities of the scanning system geometry performed as a pre-requisite for accurate parameter extraction. Zernike polynomial 3D reconstruction and a recursive half searching algorithm (RHSA) were implemented to extract clinical keratometric parameters including anterior and posterior radii of curvature, central cornea optical power, central corneal thickness, and thickness maps of the cornea. Accuracy and repeatability of the extracted parameters obtained using a commercial 859nm SDOCT retinal imaging system with a corneal adapter were assessed using a rigid gas permeable (RGP) contact lens as a phantom target. Extraction of these parameters was performed in vivo in 3 patients and compared to commercial Placido topography and Scheimpflug photography systems. The repeatability of SDOCT central corneal power measured in vivo was 0.18 Diopters, and the difference observed between the systems averaged 0.1 Diopters between SDOCT and Scheimpflug photography, and 0.6 Diopters between SDOCT and Placido topography.

Motion Cueing Algorithm Development: New Motion Cueing Program Implementation and Tuning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Houck, Jacob A. (Technical Monitor); Telban, Robert J.; Cardullo, Frank M.; Kelly, Lon C.

2005-01-01

A computer program has been developed for the purpose of driving the NASA Langley Research Center Visual Motion Simulator (VMS). This program includes two new motion cueing algorithms, the optimal algorithm and the nonlinear algorithm. A general description of the program is given along with a description and flowcharts for each cueing algorithm, and also descriptions and flowcharts for subroutines used with the algorithms. Common block variable listings and a program listing are also provided. The new cueing algorithms have a nonlinear gain algorithm implemented that scales each aircraft degree-of-freedom input with a third-order polynomial. A description of the nonlinear gain algorithm is given along with past tuning experience and procedures for tuning the gain coefficient sets for each degree-of-freedom to produce the desired piloted performance. This algorithm tuning will be needed when the nonlinear motion cueing algorithm is implemented on a new motion system in the Cockpit Motion Facility (CMF) at the NASA Langley Research Center.

Robust incremental compensation of the light attenuation with depth in 3D fluorescence microscopy.

PubMed

Kervrann, C; Legland, D; Pardini, L

2004-06-01

Summary Fluorescent signal intensities from confocal laser scanning microscopes (CLSM) suffer from several distortions inherent to the method. Namely, layers which lie deeper within the specimen are relatively dark due to absorption and scattering of both excitation and fluorescent light, photobleaching and/or other factors. Because of these effects, a quantitative analysis of images is not always possible without correction. Under certain assumptions, the decay of intensities can be estimated and used for a partial depth intensity correction. In this paper we propose an original robust incremental method for compensating the attenuation of intensity signals. Most previous correction methods are more or less empirical and based on fitting a decreasing parametric function to the section mean intensity curve computed by summing all pixel values in each section. The fitted curve is then used for the calculation of correction factors for each section and a new compensated sections series is computed. However, these methods do not perfectly correct the images. Hence, the algorithm we propose for the automatic correction of intensities relies on robust estimation, which automatically ignores pixels where measurements deviate from the decay model. It is based on techniques adopted from the computer vision literature for image motion estimation. The resulting algorithm is used to correct volumes acquired in CLSM. An implementation of such a restoration filter is discussed and examples of successful restorations are given.

Motion correction in MRI of the brain

PubMed Central

Godenschweger, F; Kägebein, U; Stucht, D; Yarach, U; Sciarra, A; Yakupov, R; Lüsebrink, F; Schulze, P; Speck, O

2016-01-01

Subject motion in MRI is a relevant problem in the daily clinical routine as well as in scientific studies. Since the beginning of clinical use of MRI, many research groups have developed methods to suppress or correct motion artefacts. This review focuses on rigid body motion correction of head and brain MRI and its application in diagnosis and research. It explains the sources and types of motion and related artefacts, classifies and describes existing techniques for motion detection, compensation and correction and lists established and experimental approaches. Retrospective motion correction modifies the MR image data during the reconstruction, while prospective motion correction performs an adaptive update of the data acquisition. Differences, benefits and drawbacks of different motion correction methods are discussed. PMID:26864183

Motion correction in MRI of the brain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Godenschweger, F.; Kägebein, U.; Stucht, D.; Yarach, U.; Sciarra, A.; Yakupov, R.; Lüsebrink, F.; Schulze, P.; Speck, O.

2016-03-01

Subject motion in MRI is a relevant problem in the daily clinical routine as well as in scientific studies. Since the beginning of clinical use of MRI, many research groups have developed methods to suppress or correct motion artefacts. This review focuses on rigid body motion correction of head and brain MRI and its application in diagnosis and research. It explains the sources and types of motion and related artefacts, classifies and describes existing techniques for motion detection, compensation and correction and lists established and experimental approaches. Retrospective motion correction modifies the MR image data during the reconstruction, while prospective motion correction performs an adaptive update of the data acquisition. Differences, benefits and drawbacks of different motion correction methods are discussed.

MFP scanner motion characterization using self-printed target

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Minwoong; Bauer, Peter; Wagner, Jerry K.; Allebach, Jan P.

2015-01-01

Multifunctional printers (MFP) are products that combine the functions of a printer, scanner, and copier. Our goal is to help customers to be able to easily diagnose scanner or print quality issues with their products by developing an automated diagnostic system embedded in the product. We specifically focus on the characterization of scanner motions, which may be defective due to irregular movements of the scan-head. The novel design of our test page and two-stage diagnostic algorithm are described in this paper. The most challenging issue is to evaluate the scanner performance properly when both printer and scanner units contribute to the motion errors. In the first stage called the uncorrected-print-error-stage, aperiodic and periodic motion behaviors are characterized in both the spatial and frequency domains. Since it is not clear how much of the error is contributed by each unit, the scanned input is statistically analyzed in the second stage called the corrected-print-error-stage. Finally, the described diagnostic algorithms output the estimated scan error and print error separately as RMS values of the displacement of the scan and print lines, respectively, from their nominal positions in the scanner or printer motion direction. We validate our test page design and approaches by ground truth obtained from a high-precision, chrome-on-glass reticle manufactured using semiconductor chip fabrication technologies.

Detection of obstacles on runway using Ego-Motion compensation and tracking of significant features

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kasturi, Rangachar (Principal Investigator); Camps, Octavia (Principal Investigator); Gandhi, Tarak; Devadiga, Sadashiva

1996-01-01

This report describes a method for obstacle detection on a runway for autonomous navigation and landing of an aircraft. Detection is done in the presence of extraneous features such as tiremarks. Suitable features are extracted from the image and warping using approximately known camera and plane parameters is performed in order to compensate ego-motion as far as possible. Residual disparity after warping is estimated using an optical flow algorithm. Features are tracked from frame to frame so as to obtain more reliable estimates of their motion. Corrections are made to motion parameters with the residual disparities using a robust method, and features having large residual disparities are signaled as obstacles. Sensitivity analysis of the procedure is also studied. Nelson's optical flow constraint is proposed to separate moving obstacles from stationary ones. A Bayesian framework is used at every stage so that the confidence in the estimates can be determined.

Ultrasound thermography: A new temperature reconstruction model and in vivo results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bayat, Mahdi; Ballard, John R.; Ebbini, Emad S.

2017-03-01

The recursive echo strain filter (RESF) model is presented as a new echo shift-based ultrasound temperature estimation model. The model is shown to have an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter realization of a differentitor-integrator operator. This model is then used for tracking sub-therapeutic temperature changes due to high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) shots in the hind limb of the Copenhagen rats in vivo. In addition to the reconstruction filter, a motion compensation method is presented which takes advantage of the deformation field outside the region of interest to correct the motion errors during temperature tracking. The combination of the RESF model and motion compensation algorithm is shown to greatly enhance the accuracy of the in vivo temperature estimation using ultrasound echo shifts.

Motion Correction in PROPELLER and Turboprop-MRI

PubMed Central

Tamhane, Ashish A.; Arfanakis, Konstantinos

2009-01-01

PROPELLER and Turboprop-MRI are characterized by greatly reduced sensitivity to motion, compared to their predecessors, fast spin-echo and gradient and spin-echo, respectively. This is due to the inherent self-navigation and motion correction of PROPELLER-based techniques. However, it is unknown how various acquisition parameters that determine k-space sampling affect the accuracy of motion correction in PROPELLER and Turboprop-MRI. The goal of this work was to evaluate the accuracy of motion correction in both techniques, to identify an optimal rotation correction approach, and determine acquisition strategies for optimal motion correction. It was demonstrated that, blades with multiple lines allow more accurate estimation of motion than blades with fewer lines. Also, it was shown that Turboprop-MRI is less sensitive to motion than PROPELLER. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the number of blades does not significantly affect motion correction. Finally, clinically appropriate acquisition strategies that optimize motion correction were discussed for PROPELLER and Turboprop-MRI. PMID:19365858

Algorithm for quantum-mechanical finite-nuclear-mass variational calculations of atoms with two p electrons using all-electron explicitly correlated Gaussian basis functions

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

Sharkey, Keeper L.; Pavanello, Michele; Bubin, Sergiy

2009-12-15

A new algorithm for calculating the Hamiltonian matrix elements with all-electron explicitly correlated Gaussian functions for quantum-mechanical calculations of atoms with two p electrons or a single d electron have been derived and implemented. The Hamiltonian used in the approach was obtained by rigorously separating the center-of-mass motion and it explicitly depends on the finite mass of the nucleus. The approach was employed to perform test calculations on the isotopes of the carbon atom in their ground electronic states and to determine the finite-nuclear-mass corrections for these states.

Correction of motion artifacts and serial correlations for real-time functional near-infrared spectroscopy

PubMed Central

Barker, Jeffrey W.; Rosso, Andrea L.; Sparto, Patrick J.; Huppert, Theodore J.

2016-01-01

Abstract. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a relatively low-cost, portable, noninvasive neuroimaging technique for measuring task-evoked hemodynamic changes in the brain. Because fNIRS can be applied to a wide range of populations, such as children or infants, and under a variety of study conditions, including those involving physical movement, gait, or balance, fNIRS data are often confounded by motion artifacts. Furthermore, the high sampling rate of fNIRS leads to high temporal autocorrelation due to systemic physiology. These two factors can reduce the sensitivity and specificity of detecting hemodynamic changes. In a previous work, we showed that these factors could be mitigated by autoregressive-based prewhitening followed by the application of an iterative reweighted least squares algorithm offline. This current work extends these same ideas to real-time analysis of brain signals by modifying the linear Kalman filter, resulting in an algorithm for online estimation that is robust to systemic physiology and motion artifacts. We evaluated the performance of the proposed method via simulations of evoked hemodynamics that were added to experimental resting-state data, which provided realistic fNIRS noise. Last, we applied the method post hoc to data from a standing balance task. Overall, the new method showed good agreement with the analogous offline algorithm, in which both methods outperformed ordinary least squares methods. PMID:27226974

Combined aerial and terrestrial images for complete 3D documentation of Singosari Temple based on Structure from Motion algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hidayat, Husnul; Cahyono, A. B.

2016-11-01

Singosaritemple is one of cultural heritage building in East Java, Indonesia which was built in 1300s and restorated in 1934-1937. Because of its history and importance, complete documentation of this temple is required. Nowadays with the advent of low cost UAVs combining aerial photography with terrestrial photogrammetry gives more complete data for 3D documentation. This research aims to make complete 3D model of this landmark from aerial and terrestrial photographs with Structure from Motion algorithm. To establish correct scale, position, and orientation, the final 3D model was georeferenced with Ground Control Points in UTM 49S coordinate system. The result shows that all facades, floor, and upper structures can be modeled completely in 3D. In terms of 3D coordinate accuracy, the Root Mean Square Errors (RMSEs) are RMSEx=0,041 m; RMSEy=0,031 m; RMSEz=0,049 m which represent 0.071 m displacement in 3D space. In addition the mean difference of lenght measurements of the object is 0,057 m. With this accuracy, this method can be used to map the site up to 1:237 scale. Although the accuracy level is still in centimeters, the combined aerial and terrestrial photographs with Structure from Motion algorithm can provide complete and visually interesting 3D model.

Evaluation of a New Motion-correction Algorithm Using On-rigid Registration in Respiratory-gated PET/CT Images of Liver Tumors.

PubMed

Wagatsuma, Kei; Osawa, Tatsufumi; Yokokawa, Naoki; Miwa, Kenta; Oda, Keiichi; Kudo, Yoshiro; Unno, Yasushi; Ito, Kimiteru; Ishii, Kenji

2016-01-01

The present study aimed to determine the qualitative and quantitative accuracy of the Q.Freeze algorithm in PET/CT images of liver tumors. A body phantom and hot spheres representing liver tumors contained 5.3 and 21.2 kBq/mL of a solution containing 18 F radioactivity, respectively. The phantoms were moved in the superior-inferior direction at a motion displacement of 20 mm. Conventional respiratory-gated (RG) and Q.Freeze images were sorted into 6, 10, and 13 phase-groups. The SUV ave was calculated from the background of the body phantom, and the SUV max was determined from the hot spheres of the liver tumors. Three patients with four liver tumors were also clinically assessed by whole-body and RG PET. The RG and Q.Freeze images derived from the clinical study were also sorted into 6, 10 and 13 phase-groups. Liver signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and SUV max were determined from the RG and Q.Freeze clinical images. The SUV ave of Q.Freeze images was the same as those derived from the body phantom using RG. The liver SNR improved with Q.Freeze, and the SUVs max was not overestimated when Q.Freeze was applied in both the phantom and clinical studies. Q.Freeze did not degrade the liver SNR and SUV max even though the phase number was larger. Q.Freeze delivered qualitative and quantitative motion correction than conventional RG imaging even in 10-phase groups.

Automation of workplace lifting hazard assessment for musculoskeletal injury prevention.

PubMed

Spector, June T; Lieblich, Max; Bao, Stephen; McQuade, Kevin; Hughes, Margaret

2014-01-01

Existing methods for practically evaluating musculoskeletal exposures such as posture and repetition in workplace settings have limitations. We aimed to automate the estimation of parameters in the revised United States National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) lifting equation, a standard manual observational tool used to evaluate back injury risk related to lifting in workplace settings, using depth camera (Microsoft Kinect) and skeleton algorithm technology. A large dataset (approximately 22,000 frames, derived from six subjects) of simultaneous lifting and other motions recorded in a laboratory setting using the Kinect (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, United States) and a standard optical motion capture system (Qualysis, Qualysis Motion Capture Systems, Qualysis AB, Sweden) was assembled. Error-correction regression models were developed to improve the accuracy of NIOSH lifting equation parameters estimated from the Kinect skeleton. Kinect-Qualysis errors were modelled using gradient boosted regression trees with a Huber loss function. Models were trained on data from all but one subject and tested on the excluded subject. Finally, models were tested on three lifting trials performed by subjects not involved in the generation of the model-building dataset. Error-correction appears to produce estimates for NIOSH lifting equation parameters that are more accurate than those derived from the Microsoft Kinect algorithm alone. Our error-correction models substantially decreased the variance of parameter errors. In general, the Kinect underestimated parameters, and modelling reduced this bias, particularly for more biased estimates. Use of the raw Kinect skeleton model tended to result in falsely high safe recommended weight limits of loads, whereas error-corrected models gave more conservative, protective estimates. Our results suggest that it may be possible to produce reasonable estimates of posture and temporal elements of tasks such as task frequency in an automated fashion, although these findings should be confirmed in a larger study. Further work is needed to incorporate force assessments and address workplace feasibility challenges. We anticipate that this approach could ultimately be used to perform large-scale musculoskeletal exposure assessment not only for research but also to provide real-time feedback to workers and employers during work method improvement activities and employee training.

Nonrigid Autofocus Motion Correction for Coronary MR Angiography with a 3D Cones Trajectory

PubMed Central

Ingle, R. Reeve; Wu, Holden H.; Addy, Nii Okai; Cheng, Joseph Y.; Yang, Phillip C.; Hu, Bob S.; Nishimura, Dwight G.

2014-01-01

Purpose: To implement a nonrigid autofocus motion correction technique to improve respiratory motion correction of free-breathing whole-heart coronary magnetic resonance angiography (CMRA) acquisitions using an image-navigated 3D cones sequence. Methods: 2D image navigators acquired every heartbeat are used to measure superior-inferior, anterior-posterior, and right-left translation of the heart during a free-breathing CMRA scan using a 3D cones readout trajectory. Various tidal respiratory motion patterns are modeled by independently scaling the three measured displacement trajectories. These scaled motion trajectories are used for 3D translational compensation of the acquired data, and a bank of motion-compensated images is reconstructed. From this bank, a gradient entropy focusing metric is used to generate a nonrigid motion-corrected image on a pixel-by-pixel basis. The performance of the autofocus motion correction technique is compared with rigid-body translational correction and no correction in phantom, volunteer, and patient studies. Results: Nonrigid autofocus motion correction yields improved image quality compared to rigid-body-corrected images and uncorrected images. Quantitative vessel sharpness measurements indicate superiority of the proposed technique in 14 out of 15 coronary segments from three patient and two volunteer studies. Conclusion: The proposed technique corrects nonrigid motion artifacts in free-breathing 3D cones acquisitions, improving image quality compared to rigid-body motion correction. PMID:24006292

A whole-heart motion-correction algorithm: Effects on CT image quality and diagnostic accuracy of mechanical valve prosthesis abnormalities.

PubMed

Suh, Young Joo; Kim, Young Jin; Kim, Jin Young; Chang, Suyon; Im, Dong Jin; Hong, Yoo Jin; Choi, Byoung Wook

2017-11-01

We aimed to determine the effect of a whole-heart motion-correction algorithm (new-generation snapshot freeze, NG SSF) on the image quality of cardiac computed tomography (CT) images in patients with mechanical valve prostheses compared to standard images without motion correction and to compare the diagnostic accuracy of NG SSF and standard CT image sets for the detection of prosthetic valve abnormalities. A total of 20 patients with 32 mechanical valves who underwent wide-coverage detector cardiac CT with single-heartbeat acquisition were included. The CT image quality for subvalvular (below the prosthesis) and valvular regions (valve leaflets) of mechanical valves was assessed by two observers on a four-point scale (1 = poor, 2 = fair, 3 = good, and 4 = excellent). Paired t-tests or Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to compare image quality scores and the number of diagnostic phases (image quality score≥3) between the standard image sets and NG SSF image sets. Diagnostic performance for detection of prosthetic valve abnormalities was compared between two image sets with the final diagnosis set by re-operation or clinical findings as the standard reference. NG SSF image sets had better image quality scores than standard image sets for both valvular and subvalvular regions (P < 0.05 for both). The number of phases that were of diagnostic image quality per patient was significantly greater in the NG SSF image set than standard image set for both valvular and subvalvular regions (P < 0.0001). Diagnostic performance of NG SSF image sets for the detection of prosthetic abnormalities (20 pannus and two paravalvular leaks) was greater than that of standard image sets (P < 0.05). Application of NG SSF can improve CT image quality and diagnostic accuracy in patients with mechanical valves compared to standard images. Copyright © 2017 Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Software for Project-Based Learning of Robot Motion Planning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moll, Mark; Bordeaux, Janice; Kavraki, Lydia E.

2013-01-01

Motion planning is a core problem in robotics concerned with finding feasible paths for a given robot. Motion planning algorithms perform a search in the high-dimensional continuous space of robot configurations and exemplify many of the core algorithmic concepts of search algorithms and associated data structures. Motion planning algorithms can…

Motion correction in periodically-rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction (PROPELLER) and turboprop MRI.

PubMed

Tamhane, Ashish A; Arfanakis, Konstantinos

2009-07-01

Periodically-rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction (PROPELLER) and Turboprop MRI are characterized by greatly reduced sensitivity to motion, compared to their predecessors, fast spin-echo (FSE) and gradient and spin-echo (GRASE), respectively. This is due to the inherent self-navigation and motion correction of PROPELLER-based techniques. However, it is unknown how various acquisition parameters that determine k-space sampling affect the accuracy of motion correction in PROPELLER and Turboprop MRI. The goal of this work was to evaluate the accuracy of motion correction in both techniques, to identify an optimal rotation correction approach, and determine acquisition strategies for optimal motion correction. It was demonstrated that blades with multiple lines allow more accurate estimation of motion than blades with fewer lines. Also, it was shown that Turboprop MRI is less sensitive to motion than PROPELLER. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the number of blades does not significantly affect motion correction. Finally, clinically appropriate acquisition strategies that optimize motion correction are discussed for PROPELLER and Turboprop MRI. (c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

A Nonlinear, Human-Centered Approach to Motion Cueing with a Neurocomputing Solver

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Telban, Robert J.; Cardullo, Frank M.; Houck, Jacob A.

2002-01-01

This paper discusses the continuation of research into the development of new motion cueing algorithms first reported in 1999. In this earlier work, two viable approaches to motion cueing were identified: the coordinated adaptive washout algorithm or 'adaptive algorithm', and the 'optimal algorithm'. In this study, a novel approach to motion cueing is discussed that would combine features of both algorithms. The new algorithm is formulated as a linear optimal control problem, incorporating improved vestibular models and an integrated visual-vestibular motion perception model previously reported. A control law is generated from the motion platform states, resulting in a set of nonlinear cueing filters. The time-varying control law requires the matrix Riccati equation to be solved in real time. Therefore, in order to meet the real time requirement, a neurocomputing approach is used to solve this computationally challenging problem. Single degree-of-freedom responses for the nonlinear algorithm were generated and compared to the adaptive and optimal algorithms. Results for the heave mode show the nonlinear algorithm producing a motion cue with a time-varying washout, sustaining small cues for a longer duration and washing out larger cues more quickly. The addition of the optokinetic influence from the integrated perception model was shown to improve the response to a surge input, producing a specific force response with no steady-state washout. Improved cues are also observed for responses to a sway input. Yaw mode responses reveal that the nonlinear algorithm improves the motion cues by reducing the magnitude of negative cues. The effectiveness of the nonlinear algorithm as compared to the adaptive and linear optimal algorithms will be evaluated on a motion platform, the NASA Langley Research Center Visual Motion Simulator (VMS), and ultimately the Cockpit Motion Facility (CMF) with a series of pilot controlled maneuvers. A proposed experimental procedure is discussed. The results of this evaluation will be used to assess motion cueing performance.

Noninvasive Thermometry Assisted by a Dual Function Ultrasound Transducer for Mild Hyperthermia

PubMed Central

Lai, Chun-Yen; Kruse, Dustin E.; Caskey, Charles F.; Stephens, Douglas N.; Sutcliffe, Patrick L.; Ferrara, Katherine W.

2010-01-01

Mild hyperthermia is increasingly important for the activation of temperature-sensitive drug delivery vehicles. Noninvasive ultrasound thermometry based on a 2-D speckle tracking algorithm was examined in this study. Here, a commercial ultrasound scanner, a customized co-linear array transducer, and a controlling PC system were used to generate mild hyperthermia. Because the co-linear array transducer is capable of both therapy and imaging at widely separated frequencies, RF image frames were acquired during therapeutic insonation and then exported for off-line analysis. For in vivo studies in a mouse model, before temperature estimation, motion correction was applied between a reference RF frame and subsequent RF frames. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments were examined; in the in vitro and in vivo studies, the average temperature error had a standard deviation of 0.7°C and 0.8°C, respectively. The application of motion correction improved the accuracy of temperature estimation, where the error range was −1.9 to 4.5°C without correction compared with −1.1 to 1.0°C following correction. This study demonstrates the feasibility of combining therapy and monitoring using a commercial system. In the future, real-time temperature estimation will be incorporated into this system. PMID:21156363

Sample-Based Motion Planning in High-Dimensional and Differentially-Constrained Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-02-01

Reachable Set . . . 88 6-1 LittleDog Robot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 6-2 Dog bounding up stairs ...planning algorithm implemented on LittleDog, a quadruped robot . The motion planning algorithm successfully planned bounding trajectories over extremely...a motion planning algorithm implemented on LittleDog, a quadruped robot . The motion planning algorithm successfully planned bounding trajectories

Discovering shared segments on the migration route of the bar-headed goose by time-based plane-sweeping trajectory clustering

USGS Publications Warehouse

Luo, Ze; Baoping, Yan; Takekawa, John Y.; Prosser, Diann J.

2012-01-01

We propose a new method to help ornithologists and ecologists discover shared segments on the migratory pathway of the bar-headed geese by time-based plane-sweeping trajectory clustering. We present a density-based time parameterized line segment clustering algorithm, which extends traditional comparable clustering algorithms from temporal and spatial dimensions. We present a time-based plane-sweeping trajectory clustering algorithm to reveal the dynamic evolution of spatial-temporal object clusters and discover common motion patterns of bar-headed geese in the process of migration. Experiments are performed on GPS-based satellite telemetry data from bar-headed geese and results demonstrate our algorithms can correctly discover shared segments of the bar-headed geese migratory pathway. We also present findings on the migratory behavior of bar-headed geese determined from this new analytical approach.

Motion Cueing Algorithm Development: Human-Centered Linear and Nonlinear Approaches

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Houck, Jacob A. (Technical Monitor); Telban, Robert J.; Cardullo, Frank M.

2005-01-01

While the performance of flight simulator motion system hardware has advanced substantially, the development of the motion cueing algorithm, the software that transforms simulated aircraft dynamics into realizable motion commands, has not kept pace. Prior research identified viable features from two algorithms: the nonlinear "adaptive algorithm", and the "optimal algorithm" that incorporates human vestibular models. A novel approach to motion cueing, the "nonlinear algorithm" is introduced that combines features from both approaches. This algorithm is formulated by optimal control, and incorporates a new integrated perception model that includes both visual and vestibular sensation and the interaction between the stimuli. Using a time-varying control law, the matrix Riccati equation is updated in real time by a neurocomputing approach. Preliminary pilot testing resulted in the optimal algorithm incorporating a new otolith model, producing improved motion cues. The nonlinear algorithm vertical mode produced a motion cue with a time-varying washout, sustaining small cues for longer durations and washing out large cues more quickly compared to the optimal algorithm. The inclusion of the integrated perception model improved the responses to longitudinal and lateral cues. False cues observed with the NASA adaptive algorithm were absent. The neurocomputing approach was crucial in that the number of presentations of an input vector could be reduced to meet the real time requirement without degrading the quality of the motion cues.

Error Modelling for Multi-Sensor Measurements in Infrastructure-Free Indoor Navigation

PubMed Central

Ruotsalainen, Laura; Kirkko-Jaakkola, Martti; Rantanen, Jesperi; Mäkelä, Maija

2018-01-01

The long-term objective of our research is to develop a method for infrastructure-free simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) and context recognition for tactical situational awareness. Localization will be realized by propagating motion measurements obtained using a monocular camera, a foot-mounted Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), sonar, and a barometer. Due to the size and weight requirements set by tactical applications, Micro-Electro-Mechanical (MEMS) sensors will be used. However, MEMS sensors suffer from biases and drift errors that may substantially decrease the position accuracy. Therefore, sophisticated error modelling and implementation of integration algorithms are key for providing a viable result. Algorithms used for multi-sensor fusion have traditionally been different versions of Kalman filters. However, Kalman filters are based on the assumptions that the state propagation and measurement models are linear with additive Gaussian noise. Neither of the assumptions is correct for tactical applications, especially for dismounted soldiers, or rescue personnel. Therefore, error modelling and implementation of advanced fusion algorithms are essential for providing a viable result. Our approach is to use particle filtering (PF), which is a sophisticated option for integrating measurements emerging from pedestrian motion having non-Gaussian error characteristics. This paper discusses the statistical modelling of the measurement errors from inertial sensors and vision based heading and translation measurements to include the correct error probability density functions (pdf) in the particle filter implementation. Then, model fitting is used to verify the pdfs of the measurement errors. Based on the deduced error models of the measurements, particle filtering method is developed to fuse all this information, where the weights of each particle are computed based on the specific models derived. The performance of the developed method is tested via two experiments, one at a university’s premises and another in realistic tactical conditions. The results show significant improvement on the horizontal localization when the measurement errors are carefully modelled and their inclusion into the particle filtering implementation correctly realized. PMID:29443918

A motion algorithm to extract physical and motion parameters of mobile targets from cone-beam computed tomographic images.

PubMed

Alsbou, Nesreen; Ahmad, Salahuddin; Ali, Imad

2016-05-17

A motion algorithm has been developed to extract length, CT number level and motion amplitude of a mobile target from cone-beam CT (CBCT) images. The algorithm uses three measurable parameters: Apparent length and blurred CT number distribution of a mobile target obtained from CBCT images to determine length, CT-number value of the stationary target, and motion amplitude. The predictions of this algorithm are tested with mobile targets having different well-known sizes that are made from tissue-equivalent gel which is inserted into a thorax phantom. The phantom moves sinusoidally in one-direction to simulate respiratory motion using eight amplitudes ranging 0-20 mm. Using this motion algorithm, three unknown parameters are extracted that include: Length of the target, CT number level, speed or motion amplitude for the mobile targets from CBCT images. The motion algorithm solves for the three unknown parameters using measured length, CT number level and gradient for a well-defined mobile target obtained from CBCT images. The motion model agrees with the measured lengths which are dependent on the target length and motion amplitude. The gradient of the CT number distribution of the mobile target is dependent on the stationary CT number level, the target length and motion amplitude. Motion frequency and phase do not affect the elongation and CT number distribution of the mobile target and could not be determined. A motion algorithm has been developed to extract three parameters that include length, CT number level and motion amplitude or speed of mobile targets directly from reconstructed CBCT images without prior knowledge of the stationary target parameters. This algorithm provides alternative to 4D-CBCT without requirement of motion tracking and sorting of the images into different breathing phases. The motion model developed here works well for tumors that have simple shapes, high contrast relative to surrounding tissues and move nearly in regular motion pattern that can be approximated with a simple sinusoidal function. This algorithm has potential applications in diagnostic CT imaging and radiotherapy in terms of motion management.

Multi-Stage Target Tracking with Drift Correction and Position Prediction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Xin; Ren, Keyan; Hou, Yibin

2018-04-01

Most existing tracking methods are hard to combine accuracy and performance, and do not consider the shift between clarity and blur that often occurs. In this paper, we propound a multi-stage tracking framework with two particular modules: position prediction and corrective measure. We conduct tracking based on correlation filter with a corrective measure module to increase both performance and accuracy. Specifically, a convolutional network is used for solving the blur problem in realistic scene, training methodology that training dataset with blur images generated by the three blur algorithms. Then, we propose a position prediction module to reduce the computation cost and make tracker more capable of fast motion. Experimental result shows that our tracking method is more robust compared to others and more accurate on the benchmark sequences.

Motion correction for improved estimation of heart rate using a visual spectrum camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tarbox, Elizabeth A.; Rios, Christian; Kaur, Balvinder; Meyer, Shaun; Hirt, Lauren; Tran, Vy; Scott, Kaitlyn; Ikonomidou, Vasiliki

2017-05-01

Heart rate measurement using a visual spectrum recording of the face has drawn interest over the last few years as a technology that can have various health and security applications. In our previous work, we have shown that it is possible to estimate the heart beat timing accurately enough to perform heart rate variability analysis for contactless stress detection. However, a major confounding factor in this approach is the presence of movement, which can interfere with the measurements. To mitigate the effects of movement, in this work we propose the use of face detection and tracking based on the Karhunen-Loewe algorithm in order to counteract measurement errors introduced by normal subject motion, as expected during a common seated conversation setting. We analyze the requirements on image acquisition for the algorithm to work, and its performance under different ranges of motion, changes of distance to the camera, as well and the effect of illumination changes due to different positioning with respect to light sources on the acquired signal. Our results suggest that the effect of face tracking on visual-spectrum based cardiac signal estimation depends on the amplitude of the motion. While for larger-scale conversation-induced motion it can significantly improve estimation accuracy, with smaller-scale movements, such as the ones caused by breathing or talking without major movement errors in facial tracking may interfere with signal estimation. Overall, employing facial tracking is a crucial step in adapting this technology to real-life situations with satisfactory results.

Alternatives to an extended Kalman Filter for target image tracking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leuthauser, P. R.

1981-12-01

Four alternative filters are compared to an extended Kalman filter (EKF) algorithm for tracking a distributed (elliptical) source target in a closed loop tracking problem, using outputs from a forward looking (FLIR) sensor as measurements. These were (1) an EKF with (second order) bias correction term, (2) a constant gain EKF, (3) a constant gain EKF with bias correction term, and (4) a statistically linearized filter. Estimates are made of both actual target motion and of apparent motion due to atmospheric jitter. These alternative designs are considered specifically to address some of the significant biases exhibited by an EKF due to initial acquisition difficulties, unmodelled maneuvering by the target, low signal-to-noise ratio, and real world conditions varying significantly from those assumed in the filter design (robustness). Filter performance was determined with a Monte Carlo study under both ideal and non ideal conditions for tracking targets on a constant velocity cross range path, and during constant acceleration turns of 5G, 10G, and 20G.

Fast adaptive diamond search algorithm for block-matching motion estimation using spatial correlation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Sang-Gon; Jeong, Dong-Seok

2000-12-01

In this paper, we propose a fast adaptive diamond search algorithm (FADS) for block matching motion estimation. Many fast motion estimation algorithms reduce the computational complexity by the UESA (Unimodal Error Surface Assumption) where the matching error monotonically increases as the search moves away from the global minimum point. Recently, many fast BMAs (Block Matching Algorithms) make use of the fact that global minimum points in real world video sequences are centered at the position of zero motion. But these BMAs, especially in large motion, are easily trapped into the local minima and result in poor matching accuracy. So, we propose a new motion estimation algorithm using the spatial correlation among the neighboring blocks. We move the search origin according to the motion vectors of the spatially neighboring blocks and their MAEs (Mean Absolute Errors). The computer simulation shows that the proposed algorithm has almost the same computational complexity with DS (Diamond Search), but enhances PSNR. Moreover, the proposed algorithm gives almost the same PSNR as that of FS (Full Search), even for the large motion with half the computational load.

Nonlinear Motion Cueing Algorithm: Filtering at Pilot Station and Development of the Nonlinear Optimal Filters for Pitch and Roll

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zaychik, Kirill B.; Cardullo, Frank M.

2012-01-01

Telban and Cardullo have developed and successfully implemented the non-linear optimal motion cueing algorithm at the Visual Motion Simulator (VMS) at the NASA Langley Research Center in 2005. The latest version of the non-linear algorithm performed filtering of motion cues in all degrees-of-freedom except for pitch and roll. This manuscript describes the development and implementation of the non-linear optimal motion cueing algorithm for the pitch and roll degrees of freedom. Presented results indicate improved cues in the specified channels as compared to the original design. To further advance motion cueing in general, this manuscript describes modifications to the existing algorithm, which allow for filtering at the location of the pilot's head as opposed to the centroid of the motion platform. The rational for such modification to the cueing algorithms is that the location of the pilot's vestibular system must be taken into account as opposed to the off-set of the centroid of the cockpit relative to the center of rotation alone. Results provided in this report suggest improved performance of the motion cueing algorithm.

Cloud Motion in the GOCI COMS Ocean Colour Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Robinson, Wayne D.; Franz, Bryan A.; Mannino, Antonio; Ahn, Jae-Hyun

2016-01-01

The Geostationary Ocean Colour Imager (GOCI) instrument, on Koreas Communications, Oceans, and Meteorological Satellite (COMS), can produce a spectral artefact arising from the motion of clouds the cloud is spatially shifted and the amount of shift varies by spectral band. The length of time it takes to acquire all eight GOCI bands for a given slot (portion of a scene) is sucient to require that cloud motion be taken into account to fully mask or correct the eects of clouds in all bands. Inter-band correlations can be used to measure the amount of cloud shift, which can then be used to adjust the cloud mask so that the union of all shifted masks can act as a mask for all bands. This approach reduces the amount of masking required versus a simple expansion of the mask in all directions away from clouds. Cloud motion can also aect regions with unidentied clouds thin or fractional clouds that evade the cloud identication process yielding degraded quality in retrieved ocean colour parameters. Areas with moving and unidentied clouds require more elaborate masking algo-rithms to remove these degraded retrievals. Correction for the eects of moving fractional clouds may also be possible. The cloud shift information can be used to determine cloud motion and thus wind at the cloud levels on sub-minute timescales. The benecial and negative eects of moving clouds should be con-sidered for any ocean colour instrument design and associated data processing plans.

Developments in Human Centered Cueing Algorithms for Control of Flight Simulator Motion Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Houck, Jacob A.; Telban, Robert J.; Cardullo, Frank M.

1997-01-01

The authors conducted further research with cueing algorithms for control of flight simulator motion systems. A variation of the so-called optimal algorithm was formulated using simulated aircraft angular velocity input as a basis. Models of the human vestibular sensation system, i.e. the semicircular canals and otoliths, are incorporated within the algorithm. Comparisons of angular velocity cueing responses showed a significant improvement over a formulation using angular acceleration input. Results also compared favorably with the coordinated adaptive washout algorithm, yielding similar results for angular velocity cues while eliminating false cues and reducing the tilt rate for longitudinal cues. These results were confirmed in piloted tests on the current motion system at NASA-Langley, the Visual Motion Simulator (VMS). Proposed future developments by the authors in cueing algorithms are revealed. The new motion system, the Cockpit Motion Facility (CMF), where the final evaluation of the cueing algorithms will be conducted, is also described.

A Fast Robot Identification and Mapping Algorithm Based on Kinect Sensor.

PubMed

Zhang, Liang; Shen, Peiyi; Zhu, Guangming; Wei, Wei; Song, Houbing

2015-08-14

Internet of Things (IoT) is driving innovation in an ever-growing set of application domains such as intelligent processing for autonomous robots. For an autonomous robot, one grand challenge is how to sense its surrounding environment effectively. The Simultaneous Localization and Mapping with RGB-D Kinect camera sensor on robot, called RGB-D SLAM, has been developed for this purpose but some technical challenges must be addressed. Firstly, the efficiency of the algorithm cannot satisfy real-time requirements; secondly, the accuracy of the algorithm is unacceptable. In order to address these challenges, this paper proposes a set of novel improvement methods as follows. Firstly, the ORiented Brief (ORB) method is used in feature detection and descriptor extraction. Secondly, a bidirectional Fast Library for Approximate Nearest Neighbors (FLANN) k-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) algorithm is applied to feature match. Then, the improved RANdom SAmple Consensus (RANSAC) estimation method is adopted in the motion transformation. In the meantime, high precision General Iterative Closest Points (GICP) is utilized to register a point cloud in the motion transformation optimization. To improve the accuracy of SLAM, the reduced dynamic covariance scaling (DCS) algorithm is formulated as a global optimization problem under the G2O framework. The effectiveness of the improved algorithm has been verified by testing on standard data and comparing with the ground truth obtained on Freiburg University's datasets. The Dr Robot X80 equipped with a Kinect camera is also applied in a building corridor to verify the correctness of the improved RGB-D SLAM algorithm. With the above experiments, it can be seen that the proposed algorithm achieves higher processing speed and better accuracy.

Image registration for daylight adaptive optics.

PubMed

Hart, Michael

2018-03-15

Daytime use of adaptive optics (AO) at large telescopes is hampered by shot noise from the bright sky background. Wave-front sensing may use a sodium laser guide star observed through a magneto-optical filter to suppress the background, but the laser beacon is not sensitive to overall image motion. To estimate that, laser-guided AO systems generally rely on light from the object itself, collected through the full aperture of the telescope. Daylight sets a lower limit to the brightness of an object that may be tracked at rates sufficient to overcome the image jitter. Below that limit, wave-front correction on the basis of the laser alone will yield an image that is approximately diffraction limited but that moves randomly. I describe an iterative registration algorithm that recovers high-resolution long-exposure images in this regime from a rapid series of short exposures with very low signal-to-noise ratio. The technique takes advantage of the fact that in the photon noise limit there is negligible penalty in taking short exposures, and also that once the images are recorded, it is not necessary, as in the case of an AO tracker loop, to estimate the image motion correctly and quickly on every cycle. The algorithm is likely to find application in space situational awareness, where high-resolution daytime imaging of artificial satellites is important.

An efficient algorithm for global periodic orbits generation near irregular-shaped asteroids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shang, Haibin; Wu, Xiaoyu; Ren, Yuan; Shan, Jinjun

2017-07-01

Periodic orbits (POs) play an important role in understanding dynamical behaviors around natural celestial bodies. In this study, an efficient algorithm was presented to generate the global POs around irregular-shaped uniformly rotating asteroids. The algorithm was performed in three steps, namely global search, local refinement, and model continuation. First, a mascon model with a low number of particles and optimized mass distribution was constructed to remodel the exterior gravitational potential of the asteroid. Using this model, a multi-start differential evolution enhanced with a deflection strategy with strong global exploration and bypassing abilities was adopted. This algorithm can be regarded as a search engine to find multiple globally optimal regions in which potential POs were located. This was followed by applying a differential correction to locally refine global search solutions and generate the accurate POs in the mascon model in which an analytical Jacobian matrix was derived to improve convergence. Finally, the concept of numerical model continuation was introduced and used to convert the POs from the mascon model into a high-fidelity polyhedron model by sequentially correcting the initial states. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm was substantiated by computing the global POs around an elongated shoe-shaped asteroid 433 Eros. Various global POs with different topological structures in the configuration space were successfully located. Specifically, the proposed algorithm was generic and could be conveniently extended to explore periodic motions in other gravitational systems.

Tangle-Free Mesh Motion for Ablation Simulations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Droba, Justin

2016-01-01

Problems involving mesh motion-which should not be mistakenly associated with moving mesh methods, a class of adaptive mesh redistribution techniques-are of critical importance in numerical simulations of the thermal response of melting and ablative materials. Ablation is the process by which material vaporizes or otherwise erodes due to strong heating. Accurate modeling of such materials is of the utmost importance in design of passive thermal protection systems ("heatshields") for spacecraft, the layer of the vehicle that ensures survival of crew and craft during re-entry. In an explicit mesh motion approach, a complete thermal solve is first performed. Afterwards, the thermal response is used to determine surface recession rates. These values are then used to generate boundary conditions for an a posteriori correction designed to update the location of the mesh nodes. Most often, linear elastic or biharmonic equations are used to model this material response, traditionally in a finite element framework so that complex geometries can be simulated. A simple scheme for moving the boundary nodes involves receding along the surface normals. However, for all but the simplest problem geometries, evolution in time following such a scheme will eventually bring the mesh to intersect and "tangle" with itself, inducing failure. This presentation demonstrates a comprehensive and sophisticated scheme that analyzes the local geometry of each node with help from user-provided clues to eliminate the tangle and enable simulations on a wide-class of difficult problem geometries. The method developed is demonstrated for linear elastic equations but is general enough that it may be adapted to other modeling equations. The presentation will explicate the inner workings of the tangle-free mesh motion algorithm for both two and three-dimensional meshes. It will show abstract examples of the method's success, including a verification problem that demonstrates its accuracy and correctness. The focus of the presentation will be on the algorithm; specifics on how the techniques may be used in spacecraft design will be not discussed.

MR-based motion correction for PET imaging using wired active MR microcoils in simultaneous PET-MR: Phantom study

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

Huang, Chuan; Brady, Thomas J.; El Fakhri, Georges

2014-04-15

Purpose: Artifacts caused by head motion present a major challenge in brain positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. The authors investigated the feasibility of using wired active MR microcoils to track head motion and incorporate the measured rigid motion fields into iterative PET reconstruction. Methods: Several wired active MR microcoils and a dedicated MR coil-tracking sequence were developed. The microcoils were attached to the outer surface of an anthropomorphic{sup 18}F-filled Hoffman phantom to mimic a brain PET scan. Complex rotation/translation motion of the phantom was induced by a balloon, which was connected to a ventilator. PET list-mode and MR tracking datamore » were acquired simultaneously on a PET-MR scanner. The acquired dynamic PET data were reconstructed iteratively with and without motion correction. Additionally, static phantom data were acquired and used as the gold standard. Results: Motion artifacts in PET images were effectively removed by wired active MR microcoil based motion correction. Motion correction yielded an activity concentration bias ranging from −0.6% to 3.4% as compared to a bias ranging from −25.0% to 16.6% if no motion correction was applied. The contrast recovery values were improved by 37%–156% with motion correction as compared to no motion correction. The image correlation (mean ± standard deviation) between the motion corrected (uncorrected) images of 20 independent noise realizations and static reference was R{sup 2} = 0.978 ± 0.007 (0.588 ± 0.010, respectively). Conclusions: Wired active MR microcoil based motion correction significantly improves brain PET quantitative accuracy and image contrast.« less

MR-based motion correction for PET imaging using wired active MR microcoils in simultaneous PET-MR: Phantom study1

PubMed Central

Huang, Chuan; Ackerman, Jerome L.; Petibon, Yoann; Brady, Thomas J.; El Fakhri, Georges; Ouyang, Jinsong

2014-01-01

Purpose: Artifacts caused by head motion present a major challenge in brain positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. The authors investigated the feasibility of using wired active MR microcoils to track head motion and incorporate the measured rigid motion fields into iterative PET reconstruction. Methods: Several wired active MR microcoils and a dedicated MR coil-tracking sequence were developed. The microcoils were attached to the outer surface of an anthropomorphic 18F-filled Hoffman phantom to mimic a brain PET scan. Complex rotation/translation motion of the phantom was induced by a balloon, which was connected to a ventilator. PET list-mode and MR tracking data were acquired simultaneously on a PET-MR scanner. The acquired dynamic PET data were reconstructed iteratively with and without motion correction. Additionally, static phantom data were acquired and used as the gold standard. Results: Motion artifacts in PET images were effectively removed by wired active MR microcoil based motion correction. Motion correction yielded an activity concentration bias ranging from −0.6% to 3.4% as compared to a bias ranging from −25.0% to 16.6% if no motion correction was applied. The contrast recovery values were improved by 37%–156% with motion correction as compared to no motion correction. The image correlation (mean ± standard deviation) between the motion corrected (uncorrected) images of 20 independent noise realizations and static reference was R2 = 0.978 ± 0.007 (0.588 ± 0.010, respectively). Conclusions: Wired active MR microcoil based motion correction significantly improves brain PET quantitative accuracy and image contrast. PMID:24694141

Quantum Error Correction Protects Quantum Search Algorithms Against Decoherence

PubMed Central

Botsinis, Panagiotis; Babar, Zunaira; Alanis, Dimitrios; Chandra, Daryus; Nguyen, Hung; Ng, Soon Xin; Hanzo, Lajos

2016-01-01

When quantum computing becomes a wide-spread commercial reality, Quantum Search Algorithms (QSA) and especially Grover’s QSA will inevitably be one of their main applications, constituting their cornerstone. Most of the literature assumes that the quantum circuits are free from decoherence. Practically, decoherence will remain unavoidable as is the Gaussian noise of classic circuits imposed by the Brownian motion of electrons, hence it may have to be mitigated. In this contribution, we investigate the effect of quantum noise on the performance of QSAs, in terms of their success probability as a function of the database size to be searched, when decoherence is modelled by depolarizing channels’ deleterious effects imposed on the quantum gates. Moreover, we employ quantum error correction codes for limiting the effects of quantum noise and for correcting quantum flips. More specifically, we demonstrate that, when we search for a single solution in a database having 4096 entries using Grover’s QSA at an aggressive depolarizing probability of 10−3, the success probability of the search is 0.22 when no quantum coding is used, which is improved to 0.96 when Steane’s quantum error correction code is employed. Finally, apart from Steane’s code, the employment of Quantum Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (QBCH) codes is also considered. PMID:27924865

The GPU implementation of micro - Doppler period estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Liyuan; Wang, Junling; Bi, Ran

2018-03-01

Aiming at the problem that the computational complexity and the deficiency of real-time of the wideband radar echo signal, a program is designed to improve the performance of real-time extraction of micro-motion feature in this paper based on the CPU-GPU heterogeneous parallel structure. Firstly, we discuss the principle of the micro-Doppler effect generated by the rolling of the scattering points on the orbiting satellite, analyses how to use Kalman filter to compensate the translational motion of tumbling satellite and how to use the joint time-frequency analysis and inverse Radon transform to extract the micro-motion features from the echo after compensation. Secondly, the advantages of GPU in terms of real-time processing and the working principle of CPU-GPU heterogeneous parallelism are analysed, and a program flow based on GPU to extract the micro-motion feature from the radar echo signal of rolling satellite is designed. At the end of the article the results of extraction are given to verify the correctness of the program and algorithm.

Algorithm for Simulating Atmospheric Turbulence and Aeroelastic Effects on Simulator Motion Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ercole, Anthony V.; Cardullo, Frank M.; Kelly, Lon C.; Houck, Jacob A.

2012-01-01

Atmospheric turbulence produces high frequency accelerations in aircraft, typically greater than the response to pilot input. Motion system equipped flight simulators must present cues representative of the aircraft response to turbulence in order to maintain the integrity of the simulation. Currently, turbulence motion cueing produced by flight simulator motion systems has been less than satisfactory because the turbulence profiles have been attenuated by the motion cueing algorithms. This report presents a new turbulence motion cueing algorithm, referred to as the augmented turbulence channel. Like the previous turbulence algorithms, the output of the channel only augments the vertical degree of freedom of motion. This algorithm employs a parallel aircraft model and an optional high bandwidth cueing filter. Simulation of aeroelastic effects is also an area where frequency content must be preserved by the cueing algorithm. The current aeroelastic implementation uses a similar secondary channel that supplements the primary motion cue. Two studies were conducted using the NASA Langley Visual Motion Simulator and Cockpit Motion Facility to evaluate the effect of the turbulence channel and aeroelastic model on pilot control input. Results indicate that the pilot is better correlated with the aircraft response, when the augmented channel is in place.

Nonrigid registration-based coronary artery motion correction for cardiac computed tomography

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

Bhagalia, Roshni; Pack, Jed D.; Miller, James V.

2012-07-15

Purpose: X-ray computed tomography angiography (CTA) is the modality of choice to noninvasively monitor and diagnose heart disease with coronary artery health and stenosis detection being of particular interest. Reliable, clinically relevant coronary artery imaging mandates high spatiotemporal resolution. However, advances in intrinsic scanner spatial resolution (CT scanners are available which combine nearly 900 detector columns with focal spot oversampling) can be tempered by motion blurring, particularly in patients with unstable heartbeats. As a result, recently numerous methods have been devised to improve coronary CTA imaging. Solutions involving hardware, multisector algorithms, or {beta}-blockers are limited by cost, oversimplifying assumptions aboutmore » cardiac motion, and populations showing contraindications to drugs, respectively. This work introduces an inexpensive algorithmic solution that retrospectively improves the temporal resolution of coronary CTA without significantly affecting spatial resolution. Methods: Given the goal of ruling out coronary stenosis, the method focuses on 'deblurring' the coronary arteries. The approach makes no assumptions about cardiac motion, can be used on exams acquired at high heart rates (even over 75 beats/min), and draws on a fast and accurate three-dimensional (3D) nonrigid bidirectional labeled point matching approach to estimate the trajectories of the coronary arteries during image acquisition. Motion compensation is achieved by employing a 3D warping of a series of partial reconstructions based on the estimated motion fields. Each of these partial reconstructions is created from data acquired over a short time interval. For brevity, the algorithm 'Subphasic Warp and Add' (SWA) reconstruction. Results: The performance of the new motion estimation-compensation approach was evaluated by a systematic observer study conducted using nine human cardiac CTA exams acquired over a range of average heart rates between 68 and 86 beats/min. Algorithm performance was based-lined against exams reconstructed using standard filtered-backprojection (FBP). The study was performed by three experienced reviewers using the American Heart Association's 15-segment model. All vessel segments were evaluated to quantify their viability to allow a clinical diagnosis before and after motion estimation-compensation using SWA. To the best of the authors' knowledge this is the first such observer study to show that an image processing-based software approach can improve the clinical diagnostic value of CTA for coronary artery evaluation. Conclusions: Results from the observer study show that the SWA method described here can dramatically reduce coronary artery motion and preserve real pathology, without affecting spatial resolution. In particular, the method successfully mitigated motion artifacts in 75% of all initially nondiagnostic coronary artery segments, and in over 45% of the cases this improvement was enough to make a previously nondiagnostic vessel segment clinically diagnostic.« less

Adaptive mesh optimization and nonrigid motion recovery based image registration for wide-field-of-view ultrasound imaging.

PubMed

Tan, Chaowei; Wang, Bo; Liu, Paul; Liu, Dong

2008-01-01

Wide field of view (WFOV) imaging mode obtains an ultrasound image over an area much larger than the real time window normally available. As the probe is moved over the region of interest, new image frames are combined with prior frames to form a panorama image. Image registration techniques are used to recover the probe motion, eliminating the need for a position sensor. Speckle patterns, which are inherent in ultrasound imaging, change, or become decorrelated, as the scan plane moves, so we pre-smooth the image to reduce the effects of speckle in registration, as well as reducing effects from thermal noise. Because we wish to track the movement of features such as structural boundaries, we use an adaptive mesh over the entire smoothed image to home in on areas with feature. Motion estimation using blocks centered at the individual mesh nodes generates a field of motion vectors. After angular correction of motion vectors, we model the overall movement between frames as a nonrigid deformation. The polygon filling algorithm for precise, persistence-based spatial compounding constructs the final speckle reduced WFOV image.

A system for learning statistical motion patterns.

PubMed

Hu, Weiming; Xiao, Xuejuan; Fu, Zhouyu; Xie, Dan; Tan, Tieniu; Maybank, Steve

2006-09-01

Analysis of motion patterns is an effective approach for anomaly detection and behavior prediction. Current approaches for the analysis of motion patterns depend on known scenes, where objects move in predefined ways. It is highly desirable to automatically construct object motion patterns which reflect the knowledge of the scene. In this paper, we present a system for automatically learning motion patterns for anomaly detection and behavior prediction based on a proposed algorithm for robustly tracking multiple objects. In the tracking algorithm, foreground pixels are clustered using a fast accurate fuzzy K-means algorithm. Growing and prediction of the cluster centroids of foreground pixels ensure that each cluster centroid is associated with a moving object in the scene. In the algorithm for learning motion patterns, trajectories are clustered hierarchically using spatial and temporal information and then each motion pattern is represented with a chain of Gaussian distributions. Based on the learned statistical motion patterns, statistical methods are used to detect anomalies and predict behaviors. Our system is tested using image sequences acquired, respectively, from a crowded real traffic scene and a model traffic scene. Experimental results show the robustness of the tracking algorithm, the efficiency of the algorithm for learning motion patterns, and the encouraging performance of algorithms for anomaly detection and behavior prediction.

Simultaneous glacier surface elevation and flow velocity mapping from cross-track pushbroom satellite Imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noh, M. J.; Howat, I. M.

2017-12-01

Glaciers and ice sheets are changing rapidly. Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and Velocity Maps (VMs) obtained from repeat satellite imagery provide critical measurements of changes in glacier dynamics and mass balance over large, remote areas. DEMs created from stereopairs obtained during the same satellite pass through sensor re-pointing (i.e. "in-track stereo") have been most commonly used. In-track stereo has the advantage of minimizing the time separation and, thus, surface motion between image acquisitions, so that the ice surface can be assumed motionless in when collocating pixels between image pairs. Since the DEM extraction process assumes that all motion between collocated pixels is due to parallax or sensor model error, significant ice motion results in DEM quality loss or failure. In-track stereo, however, puts a greater demand on satellite tasking resources and, therefore, is much less abundant than single-scan imagery. Thus, if ice surface motion can be mitigated, the ability to extract surface elevation measurements from pairs of repeat single-scan "cross-track" imagery would greatly increase the extent and temporal resolution of ice surface change. Additionally, the ice motion measured by the DEM extraction process would itself provide a useful velocity measurement. We develop a novel algorithm for generating high-quality DEMs and VMs from cross-track image pairs without any prior information using the Surface Extraction from TIN-based Searchspace Minimization (SETSM) algorithm and its sensor model bias correction capabilities. Using a test suite of repeat, single-scan imagery from WorldView and QuickBird sensors collected over fast-moving outlet glaciers, we develop a method by which RPC biases between images are first calculated and removed over ice-free surfaces. Subpixel displacements over the ice are then constrained and used to correct the parallax estimate. Initial tests yield DEM results with the same quality as in-track stereo for cases where snowfall has not occurred between the two images and when the images have similar ground sample distances. The resulting velocity map also closely matches independent measurements.

Dance-the-Music: an educational platform for the modeling, recognition and audiovisual monitoring of dance steps using spatiotemporal motion templates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maes, Pieter-Jan; Amelynck, Denis; Leman, Marc

2012-12-01

In this article, a computational platform is presented, entitled "Dance-the-Music", that can be used in a dance educational context to explore and learn the basics of dance steps. By introducing a method based on spatiotemporal motion templates, the platform facilitates to train basic step models from sequentially repeated dance figures performed by a dance teacher. Movements are captured with an optical motion capture system. The teachers' models can be visualized from a first-person perspective to instruct students how to perform the specific dance steps in the correct manner. Moreover, recognition algorithms-based on a template matching method-can determine the quality of a student's performance in real time by means of multimodal monitoring techniques. The results of an evaluation study suggest that the Dance-the-Music is effective in helping dance students to master the basics of dance figures.

Monte Carlo simulation of PET/MR scanner and assessment of motion correction strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Işın, A.; Uzun Ozsahin, D.; Dutta, J.; Haddani, S.; El-Fakhri, G.

2017-03-01

Positron Emission Tomography is widely used in three dimensional imaging of metabolic body function and in tumor detection. Important research efforts are made to improve this imaging modality and powerful simulators such as GATE are used to test and develop methods for this purpose. PET requires acquisition time in the order of few minutes. Therefore, because of the natural patient movements such as respiration, the image quality can be adversely affected which drives scientists to develop motion compensation methods to improve the image quality. The goal of this study is to evaluate various image reconstructions methods with GATE simulation of a PET acquisition of the torso area. Obtained results show the need to compensate natural respiratory movements in order to obtain an image with similar quality as the reference image. Improvements are still possible in the applied motion field's extraction algorithms. Finally a statistical analysis should confirm the obtained results.

An Individual Finger Gesture Recognition System Based on Motion-Intent Analysis Using Mechanomyogram Signal

PubMed Central

Ding, Huijun; He, Qing; Zhou, Yongjin; Dan, Guo; Cui, Song

2017-01-01

Motion-intent-based finger gesture recognition systems are crucial for many applications such as prosthesis control, sign language recognition, wearable rehabilitation system, and human–computer interaction. In this article, a motion-intent-based finger gesture recognition system is designed to correctly identify the tapping of every finger for the first time. Two auto-event annotation algorithms are firstly applied and evaluated for detecting the finger tapping frame. Based on the truncated signals, the Wavelet packet transform (WPT) coefficients are calculated and compressed as the features, followed by a feature selection method that is able to improve the performance by optimizing the feature set. Finally, three popular classifiers including naive Bayes (NBC), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), and support vector machine (SVM) are applied and evaluated. The recognition accuracy can be achieved up to 94%. The design and the architecture of the system are presented with full system characterization results. PMID:29167655

Motion Cueing Algorithm Development: Initial Investigation and Redesign of the Algorithms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Telban, Robert J.; Wu, Weimin; Cardullo, Frank M.; Houck, Jacob A. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

In this project four motion cueing algorithms were initially investigated. The classical algorithm generated results with large distortion and delay and low magnitude. The NASA adaptive algorithm proved to be well tuned with satisfactory performance, while the UTIAS adaptive algorithm produced less desirable results. Modifications were made to the adaptive algorithms to reduce the magnitude of undesirable spikes. The optimal algorithm was found to have the potential for improved performance with further redesign. The center of simulator rotation was redefined. More terms were added to the cost function to enable more tuning flexibility. A new design approach using a Fortran/Matlab/Simulink setup was employed. A new semicircular canals model was incorporated in the algorithm. With these changes results show the optimal algorithm has some advantages over the NASA adaptive algorithm. Two general problems observed in the initial investigation required solutions. A nonlinear gain algorithm was developed that scales the aircraft inputs by a third-order polynomial, maximizing the motion cues while remaining within the operational limits of the motion system. A braking algorithm was developed to bring the simulator to a full stop at its motion limit and later release the brake to follow the cueing algorithm output.

New human-centered linear and nonlinear motion cueing algorithms for control of simulator motion systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Telban, Robert J.

While the performance of flight simulator motion system hardware has advanced substantially, the development of the motion cueing algorithm, the software that transforms simulated aircraft dynamics into realizable motion commands, has not kept pace. To address this, new human-centered motion cueing algorithms were developed. A revised "optimal algorithm" uses time-invariant filters developed by optimal control, incorporating human vestibular system models. The "nonlinear algorithm" is a novel approach that is also formulated by optimal control, but can also be updated in real time. It incorporates a new integrated visual-vestibular perception model that includes both visual and vestibular sensation and the interaction between the stimuli. A time-varying control law requires the matrix Riccati equation to be solved in real time by a neurocomputing approach. Preliminary pilot testing resulted in the optimal algorithm incorporating a new otolith model, producing improved motion cues. The nonlinear algorithm vertical mode produced a motion cue with a time-varying washout, sustaining small cues for longer durations and washing out large cues more quickly compared to the optimal algorithm. The inclusion of the integrated perception model improved the responses to longitudinal and lateral cues. False cues observed with the NASA adaptive algorithm were absent. As a result of unsatisfactory sensation, an augmented turbulence cue was added to the vertical mode for both the optimal and nonlinear algorithms. The relative effectiveness of the algorithms, in simulating aircraft maneuvers, was assessed with an eleven-subject piloted performance test conducted on the NASA Langley Visual Motion Simulator (VMS). Two methods, the quasi-objective NASA Task Load Index (TLX), and power spectral density analysis of pilot control, were used to assess pilot workload. TLX analysis reveals, in most cases, less workload and variation among pilots with the nonlinear algorithm. Control input analysis shows pilot-induced oscillations on a straight-in approach are less prevalent compared to the optimal algorithm. The augmented turbulence cues increased workload on an offset approach that the pilots deemed more realistic compared to the NASA adaptive algorithm. The takeoff with engine failure showed the least roll activity for the nonlinear algorithm, with the least rudder pedal activity for the optimal algorithm.

A framework for the correction of slow physiological drifts during MR-guided HIFU therapies: Proof of concept.

PubMed

Zachiu, Cornel; Denis de Senneville, Baudouin; Moonen, Chrit; Ries, Mario

2015-07-01

While respiratory motion compensation for magnetic resonance (MR)-guided high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) interventions has been extensively studied, the influence of slow physiological motion due to, for example, peristaltic activity, has so far been largely neglected. During lengthy interventions, the magnitude of the latter can exceed acceptable therapeutic margins. The goal of the present study is to exploit the episodic workflow of these therapies to implement a motion correction strategy for slow varying drifts of the target area and organs at risk over the entire duration of the intervention. The therapeutic workflow of a MR-guided HIFU intervention is in practice often episodic: Bursts of energy delivery are interleaved with periods of inactivity, allowing the effects of the beam on healthy tissues to recede and/or during which the plan of the intervention is reoptimized. These periods usually last for at least several minutes. It is at this time scale that organ drifts due to slow physiological motion become significant. In order to capture these drifts, the authors propose the integration of 3D MR scans in the therapy workflow during the inactivity intervals. Displacements were estimated using an optical flow algorithm applied on the 3D acquired images. A preliminary study was conducted on ten healthy volunteers. For each volunteer, 3D MR images of the abdomen were acquired at regular intervals of 10 min over a total duration of 80 min. Motion analysis was restricted to the liver and kidneys. For validating the compatibility of the proposed motion correction strategy with the workflow of a MR-guided HIFU therapy, an in vivo experiment on a porcine liver was conducted. A volumetric HIFU ablation was completed over a time span of 2 h. A 3D image was acquired before the first sonication, as well as after each sonication. Following the volunteer study, drifts larger than 8 mm for the liver and 5 mm for the kidneys prove that slow physiological motion can exceed acceptable therapeutic margins. In the animal experiment, motion tracking revealed an initial shift of up to 4 mm during the first 10 min and a subsequent continuous shift of ∼2 mm/h until the end of the intervention. This leads to a continuously increasing mismatch of the initial shot planning, the thermal dose measurements, and the true underlying anatomy. The estimated displacements allowed correcting the planned sonication cell cluster positions to the true target position, as well as the thermal dose estimates during the entire intervention and to correct the nonperfused volume measurement. A spatial coherence of all three is particularly important to assure a confluent ablation volume and to prevent remaining islets of viable malignant tissue. This study proposes a motion correction strategy for displacements resulting from slowly varying physiological motion that might occur during a MR-guided HIFU intervention. The authors have shown that such drifts can lead to a misalignment between interventional planning, energy delivery, and therapeutic validation. The presented volunteer study and in vivo experiment demonstrate both the relevance of the problem for HIFU therapies and the compatibility of the proposed motion compensation framework with the workflow of a HIFU intervention under clinical conditions.

A framework for the correction of slow physiological drifts during MR-guided HIFU therapies: Proof of concept

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

Zachiu, Cornel, E-mail: C.Zachiu@umcutrecht.nl; Moonen, Chrit; Ries, Mario

Purpose: While respiratory motion compensation for magnetic resonance (MR)-guided high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) interventions has been extensively studied, the influence of slow physiological motion due to, for example, peristaltic activity, has so far been largely neglected. During lengthy interventions, the magnitude of the latter can exceed acceptable therapeutic margins. The goal of the present study is to exploit the episodic workflow of these therapies to implement a motion correction strategy for slow varying drifts of the target area and organs at risk over the entire duration of the intervention. Methods: The therapeutic workflow of a MR-guided HIFU intervention ismore » in practice often episodic: Bursts of energy delivery are interleaved with periods of inactivity, allowing the effects of the beam on healthy tissues to recede and/or during which the plan of the intervention is reoptimized. These periods usually last for at least several minutes. It is at this time scale that organ drifts due to slow physiological motion become significant. In order to capture these drifts, the authors propose the integration of 3D MR scans in the therapy workflow during the inactivity intervals. Displacements were estimated using an optical flow algorithm applied on the 3D acquired images. A preliminary study was conducted on ten healthy volunteers. For each volunteer, 3D MR images of the abdomen were acquired at regular intervals of 10 min over a total duration of 80 min. Motion analysis was restricted to the liver and kidneys. For validating the compatibility of the proposed motion correction strategy with the workflow of a MR-guided HIFU therapy, an in vivo experiment on a porcine liver was conducted. A volumetric HIFU ablation was completed over a time span of 2 h. A 3D image was acquired before the first sonication, as well as after each sonication. Results: Following the volunteer study, drifts larger than 8 mm for the liver and 5 mm for the kidneys prove that slow physiological motion can exceed acceptable therapeutic margins. In the animal experiment, motion tracking revealed an initial shift of up to 4 mm during the first 10 min and a subsequent continuous shift of ∼2 mm/h until the end of the intervention. This leads to a continuously increasing mismatch of the initial shot planning, the thermal dose measurements, and the true underlying anatomy. The estimated displacements allowed correcting the planned sonication cell cluster positions to the true target position, as well as the thermal dose estimates during the entire intervention and to correct the nonperfused volume measurement. A spatial coherence of all three is particularly important to assure a confluent ablation volume and to prevent remaining islets of viable malignant tissue. Conclusions: This study proposes a motion correction strategy for displacements resulting from slowly varying physiological motion that might occur during a MR-guided HIFU intervention. The authors have shown that such drifts can lead to a misalignment between interventional planning, energy delivery, and therapeutic validation. The presented volunteer study and in vivo experiment demonstrate both the relevance of the problem for HIFU therapies and the compatibility of the proposed motion compensation framework with the workflow of a HIFU intervention under clinical conditions.« less

Towards automated assistance for operating home medical devices.

PubMed

Gao, Zan; Detyniecki, Marcin; Chen, Ming-Yu; Wu, Wen; Hauptmann, Alexander G; Wactlar, Howard D

2010-01-01

To detect errors when subjects operate a home medical device, we observe them with multiple cameras. We then perform action recognition with a robust approach to recognize action information based on explicitly encoding motion information. This algorithm detects interest points and encodes not only their local appearance but also explicitly models local motion. Our goal is to recognize individual human actions in the operations of a home medical device to see if the patient has correctly performed the required actions in the prescribed sequence. Using a specific infusion pump as a test case, requiring 22 operation steps from 6 action classes, our best classifier selects high likelihood action estimates from 4 available cameras, to obtain an average class recognition rate of 69%.

Quantitative Evaluation of PET Respiratory Motion Correction Using MR Derived Simulated Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Polycarpou, Irene; Tsoumpas, Charalampos; King, Andrew P.; Marsden, Paul K.

2015-12-01

The impact of respiratory motion correction on quantitative accuracy in PET imaging is evaluated using simulations for variable patient specific characteristics such as tumor uptake and respiratory pattern. Respiratory patterns from real patients were acquired, with long quiescent motion periods (type-1) as commonly observed in most patients and with long-term amplitude variability as is expected under conditions of difficult breathing (type-2). The respiratory patterns were combined with an MR-derived motion model to simulate real-time 4-D PET-MR datasets. Lung and liver tumors were simulated with diameters of 10 and 12 mm and tumor-to-background ratio ranging from 3:1 to 6:1. Projection data for 6- and 3-mm PET resolution were generated for the Philips Gemini scanner and reconstructed without and with motion correction using OSEM (2 iterations, 23 subsets). Motion correction was incorporated into the reconstruction process based on MR-derived motion fields. Tumor peak standardized uptake values (SUVpeak) were calculated from 30 noise realizations. Respiratory motion correction improves the quantitative performance with the greatest benefit observed for patients of breathing type-2. For breathing type-1 after applying motion correction, SUVpeak of 12-mm liver tumor with 6:1 contrast was increased by 46% for a current PET resolution (i.e., 6 mm) and by 47% for a higher PET resolution (i.e., 3 mm). Furthermore, the results of this study indicate that the benefit of higher scanner resolution is small unless motion correction is applied. In particular, for large liver tumor (12 mm) with low contrast (3:1) after motion correction, the SUVpeak was increased by 34% for 6-mm resolution and by 50% for a higher PET resolution (i.e., 3-mm resolution. This investigation indicates that there is a high impact of respiratory motion correction on tumor quantitative accuracy and that motion correction is important in order to benefit from the increased resolution of future PET scanners.

Learning receptor positions from imperfectly known motions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ahumada, Albert J., Jr.; Mulligan, Jeffrey B.

1990-01-01

An algorithm is described for learning image interpolation functions for sensor arrays whose sensor positions are somewhat disordered. The learning is based on failures of translation invariance, so it does not require knowledge of the images being presented to the visual system. Previously reported implementations of the method assumed the visual system to have precise knowledge of the translations. It is demonstrated that translation estimates computed from the imperfectly interpolated images can have enough accuracy to allow the learning process to converge to a correct interpolation.

Sea ice motion from low-resolution satellite sensors: An alternative method and its validation in the Arctic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lavergne, T.; Eastwood, S.; Teffah, Z.; Schyberg, H.; Breivik, L.-A.

2010-10-01

The retrieval of sea ice motion with the Maximum Cross-Correlation (MCC) method from low-resolution (10-15 km) spaceborne imaging sensors is challenged by a dominating quantization noise as the time span of displacement vectors is shortened. To allow investigating shorter displacements from these instruments, we introduce an alternative sea ice motion tracking algorithm that builds on the MCC method but relies on a continuous optimization step for computing the motion vector. The prime effect of this method is to effectively dampen the quantization noise, an artifact of the MCC. It allows for retrieving spatially smooth 48 h sea ice motion vector fields in the Arctic. Strategies to detect and correct erroneous vectors as well as to optimally merge several polarization channels of a given instrument are also described. A test processing chain is implemented and run with several active and passive microwave imagers (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E), Special Sensor Microwave Imager, and Advanced Scatterometer) during three Arctic autumn, winter, and spring seasons. Ice motion vectors are collocated to and compared with GPS positions of in situ drifters. Error statistics are shown to be ranging from 2.5 to 4.5 km (standard deviation for components of the vectors) depending on the sensor, without significant bias. We discuss the relative contribution of measurement and representativeness errors by analyzing monthly validation statistics. The 37 GHz channels of the AMSR-E instrument allow for the best validation statistics. The operational low-resolution sea ice drift product of the EUMETSAT OSI SAF (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility) is based on the algorithms presented in this paper.

Rigid-body motion correction of the liver in image reconstruction for golden-angle stack-of-stars DCE MRI.

PubMed

Johansson, Adam; Balter, James; Cao, Yue

2018-03-01

Respiratory motion can affect pharmacokinetic perfusion parameters quantified from liver dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI. Image registration can be used to align dynamic images after reconstruction. However, intra-image motion blur remains after alignment and can alter the shape of contrast-agent uptake curves. We introduce a method to correct for inter- and intra-image motion during image reconstruction. Sixteen liver dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI examinations of nine subjects were performed using a golden-angle stack-of-stars sequence. For each examination, an image time series with high temporal resolution but severe streak artifacts was reconstructed. Images were aligned using region-limited rigid image registration within a region of interest covering the liver. The transformations resulting from alignment were used to correct raw data for motion by modulating and rotating acquired lines in k-space. The corrected data were then reconstructed using view sharing. Portal-venous input functions extracted from motion-corrected images had significantly greater peak signal enhancements (mean increase: 16%, t-test, P <  0.001) than those from images aligned using image registration after reconstruction. In addition, portal-venous perfusion maps estimated from motion-corrected images showed fewer artifacts close to the edge of the liver. Motion-corrected image reconstruction restores uptake curves distorted by motion. Motion correction also reduces motion artifacts in estimated perfusion parameter maps. Magn Reson Med 79:1345-1353, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

SU-E-J-150: Four-Dimensional Cone-Beam CT Algorithm by Extraction of Physical and Motion Parameter of Mobile Targets Retrospective to Image Reconstruction with Motion Modeling

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

Ali, I; Ahmad, S; Alsbou, N

Purpose: To develop 4D-cone-beam CT (CBCT) algorithm by motion modeling that extracts actual length, CT numbers level and motion amplitude of a mobile target retrospective to image reconstruction by motion modeling. Methods: The algorithm used three measurable parameters: apparent length and blurred CT number distribution of a mobile target obtained from CBCT images to determine actual length, CT-number value of the stationary target, and motion amplitude. The predictions of this algorithm were tested with mobile targets that with different well-known sizes made from tissue-equivalent gel which was inserted into a thorax phantom. The phantom moved sinusoidally in one-direction to simulatemore » respiratory motion using eight amplitudes ranging 0–20mm. Results: Using this 4D-CBCT algorithm, three unknown parameters were extracted that include: length of the target, CT number level, speed or motion amplitude for the mobile targets retrospective to image reconstruction. The motion algorithms solved for the three unknown parameters using measurable apparent length, CT number level and gradient for a well-defined mobile target obtained from CBCT images. The motion model agreed with measured apparent lengths which were dependent on the actual target length and motion amplitude. The gradient of the CT number distribution of the mobile target is dependent on the stationary CT number level, actual target length and motion amplitude. Motion frequency and phase did not affect the elongation and CT number distribution of the mobile target and could not be determined. Conclusion: A 4D-CBCT motion algorithm was developed to extract three parameters that include actual length, CT number level and motion amplitude or speed of mobile targets directly from reconstructed CBCT images without prior knowledge of the stationary target parameters. This algorithm provides alternative to 4D-CBCT without requirement to motion tracking and sorting of the images into different breathing phases which has potential applications in diagnostic CT imaging and radiotherapy.« less

Magnetic Resonance-based Motion Correction for Quantitative PET in Simultaneous PET-MR Imaging.

PubMed

Rakvongthai, Yothin; El Fakhri, Georges

2017-07-01

Motion degrades image quality and quantitation of PET images, and is an obstacle to quantitative PET imaging. Simultaneous PET-MR offers a tool that can be used for correcting the motion in PET images by using anatomic information from MR imaging acquired concurrently. Motion correction can be performed by transforming a set of reconstructed PET images into the same frame or by incorporating the transformation into the system model and reconstructing the motion-corrected image. Several phantom and patient studies have validated that MR-based motion correction strategies have great promise for quantitative PET imaging in simultaneous PET-MR. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Analytic image reconstruction from partial data for a single-scan cone-beam CT with scatter correction

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

Min, Jonghwan; Pua, Rizza; Cho, Seungryong, E-mail: scho@kaist.ac.kr

Purpose: A beam-blocker composed of multiple strips is a useful gadget for scatter correction and/or for dose reduction in cone-beam CT (CBCT). However, the use of such a beam-blocker would yield cone-beam data that can be challenging for accurate image reconstruction from a single scan in the filtered-backprojection framework. The focus of the work was to develop an analytic image reconstruction method for CBCT that can be directly applied to partially blocked cone-beam data in conjunction with the scatter correction. Methods: The authors developed a rebinned backprojection-filteration (BPF) algorithm for reconstructing images from the partially blocked cone-beam data in amore » circular scan. The authors also proposed a beam-blocking geometry considering data redundancy such that an efficient scatter estimate can be acquired and sufficient data for BPF image reconstruction can be secured at the same time from a single scan without using any blocker motion. Additionally, scatter correction method and noise reduction scheme have been developed. The authors have performed both simulation and experimental studies to validate the rebinned BPF algorithm for image reconstruction from partially blocked cone-beam data. Quantitative evaluations of the reconstructed image quality were performed in the experimental studies. Results: The simulation study revealed that the developed reconstruction algorithm successfully reconstructs the images from the partial cone-beam data. In the experimental study, the proposed method effectively corrected for the scatter in each projection and reconstructed scatter-corrected images from a single scan. Reduction of cupping artifacts and an enhancement of the image contrast have been demonstrated. The image contrast has increased by a factor of about 2, and the image accuracy in terms of root-mean-square-error with respect to the fan-beam CT image has increased by more than 30%. Conclusions: The authors have successfully demonstrated that the proposed scanning method and image reconstruction algorithm can effectively estimate the scatter in cone-beam projections and produce tomographic images of nearly scatter-free quality. The authors believe that the proposed method would provide a fast and efficient CBCT scanning option to various applications particularly including head-and-neck scan.« less

Diaphragm motion quantification in megavoltage cone-beam CT projection images.

PubMed

Chen, Mingqing; Siochi, R Alfredo

2010-05-01

To quantify diaphragm motion in megavoltage (MV) cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) projections. User identified ipsilateral hemidiaphragm apex (IHDA) positions in two full exhale and inhale frames were used to create bounding rectangles in all other frames of a CBCT scan. The bounding rectangle was enlarged to create a region of interest (ROI). ROI pixels were associated with a cost function: The product of image gradients and a gradient direction matching function for an ideal hemidiaphragm determined from 40 training sets. A dynamic Hough transform (DHT) models a hemidiaphragm as a contour made of two parabola segments with a common vertex (the IHDA). The images within the ROIs are transformed into Hough space where a contour's Hough value is the sum of the cost function over all contour pixels. Dynamic programming finds the optimal trajectory of the common vertex in Hough space subject to motion constraints between frames, and an active contour model further refines the result. Interpolated ray tracing converts the positions to room coordinates. Root-mean-square (RMS) distances between these positions and those resulting from an expert's identification of the IHDA were determined for 21 Siemens MV CBCT scans. Computation time on a 2.66 GHz CPU was 30 s. The average craniocaudal RMS error was 1.38 +/- 0.67 mm. While much larger errors occurred in a few near-sagittal frames on one patient's scans, adjustments to algorithm constraints corrected them. The DHT based algorithm can compute IHDA trajectories immediately prior to radiation therapy on a daily basis using localization MVCBCT projection data. This has potential for calibrating external motion surrogates against diaphragm motion.

SU-C-BRA-07: Variability of Patient-Specific Motion Models Derived Using Different Deformable Image Registration Algorithms for Lung Cancer Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT) Patients

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

Dhou, S; Williams, C; Ionascu, D

2016-06-15

Purpose: To study the variability of patient-specific motion models derived from 4-dimensional CT (4DCT) images using different deformable image registration (DIR) algorithms for lung cancer stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) patients. Methods: Motion models are derived by 1) applying DIR between each 4DCT image and a reference image, resulting in a set of displacement vector fields (DVFs), and 2) performing principal component analysis (PCA) on the DVFs, resulting in a motion model (a set of eigenvectors capturing the variations in the DVFs). Three DIR algorithms were used: 1) Demons, 2) Horn-Schunck, and 3) iterative optical flow. The motion models derived weremore » compared using patient 4DCT scans. Results: Motion models were derived and the variations were evaluated according to three criteria: 1) the average root mean square (RMS) difference which measures the absolute difference between the components of the eigenvectors, 2) the dot product between the eigenvectors which measures the angular difference between the eigenvectors in space, and 3) the Euclidean Model Norm (EMN), which is calculated by summing the dot products of an eigenvector with the first three eigenvectors from the reference motion model in quadrature. EMN measures how well an eigenvector can be reconstructed using another motion model derived using a different DIR algorithm. Results showed that comparing to a reference motion model (derived using the Demons algorithm), the eigenvectors of the motion model derived using the iterative optical flow algorithm has smaller RMS, larger dot product, and larger EMN values than those of the motion model derived using Horn-Schunck algorithm. Conclusion: The study showed that motion models vary depending on which DIR algorithms were used to derive them. The choice of a DIR algorithm may affect the accuracy of the resulting model, and it is important to assess the suitability of the algorithm chosen for a particular application. This project was supported, in part, through a Master Research Agreement with Varian Medical Systems, Inc, Palo Alto, CA.« less

Documenting the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center Oblate Earth Simulation Equations of Motion and Integration Algorithm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clarke, R.; Lintereur, L.; Bahm, C.

2016-01-01

A desire for more complete documentation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC), Edwards, California legacy code used in the core simulation has led to this e ort to fully document the oblate Earth six-degree-of-freedom equations of motion and integration algorithm. The authors of this report have taken much of the earlier work of the simulation engineering group and used it as a jumping-o point for this report. The largest addition this report makes is that each element of the equations of motion is traced back to first principles and at no point is the reader forced to take an equation on faith alone. There are no discoveries of previously unknown principles contained in this report; this report is a collection and presentation of textbook principles. The value of this report is that those textbook principles are herein documented in standard nomenclature that matches the form of the computer code DERIVC. Previous handwritten notes are much of the backbone of this work, however, in almost every area, derivations are explicitly shown to assure the reader that the equations which make up the oblate Earth version of the computer routine, DERIVC, are correct.

A Motion Detection Algorithm Using Local Phase Information

PubMed Central

Lazar, Aurel A.; Ukani, Nikul H.; Zhou, Yiyin

2016-01-01

Previous research demonstrated that global phase alone can be used to faithfully represent visual scenes. Here we provide a reconstruction algorithm by using only local phase information. We also demonstrate that local phase alone can be effectively used to detect local motion. The local phase-based motion detector is akin to models employed to detect motion in biological vision, for example, the Reichardt detector. The local phase-based motion detection algorithm introduced here consists of two building blocks. The first building block measures/evaluates the temporal change of the local phase. The temporal derivative of the local phase is shown to exhibit the structure of a second order Volterra kernel with two normalized inputs. We provide an efficient, FFT-based algorithm for implementing the change of the local phase. The second processing building block implements the detector; it compares the maximum of the Radon transform of the local phase derivative with a chosen threshold. We demonstrate examples of applying the local phase-based motion detection algorithm on several video sequences. We also show how the locally detected motion can be used for segmenting moving objects in video scenes and compare our local phase-based algorithm to segmentation achieved with a widely used optic flow algorithm. PMID:26880882

Early Versus Delayed Motion After Rotator Cuff Repair: A Systematic Review of Overlapping Meta-analyses.

PubMed

Houck, Darby A; Kraeutler, Matthew J; Schuette, Hayden B; McCarty, Eric C; Bravman, Jonathan T

2017-10-01

Previous meta-analyses have been conducted to compare outcomes of early versus delayed motion after rotator cuff repair. To conduct a systematic review of overlapping meta-analyses comparing early versus delayed motion rehabilitation protocols after rotator cuff repair to determine which meta-analyses provide the best available evidence. Systematic review. A systematic review was performed by searching PubMed and Cochrane Library databases. Search terms included "rotator cuff repair," "early passive motion," "immobilization," "rehabilitation protocol," and "meta-analysis." Results were reviewed to determine study eligibility. Patient outcomes and structural healing were extracted from these meta-analyses. Meta-analysis quality was assessed using the Oxman-Guyatt and Quality of Reporting of Meta-analyses (QUOROM) systems. The Jadad decision algorithm was then used to determine which meta-analyses provided the best level of evidence. Seven meta-analyses containing a total of 5896 patients met the eligibility criteria (1 Level I evidence, 4 Level II evidence, 2 Level III evidence). None of these meta-analyses found immobilization to be superior to early motion; however, most studies suggested that early motion would increase range of motion (ROM), thereby reducing time of recovery. Three of these studies suggested that tear size contributed to the choice of rehabilitation to ensure proper healing of the shoulder. A study by Chan et al in 2014 received the highest QUOROM and Oxman-Guyatt scores, and therefore this meta-analysis appeared to have the highest level of evidence. Additionally, a study by Riboh and Garrigues in 2014 was selected as the highest quality study in this systematic review according to the Jadad decision algorithm. The current, best available evidence suggests that early motion improves ROM after rotator cuff repair but increases the risk of rotator cuff retear. Lower quality meta-analyses indicate that tear size may provide a better strategy in determining the correct rehabilitation protocol.

A normal mode-based geometric simulation approach for exploring biologically relevant conformational transitions in proteins.

PubMed

Ahmed, Aqeel; Rippmann, Friedrich; Barnickel, Gerhard; Gohlke, Holger

2011-07-25

A three-step approach for multiscale modeling of protein conformational changes is presented that incorporates information about preferred directions of protein motions into a geometric simulation algorithm. The first two steps are based on a rigid cluster normal-mode analysis (RCNMA). Low-frequency normal modes are used in the third step (NMSim) to extend the recently introduced idea of constrained geometric simulations of diffusive motions in proteins by biasing backbone motions of the protein, whereas side-chain motions are biased toward favorable rotamer states. The generated structures are iteratively corrected regarding steric clashes and stereochemical constraint violations. The approach allows performing three simulation types: unbiased exploration of conformational space; pathway generation by a targeted simulation; and radius of gyration-guided simulation. When applied to a data set of proteins with experimentally observed conformational changes, conformational variabilities are reproduced very well for 4 out of 5 proteins that show domain motions, with correlation coefficients r > 0.70 and as high as r = 0.92 in the case of adenylate kinase. In 7 out of 8 cases, NMSim simulations starting from unbound structures are able to sample conformations that are similar (root-mean-square deviation = 1.0-3.1 Å) to ligand bound conformations. An NMSim generated pathway of conformational change of adenylate kinase correctly describes the sequence of domain closing. The NMSim approach is a computationally efficient alternative to molecular dynamics simulations for conformational sampling of proteins. The generated conformations and pathways of conformational transitions can serve as input to docking approaches or as starting points for more sophisticated sampling techniques.

System and method for generating motion corrected tomographic images

DOEpatents

Gleason, Shaun S [Knoxville, TN; Goddard, Jr., James S.

2012-05-01

A method and related system for generating motion corrected tomographic images includes the steps of illuminating a region of interest (ROI) to be imaged being part of an unrestrained live subject and having at least three spaced apart optical markers thereon. Simultaneous images are acquired from a first and a second camera of the markers from different angles. Motion data comprising 3D position and orientation of the markers relative to an initial reference position is then calculated. Motion corrected tomographic data obtained from the ROI using the motion data is then obtained, where motion corrected tomographic images obtained therefrom.

Image Corruption Detection in Diffusion Tensor Imaging for Post-Processing and Real-Time Monitoring

PubMed Central

Li, Yue; Shea, Steven M.; Lorenz, Christine H.; Jiang, Hangyi; Chou, Ming-Chung; Mori, Susumu

2013-01-01

Due to the high sensitivity of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to physiological motion, clinical DTI scans often suffer a significant amount of artifacts. Tensor-fitting-based, post-processing outlier rejection is often used to reduce the influence of motion artifacts. Although it is an effective approach, when there are multiple corrupted data, this method may no longer correctly identify and reject the corrupted data. In this paper, we introduce a new criterion called “corrected Inter-Slice Intensity Discontinuity” (cISID) to detect motion-induced artifacts. We compared the performance of algorithms using cISID and other existing methods with regard to artifact detection. The experimental results show that the integration of cISID into fitting-based methods significantly improves the retrospective detection performance at post-processing analysis. The performance of the cISID criterion, if used alone, was inferior to the fitting-based methods, but cISID could effectively identify severely corrupted images with a rapid calculation time. In the second part of this paper, an outlier rejection scheme was implemented on a scanner for real-time monitoring of image quality and reacquisition of the corrupted data. The real-time monitoring, based on cISID and followed by post-processing, fitting-based outlier rejection, could provide a robust environment for routine DTI studies. PMID:24204551

The Effects of Breathing Motion on DCE-MRI Images: Phantom Studies Simulating Respiratory Motion to Compare CAIPIRINHA-VIBE, Radial-VIBE, and Conventional VIBE

PubMed Central

Lee, Chang Kyung; Seo, Nieun; Kim, Bohyun; Huh, Jimi; Kim, Jeong Kon; Lee, Seung Soo; Kim, In Seong; Nickel, Dominik

2017-01-01

Objective To compare the breathing effects on dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE)-MRI between controlled aliasing in parallel imaging results in higher acceleration (CAIPIRINHA)-volumetric interpolated breath-hold examination (VIBE), radial VIBE with k-space-weighted image contrast view-sharing (radial-VIBE), and conventional VIBE (c-VIBE) sequences using a dedicated phantom experiment. Materials and Methods We developed a moving platform to simulate breathing motion. We conducted dynamic scanning on a 3T machine (MAGNETOM Skyra, Siemens Healthcare) using CAIPIRINHA-VIBE, radial-VIBE, and c-VIBE for six minutes per sequence. We acquired MRI images of the phantom in both static and moving modes, and we also obtained motion-corrected images for the motion mode. We compared the signal stability and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of each sequence according to motion state and used the coefficients of variation (CoV) to determine the degree of signal stability. Results With motion, CAIPIRINHA-VIBE showed the best image quality, and the motion correction aligned the images very well. The CoV (%) of CAIPIRINHA-VIBE in the moving mode (18.65) decreased significantly after the motion correction (2.56) (p < 0.001). In contrast, c-VIBE showed severe breathing motion artifacts that did not improve after motion correction. For radial-VIBE, the position of the phantom in the images did not change during motion, but streak artifacts significantly degraded image quality, also after motion correction. In addition, SNR increased in both CAIPIRINHA-VIBE (from 3.37 to 9.41, p < 0.001) and radial-VIBE (from 4.3 to 4.96, p < 0.001) after motion correction. Conclusion CAIPIRINHA-VIBE performed best for free-breathing DCE-MRI after motion correction, with excellent image quality. PMID:28246509

SU-F-J-76: Evaluation of the Performance of Different Deformable Image Registration Algorithms in Helical, Axial and Cone-Beam CT Images of a Mobile Phantom

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

Jaskowiak, J; Ahmad, S; Ali, I

Purpose: To investigate quantitatively the performance of different deformable-image-registration algorithms (DIR) with helical (HCT), axial (ACT) and cone-beam CT (CBCT) by evaluating the variations in the CT-numbers and lengths of targets moving with controlled motion-patterns. Methods: Four DIR-algorithms including demons, fast-demons, Horn-Schunk and Locas-Kanade from the DIRART-software are used to register CT-images of a mobile-phantom. A mobile-phantom is scanned with different imaging techniques that include helical, axial and cone-beam CT. The phantom includes three targets with different lengths that are made from water-equivalent material and inserted in low-density-foam which is moved with adjustable motion-amplitudes and frequencies. Results: Most of themore » DIR-algorithms are able to produce the lengths of the stationary-targets, however, they do not produce the CT-number values in CBCT. The image-artifacts induced by motion are more regular in CBCT imaging where the mobile-target elongation increases linearly with motion-amplitude. In ACT and HCT, the motion-artifacts are irregular where some mobile -targets are elongated or shrunk depending on the motion-phase during imaging. The DIR-algorithms are successful in deforming the images of the mobile-targets to the images of the stationary-targets producing the CT-number values and length of the target for motion-amplitudes < 20 mm. Similarly in ACT, all DIR-algorithms produced the actual CT-number and length of the stationary-targets for motion-amplitudes < 15 mm. As stronger motion-artifacts are induced in HCT and ACT, DIR-algorithms fail to produce CT-values and shape of the stationary-targets and fast-demons-algorithm has worst performance. Conclusion: Most of DIR-algorithms produce the CT-number values and lengths of the stationary-targets in HCT and ACT images that has motion-artifacts induced by small motion-amplitudes. As motion-amplitudes increase, the DIR-algorithms fail to deform mobile-target images to the stationary-images in HCT and ACT. In CBCT, DIR-algorithms are successful in producing length and shape of the stationary-targets, however, they fail to produce the accurate CT-number level.« less

Impact of respiratory motion correction and spatial resolution on lesion detection in PET: a simulation study based on real MR dynamic data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Polycarpou, Irene; Tsoumpas, Charalampos; King, Andrew P.; Marsden, Paul K.

2014-02-01

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of respiratory motion correction and spatial resolution on lesion detectability in PET as a function of lesion size and tracer uptake. Real respiratory signals describing different breathing types are combined with a motion model formed from real dynamic MR data to simulate multiple dynamic PET datasets acquired from a continuously moving subject. Lung and liver lesions were simulated with diameters ranging from 6 to 12 mm and lesion to background ratio ranging from 3:1 to 6:1. Projection data for 6 and 3 mm PET scanner resolution were generated using analytic simulations and reconstructed without and with motion correction. Motion correction was achieved using motion compensated image reconstruction. The detectability performance was quantified by a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis obtained using a channelized Hotelling observer and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was calculated as the figure of merit. The results indicate that respiratory motion limits the detectability of lung and liver lesions, depending on the variation of the breathing cycle length and amplitude. Patients with large quiescent periods had a greater AUC than patients with regular breathing cycles and patients with long-term variability in respiratory cycle or higher motion amplitude. In addition, small (less than 10 mm diameter) or low contrast (3:1) lesions showed the greatest improvement in AUC as a result of applying motion correction. In particular, after applying motion correction the AUC is improved by up to 42% with current PET resolution (i.e. 6 mm) and up to 51% for higher PET resolution (i.e. 3 mm). Finally, the benefit of increasing the scanner resolution is small unless motion correction is applied. This investigation indicates high impact of respiratory motion correction on lesion detectability in PET and highlights the importance of motion correction in order to benefit from the increased resolution of future PET scanners.

Algorithm for constructing the programmed motion of a bounding vehicle for the flight phase

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lapshin, V. V.

1979-01-01

The construction of the programmed motion of a multileg bounding vehicle in the flight was studied. An algorithm is given for solving the boundary value problem for constructing this programmed motion. If the motion is shown to be symmetrical, a simplified use of the algorithm can be applied. A method is proposed for nonimpact of the legs during lift-off of the vehicle, and for softness at touchdown. Tables are utilized to construct this programmed motion over a broad set of standard motion conditions.

Validation of simultaneous reverse optimization reconstruction algorithm in a practical circular subaperture stitching interferometer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Lei; Li, Dong; Liu, Yu; Liu, Jingxiao; Li, Jingsong; Yu, Benli

2017-11-01

We demonstrate the validity of the simultaneous reverse optimization reconstruction (SROR) algorithm in circular subaperture stitching interferometry (CSSI), which is previously proposed for non-null aspheric annular subaperture stitching interferometry (ASSI). The merits of the modified SROR algorithm in CSSI, such as auto retrace error correction, no need of overlap and even permission of missed coverage, are analyzed in detail in simulations and experiments. Meanwhile, a practical CSSI system is proposed for this demonstration. An optical wedge is employed to deflect the incident beam for subaperture scanning by its rotation and shift instead of the six-axis motion-control system. Also the reference path can provide variable Zernike defocus for each subaperture test, which would decrease the fringe density. Experiments validating the SROR algorithm in this CSSI is implemented with cross validation by testing of paraboloidal mirror, flat mirror and astigmatism mirror. It is an indispensable supplement in SROR application in general subaperture stitching interferometry.

Correction for human head motion in helical x-ray CT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, J.-H.; Sun, T.; Alcheikh, A. R.; Kuncic, Z.; Nuyts, J.; Fulton, R.

2016-02-01

Correction for rigid object motion in helical CT can be achieved by reconstructing from a modified source-detector orbit, determined by the object motion during the scan. This ensures that all projections are consistent, but it does not guarantee that the projections are complete in the sense of being sufficient for exact reconstruction. We have previously shown with phantom measurements that motion-corrected helical CT scans can suffer from data-insufficiency, in particular for severe motions and at high pitch. To study whether such data-insufficiency artefacts could also affect the motion-corrected CT images of patients undergoing head CT scans, we used an optical motion tracking system to record the head movements of 10 healthy volunteers while they executed each of the 4 different types of motion (‘no’, slight, moderate and severe) for 60 s. From these data we simulated 354 motion-affected CT scans of a voxelized human head phantom and reconstructed them with and without motion correction. For each simulation, motion-corrected (MC) images were compared with the motion-free reference, by visual inspection and with quantitative similarity metrics. Motion correction improved similarity metrics in all simulations. Of the 270 simulations performed with moderate or less motion, only 2 resulted in visible residual artefacts in the MC images. The maximum range of motion in these simulations would encompass that encountered in the vast majority of clinical scans. With severe motion, residual artefacts were observed in about 60% of the simulations. We also evaluated a new method of mapping local data sufficiency based on the degree to which Tuy’s condition is locally satisfied, and observed that areas with high Tuy values corresponded to the locations of residual artefacts in the MC images. We conclude that our method can provide accurate and artefact-free MC images with most types of head motion likely to be encountered in CT imaging, provided that the motion can be accurately determined.

Mismatch removal via coherent spatial relations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Jun; Ma, Jiayi; Yang, Changcai; Tian, Jinwen

2014-07-01

We propose a method for removing mismatches from the given putative point correspondences in image pairs based on "coherent spatial relations." Under the Bayesian framework, we formulate our approach as a maximum likelihood problem and solve a coherent spatial relation between the putative point correspondences using an expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. Our approach associates each point correspondence with a latent variable indicating it as being either an inlier or an outlier, and alternatively estimates the inlier set and recovers the coherent spatial relation. It can handle not only the case of image pairs with rigid motions but also the case of image pairs with nonrigid motions. To parameterize the coherent spatial relation, we choose two-view geometry and thin-plate spline as models for rigid and nonrigid cases, respectively. The mismatches could be successfully removed via the coherent spatial relations after the EM algorithm converges. The quantitative results on various experimental data demonstrate that our method outperforms many state-of-the-art methods, it is not affected by low initial correct match percentages, and is robust to most geometric transformations including a large viewing angle, image rotation, and affine transformation.

PET motion correction in context of integrated PET/MR: Current techniques, limitations, and future projections.

PubMed

Gillman, Ashley; Smith, Jye; Thomas, Paul; Rose, Stephen; Dowson, Nicholas

2017-12-01

Patient motion is an important consideration in modern PET image reconstruction. Advances in PET technology mean motion has an increasingly important influence on resulting image quality. Motion-induced artifacts can have adverse effects on clinical outcomes, including missed diagnoses and oversized radiotherapy treatment volumes. This review aims to summarize the wide variety of motion correction techniques available in PET and combined PET/CT and PET/MR, with a focus on the latter. A general framework for the motion correction of PET images is presented, consisting of acquisition, modeling, and correction stages. Methods for measuring, modeling, and correcting motion and associated artifacts, both in literature and commercially available, are presented, and their relative merits are contrasted. Identified limitations of current methods include modeling of aperiodic and/or unpredictable motion, attaining adequate temporal resolution for motion correction in dynamic kinetic modeling acquisitions, and maintaining availability of the MR in PET/MR scans for diagnostic acquisitions. Finally, avenues for future investigation are discussed, with a focus on improvements that could improve PET image quality, and that are practical in the clinical environment. © 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

General rigid motion correction for computed tomography imaging based on locally linear embedding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Mianyi; He, Peng; Feng, Peng; Liu, Baodong; Yang, Qingsong; Wei, Biao; Wang, Ge

2018-02-01

The patient motion can damage the quality of computed tomography images, which are typically acquired in cone-beam geometry. The rigid patient motion is characterized by six geometric parameters and are more challenging to correct than in fan-beam geometry. We extend our previous rigid patient motion correction method based on the principle of locally linear embedding (LLE) from fan-beam to cone-beam geometry and accelerate the computational procedure with the graphics processing unit (GPU)-based all scale tomographic reconstruction Antwerp toolbox. The major merit of our method is that we need neither fiducial markers nor motion-tracking devices. The numerical and experimental studies show that the LLE-based patient motion correction is capable of calibrating the six parameters of the patient motion simultaneously, reducing patient motion artifacts significantly.

Reanimating patients: cardio-respiratory CT and MR motion phantoms based on clinical CT patient data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mayer, Johannes; Sauppe, Sebastian; Rank, Christopher M.; Sawall, Stefan; Kachelrieß, Marc

2017-03-01

Until today several algorithms have been developed that reduce or avoid artifacts caused by cardiac and respiratory motion in computed tomography (CT). The motion information is converted into so-called motion vector fields (MVFs) and used for motion compensation (MoCo) during the image reconstruction. To analyze these algorithms quantitatively there is the need for ground truth patient data displaying realistic motion. We developed a method to generate a digital ground truth displaying realistic cardiac and respiratory motion that can be used as a tool to assess MoCo algorithms. By the use of available MoCo methods we measured the motion in CT scans with high spatial and temporal resolution and transferred the motion information onto patient data with different anatomy or imaging modality, thereby reanimating the patient virtually. In addition to these images the ground truth motion information in the form of MVFs is available and can be used to benchmark the MVF estimation of MoCo algorithms. We here applied the method to generate 20 CT volumes displaying detailed cardiac motion that can be used for cone-beam CT (CBCT) simulations and a set of 8 MR volumes displaying respiratory motion. Our method is able to reanimate patient data virtually. In combination with the MVFs it serves as a digital ground truth and provides an improved framework to assess MoCo algorithms.

Real-Time Robust Tracking for Motion Blur and Fast Motion via Correlation Filters.

PubMed

Xu, Lingyun; Luo, Haibo; Hui, Bin; Chang, Zheng

2016-09-07

Visual tracking has extensive applications in intelligent monitoring and guidance systems. Among state-of-the-art tracking algorithms, Correlation Filter methods perform favorably in robustness, accuracy and speed. However, it also has shortcomings when dealing with pervasive target scale variation, motion blur and fast motion. In this paper we proposed a new real-time robust scheme based on Kernelized Correlation Filter (KCF) to significantly improve performance on motion blur and fast motion. By fusing KCF and STC trackers, our algorithm also solve the estimation of scale variation in many scenarios. We theoretically analyze the problem for CFs towards motions and utilize the point sharpness function of the target patch to evaluate the motion state of target. Then we set up an efficient scheme to handle the motion and scale variation without much time consuming. Our algorithm preserves the properties of KCF besides the ability to handle special scenarios. In the end extensive experimental results on benchmark of VOT datasets show our algorithm performs advantageously competed with the top-rank trackers.

Enhancing ejection fraction measurement through 4D respiratory motion compensation in cardiac PET imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, Jing; Wang, Xinhui; Gao, Xiangzhen; Segars, W. Paul; Lodge, Martin A.; Rahmim, Arman

2017-06-01

ECG gated cardiac PET imaging measures functional parameters such as left ventricle (LV) ejection fraction (EF), providing diagnostic and prognostic information for management of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Respiratory motion degrades spatial resolution and affects the accuracy in measuring the LV volumes for EF calculation. The goal of this study is to systematically investigate the effect of respiratory motion correction on the estimation of end-diastolic volume (EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV), and EF, especially on the separation of normal and abnormal EFs. We developed a respiratory motion incorporated 4D PET image reconstruction technique which uses all gated-frame data to acquire a motion-suppressed image. Using the standard XCAT phantom and two individual-specific volunteer XCAT phantoms, we simulated dual-gated myocardial perfusion imaging data for normally and abnormally beating hearts. With and without respiratory motion correction, we measured the EDV, ESV, and EF from the cardiac-gated reconstructed images. For all the phantoms, the estimated volumes increased and the biases significantly reduced with motion correction compared with those without. Furthermore, the improvement of ESV measurement in the abnormally beating heart led to better separation of normal and abnormal EFs. The simulation study demonstrated the significant effect of respiratory motion correction on cardiac imaging data with motion amplitude as small as 0.7 cm. The larger the motion amplitude the more improvement respiratory motion correction brought about on the EF measurement. Using data-driven respiratory gating, we also demonstrated the effect of respiratory motion correction on estimating the above functional parameters from list mode patient data. Respiratory motion correction has been shown to improve the accuracy of EF measurement in clinical cardiac PET imaging.

Full three-body problem in effective-field-theory models of gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Battista, Emmanuele; Esposito, Giampiero

2014-10-01

Recent work in the literature has studied the restricted three-body problem within the framework of effective-field-theory models of gravity. This paper extends such a program by considering the full three-body problem, when the Newtonian potential is replaced by a more general central potential which depends on the mutual separations of the three bodies. The general form of the equations of motion is written down, and they are studied when the interaction potential reduces to the quantum-corrected central potential considered recently in the literature. A recursive algorithm is found for solving the associated variational equations, which describe small departures from given periodic solutions of the equations of motion. Our scheme involves repeated application of a 2×2 matrix of first-order linear differential operators.

A computer code for three-dimensional incompressible flows using nonorthogonal body-fitted coordinate systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chen, Y. S.

1986-01-01

In this report, a numerical method for solving the equations of motion of three-dimensional incompressible flows in nonorthogonal body-fitted coordinate (BFC) systems has been developed. The equations of motion are transformed to a generalized curvilinear coordinate system from which the transformed equations are discretized using finite difference approximations in the transformed domain. The hybrid scheme is used to approximate the convection terms in the governing equations. Solutions of the finite difference equations are obtained iteratively by using a pressure-velocity correction algorithm (SIMPLE-C). Numerical examples of two- and three-dimensional, laminar and turbulent flow problems are employed to evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of the present computer code. The user's guide and computer program listing of the present code are also included.

Value of automatic patient motion detection and correction in myocardial perfusion imaging using a CZT-based SPECT camera.

PubMed

van Dijk, Joris D; van Dalen, Jorn A; Mouden, Mohamed; Ottervanger, Jan Paul; Knollema, Siert; Slump, Cornelis H; Jager, Pieter L

2018-04-01

Correction of motion has become feasible on cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT)-based SPECT cameras during myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI). Our aim was to quantify the motion and to determine the value of automatic correction using commercially available software. We retrospectively included 83 consecutive patients who underwent stress-rest MPI CZT-SPECT and invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR) measurement. Eight-minute stress acquisitions were reformatted into 1.0- and 20-second bins to detect respiratory motion (RM) and patient motion (PM), respectively. RM and PM were quantified and scans were automatically corrected. Total perfusion deficit (TPD) and SPECT interpretation-normal, equivocal, or abnormal-were compared between the noncorrected and corrected scans. Scans with a changed SPECT interpretation were compared with FFR, the reference standard. Average RM was 2.5 ± 0.4 mm and maximal PM was 4.5 ± 1.3 mm. RM correction influenced the diagnostic outcomes in two patients based on TPD changes ≥7% and in nine patients based on changed visual interpretation. In only four of these patients, the changed SPECT interpretation corresponded with FFR measurements. Correction for PM did not influence the diagnostic outcomes. Respiratory motion and patient motion were small. Motion correction did not appear to improve the diagnostic outcome and, hence, the added value seems limited in MPI using CZT-based SPECT cameras.

Motion compensation in digital subtraction angiography using graphics hardware.

PubMed

Deuerling-Zheng, Yu; Lell, Michael; Galant, Adam; Hornegger, Joachim

2006-07-01

An inherent disadvantage of digital subtraction angiography (DSA) is its sensitivity to patient motion which causes artifacts in the subtraction images. These artifacts could often reduce the diagnostic value of this technique. Automated, fast and accurate motion compensation is therefore required. To cope with this requirement, we first examine a method explicitly designed to detect local motions in DSA. Then, we implement a motion compensation algorithm by means of block matching on modern graphics hardware. Both methods search for maximal local similarity by evaluating a histogram-based measure. In this context, we are the first who have mapped an optimizing search strategy on graphics hardware while paralleling block matching. Moreover, we provide an innovative method for creating histograms on graphics hardware with vertex texturing and frame buffer blending. It turns out that both methods can effectively correct the artifacts in most case, as the hardware implementation of block matching performs much faster: the displacements of two 1024 x 1024 images can be calculated at 3 frames/s with integer precision or 2 frames/s with sub-pixel precision. Preliminary clinical evaluation indicates that the computation with integer precision could already be sufficient.

Model Predictive Control Based Motion Drive Algorithm for a Driving Simulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rehmatullah, Faizan

In this research, we develop a model predictive control based motion drive algorithm for the driving simulator at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. Motion drive algorithms exploit the limitations of the human vestibular system to formulate a perception of motion within the constrained workspace of a simulator. In the absence of visual cues, the human perception system is unable to distinguish between acceleration and the force of gravity. The motion drive algorithm determines control inputs to displace the simulator platform, and by using the resulting inertial forces and angular rates, creates the perception of motion. By using model predictive control, we can optimize the use of simulator workspace for every maneuver while simulating the vehicle perception. With the ability to handle nonlinear constraints, the model predictive control allows us to incorporate workspace limitations.

Novel true-motion estimation algorithm and its application to motion-compensated temporal frame interpolation.

PubMed

Dikbas, Salih; Altunbasak, Yucel

2013-08-01

In this paper, a new low-complexity true-motion estimation (TME) algorithm is proposed for video processing applications, such as motion-compensated temporal frame interpolation (MCTFI) or motion-compensated frame rate up-conversion (MCFRUC). Regular motion estimation, which is often used in video coding, aims to find the motion vectors (MVs) to reduce the temporal redundancy, whereas TME aims to track the projected object motion as closely as possible. TME is obtained by imposing implicit and/or explicit smoothness constraints on the block-matching algorithm. To produce better quality-interpolated frames, the dense motion field at interpolation time is obtained for both forward and backward MVs; then, bidirectional motion compensation using forward and backward MVs is applied by mixing both elegantly. Finally, the performance of the proposed algorithm for MCTFI is demonstrated against recently proposed methods and smoothness constraint optical flow employed by a professional video production suite. Experimental results show that the quality of the interpolated frames using the proposed method is better when compared with the MCFRUC techniques.

Development and validation of a rebinner with rigid motion correction for the Siemens PET-MR scanner: Application to a large cohort of [11C]-PIB scans.

PubMed

Reilhac, Anthonin; Merida, Ines; Irace, Zacharie; Stephenson, Mary; Weekes, Ashley; Chen, Christopher; Totman, John; Townsend, David W; Fayad, Hadi; Costes, Nicolas

2018-04-13

Objective: Head motion occuring during brain PET studies leads to image blurring and to bias in measured local quantities. Our first objective was to implement an accurate list-mode-based rigid motion correction method for PET data acquired with the mMR synchronous Positron Emission Tomography/Magnetic Resonance (PET/MR) scanner. Our second objective was to optimize the correction for [ 11 C]-PIB scans using simulated and actual data with well-controlled motions. Results: An efficient list-mode based motion correction approach has been implemented, fully optimized and validated using simulated as well as actual PET data. The average spatial resolution loss induced by inaccuracies in motion parameter estimates as well as by the rebinning process was estimated to correspond to a 1 mm increase in Full Width Half Maximum (FWHM) with motion parameters estimated directly from the PET data with a temporal frequency of 20 secs. The results show that it can be safely applied to the [ 11 C]-PIB scans, allowing almost complete removal of motion induced artifacts.The application of the correction method on a large cohort of 11C-PIB scans led to the following observations: i) more than 21% of the scans were affected by a motion greater than 10 mm (39% for subjects with Mini-Mental State Examination -MMSE scores below 20) and ii), the correction led to quantitative changes in Alzheimer-specific cortical regions of up to 30%. Conclusion: The rebinner allows an accurate motion correction at a cost of minimal resolution reduction. The application of the correction to a large cohort of [ 11 C]-PIB scans confirmed the necessity to systematically correct for motion for quantitative results. Copyright © 2018 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Inc.

Compressive Video Recovery Using Block Match Multi-Frame Motion Estimation Based on Single Pixel Cameras

PubMed Central

Bi, Sheng; Zeng, Xiao; Tang, Xin; Qin, Shujia; Lai, King Wai Chiu

2016-01-01

Compressive sensing (CS) theory has opened up new paths for the development of signal processing applications. Based on this theory, a novel single pixel camera architecture has been introduced to overcome the current limitations and challenges of traditional focal plane arrays. However, video quality based on this method is limited by existing acquisition and recovery methods, and the method also suffers from being time-consuming. In this paper, a multi-frame motion estimation algorithm is proposed in CS video to enhance the video quality. The proposed algorithm uses multiple frames to implement motion estimation. Experimental results show that using multi-frame motion estimation can improve the quality of recovered videos. To further reduce the motion estimation time, a block match algorithm is used to process motion estimation. Experiments demonstrate that using the block match algorithm can reduce motion estimation time by 30%. PMID:26950127

SU-E-J-252: A Motion Algorithm to Extract Physical and Motion Parameters of a Mobile Target in Cone-Beam Computed Tomographic Imaging Retrospective to Image Reconstruction

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

Ali, I; Ahmad, S; Alsbou, N

Purpose: A motion algorithm was developed to extract actual length, CT-numbers and motion amplitude of a mobile target imaged with cone-beam-CT (CBCT) retrospective to image-reconstruction. Methods: The motion model considered a mobile target moving with a sinusoidal motion and employed three measurable parameters: apparent length, CT number level and gradient of a mobile target obtained from CBCT images to extract information about the actual length and CT number value of the stationary target and motion amplitude. The algorithm was verified experimentally with a mobile phantom setup that has three targets with different sizes manufactured from homogenous tissue-equivalent gel material embeddedmore » into a thorax phantom. The phantom moved sinusoidal in one-direction using eight amplitudes (0–20mm) and a frequency of 15-cycles-per-minute. The model required imaging parameters such as slice thickness, imaging time. Results: This motion algorithm extracted three unknown parameters: length of the target, CT-number-level, motion amplitude for a mobile target retrospective to CBCT image reconstruction. The algorithm relates three unknown parameters to measurable apparent length, CT-number-level and gradient for well-defined mobile targets obtained from CBCT images. The motion model agreed with measured apparent lengths which were dependent on actual length of the target and motion amplitude. The cumulative CT-number for a mobile target was dependent on CT-number-level of the stationary target and motion amplitude. The gradient of the CT-distribution of mobile target is dependent on the stationary CT-number-level, actual target length along the direction of motion, and motion amplitude. Motion frequency and phase did not affect the elongation and CT-number distributions of mobile targets when imaging time included several motion cycles. Conclusion: The motion algorithm developed in this study has potential applications in diagnostic CT imaging and radiotherapy to extract actual length, size and CT-numbers distorted by motion in CBCT imaging. The model provides further information about motion of the target.« less

Motion-based nonuniformity correction in DoFP polarimeters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, Rakesh; Tyo, J. Scott; Ratliff, Bradley M.

2007-09-01

Division of Focal Plane polarimeters (DoFP) operate by integrating an array of micropolarizer elements with a focal plane array. These devices have been investigated for over a decade, and example systems have been built in all regions of the optical spectrum. DoFP devices have the distinct advantage that they are mechanically rugged, inherently temporally synchronized, and optically aligned. They have the concomitant disadvantage that each pixel in the FPA has a different instantaneous field of view (IFOV), meaning that the polarization component measurements that go into estimating the Stokes vector across the image come from four different points in the field. In addition to IFOV errors, microgrid camera systems operating in the LWIR have the additional problem that FPA nonuniformity (NU) noise can be quite severe. The spatial differencing nature of a DoFP system exacerbates the residual NU noise that is remaining after calibration, and is often the largest source of false polarization signatures away from regions where IFOV error dominates. We have recently presented a scene based algorithm that uses frame-to-frame motion to compensate for NU noise in unpolarized IR imagers. In this paper, we have extended that algorithm so that it can be used to compensate for NU noise on a DoFP polarimeter. Furthermore, the additional information provided by the scene motion can be used to significantly reduce the IFOV error. We have found a reduction of IFOV error by a factor of 10 if the scene motion is known exactly. Performance is reduced when the motion must be estimated from the scene, but still shows a marked improvement over static DoFP images.

Assessing the performance of different DTI motion correction strategies in the presence of EPI distortion correction.

PubMed

Taylor, Paul A; Alhamud, A; van der Kouwe, Andre; Saleh, Muhammad G; Laughton, Barbara; Meintjes, Ernesta

2016-12-01

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is susceptible to several artifacts due to eddy currents, echo planar imaging (EPI) distortion and subject motion. While several techniques correct for individual distortion effects, no optimal combination of DTI acquisition and processing has been determined. Here, the effects of several motion correction techniques are investigated while also correcting for EPI distortion: prospective correction, using navigation; retrospective correction, using two different popular packages (FSL and TORTOISE); and the combination of both methods. Data from a pediatric group that exhibited incidental motion in varying degrees are analyzed. Comparisons are carried while implementing eddy current and EPI distortion correction. DTI parameter distributions, white matter (WM) maps and probabilistic tractography are examined. The importance of prospective correction during data acquisition is demonstrated. In contrast to some previous studies, results also show that the inclusion of retrospective processing also improved ellipsoid fits and both the sensitivity and specificity of group tractographic results, even for navigated data. Matches with anatomical WM maps are highest throughout the brain for data that have been both navigated and processed using TORTOISE. The inclusion of both prospective and retrospective motion correction with EPI distortion correction is important for DTI analysis, particularly when studying subject populations that are prone to motion. Hum Brain Mapp 37:4405-4424, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Respiratory motion prediction and prospective correction for free-breathing arterial spin-labeled perfusion MRI of the kidneys.

PubMed

Song, Hao; Ruan, Dan; Liu, Wenyang; Stenger, V Andrew; Pohmann, Rolf; Fernández-Seara, Maria A; Nair, Tejas; Jung, Sungkyu; Luo, Jingqin; Motai, Yuichi; Ma, Jingfei; Hazle, John D; Gach, H Michael

2017-03-01

Respiratory motion prediction using an artificial neural network (ANN) was integrated with pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling (pCASL) MRI to allow free-breathing perfusion measurements in the kidney. In this study, we evaluated the performance of the ANN to accurately predict the location of the kidneys during image acquisition. A pencil-beam navigator was integrated with a pCASL sequence to measure lung/diaphragm motion during ANN training and the pCASL transit delay. The ANN algorithm ran concurrently in the background to predict organ location during the 0.7-s 15-slice acquisition based on the navigator data. The predictions were supplied to the pulse sequence to prospectively adjust the axial slice acquisition to match the predicted organ location. Additional navigators were acquired immediately after the multislice acquisition to assess the performance and accuracy of the ANN. The technique was tested in eight healthy volunteers. The root-mean-square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) for the eight volunteers were 1.91 ± 0.17 mm and 1.43 ± 0.17 mm, respectively, for the ANN. The RMSE increased with transit delay. The MAE typically increased from the first to last prediction in the image acquisition. The overshoot was 23.58% ± 3.05% using the target prediction accuracy of ± 1 mm. Respiratory motion prediction with prospective motion correction was successfully demonstrated for free-breathing perfusion MRI of the kidney. The method serves as an alternative to multiple breathholds and requires minimal effort from the patient. © 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Geometry correction Algorithm for UAV Remote Sensing Image Based on Improved Neural Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Ruian; Liu, Nan; Zeng, Beibei; Chen, Tingting; Yin, Ninghao

2018-03-01

Aiming at the disadvantage of current geometry correction algorithm for UAV remote sensing image, a new algorithm is proposed. Adaptive genetic algorithm (AGA) and RBF neural network are introduced into this algorithm. And combined with the geometry correction principle for UAV remote sensing image, the algorithm and solving steps of AGA-RBF are presented in order to realize geometry correction for UAV remote sensing. The correction accuracy and operational efficiency is improved through optimizing the structure and connection weight of RBF neural network separately with AGA and LMS algorithm. Finally, experiments show that AGA-RBF algorithm has the advantages of high correction accuracy, high running rate and strong generalization ability.

Motion Planning and Synthesis of Human-Like Characters in Constrained Environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Liangjun; Pan, Jia; Manocha, Dinesh

We give an overview of our recent work on generating naturally-looking human motion in constrained environments with multiple obstacles. This includes a whole-body motion planning algorithm for high DOF human-like characters. The planning problem is decomposed into a sequence of low dimensional sub-problems. We use a constrained coordination scheme to solve the sub-problems in an incremental manner and a local path refinement algorithm to compute collision-free paths in tight spaces and satisfy the statically stable constraint on CoM. We also present a hybrid algorithm to generate plausible motion by combing the motion computed by our planner with mocap data. We demonstrate the performance of our algorithm on a 40 DOF human-like character and generate efficient motion strategies for object placement, bending, walking, and lifting in complex environments.

Software for project-based learning of robot motion planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moll, Mark; Bordeaux, Janice; Kavraki, Lydia E.

2013-12-01

Motion planning is a core problem in robotics concerned with finding feasible paths for a given robot. Motion planning algorithms perform a search in the high-dimensional continuous space of robot configurations and exemplify many of the core algorithmic concepts of search algorithms and associated data structures. Motion planning algorithms can be explained in a simplified two-dimensional setting, but this masks many of the subtleties and complexities of the underlying problem. We have developed software for project-based learning of motion planning that enables deep learning. The projects that we have developed allow advanced undergraduate students and graduate students to reflect on the performance of existing textbook algorithms and their own variations on such algorithms. Formative assessment has been conducted at three institutions. The core of the software used for this teaching module is also used within the Robot Operating System, a widely adopted platform by the robotics research community. This allows for transfer of knowledge and skills to robotics research projects involving a large variety robot hardware platforms.

SU-D-17A-02: Four-Dimensional CBCT Using Conventional CBCT Dataset and Iterative Subtraction Algorithm of a Lung Patient

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

Hu, E; Lasio, G; Yi, B

2014-06-01

Purpose: The Iterative Subtraction Algorithm (ISA) method generates retrospectively a pre-selected motion phase cone-beam CT image from the full motion cone-beam CT acquired at standard rotation speed. This work evaluates ISA method with real lung patient data. Methods: The goal of the ISA algorithm is to extract motion and no- motion components form the full reconstruction CBCT. The workflow consists of subtracting from the full CBCT all of the undesired motion phases and obtain a motion de-blurred single-phase CBCT image, followed by iteration of this subtraction process. ISA is realized as follows: 1) The projections are sorted to various phases,more » and from all phases, a full reconstruction is performed to generate an image CTM. 2) Generate forward projections of CTM at the desired phase projection angles, the subtraction of projection and the forward projection will reconstruct a CTSub1, which diminishes the desired phase component. 3) By adding back the CTSub1 to CTm, no motion CBCT, CTS1, can be computed. 4) CTS1 still contains residual motion component. 5) This residual motion component can be further reduced by iteration.The ISA 4DCBCT technique was implemented using Varian Trilogy accelerator OBI system. To evaluate the method, a lung patient CBCT dataset was used. The reconstruction algorithm is FDK. Results: The single phase CBCT reconstruction generated via ISA successfully isolates the desired motion phase from the full motion CBCT, effectively reducing motion blur. It also shows improved image quality, with reduced streak artifacts with respect to the reconstructions from unprocessed phase-sorted projections only. Conclusion: A CBCT motion de-blurring algorithm, ISA, has been developed and evaluated with lung patient data. The algorithm allows improved visualization of a single phase motion extracted from a standard CBCT dataset. This study has been supported by National Institute of Health through R01CA133539.« less

Real-Time Robust Tracking for Motion Blur and Fast Motion via Correlation Filters

PubMed Central

Xu, Lingyun; Luo, Haibo; Hui, Bin; Chang, Zheng

2016-01-01

Visual tracking has extensive applications in intelligent monitoring and guidance systems. Among state-of-the-art tracking algorithms, Correlation Filter methods perform favorably in robustness, accuracy and speed. However, it also has shortcomings when dealing with pervasive target scale variation, motion blur and fast motion. In this paper we proposed a new real-time robust scheme based on Kernelized Correlation Filter (KCF) to significantly improve performance on motion blur and fast motion. By fusing KCF and STC trackers, our algorithm also solve the estimation of scale variation in many scenarios. We theoretically analyze the problem for CFs towards motions and utilize the point sharpness function of the target patch to evaluate the motion state of target. Then we set up an efficient scheme to handle the motion and scale variation without much time consuming. Our algorithm preserves the properties of KCF besides the ability to handle special scenarios. In the end extensive experimental results on benchmark of VOT datasets show our algorithm performs advantageously competed with the top-rank trackers. PMID:27618046

Linearized motion estimation for articulated planes.

PubMed

Datta, Ankur; Sheikh, Yaser; Kanade, Takeo

2011-04-01

In this paper, we describe the explicit application of articulation constraints for estimating the motion of a system of articulated planes. We relate articulations to the relative homography between planes and show that these articulations translate into linearized equality constraints on a linear least-squares system, which can be solved efficiently using a Karush-Kuhn-Tucker system. The articulation constraints can be applied for both gradient-based and feature-based motion estimation algorithms and to illustrate this, we describe a gradient-based motion estimation algorithm for an affine camera and a feature-based motion estimation algorithm for a projective camera that explicitly enforces articulation constraints. We show that explicit application of articulation constraints leads to numerically stable estimates of motion. The simultaneous computation of motion estimates for all of the articulated planes in a scene allows us to handle scene areas where there is limited texture information and areas that leave the field of view. Our results demonstrate the wide applicability of the algorithm in a variety of challenging real-world cases such as human body tracking, motion estimation of rigid, piecewise planar scenes, and motion estimation of triangulated meshes.

A distributed automatic target recognition system using multiple low resolution sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yue, Zhanfeng; Lakshmi Narasimha, Pramod; Topiwala, Pankaj

2008-04-01

In this paper, we propose a multi-agent system which uses swarming techniques to perform high accuracy Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) in a distributed manner. The proposed system can co-operatively share the information from low-resolution images of different looks and use this information to perform high accuracy ATR. An advanced, multiple-agent Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems-based approach is proposed which integrates the processing capabilities, combines detection reporting with live video exchange, and swarm behavior modalities that dramatically surpass individual sensor system performance levels. We employ real-time block-based motion analysis and compensation scheme for efficient estimation and correction of camera jitter, global motion of the camera/scene and the effects of atmospheric turbulence. Our optimized Partition Weighted Sum (PWS) approach requires only bitshifts and additions, yet achieves a stunning 16X pixel resolution enhancement, which is moreover parallizable. We develop advanced, adaptive particle-filtering based algorithms to robustly track multiple mobile targets by adaptively changing the appearance model of the selected targets. The collaborative ATR system utilizes the homographies between the sensors induced by the ground plane to overlap the local observation with the received images from other UAVs. The motion of the UAVs distorts estimated homography frame to frame. A robust dynamic homography estimation algorithm is proposed to address this, by using the homography decomposition and the ground plane surface estimation.

SU-F-J-133: Adaptive Radiation Therapy with a Four-Dimensional Dose Calculation Algorithm That Optimizes Dose Distribution Considering Breathing Motion

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

Ali, I; Algan, O; Ahmad, S

Purpose: To model patient motion and produce four-dimensional (4D) optimized dose distributions that consider motion-artifacts in the dose calculation during the treatment planning process. Methods: An algorithm for dose calculation is developed where patient motion is considered in dose calculation at the stage of the treatment planning. First, optimal dose distributions are calculated for the stationary target volume where the dose distributions are optimized considering intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). Second, a convolution-kernel is produced from the best-fitting curve which matches the motion trajectory of the patient. Third, the motion kernel is deconvolved with the initial dose distribution optimized for themore » stationary target to produce a dose distribution that is optimized in four-dimensions. This algorithm is tested with measured doses using a mobile phantom that moves with controlled motion patterns. Results: A motion-optimized dose distribution is obtained from the initial dose distribution of the stationary target by deconvolution with the motion-kernel of the mobile target. This motion-optimized dose distribution is equivalent to that optimized for the stationary target using IMRT. The motion-optimized and measured dose distributions are tested with the gamma index with a passing rate of >95% considering 3% dose-difference and 3mm distance-to-agreement. If the dose delivery per beam takes place over several respiratory cycles, then the spread-out of the dose distributions is only dependent on the motion amplitude and not affected by motion frequency and phase. This algorithm is limited to motion amplitudes that are smaller than the length of the target along the direction of motion. Conclusion: An algorithm is developed to optimize dose in 4D. Besides IMRT that provides optimal dose coverage for a stationary target, it extends dose optimization to 4D considering target motion. This algorithm provides alternative to motion management techniques such as beam-gating or breath-holding and has potential applications in adaptive radiation therapy.« less

What a Difference a Parameter Makes: a Psychophysical Comparison of Random Dot Motion Algorithms

PubMed Central

Pilly, Praveen K.; Seitz, Aaron R.

2009-01-01

Random dot motion (RDM) displays have emerged as one of the standard stimulus types employed in psychophysical and physiological studies of motion processing. RDMs are convenient because it is straightforward to manipulate the relative motion energy for a given motion direction in addition to stimulus parameters such as the speed, contrast, duration, density, aperture, etc. However, as widely as RDMs are employed so do they vary in their details of implementation. As a result, it is often difficult to make direct comparisons across studies employing different RDM algorithms and parameters. Here, we systematically measure the ability of human subjects to estimate motion direction for four commonly used RDM algorithms under a range of parameters in order to understand how these different algorithms compare in their perceptibility. We find that parametric and algorithmic differences can produce dramatically different performances. These effects, while surprising, can be understood in relationship to pertinent neurophysiological data regarding spatiotemporal displacement tuning properties of cells in area MT and how the tuning function changes with stimulus contrast and retinal eccentricity. These data help give a baseline by which different RDM algorithms can be compared, demonstrate a need for clearly reporting RDM details in the methods of papers, and also pose new constraints and challenges to models of motion direction processing. PMID:19336240

Global velocity constrained cloud motion prediction for short-term solar forecasting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Yanjun; Li, Wei; Zhang, Chongyang; Hu, Chuanping

2016-09-01

Cloud motion is the primary reason for short-term solar power output fluctuation. In this work, a new cloud motion estimation algorithm using a global velocity constraint is proposed. Compared to the most used Particle Image Velocity (PIV) algorithm, which assumes the homogeneity of motion vectors, the proposed method can capture the accurate motion vector for each cloud block, including both the motional tendency and morphological changes. Specifically, global velocity derived from PIV is first calculated, and then fine-grained cloud motion estimation can be achieved by global velocity based cloud block researching and multi-scale cloud block matching. Experimental results show that the proposed global velocity constrained cloud motion prediction achieves comparable performance to the existing PIV and filtered PIV algorithms, especially in a short prediction horizon.

Motion Estimation Using the Firefly Algorithm in Ultrasonic Image Sequence of Soft Tissue

PubMed Central

Chao, Chih-Feng; Horng, Ming-Huwi; Chen, Yu-Chan

2015-01-01

Ultrasonic image sequence of the soft tissue is widely used in disease diagnosis; however, the speckle noises usually influenced the image quality. These images usually have a low signal-to-noise ratio presentation. The phenomenon gives rise to traditional motion estimation algorithms that are not suitable to measure the motion vectors. In this paper, a new motion estimation algorithm is developed for assessing the velocity field of soft tissue in a sequence of ultrasonic B-mode images. The proposed iterative firefly algorithm (IFA) searches for few candidate points to obtain the optimal motion vector, and then compares it to the traditional iterative full search algorithm (IFSA) via a series of experiments of in vivo ultrasonic image sequences. The experimental results show that the IFA can assess the vector with better efficiency and almost equal estimation quality compared to the traditional IFSA method. PMID:25873987

Motion estimation using the firefly algorithm in ultrasonic image sequence of soft tissue.

PubMed

Chao, Chih-Feng; Horng, Ming-Huwi; Chen, Yu-Chan

2015-01-01

Ultrasonic image sequence of the soft tissue is widely used in disease diagnosis; however, the speckle noises usually influenced the image quality. These images usually have a low signal-to-noise ratio presentation. The phenomenon gives rise to traditional motion estimation algorithms that are not suitable to measure the motion vectors. In this paper, a new motion estimation algorithm is developed for assessing the velocity field of soft tissue in a sequence of ultrasonic B-mode images. The proposed iterative firefly algorithm (IFA) searches for few candidate points to obtain the optimal motion vector, and then compares it to the traditional iterative full search algorithm (IFSA) via a series of experiments of in vivo ultrasonic image sequences. The experimental results show that the IFA can assess the vector with better efficiency and almost equal estimation quality compared to the traditional IFSA method.

Optimization of yttrium-90 PET for simultaneous PET/MR imaging: A phantom study

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

Eldib, Mootaz

2016-08-15

Purpose: Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of yttrium-90 in the liver post radioembolization has been shown useful for personalized dosimetry calculations and evaluation of extrahepatic deposition. The purpose of this study was to quantify the benefits of several MR-based data correction approaches offered by using a combined PET/MR system to improve Y-90 PET imaging. In particular, the feasibility of motion and partial volume corrections were investigated in a controlled phantom study. Methods: The ACR phantom was filled with an initial concentration of 8 GBq of Y-90 solution resulting in a contrast of 10:1 between the hot cylinders and the background.more » Y-90 PET motion correction through motion estimates from MR navigators was evaluated by using a custom-built motion stage that simulated realistic amplitudes of respiration-induced liver motion. Finally, the feasibility of an MR-based partial volume correction method was evaluated using a wavelet decomposition approach. Results: Motion resulted in a large (∼40%) loss of contrast recovery for the 8 mm cylinder in the phantom, but was corrected for after MR-based motion correction was applied. Partial volume correction improved contrast recovery by 13% for the 8 mm cylinder. Conclusions: MR-based data correction improves Y-90 PET imaging on simultaneous PET/MR systems. Assessment of these methods must be studied further in the clinical setting.« less

SU-F-J-77: Variations in the Displacement Vector Fields Calculated by Different Deformable Image Registration Algorithms Used in Helical, Axial and Cone-Beam CT Images of a Mobile

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

Ali, I; Jaskowiak, J; Ahmad, S

Purpose: To investigate quantitatively the displacement-vector-fields (DVF) obtained from different deformable image registration algorithms (DIR) in helical (HCT), axial (ACT) and cone-beam CT (CBCT) to register CT images of a mobile phantom and its correlation with motion amplitudes and frequencies. Methods: HCT, ACT and CBCT are used to image a mobile phantom which includes three targets with different sizes that are manufactured from water-equivalent material and embedded in low density foam. The phantom is moved with controlled motion patterns where a range of motion amplitudes (0–40mm) and frequencies (0.125–0.5Hz) are used. The CT images obtained from scanning of the mobilemore » phantom are registered with the stationary CT-images using four deformable image registration algorithms including demons, fast-demons, Horn-Schunk and Locas-Kanade from DIRART software. Results: The DVF calculated by the different algorithms correlate well with the motion amplitudes that are applied on the mobile phantom where maximal DVF increase linearly with the motion amplitudes of the mobile phantom in CBCT. Similarly in HCT, DVF increase linearly with motion amplitude, however, its correlation is weaker than CBCT. In ACT, the DVF’s do not correlate well with the motion amplitudes where motion induces strong image artifacts and DIR algorithms are not able to deform the ACT image of the mobile targets to the stationary targets. Three DIR-algorithms produce comparable values and patterns of the DVF for certain CT imaging modality. However, DVF from fast-demons deviated strongly from other algorithms at large motion amplitudes. Conclusion: In CBCT and HCT, the DVF correlate well with the motion amplitude of the mobile phantom. However, in ACT, DVF do not correlate with motion amplitudes. Correlations of DVF with motion amplitude as in CBCT and HCT imaging techniques can provide information about unknown motion parameters of the mobile organs in real patients as demonstrated in this phantom visibility study.« less

A new method for tracking organ motion on diagnostic ultrasound images

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

Kubota, Yoshiki, E-mail: y-kubota@gunma-u.ac.jp; Matsumura, Akihiko, E-mail: matchan.akihiko@gunma-u.ac.jp; Fukahori, Mai, E-mail: fukahori@nirs.go.jp

2014-09-15

Purpose: Respiratory-gated irradiation is effective in reducing the margins of a target in the case of abdominal organs, such as the liver, that change their position as a result of respiratory motion. However, existing technologies are incapable of directly measuring organ motion in real-time during radiation beam delivery. Hence, the authors proposed a novel quantitative organ motion tracking method involving the use of diagnostic ultrasound images; it is noninvasive and does not entail radiation exposure. In the present study, the authors have prospectively evaluated this proposed method. Methods: The method involved real-time processing of clinical ultrasound imaging data rather thanmore » organ monitoring; it comprised a three-dimensional ultrasound device, a respiratory sensing system, and two PCs for data storage and analysis. The study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method by tracking the gallbladder in one subject and a liver vein in another subject. To track a moving target organ, the method involved the control of a region of interest (ROI) that delineated the target. A tracking algorithm was used to control the ROI, and a large number of feature points and an error correction algorithm were used to achieve long-term tracking of the target. Tracking accuracy was assessed in terms of how well the ROI matched the center of the target. Results: The effectiveness of using a large number of feature points and the error correction algorithm in the proposed method was verified by comparing it with two simple tracking methods. The ROI could capture the center of the target for about 5 min in a cross-sectional image with changing position. Indeed, using the proposed method, it was possible to accurately track a target with a center deviation of 1.54 ± 0.9 mm. The computing time for one frame image using our proposed method was 8 ms. It is expected that it would be possible to track any soft-tissue organ or tumor with large deformations and changing cross-sectional position using this method. Conclusions: The proposed method achieved real-time processing and continuous tracking of the target organ for about 5 min. It is expected that our method will enable more accurate radiation treatment than is the case using indirect observational methods, such as the respiratory sensor method, because of direct visualization of the tumor. Results show that this tracking system facilitates safe treatment in clinical practice.« less

Improved optical flow velocity analysis in SO2 camera images of volcanic plumes - implications for emission-rate retrievals investigated at Mt Etna, Italy and Guallatiri, Chile

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gliß, Jonas; Stebel, Kerstin; Kylling, Arve; Sudbø, Aasmund

2018-02-01

Accurate gas velocity measurements in emission plumes are highly desirable for various atmospheric remote sensing applications. The imaging technique of UV SO2 cameras is commonly used to monitor SO2 emissions from volcanoes and anthropogenic sources (e.g. power plants, ships). The camera systems capture the emission plumes at high spatial and temporal resolution. This allows the gas velocities in the plume to be retrieved directly from the images. The latter can be measured at a pixel level using optical flow (OF) algorithms. This is particularly advantageous under turbulent plume conditions. However, OF algorithms intrinsically rely on contrast in the images and often fail to detect motion in low-contrast image areas. We present a new method to identify ill-constrained OF motion vectors and replace them using the local average velocity vector. The latter is derived based on histograms of the retrieved OF motion fields. The new method is applied to two example data sets recorded at Mt Etna (Italy) and Guallatiri (Chile). We show that in many cases, the uncorrected OF yields significantly underestimated SO2 emission rates. We further show that our proposed correction can account for this and that it significantly improves the reliability of optical-flow-based gas velocity retrievals. In the case of Mt Etna, the SO2 emissions of the north-eastern crater are investigated. The corrected SO2 emission rates range between 4.8 and 10.7 kg s-1 (average of 7.1 ± 1.3 kg s-1) and are in good agreement with previously reported values. For the Guallatiri data, the emissions of the central crater and a fumarolic field are investigated. The retrieved SO2 emission rates are between 0.5 and 2.9 kg s-1 (average of 1.3 ± 0.5 kg s-1) and provide the first report of SO2 emissions from this remotely located and inaccessible volcano.

A method for acquiring random range uncertainty probability distributions in proton therapy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holloway, S. M.; Holloway, M. D.; Thomas, S. J.

2018-01-01

In treatment planning we depend upon accurate knowledge of geometric and range uncertainties. If the uncertainty model is inaccurate then the plan will produce under-dosing of the target and/or overdosing of OAR. We aim to provide a method for which centre and site-specific population range uncertainty due to inter-fraction motion can be quantified to improve the uncertainty model in proton treatment planning. Daily volumetric MVCT data from previously treated radiotherapy patients has been used to investigate inter-fraction changes to water equivalent path-length (WEPL). Daily image-guidance scans were carried out for each patient and corrected for changes in CTV position (using rigid transformations). An effective depth algorithm was used to determine residual range changes, after corrections had been applied, throughout the treatment by comparing WEPL within the CTV at each fraction for several beam angles. As a proof of principle this method was used to quantify uncertainties for inter-fraction range changes for a sample of head and neck patients of Σ=3.39 mm, σ = 4.72 mm and overall mean = -1.82 mm. For prostate Σ=5.64 mm, σ = 5.91 mm and overall mean = 0.98 mm. The choice of beam angle for head and neck did not affect the inter-fraction range error significantly; however this was not the same for prostate. Greater range changes were seen using a lateral beam compared to an anterior beam for prostate due to relative motion of the prostate and femoral heads. A method has been developed to quantify population range changes due to inter-fraction motion that can be adapted for the clinic. The results of this work highlight the importance of robust planning and analysis in proton therapy. Such information could be used in robust optimisation algorithms or treatment plan robustness analysis. Such knowledge will aid in establishing beam start conditions at planning and for establishing adaptive planning protocols.

Evaluation of motion-correction methods for dual-gated cardiac positron emission tomography/computed tomography imaging.

PubMed

Klén, Riku; Noponen, Tommi; Koikkalainen, Juha; Lötjönen, Jyrki; Thielemans, Kris; Hoppela, Erika; Sipilä, Hannu; Teräs, Mika; Knuuti, Juhani

2016-09-01

Dual gating is a method of dividing the data of a cardiac PET scan into smaller bins according to the respiratory motion and the ECG of the patient. It reduces the undesirable motion artefacts in images, but produces several images for interpretation and decreases the quality of single images. By using motion-correction techniques, the motion artefacts in the dual-gated images can be corrected and the images can be combined into a single motion-free image with good statistics. The aim of the present study is to develop and evaluate motion-correction methods for cardiac PET studies. We have developed and compared two different methods: computed tomography (CT)/PET-based and CT-only methods. The methods were implemented and tested with a cardiac phantom and three patient datasets. In both methods, anatomical information of CT images is used to create models for the cardiac motion. In the patient study, the CT-only method reduced motion (measured as the centre of mass of the myocardium) on average 43%, increased the contrast-to-noise ratio on average 6.0% and reduced the target size on average 10%. Slightly better figures (51, 6.9 and 28%) were obtained with the CT/PET-based method. Even better results were obtained in the phantom study for both the CT-only method (57, 68 and 43%) and the CT/PET-based method (61, 74 and 52%). We conclude that using anatomical information of CT for motion correction of cardiac PET images, both respiratory and pulsatile motions can be corrected with good accuracy.

Initial investigation into lower-cost CT for resource limited regions of the world

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dobbins, James T., III; Wells, Jered R.; Segars, W. Paul; Li, Christina M.; Kigongo, Christopher J. N.

2010-04-01

This paper describes an initial investigation into means for producing lower-cost CT scanners for resource limited regions of the world. In regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, intermediate level medical facilities serving millions have no CT machines, and lack the imaging resources necessary to determine whether certain patients would benefit from being transferred to a hospital in a larger city for further diagnostic workup or treatment. Low-cost CT scanners would potentially be of immense help to the healthcare system in such regions. Such scanners would not produce state-of-theart image quality, but rather would be intended primarily for triaging purposes to determine the patients who would benefit from transfer to larger hospitals. The lower-cost scanner investigated here consists of a fixed digital radiography system and a rotating patient stage. This paper describes initial experiments to determine if such a configuration is feasible. Experiments were conducted using (1) x-ray image acquisition, a physical anthropomorphic chest phantom, and a flat-panel detector system, and (2) a computer-simulated XCAT chest phantom. Both the physical phantom and simulated phantom produced excellent image quality reconstructions when the phantom was perfectly aligned during acquisition, but artifacts were noted when the phantom was displaced to simulate patient motion. An algorithm was developed to correct for motion of the phantom and demonstrated success in correcting for 5-mm motion during 360-degree acquisition of images. These experiments demonstrated feasibility for this approach, but additional work is required to determine the exact limitations produced by patient motion.

Impact of nonrigid motion correction technique on pixel-wise pharmacokinetic analysis of free-breathing pulmonary dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging.

PubMed

Tokuda, Junichi; Mamata, Hatsuho; Gill, Ritu R; Hata, Nobuhiko; Kikinis, Ron; Padera, Robert F; Lenkinski, Robert E; Sugarbaker, David J; Hatabu, Hiroto

2011-04-01

To investigates the impact of nonrigid motion correction on pixel-wise pharmacokinetic analysis of free-breathing DCE-MRI in patients with solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs). Misalignment of focal lesions due to respiratory motion in free-breathing dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) precludes obtaining reliable time-intensity curves, which are crucial for pharmacokinetic analysis for tissue characterization. Single-slice 2D DCE-MRI was obtained in 15 patients. Misalignments of SPNs were corrected using nonrigid B-spline image registration. Pixel-wise pharmacokinetic parameters K(trans) , v(e) , and k(ep) were estimated from both original and motion-corrected DCE-MRI by fitting the two-compartment pharmacokinetic model to the time-intensity curve obtained in each pixel. The "goodness-of-fit" was tested with χ(2) -test in pixel-by-pixel basis to evaluate the reliability of the parameters. The percentages of reliable pixels within the SPNs were compared between the original and motion-corrected DCE-MRI. In addition, the parameters obtained from benign and malignant SPNs were compared. The percentage of reliable pixels in the motion-corrected DCE-MRI was significantly larger than the original DCE-MRI (P = 4 × 10(-7) ). Both K(trans) and k(ep) derived from the motion-corrected DCE-MRI showed significant differences between benign and malignant SPNs (P = 0.024, 0.015). The study demonstrated the impact of nonrigid motion correction technique on pixel-wise pharmacokinetic analysis of free-breathing DCE-MRI in SPNs. Copyright © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Algorithm for the stabilization of motion a bounding vehicle in the flight phase

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lapshin, V. V.

1980-01-01

The unsupported phase of motion of a multileg bounding vehicle is examined. An algorithm for stabilization of the angular motion of the vehicle housing by change of the motion of the legs during flight is constructed. The results of mathematical modelling of the stabilization process by computer are presented.

Modified echo peak correction for radial acquisition regime (RADAR).

PubMed

Takizawa, Masahiro; Ito, Taeko; Itagaki, Hiroyuki; Takahashi, Tetsuhiko; Shimizu, Kanichirou; Harada, Junta

2009-01-01

Because radial sampling imposes many limitations on magnetic resonance (MR) imaging hardware, such as on the accuracy of the gradient magnetic field or the homogeneity of B(0), some correction of the echo signal is usually needed before image reconstruction. In our previous study, we developed an echo-peak-shift correction (EPSC) algorithm not easily affected by hardware performance. However, some artifacts remained in lung imaging, where tissue is almost absent, or in cardiac imaging, which is affected by blood flow. In this study, we modified the EPSC algorithm to improve the image quality of the radial aquisition regime (RADAR) and expand its application sequences. We assumed the artifacts were mainly caused by errors in the phase map for EPSC and used a phantom on a 1.5-tesla (T) MR scanner to investigate whether to modify the EPSC algorithm. To evaluate the effectiveness of EPSC, we compared results from T(1)- and T(2)-weighted images of a volunteer's lung region using the current and modified EPSC. We then applied the modified EPSC to RADAR spin echo (SE) and RADAR balanced steady-state acquisition with rewound gradient echo (BASG) sequence. The modified EPSC reduced phase discontinuity in the reference data used for EPSC and improved visualization of blood vessels in the lungs. Motion and blood flow caused no visible artifacts in the resulting images in either RADAR SE or RADAR BASG sequence. Use of the modified EPSC eliminated artifacts caused by signal loss in the reference data for EPSC. In addition, the modified EPSC was applied to RADAR SE and RADAR BASG sequences.

A method to improve the B0 homogeneity of the heart in vivo.

PubMed

Jaffer, F A; Wen, H; Balaban, R S; Wolff, S D

1996-09-01

A homogeneous static (B0) magnetic field is required for many NMR experiments such as echo planar imaging, localized spectroscopy, and spiral scan imaging. Although semi-automated techniques have been described to improve the B0 field homogeneity, none has been applied to the in vivo heart. The acquisition of cardiac field maps is complicated by motion, blood flow, and chemical shift artifact from epicardial fat. To overcome these problems, an ungated three-dimensional (3D) chemical shift image (CSI) was collected to generate a time and motion-averaged B0 field map. B0 heterogeneity in the heart was minimized by using a previous algorithm that solves for the optimal shim coil currents for an input field map, using up to third-order current-bounded shims (1). The method improved the B0 homogenelty of the heart in all 11 normal volunteers studied. After application of the algorithm to the unshimmed cardiac field maps, the standard deviation of proton frequency decreased by 43%, the magnitude 1H spectral linewidth decreased by 24%, and the peak-peak gradient decreased by 35%. Simulations of the high-order (second- and third-order) shims in B0 field correction of the heart show that high order shims are important, resulting for nearly half of the improvement in homogeneity for several subjects. The T2* of the left ventricular anterior wall before and after field correction was determined at 4.0 Tesis. Finally, results show that cardiac shimming is of benefit in cardiac 31P NMR spectroscopy and cardiac echo planar imaging.

Head motion evaluation and correction for PET scans with 18F-FDG in the Japanese Alzheimer's disease neuroimaging initiative (J-ADNI) multi-center study.

PubMed

Ikari, Yasuhiko; Nishio, Tomoyuki; Makishi, Yoko; Miya, Yukari; Ito, Kengo; Koeppe, Robert A; Senda, Michio

2012-08-01

Head motion during 30-min (six 5-min frames) brain PET scans starting 30 min post-injection of FDG was evaluated together with the effect of post hoc motion correction between frames in J-ADNI multicenter study carried out in 24 PET centers on a total of 172 subjects consisting of 81 normal subjects, 55 mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 36 mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Based on the magnitude of the between-frame co-registration parameters, the scans were classified into six levels (A-F) of motion degree. The effect of motion and its correction was evaluated using between-frame variation of the regional FDG uptake values on ROIs placed over cerebral cortical areas. Although AD patients tended to present larger motion (motion level E or F in 22 % of the subjects) than MCI (3 %) and normal (4 %) subjects, unignorable motion was observed in a small number of subjects in the latter groups as well. The between-frame coefficient of variation (SD/mean) was 0.5 % in the frontal, 0.6 % in the parietal and 1.8 % in the posterior cingulate ROI for the scans of motion level 1. The respective values were 1.5, 1.4, and 3.6 % for the scans of motion level F, but reduced by the motion correction to 0.5, 0.4 and 0.8 %, respectively. The motion correction changed the ROI value for the posterior cingulate cortex by 11.6 % in the case of severest motion. Substantial head motion occurs in a fraction of subjects in a multicenter setup which includes PET centers lacking sufficient experience in imaging demented patients. A simple frame-by-frame co-registration technique that can be applied to any PET camera model is effective in correcting for motion and improving quantitative capability.

Marker-free motion correction in weight-bearing cone-beam CT of the knee joint.

PubMed

Berger, M; Müller, K; Aichert, A; Unberath, M; Thies, J; Choi, J-H; Fahrig, R; Maier, A

2016-03-01

To allow for a purely image-based motion estimation and compensation in weight-bearing cone-beam computed tomography of the knee joint. Weight-bearing imaging of the knee joint in a standing position poses additional requirements for the image reconstruction algorithm. In contrast to supine scans, patient motion needs to be estimated and compensated. The authors propose a method that is based on 2D/3D registration of left and right femur and tibia segmented from a prior, motion-free reconstruction acquired in supine position. Each segmented bone is first roughly aligned to the motion-corrupted reconstruction of a scan in standing or squatting position. Subsequently, a rigid 2D/3D registration is performed for each bone to each of K projection images, estimating 6 × 4 × K motion parameters. The motion of individual bones is combined into global motion fields using thin-plate-spline extrapolation. These can be incorporated into a motion-compensated reconstruction in the backprojection step. The authors performed visual and quantitative comparisons between a state-of-the-art marker-based (MB) method and two variants of the proposed method using gradient correlation (GC) and normalized gradient information (NGI) as similarity measure for the 2D/3D registration. The authors evaluated their method on four acquisitions under different squatting positions of the same patient. All methods showed substantial improvement in image quality compared to the uncorrected reconstructions. Compared to NGI and MB, the GC method showed increased streaking artifacts due to misregistrations in lateral projection images. NGI and MB showed comparable image quality at the bone regions. Because the markers are attached to the skin, the MB method performed better at the surface of the legs where the authors observed slight streaking of the NGI and GC methods. For a quantitative evaluation, the authors computed the universal quality index (UQI) for all bone regions with respect to the motion-free reconstruction. The authors quantitative evaluation over regions around the bones yielded a mean UQI of 18.4 for no correction, 53.3 and 56.1 for the proposed method using GC and NGI, respectively, and 53.7 for the MB reference approach. In contrast to the authors registration-based corrections, the MB reference method caused slight nonrigid deformations at bone outlines when compared to a motion-free reference scan. The authors showed that their method based on the NGI similarity measure yields reconstruction quality close to the MB reference method. In contrast to the MB method, the proposed method does not require any preparation prior to the examination which will improve the clinical workflow and patient comfort. Further, the authors found that the MB method causes small, nonrigid deformations at the bone outline which indicates that markers may not accurately reflect the internal motion close to the knee joint. Therefore, the authors believe that the proposed method is a promising alternative to MB motion management.

Marker-free motion correction in weight-bearing cone-beam CT of the knee joint

PubMed Central

Berger, M.; Müller, K.; Aichert, A.; Unberath, M.; Thies, J.; Choi, J.-H.; Fahrig, R.; Maier, A.

2016-01-01

Purpose: To allow for a purely image-based motion estimation and compensation in weight-bearing cone-beam computed tomography of the knee joint. Methods: Weight-bearing imaging of the knee joint in a standing position poses additional requirements for the image reconstruction algorithm. In contrast to supine scans, patient motion needs to be estimated and compensated. The authors propose a method that is based on 2D/3D registration of left and right femur and tibia segmented from a prior, motion-free reconstruction acquired in supine position. Each segmented bone is first roughly aligned to the motion-corrupted reconstruction of a scan in standing or squatting position. Subsequently, a rigid 2D/3D registration is performed for each bone to each of K projection images, estimating 6 × 4 × K motion parameters. The motion of individual bones is combined into global motion fields using thin-plate-spline extrapolation. These can be incorporated into a motion-compensated reconstruction in the backprojection step. The authors performed visual and quantitative comparisons between a state-of-the-art marker-based (MB) method and two variants of the proposed method using gradient correlation (GC) and normalized gradient information (NGI) as similarity measure for the 2D/3D registration. Results: The authors evaluated their method on four acquisitions under different squatting positions of the same patient. All methods showed substantial improvement in image quality compared to the uncorrected reconstructions. Compared to NGI and MB, the GC method showed increased streaking artifacts due to misregistrations in lateral projection images. NGI and MB showed comparable image quality at the bone regions. Because the markers are attached to the skin, the MB method performed better at the surface of the legs where the authors observed slight streaking of the NGI and GC methods. For a quantitative evaluation, the authors computed the universal quality index (UQI) for all bone regions with respect to the motion-free reconstruction. The authors quantitative evaluation over regions around the bones yielded a mean UQI of 18.4 for no correction, 53.3 and 56.1 for the proposed method using GC and NGI, respectively, and 53.7 for the MB reference approach. In contrast to the authors registration-based corrections, the MB reference method caused slight nonrigid deformations at bone outlines when compared to a motion-free reference scan. Conclusions: The authors showed that their method based on the NGI similarity measure yields reconstruction quality close to the MB reference method. In contrast to the MB method, the proposed method does not require any preparation prior to the examination which will improve the clinical workflow and patient comfort. Further, the authors found that the MB method causes small, nonrigid deformations at the bone outline which indicates that markers may not accurately reflect the internal motion close to the knee joint. Therefore, the authors believe that the proposed method is a promising alternative to MB motion management. PMID:26936708

Correction And Use Of Jitter In Television Images

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Diner, Daniel B.; Fender, Derek H.; Fender, Antony R. H.

1989-01-01

Proposed system stabilizes jittering television image and/or measures jitter to extract information on motions of objects in image. Alternative version, system controls lateral motion on camera to generate stereoscopic views to measure distances to objects. In another version, motion of camera controlled to keep object in view. Heart of system is digital image-data processor called "jitter-miser", which includes frame buffer and logic circuits to correct for jitter in image. Signals from motion sensors on camera sent to logic circuits and processed into corrections for motion along and across line of sight.

Advanced Respiratory Motion Compensation for Coronary MR Angiography

PubMed Central

Henningsson, Markus; Botnar, Rene M.

2013-01-01

Despite technical advances, respiratory motion remains a major impediment in a substantial amount of patients undergoing coronary magnetic resonance angiography (CMRA). Traditionally, respiratory motion compensation has been performed with a one-dimensional respiratory navigator positioned on the right hemi-diaphragm, using a motion model to estimate and correct for the bulk respiratory motion of the heart. Recent technical advancements has allowed for direct respiratory motion estimation of the heart, with improved motion compensation performance. Some of these new methods, particularly using image-based navigators or respiratory binning, allow for more advanced motion correction which enables CMRA data acquisition throughout most or all of the respiratory cycle, thereby significantly reducing scan time. This review describes the three components typically involved in most motion compensation strategies for CMRA, including respiratory motion estimation, gating and correction, and how these processes can be utilized to perform advanced respiratory motion compensation. PMID:23708271

Automatic motion correction for in vivo human skin optical coherence tomography angiography through combined rigid and nonrigid registration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, David Wei; Deegan, Anthony J.; Wang, Ruikang K.

2017-06-01

When using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), the development of artifacts due to involuntary movements can severely compromise the visualization and subsequent quantitation of tissue microvasculatures. To correct such an occurrence, we propose a motion compensation method to eliminate artifacts from human skin OCTA by means of step-by-step rigid affine registration, rigid subpixel registration, and nonrigid B-spline registration. To accommodate this remedial process, OCTA is conducted using two matching all-depth volume scans. Affine transformation is first performed on the large vessels of the deep reticular dermis, and then the resulting affine parameters are applied to all-depth vasculatures with a further subpixel registration to refine the alignment between superficial smaller vessels. Finally, the coregistration of both volumes is carried out to result in the final artifact-free composite image via an algorithm based upon cubic B-spline free-form deformation. We demonstrate that the proposed method can provide a considerable improvement to the final en face OCTA images with substantial artifact removal. In addition, the correlation coefficients and peak signal-to-noise ratios of the corrected images are evaluated and compared with those of the original images, further validating the effectiveness of the proposed method. We expect that the proposed method can be useful in improving qualitative and quantitative assessment of the OCTA images of scanned tissue beds.

Automatic motion correction for in vivo human skin optical coherence tomography angiography through combined rigid and nonrigid registration.

PubMed

Wei, David Wei; Deegan, Anthony J; Wang, Ruikang K

2017-06-01

When using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), the development of artifacts due to involuntary movements can severely compromise the visualization and subsequent quantitation of tissue microvasculatures. To correct such an occurrence, we propose a motion compensation method to eliminate artifacts from human skin OCTA by means of step-by-step rigid affine registration, rigid subpixel registration, and nonrigid B-spline registration. To accommodate this remedial process, OCTA is conducted using two matching all-depth volume scans. Affine transformation is first performed on the large vessels of the deep reticular dermis, and then the resulting affine parameters are applied to all-depth vasculatures with a further subpixel registration to refine the alignment between superficial smaller vessels. Finally, the coregistration of both volumes is carried out to result in the final artifact-free composite image via an algorithm based upon cubic B-spline free-form deformation. We demonstrate that the proposed method can provide a considerable improvement to the final en face OCTA images with substantial artifact removal. In addition, the correlation coefficients and peak signal-to-noise ratios of the corrected images are evaluated and compared with those of the original images, further validating the effectiveness of the proposed method. We expect that the proposed method can be useful in improving qualitative and quantitative assessment of the OCTA images of scanned tissue beds.

Motion Artifact Reduction in Pediatric Diffusion Tensor Imaging Using Fast Prospective Correction

PubMed Central

Alhamud, A.; Taylor, Paul A.; Laughton, Barbara; van der Kouwe, André J.W.; Meintjes, Ernesta M.

2014-01-01

Purpose To evaluate the patterns of head motion in scans of young children and to examine the influence of corrective techniques, both qualitatively and quantitatively. We investigate changes that both retrospective (with and without diffusion table reorientation) and prospective (implemented with a short navigator sequence) motion correction induce in the resulting diffusion tensor measures. Materials and Methods Eighteen pediatric subjects (aged 5–6 years) were scanned using 1) a twice-refocused, 2D diffusion pulse sequence, 2) a prospectively motion-corrected, navigated diffusion sequence with reacquisition of a maximum of five corrupted diffusion volumes, and 3) a T1-weighted structural image. Mean fractional anisotropy (FA) values in white and gray matter regions, as well as tractography in the brainstem and projection fibers, were evaluated to assess differences arising from retrospective (via FLIRT in FSL) and prospective motion correction. In addition to human scans, a stationary phantom was also used for further evaluation. Results In several white and gray matter regions retrospective correction led to significantly (P < 0.05) reduced FA means and altered distributions compared to the navigated sequence. Spurious tractographic changes in the retrospectively corrected data were also observed in subject data, as well as in phantom and simulated data. Conclusion Due to the heterogeneity of brain structures and the comparatively low resolution (~2 mm) of diffusion data using 2D single shot sequencing, retrospective motion correction is susceptible to distortion from partial voluming. These changes often negatively bias diffusion tensor imaging parameters. Prospective motion correction was shown to produce smaller changes. PMID:24935904

Motion artifact reduction in pediatric diffusion tensor imaging using fast prospective correction.

PubMed

Alhamud, A; Taylor, Paul A; Laughton, Barbara; van der Kouwe, André J W; Meintjes, Ernesta M

2015-05-01

To evaluate the patterns of head motion in scans of young children and to examine the influence of corrective techniques, both qualitatively and quantitatively. We investigate changes that both retrospective (with and without diffusion table reorientation) and prospective (implemented with a short navigator sequence) motion correction induce in the resulting diffusion tensor measures. Eighteen pediatric subjects (aged 5-6 years) were scanned using 1) a twice-refocused, 2D diffusion pulse sequence, 2) a prospectively motion-corrected, navigated diffusion sequence with reacquisition of a maximum of five corrupted diffusion volumes, and 3) a T1 -weighted structural image. Mean fractional anisotropy (FA) values in white and gray matter regions, as well as tractography in the brainstem and projection fibers, were evaluated to assess differences arising from retrospective (via FLIRT in FSL) and prospective motion correction. In addition to human scans, a stationary phantom was also used for further evaluation. In several white and gray matter regions retrospective correction led to significantly (P < 0.05) reduced FA means and altered distributions compared to the navigated sequence. Spurious tractographic changes in the retrospectively corrected data were also observed in subject data, as well as in phantom and simulated data. Due to the heterogeneity of brain structures and the comparatively low resolution (∼2 mm) of diffusion data using 2D single shot sequencing, retrospective motion correction is susceptible to distortion from partial voluming. These changes often negatively bias diffusion tensor imaging parameters. Prospective motion correction was shown to produce smaller changes. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A hardware-oriented concurrent TZ search algorithm for High-Efficiency Video Coding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doan, Nghia; Kim, Tae Sung; Rhee, Chae Eun; Lee, Hyuk-Jae

2017-12-01

High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is the latest video coding standard, in which the compression performance is double that of its predecessor, the H.264/AVC standard, while the video quality remains unchanged. In HEVC, the test zone (TZ) search algorithm is widely used for integer motion estimation because it effectively searches the good-quality motion vector with a relatively small amount of computation. However, the complex computation structure of the TZ search algorithm makes it difficult to implement it in the hardware. This paper proposes a new integer motion estimation algorithm which is designed for hardware execution by modifying the conventional TZ search to allow parallel motion estimations of all prediction unit (PU) partitions. The algorithm consists of the three phases of zonal, raster, and refinement searches. At the beginning of each phase, the algorithm obtains the search points required by the original TZ search for all PU partitions in a coding unit (CU). Then, all redundant search points are removed prior to the estimation of the motion costs, and the best search points are then selected for all PUs. Compared to the conventional TZ search algorithm, experimental results show that the proposed algorithm significantly decreases the Bjøntegaard Delta bitrate (BD-BR) by 0.84%, and it also reduces the computational complexity by 54.54%.

Algorithm-Based Motion Magnification for Video Processing in Urological Laparoscopy.

PubMed

Adams, Fabian; Schoelly, Reto; Schlager, Daniel; Schoenthaler, Martin; Schoeb, Dominik S; Wilhelm, Konrad; Hein, Simon; Wetterauer, Ulrich; Miernik, Arkadiusz

2017-06-01

Minimally invasive surgery is in constant further development and has replaced many conventional operative procedures. If vascular structure movement could be detected during these procedures, it could reduce the risk of vascular injury and conversion to open surgery. The recently proposed motion-amplifying algorithm, Eulerian Video Magnification (EVM), has been shown to substantially enhance minimal object changes in digitally recorded video that is barely perceptible to the human eye. We adapted and examined this technology for use in urological laparoscopy. Video sequences of routine urological laparoscopic interventions were recorded and further processed using spatial decomposition and filtering algorithms. The freely available EVM algorithm was investigated for its usability in real-time processing. In addition, a new image processing technology, the CRS iimotion Motion Magnification (CRSMM) algorithm, was specifically adjusted for endoscopic requirements, applied, and validated by our working group. Using EVM, no significant motion enhancement could be detected without severe impairment of the image resolution, motion, and color presentation. The CRSMM algorithm significantly improved image quality in terms of motion enhancement. In particular, the pulsation of vascular structures could be displayed more accurately than in EVM. Motion magnification image processing technology has the potential for clinical importance as a video optimizing modality in endoscopic and laparoscopic surgery. Barely detectable (micro)movements can be visualized using this noninvasive marker-free method. Despite these optimistic results, the technology requires considerable further technical development and clinical tests.

Two novel motion-based algorithms for surveillance video analysis on embedded platforms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vijverberg, Julien A.; Loomans, Marijn J. H.; Koeleman, Cornelis J.; de With, Peter H. N.

2010-05-01

This paper proposes two novel motion-vector based techniques for target detection and target tracking in surveillance videos. The algorithms are designed to operate on a resource-constrained device, such as a surveillance camera, and to reuse the motion vectors generated by the video encoder. The first novel algorithm for target detection uses motion vectors to construct a consistent motion mask, which is combined with a simple background segmentation technique to obtain a segmentation mask. The second proposed algorithm aims at multi-target tracking and uses motion vectors to assign blocks to targets employing five features. The weights of these features are adapted based on the interaction between targets. These algorithms are combined in one complete analysis application. The performance of this application for target detection has been evaluated for the i-LIDS sterile zone dataset and achieves an F1-score of 0.40-0.69. The performance of the analysis algorithm for multi-target tracking has been evaluated using the CAVIAR dataset and achieves an MOTP of around 9.7 and MOTA of 0.17-0.25. On a selection of targets in videos from other datasets, the achieved MOTP and MOTA are 8.8-10.5 and 0.32-0.49 respectively. The execution time on a PC-based platform is 36 ms. This includes the 20 ms for generating motion vectors, which are also required by the video encoder.

Low-derivative operators of the Standard Model effective field theory via Hilbert series methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lehman, Landon; Martin, Adam

2016-02-01

In this work, we explore an extension of Hilbert series techniques to count operators that include derivatives. For sufficiently low-derivative operators, we conjecture an algorithm that gives the number of invariant operators, properly accounting for redundancies due to the equations of motion and integration by parts. Specifically, the conjectured technique can be applied whenever there is only one Lorentz invariant for a given partitioning of derivatives among the fields. At higher numbers of derivatives, equation of motion redundancies can be removed, but the increased number of Lorentz contractions spoils the subtraction of integration by parts redundancies. While restricted, this technique is sufficient to automatically recreate the complete set of invariant operators of the Standard Model effective field theory for dimensions 6 and 7 (for arbitrary numbers of flavors). At dimension 8, the algorithm does not automatically generate the complete operator set; however, it suffices for all but five classes of operators. For these remaining classes, there is a well defined procedure to manually determine the number of invariants. Assuming our method is correct, we derive a set of 535 dimension-8 N f = 1 operators.

Estimation of Human Arm Joints Using Two Wireless Sensors in Robotic Rehabilitation Tasks.

PubMed

Bertomeu-Motos, Arturo; Lledó, Luis D; Díez, Jorge A; Catalan, Jose M; Ezquerro, Santiago; Badesa, Francisco J; Garcia-Aracil, Nicolas

2015-12-04

This paper presents a novel kinematic reconstruction of the human arm chain with five degrees of freedom and the estimation of the shoulder location during rehabilitation therapy assisted by end-effector robotic devices. This algorithm is based on the pseudoinverse of the Jacobian through the acceleration of the upper arm, measured using an accelerometer, and the orientation of the shoulder, estimated with a magnetic angular rate and gravity (MARG) device. The results show a high accuracy in terms of arm joints and shoulder movement with respect to the real arm measured through an optoelectronic system. Furthermore, the range of motion (ROM) of 50 healthy subjects is studied from two different trials, one trying to avoid shoulder movements and the second one forcing them. Moreover, the shoulder movement in the second trial is also estimated accurately. Besides the fact that the posture of the patient can be corrected during the exercise, the therapist could use the presented algorithm as an objective assessment tool. In conclusion, the joints' estimation enables a better adjustment of the therapy, taking into account the needs of the patient, and consequently, the arm motion improves faster.

Quantitative framework for prospective motion correction evaluation.

PubMed

Pannetier, Nicolas A; Stavrinos, Theano; Ng, Peter; Herbst, Michael; Zaitsev, Maxim; Young, Karl; Matson, Gerald; Schuff, Norbert

2016-02-01

Establishing a framework to evaluate performances of prospective motion correction (PMC) MRI considering motion variability between MRI scans. A framework was developed to obtain quantitative comparisons between different motion correction setups, considering that varying intrinsic motion patterns between acquisitions can induce bias. Intrinsic motion was considered by replaying in a phantom experiment the recorded motion trajectories from subjects. T1-weighted MRI on five volunteers and two different marker fixations (mouth guard and nose bridge fixations) were used to test the framework. Two metrics were investigated to quantify the improvement of the image quality with PMC. Motion patterns vary between subjects as well as between repeated scans within a subject. This variability can be approximated by replaying the motion in a distinct phantom experiment and used as a covariate in models comparing motion corrections. We show that considering the intrinsic motion alters the statistical significance in comparing marker fixations. As an example, two marker fixations, a mouth guard and a nose bridge, were evaluated in terms of their effectiveness for PMC. A mouth guard achieved better PMC performance. Intrinsic motion patterns can bias comparisons between PMC configurations and must be considered for robust evaluations. A framework for evaluating intrinsic motion patterns in PMC is presented. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Adaptive Registration of Varying Contrast-Weighted Images for Improved Tissue Characterization (ARCTIC): Application to T1 Mapping

PubMed Central

Roujol, Sébastien; Foppa, Murilo; Weingartner, Sebastian; Manning, Warren J.; Nezafat, Reza

2014-01-01

Purpose To propose and evaluate a novel non-rigid image registration approach for improved myocardial T1 mapping. Methods Myocardial motion is estimated as global affine motion refined by a novel local non-rigid motion estimation algorithm. A variational framework is proposed, which simultaneously estimates motion field and intensity variations, and uses an additional regularization term to constrain the deformation field using automatic feature tracking. The method was evaluated in 29 patients by measuring the DICE similarity coefficient (DSC) and the myocardial boundary error (MBE) in short axis and four chamber data. Each image series was visually assessed as “no motion” or “with motion”. Overall T1 map quality and motion artifacts were assessed in the 85 T1 maps acquired in short axis view using a 4-point scale (1-non diagnostic/severe motion artifact, 4-excellent/no motion artifact). Results Increased DSC (0.78±0.14 to 0.87±0.03, p<0.001), reduced MBE (1.29±0.72mm to 0.84±0.20mm, p<0.001), improved overall T1 map quality (2.86±1.04 to 3.49±0.77, p<0.001), and reduced T1 map motion artifacts (2.51±0.84 to 3.61±0.64, p<0.001) were obtained after motion correction of “with motion” data (~56% of data). Conclusion The proposed non-rigid registration approach reduces the respiratory-induced motion that occurs during breath-hold T1 mapping, and significantly improves T1 map quality. PMID:24798588

Example-based human motion denoising.

PubMed

Lou, Hui; Chai, Jinxiang

2010-01-01

With the proliferation of motion capture data, interest in removing noise and outliers from motion capture data has increased. In this paper, we introduce an efficient human motion denoising technique for the simultaneous removal of noise and outliers from input human motion data. The key idea of our approach is to learn a series of filter bases from precaptured motion data and use them along with robust statistics techniques to filter noisy motion data. Mathematically, we formulate the motion denoising process in a nonlinear optimization framework. The objective function measures the distance between the noisy input and the filtered motion in addition to how well the filtered motion preserves spatial-temporal patterns embedded in captured human motion data. Optimizing the objective function produces an optimal filtered motion that keeps spatial-temporal patterns in captured motion data. We also extend the algorithm to fill in the missing values in input motion data. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our system by experimenting with both real and simulated motion data. We also show the superior performance of our algorithm by comparing it with three baseline algorithms and to those in state-of-art motion capture data processing software such as Vicon Blade.

Novel method of extracting motion from natural movies.

PubMed

Suzuki, Wataru; Ichinohe, Noritaka; Tani, Toshiki; Hayami, Taku; Miyakawa, Naohisa; Watanabe, Satoshi; Takeichi, Hiroshige

2017-11-01

The visual system in primates can be segregated into motion and shape pathways. Interaction occurs at multiple stages along these pathways. Processing of shape-from-motion and biological motion is considered to be a higher-order integration process involving motion and shape information. However, relatively limited types of stimuli have been used in previous studies on these integration processes. We propose a new algorithm to extract object motion information from natural movies and to move random dots in accordance with the information. The object motion information is extracted by estimating the dynamics of local normal vectors of the image intensity projected onto the x-y plane of the movie. An electrophysiological experiment on two adult common marmoset monkeys (Callithrix jacchus) showed that the natural and random dot movies generated with this new algorithm yielded comparable neural responses in the middle temporal visual area. In principle, this algorithm provided random dot motion stimuli containing shape information for arbitrary natural movies. This new method is expected to expand the neurophysiological and psychophysical experimental protocols to elucidate the integration processing of motion and shape information in biological systems. The novel algorithm proposed here was effective in extracting object motion information from natural movies and provided new motion stimuli to investigate higher-order motion information processing. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Irradiation of the prostate and pelvic lymph nodes with an adaptive algorithm

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

Hwang, A. B.; Chen, J.; Nguyen, T. B.

2012-02-15

Purpose: The simultaneous treatment of pelvic lymph nodes and the prostate in radiotherapy for prostate cancer is complicated by the independent motion of these two target volumes. In this work, the authors study a method to adapt intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment plans so as to compensate for this motion by adaptively morphing the multileaf collimator apertures and adjusting the segment weights. Methods: The study used CT images, tumor volumes, and normal tissue contours from patients treated in our institution. An IMRT treatment plan was then created using direct aperture optimization to deliver 45 Gy to the pelvic lymphmore » nodes and 50 Gy to the prostate and seminal vesicles. The prostate target volume was then shifted in either the anterior-posterior direction or in the superior-inferior direction. The treatment plan was adapted by adjusting the aperture shapes with or without re-optimizing the segment weighting. The dose to the target volumes was then determined for the adapted plan. Results: Without compensation for prostate motion, 1 cm shifts of the prostate resulted in an average decrease of 14% in D-95%. If the isocenter is simply shifted to match the prostate motion, the prostate receives the correct dose but the pelvic lymph nodes are underdosed by 14% {+-} 6%. The use of adaptive morphing (with or without segment weight optimization) reduces the average change in D-95% to less than 5% for both the pelvic lymph nodes and the prostate. Conclusions: Adaptive morphing with and without segment weight optimization can be used to compensate for the independent motion of the prostate and lymph nodes when combined with daily imaging or other methods to track the prostate motion. This method allows the delivery of the correct dose to both the prostate and lymph nodes with only small changes to the dose delivered to the target volumes.« less

Demons versus Level-Set motion registration for coronary 18F-sodium fluoride PET.

PubMed

Rubeaux, Mathieu; Joshi, Nikhil; Dweck, Marc R; Fletcher, Alison; Motwani, Manish; Thomson, Louise E; Germano, Guido; Dey, Damini; Berman, Daniel S; Newby, David E; Slomka, Piotr J

2016-02-27

Ruptured coronary atherosclerotic plaques commonly cause acute myocardial infarction. It has been recently shown that active microcalcification in the coronary arteries, one of the features that characterizes vulnerable plaques at risk of rupture, can be imaged using cardiac gated 18 F-sodium fluoride ( 18 F-NaF) PET. We have shown in previous work that a motion correction technique applied to cardiac-gated 18 F-NaF PET images can enhance image quality and improve uptake estimates. In this study, we further investigated the applicability of different algorithms for registration of the coronary artery PET images. In particular, we aimed to compare demons vs. level-set nonlinear registration techniques applied for the correction of cardiac motion in coronary 18 F-NaF PET. To this end, fifteen patients underwent 18 F-NaF PET and prospective coronary CT angiography (CCTA). PET data were reconstructed in 10 ECG gated bins; subsequently these gated bins were registered using demons and level-set methods guided by the extracted coronary arteries from CCTA, to eliminate the effect of cardiac motion on PET images. Noise levels, target-to-background ratios (TBR) and global motion were compared to assess image quality. Compared to the reference standard of using only diastolic PET image (25% of the counts from PET acquisition), cardiac motion registration using either level-set or demons techniques almost halved image noise due to the use of counts from the full PET acquisition and increased TBR difference between 18 F-NaF positive and negative lesions. The demons method produces smoother deformation fields, exhibiting no singularities (which reflects how physically plausible the registration deformation is), as compared to the level-set method, which presents between 4 and 8% of singularities, depending on the coronary artery considered. In conclusion, the demons method produces smoother motion fields as compared to the level-set method, with a motion that is physiologically plausible. Therefore, level-set technique will likely require additional post-processing steps. On the other hand, the observed TBR increases were the highest for the level-set technique. Further investigations of the optimal registration technique of this novel coronary PET imaging technique are warranted.

Demons versus level-set motion registration for coronary 18F-sodium fluoride PET

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rubeaux, Mathieu; Joshi, Nikhil; Dweck, Marc R.; Fletcher, Alison; Motwani, Manish; Thomson, Louise E.; Germano, Guido; Dey, Damini; Berman, Daniel S.; Newby, David E.; Slomka, Piotr J.

2016-03-01

Ruptured coronary atherosclerotic plaques commonly cause acute myocardial infarction. It has been recently shown that active microcalcification in the coronary arteries, one of the features that characterizes vulnerable plaques at risk of rupture, can be imaged using cardiac gated 18F-sodium fluoride (18F-NaF) PET. We have shown in previous work that a motion correction technique applied to cardiac-gated 18F-NaF PET images can enhance image quality and improve uptake estimates. In this study, we further investigated the applicability of different algorithms for registration of the coronary artery PET images. In particular, we aimed to compare demons vs. level-set nonlinear registration techniques applied for the correction of cardiac motion in coronary 18F-NaF PET. To this end, fifteen patients underwent 18F-NaF PET and prospective coronary CT angiography (CCTA). PET data were reconstructed in 10 ECG gated bins; subsequently these gated bins were registered using demons and level-set methods guided by the extracted coronary arteries from CCTA, to eliminate the effect of cardiac motion on PET images. Noise levels, target-to-background ratios (TBR) and global motion were compared to assess image quality. Compared to the reference standard of using only diastolic PET image (25% of the counts from PET acquisition), cardiac motion registration using either level-set or demons techniques almost halved image noise due to the use of counts from the full PET acquisition and increased TBR difference between 18F-NaF positive and negative lesions. The demons method produces smoother deformation fields, exhibiting no singularities (which reflects how physically plausible the registration deformation is), as compared to the level-set method, which presents between 4 and 8% of singularities, depending on the coronary artery considered. In conclusion, the demons method produces smoother motion fields as compared to the level-set method, with a motion that is physiologically plausible. Therefore, level-set technique will likely require additional post-processing steps. On the other hand, the observed TBR increases were the highest for the level-set technique. Further investigations of the optimal registration technique of this novel coronary PET imaging technique are warranted.

Direct Parametric Reconstruction With Joint Motion Estimation/Correction for Dynamic Brain PET Data.

PubMed

Jiao, Jieqing; Bousse, Alexandre; Thielemans, Kris; Burgos, Ninon; Weston, Philip S J; Schott, Jonathan M; Atkinson, David; Arridge, Simon R; Hutton, Brian F; Markiewicz, Pawel; Ourselin, Sebastien

2017-01-01

Direct reconstruction of parametric images from raw photon counts has been shown to improve the quantitative analysis of dynamic positron emission tomography (PET) data. However it suffers from subject motion which is inevitable during the typical acquisition time of 1-2 hours. In this work we propose a framework to jointly estimate subject head motion and reconstruct the motion-corrected parametric images directly from raw PET data, so that the effects of distorted tissue-to-voxel mapping due to subject motion can be reduced in reconstructing the parametric images with motion-compensated attenuation correction and spatially aligned temporal PET data. The proposed approach is formulated within the maximum likelihood framework, and efficient solutions are derived for estimating subject motion and kinetic parameters from raw PET photon count data. Results from evaluations on simulated [ 11 C]raclopride data using the Zubal brain phantom and real clinical [ 18 F]florbetapir data of a patient with Alzheimer's disease show that the proposed joint direct parametric reconstruction motion correction approach can improve the accuracy of quantifying dynamic PET data with large subject motion.

Feasibility of Measuring Mean Vertical Motion for Estimating Advection. Chapter 6

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vickers, Dean; Mahrt, L.

2005-01-01

Numerous recent studies calculate horizontal and vertical advection terms for budget studies of net ecosystem exchange of carbon. One potential uncertainty in such studies is the estimate of mean vertical motion. This work addresses the reliability of vertical advection estimates by contrasting the vertical motion obtained from the standard practise of measuring the vertical velocity and applying a tilt correction, to the vertical motion calculated from measurements of the horizontal divergence of the flow using a network of towers. Results are compared for three different tilt correction methods. Estimates of mean vertical motion are sensitive to the choice of tilt correction method. The short-term mean (10 to 60 minutes) vertical motion based on the horizontal divergence is more realistic compared to the estimates derived from the standard practise. The divergence shows long-term mean (days to months) sinking motion at the site, apparently due to the surface roughness change. Because all the tilt correction methods rely on the assumption that the long-term mean vertical motion is zero for a given wind direction, they fail to reproduce the vertical motion based on the divergence.

Scatter correction using a primary modulator on a clinical angiography C-arm CT system.

PubMed

Bier, Bastian; Berger, Martin; Maier, Andreas; Kachelrieß, Marc; Ritschl, Ludwig; Müller, Kerstin; Choi, Jang-Hwan; Fahrig, Rebecca

2017-09-01

Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) suffers from a large amount of scatter, resulting in severe scatter artifacts in the reconstructions. Recently, a new scatter correction approach, called improved primary modulator scatter estimation (iPMSE), was introduced. That approach utilizes a primary modulator that is inserted between the X-ray source and the object. This modulation enables estimation of the scatter in the projection domain by optimizing an objective function with respect to the scatter estimate. Up to now the approach has not been implemented on a clinical angiography C-arm CT system. In our work, the iPMSE method is transferred to a clinical C-arm CBCT. Additional processing steps are added in order to compensate for the C-arm scanner motion and the automatic X-ray tube current modulation. These challenges were overcome by establishing a reference modulator database and a block-matching algorithm. Experiments with phantom and experimental in vivo data were performed to evaluate the method. We show that scatter correction using primary modulation is possible on a clinical C-arm CBCT. Scatter artifacts in the reconstructions are reduced with the newly extended method. Compared to a scan with a narrow collimation, our approach showed superior results with an improvement of the contrast and the contrast-to-noise ratio for the phantom experiments. In vivo data are evaluated by comparing the results with a scan with a narrow collimation and with a constant scatter correction approach. Scatter correction using primary modulation is possible on a clinical CBCT by compensating for the scanner motion and the tube current modulation. Scatter artifacts could be reduced in the reconstructions of phantom scans and in experimental in vivo data. © 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and range performance with compressed motion video

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bijl, Piet; de Vries, Sjoerd C.

2010-10-01

Video of visual acuity (VA) and contrast sensitivity (CS) test charts in a complex background was recorded using a CCD color camera mounted on a computer-controlled tripod and was fed into real-time MPEG-2 compression/decompression equipment. The test charts were based on the triangle orientation discrimination (TOD) test method and contained triangle test patterns of different sizes and contrasts in four possible orientations. In a perception experiment, observers judged the orientation of the triangles in order to determine VA and CS thresholds at the 75% correct level. Three camera velocities (0, 1.0, and 2.0 deg/s, or 0, 4.1, and 8.1 pixels/frame) and four compression rates (no compression, 4 Mb/s, 2 Mb/s, and 1 Mb/s) were used. VA is shown to be rather robust to any combination of motion and compression. CS, however, dramatically decreases when motion is combined with high compression ratios. The measured thresholds were fed into the TOD target acquisition model to predict the effect of motion and compression on acquisition ranges for tactical military vehicles. The effect of compression on static performance is limited but strong with motion video. The data suggest that with the MPEG2 algorithm, the emphasis is on the preservation of image detail at the cost of contrast loss.

Restoration of Motion-Blurred Image Based on Border Deformation Detection: A Traffic Sign Restoration Model

PubMed Central

Zeng, Yiliang; Lan, Jinhui; Ran, Bin; Wang, Qi; Gao, Jing

2015-01-01

Due to the rapid development of motor vehicle Driver Assistance Systems (DAS), the safety problems associated with automatic driving have become a hot issue in Intelligent Transportation. The traffic sign is one of the most important tools used to reinforce traffic rules. However, traffic sign image degradation based on computer vision is unavoidable during the vehicle movement process. In order to quickly and accurately recognize traffic signs in motion-blurred images in DAS, a new image restoration algorithm based on border deformation detection in the spatial domain is proposed in this paper. The border of a traffic sign is extracted using color information, and then the width of the border is measured in all directions. According to the width measured and the corresponding direction, both the motion direction and scale of the image can be confirmed, and this information can be used to restore the motion-blurred image. Finally, a gray mean grads (GMG) ratio is presented to evaluate the image restoration quality. Compared to the traditional restoration approach which is based on the blind deconvolution method and Lucy-Richardson method, our method can greatly restore motion blurred images and improve the correct recognition rate. Our experiments show that the proposed method is able to restore traffic sign information accurately and efficiently. PMID:25849350

Restoration of motion-blurred image based on border deformation detection: a traffic sign restoration model.

PubMed

Zeng, Yiliang; Lan, Jinhui; Ran, Bin; Wang, Qi; Gao, Jing

2015-01-01

Due to the rapid development of motor vehicle Driver Assistance Systems (DAS), the safety problems associated with automatic driving have become a hot issue in Intelligent Transportation. The traffic sign is one of the most important tools used to reinforce traffic rules. However, traffic sign image degradation based on computer vision is unavoidable during the vehicle movement process. In order to quickly and accurately recognize traffic signs in motion-blurred images in DAS, a new image restoration algorithm based on border deformation detection in the spatial domain is proposed in this paper. The border of a traffic sign is extracted using color information, and then the width of the border is measured in all directions. According to the width measured and the corresponding direction, both the motion direction and scale of the image can be confirmed, and this information can be used to restore the motion-blurred image. Finally, a gray mean grads (GMG) ratio is presented to evaluate the image restoration quality. Compared to the traditional restoration approach which is based on the blind deconvolution method and Lucy-Richardson method, our method can greatly restore motion blurred images and improve the correct recognition rate. Our experiments show that the proposed method is able to restore traffic sign information accurately and efficiently.

ECG-gated interventional cardiac reconstruction for non-periodic motion.

PubMed

Rohkohl, Christopher; Lauritsch, Günter; Biller, Lisa; Hornegger, Joachim

2010-01-01

The 3-D reconstruction of cardiac vasculature using C-arm CT is an active and challenging field of research. In interventional environments patients often do have arrhythmic heart signals or cannot hold breath during the complete data acquisition. This important group of patients cannot be reconstructed with current approaches that do strongly depend on a high degree of cardiac motion periodicity for working properly. In a last year's MICCAI contribution a first algorithm was presented that is able to estimate non-periodic 4-D motion patterns. However, to some degree that algorithm still depends on periodicity, as it requires a prior image which is obtained using a simple ECG-gated reconstruction. In this work we aim to provide a solution to this problem by developing a motion compensated ECG-gating algorithm. It is built upon a 4-D time-continuous affine motion model which is capable of compactly describing highly non-periodic motion patterns. A stochastic optimization scheme is derived which minimizes the error between the measured projection data and the forward projection of the motion compensated reconstruction. For evaluation, the algorithm is applied to 5 datasets of the left coronary arteries of patients that have ignored the breath hold command and/or had arrhythmic heart signals during the data acquisition. By applying the developed algorithm the average visibility of the vessel segments could be increased by 27%. The results show that the proposed algorithm provides excellent reconstruction quality in cases where classical approaches fail. The algorithm is highly parallelizable and a clinically feasible runtime of under 4 minutes is achieved using modern graphics card hardware.

A real-time dynamic-MLC control algorithm for delivering IMRT to targets undergoing 2D rigid motion in the beam's eye view.

PubMed

McMahon, Ryan; Berbeco, Ross; Nishioka, Seiko; Ishikawa, Masayori; Papiez, Lech

2008-09-01

An MLC control algorithm for delivering intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) to targets that are undergoing two-dimensional (2D) rigid motion in the beam's eye view (BEV) is presented. The goal of this method is to deliver 3D-derived fluence maps over a moving patient anatomy. Target motion measured prior to delivery is first used to design a set of planned dynamic-MLC (DMLC) sliding-window leaf trajectories. During actual delivery, the algorithm relies on real-time feedback to compensate for target motion that does not agree with the motion measured during planning. The methodology is based on an existing one-dimensional (ID) algorithm that uses on-the-fly intensity calculations to appropriately adjust the DMLC leaf trajectories in real-time during exposure delivery [McMahon et al., Med. Phys. 34, 3211-3223 (2007)]. To extend the 1D algorithm's application to 2D target motion, a real-time leaf-pair shifting mechanism has been developed. Target motion that is orthogonal to leaf travel is tracked by appropriately shifting the positions of all MLC leaves. The performance of the tracking algorithm was tested for a single beam of a fractionated IMRT treatment, using a clinically derived intensity profile and a 2D target trajectory based on measured patient data. Comparisons were made between 2D tracking, 1D tracking, and no tracking. The impact of the tracking lag time and the frequency of real-time imaging were investigated. A study of the dependence of the algorithm's performance on the level of agreement between the motion measured during planning and delivery was also included. Results demonstrated that tracking both components of the 2D motion (i.e., parallel and orthogonal to leaf travel) results in delivered fluence profiles that are superior to those that track the component of motion that is parallel to leaf travel alone. Tracking lag time effects may lead to relatively large intensity delivery errors compared to the other sources of error investigated. However, the algorithm presented is robust in the sense that it does not rely on a high level of agreement between the target motion measured during treatment planning and delivery.

Moving vehicles segmentation based on Gaussian motion model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Wei; Fang, Xiang Z.; Lin, Wei Y.

2005-07-01

Moving objects segmentation is a challenge in computer vision. This paper focuses on the segmentation of moving vehicles in dynamic scene. We analyses the psychology of human vision and present a framework for segmenting moving vehicles in the highway. The proposed framework consists of two parts. Firstly, we propose an adaptive background update method in which the background is updated according to the change of illumination conditions and thus can adapt to the change of illumination sensitively. Secondly, we construct a Gaussian motion model to segment moving vehicles, in which the motion vectors of the moving pixels are modeled as a Gaussian model and an on-line EM algorithm is used to update the model. The Gaussian distribution of the adaptive model is elevated to determine which moving vectors result from moving vehicles and which from other moving objects such as waving trees. Finally, the pixels with motion vector result from the moving vehicles are segmented. Experimental results of several typical scenes show that the proposed model can detect the moving vehicles correctly and is immune from influence of the moving objects caused by the waving trees and the vibration of camera.

LCC demons with divergence term for liver MRI motion correction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oh, Jihun; Martin, Diego; Skrinjar, Oskar

2010-03-01

Contrast-enhanced liver MR image sequences acquired at multiple times before and after contrast administration have been shown to be critically important for the diagnosis and monitoring of liver tumors and may be used for the quantification of liver inflammation and fibrosis. However, over multiple acquisitions, the liver moves and deforms due to patient and respiratory motion. In order to analyze contrast agent uptake one first needs to correct for liver motion. In this paper we present a method for the motion correction of dynamic contrastenhanced liver MR images. For this purpose we use a modified version of the Local Correlation Coefficient (LCC) Demons non-rigid registration method. Since the liver is nearly incompressible its displacement field has small divergence. For this reason we add a divergence term to the energy that is minimized in the LCC Demons method. We applied the method to four sequences of contrast-enhanced liver MR images. Each sequence had a pre-contrast scan and seven post-contrast scans. For each post-contrast scan we corrected for the liver motion relative to the pre-contrast scan. Quantitative evaluation showed that the proposed method improved the liver alignment relative to the non-corrected and translation-corrected scans and visual inspection showed no visible misalignment of the motion corrected contrast-enhanced scans and pre-contrast scan.

Measuring Sea-Ice Motion in the Arctic with Real Time Photogrammetry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brozena, J. M.; Hagen, R. A.; Peters, M. F.; Liang, R.; Ball, D.

2014-12-01

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, in coordination with other groups, has been collecting sea-ice data in the Arctic off the north coast of Alaska with an airborne system employing a radar altimeter, LiDAR and a photogrammetric camera in an effort to obtain wide swaths of measurements coincident with Cryosat-2 footprints. Because the satellite tracks traverse areas of moving pack ice, precise real-time estimates of the ice motion are needed to fly a survey grid that will yield complete data coverage. This requirement led us to develop a method to find the ice motion from the aircraft during the survey. With the advent of real-time orthographic photogrammetric systems, we developed a system that measures the sea ice motion in-flight, and also permits post-process modeling of sea ice velocities to correct the positioning of radar and LiDAR data. For the 2013 and 2014 field seasons, we used this Real Time Ice Motion Estimation (RTIME) system to determine ice motion using Applanix's Inflight Ortho software with an Applanix DSS439 system. Operationally, a series of photos were taken in the survey area. The aircraft then turned around and took more photos along the same line several minutes later. Orthophotos were generated within minutes of collection and evaluated by custom software to find photo footprints and potential overlap. Overlapping photos were passed to the correlation software, which selects a series of "chips" in the first photo and looks for the best matches in the second photo. The correlation results are then passed to a density-based clustering algorithm to determine the offset of the photo pair. To investigate any systematic errors in the photogrammetry, we flew several flight lines over a fixed point on various headings, over an area of non-moving ice in 2013. The orthophotos were run through the correlation software to find any residual offsets, and run through additional software to measure chip positions and offsets relative to the aircraft heading. X- and Y-offsets in situations where one of the chips was near the center of its photo were plotted to find the along- and across-track errors vs. distance from the photo center. Corrections were determined and applied to the survey data, reducing the mean error by about 1 meter. The corrections were applied to all of the subsequent survey data.

Improving Pulse Rate Measurements during Random Motion Using a Wearable Multichannel Reflectance Photoplethysmograph.

PubMed

Warren, Kristen M; Harvey, Joshua R; Chon, Ki H; Mendelson, Yitzhak

2016-03-07

Photoplethysmographic (PPG) waveforms are used to acquire pulse rate (PR) measurements from pulsatile arterial blood volume. PPG waveforms are highly susceptible to motion artifacts (MA), limiting the implementation of PR measurements in mobile physiological monitoring devices. Previous studies have shown that multichannel photoplethysmograms can successfully acquire diverse signal information during simple, repetitive motion, leading to differences in motion tolerance across channels. In this paper, we investigate the performance of a custom-built multichannel forehead-mounted photoplethysmographic sensor under a variety of intense motion artifacts. We introduce an advanced multichannel template-matching algorithm that chooses the channel with the least motion artifact to calculate PR for each time instant. We show that for a wide variety of random motion, channels respond differently to motion artifacts, and the multichannel estimate outperforms single-channel estimates in terms of motion tolerance, signal quality, and PR errors. We have acquired 31 data sets consisting of PPG waveforms corrupted by random motion and show that the accuracy of PR measurements achieved was increased by up to 2.7 bpm when the multichannel-switching algorithm was compared to individual channels. The percentage of PR measurements with error ≤ 5 bpm during motion increased by 18.9% when the multichannel switching algorithm was compared to the mean PR from all channels. Moreover, our algorithm enables automatic selection of the best signal fidelity channel at each time point among the multichannel PPG data.

Real-Time Correction By Optical Tracking with Integrated Geometric Distortion Correction for Reducing Motion Artifacts in fMRI

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rotenberg, David J.

Artifacts caused by head motion are a substantial source of error in fMRI that limits its use in neuroscience research and clinical settings. Real-time scan-plane correction by optical tracking has been shown to correct slice misalignment and non-linear spin-history artifacts, however residual artifacts due to dynamic magnetic field non-uniformity may remain in the data. A recently developed correction technique, PLACE, can correct for absolute geometric distortion using the complex image data from two EPI images, with slightly shifted k-space trajectories. We present a correction approach that integrates PLACE into a real-time scan-plane update system by optical tracking, applied to a tissue-equivalent phantom undergoing complex motion and an fMRI finger tapping experiment with overt head motion to induce dynamic field non-uniformity. Experiments suggest that including volume by volume geometric distortion correction by PLACE can suppress dynamic geometric distortion artifacts in a phantom and in vivo and provide more robust activation maps.

Use of a machine learning algorithm to classify expertise: analysis of hand motion patterns during a simulated surgical task.

PubMed

Watson, Robert A

2014-08-01

To test the hypothesis that machine learning algorithms increase the predictive power to classify surgical expertise using surgeons' hand motion patterns. In 2012 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 14 surgical attendings and 10 first- and second-year surgical residents each performed two bench model venous anastomoses. During the simulated tasks, the participants wore an inertial measurement unit on the dorsum of their dominant (right) hand to capture their hand motion patterns. The pattern from each bench model task performed was preprocessed into a symbolic time series and labeled as expert (attending) or novice (resident). The labeled hand motion patterns were processed and used to train a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification algorithm. The trained algorithm was then tested for discriminative/predictive power against unlabeled (blinded) hand motion patterns from tasks not used in the training. The Lempel-Ziv (LZ) complexity metric was also measured from each hand motion pattern, with an optimal threshold calculated to separately classify the patterns. The LZ metric classified unlabeled (blinded) hand motion patterns into expert and novice groups with an accuracy of 70% (sensitivity 64%, specificity 80%). The SVM algorithm had an accuracy of 83% (sensitivity 86%, specificity 80%). The results confirmed the hypothesis. The SVM algorithm increased the predictive power to classify blinded surgical hand motion patterns into expert versus novice groups. With further development, the system used in this study could become a viable tool for low-cost, objective assessment of procedural proficiency in a competency-based curriculum.

Complex motion measurement using genetic algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, Jianjun; Tu, Dan; Shen, Zhenkang

1997-12-01

Genetic algorithm (GA) is an optimization technique that provides an untraditional approach to deal with many nonlinear, complicated problems. The notion of motion measurement using genetic algorithm arises from the fact that the motion measurement is virtually an optimization process based on some criterions. In the paper, we propose a complex motion measurement method using genetic algorithm based on block-matching criterion. The following three problems are mainly discussed and solved in the paper: (1) apply an adaptive method to modify the control parameters of GA that are critical to itself, and offer an elitism strategy at the same time (2) derive an evaluate function of motion measurement for GA based on block-matching technique (3) employ hill-climbing (HC) method hybridly to assist GA's search for the global optimal solution. Some other related problems are also discussed. At the end of paper, experiments result is listed. We employ six motion parameters for measurement in our experiments. Experiments result shows that the performance of our GA is good. The GA can find the object motion accurately and rapidly.

Four-Dimensional Respiratory Motion-Resolved Whole Heart Coronary MR Angiography

PubMed Central

Piccini, Davide; Feng, Li; Bonanno, Gabriele; Coppo, Simone; Yerly, Jérôme; Lim, Ruth P.; Schwitter, Juerg; Sodickson, Daniel K.; Otazo, Ricardo; Stuber, Matthias

2016-01-01

Purpose Free-breathing whole-heart coronary MR angiography (MRA) commonly uses navigators to gate respiratory motion, resulting in lengthy and unpredictable acquisition times. Conversely, self-navigation has 100% scan efficiency, but requires motion correction over a broad range of respiratory displacements, which may introduce image artifacts. We propose replacing navigators and self-navigation with a respiratory motion-resolved reconstruction approach. Methods Using a respiratory signal extracted directly from the imaging data, individual signal-readouts are binned according to their respiratory states. The resultant series of undersampled images are reconstructed using an extradimensional golden-angle radial sparse parallel imaging (XD-GRASP) algorithm, which exploits sparsity along the respiratory dimension. Whole-heart coronary MRA was performed in 11 volunteers and four patients with the proposed methodology. Image quality was compared with that obtained with one-dimensional respiratory self-navigation. Results Respiratory-resolved reconstruction effectively suppressed respiratory motion artifacts. The quality score for XD-GRASP reconstructions was greater than or equal to self-navigation in 80/88 coronary segments, reaching diagnostic quality in 61/88 segments versus 41/88. Coronary sharpness and length were always superior for the respiratory-resolved datasets, reaching statistical significance (P < 0.05) in most cases. Conclusion XD-GRASP represents an attractive alternative for handling respiratory motion in free-breathing whole heart MRI and provides an effective alternative to self-navigation. PMID:27052418

Evaluation of a video-based head motion tracking system for dedicated brain PET

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anishchenko, S.; Beylin, D.; Stepanov, P.; Stepanov, A.; Weinberg, I. N.; Schaeffer, S.; Zavarzin, V.; Shaposhnikov, D.; Smith, M. F.

2015-03-01

Unintentional head motion during Positron Emission Tomography (PET) data acquisition can degrade PET image quality and lead to artifacts. Poor patient compliance, head tremor, and coughing are examples of movement sources. Head motion due to patient non-compliance can be an issue with the rise of amyloid brain PET in dementia patients. To preserve PET image resolution and quantitative accuracy, head motion can be tracked and corrected in the image reconstruction algorithm. While fiducial markers can be used, a contactless approach is preferable. A video-based head motion tracking system for a dedicated portable brain PET scanner was developed. Four wide-angle cameras organized in two stereo pairs are used for capturing video of the patient's head during the PET data acquisition. Facial points are automatically tracked and used to determine the six degree of freedom head pose as a function of time. The presented work evaluated the newly designed tracking system using a head phantom and a moving American College of Radiology (ACR) phantom. The mean video-tracking error was 0.99±0.90 mm relative to the magnetic tracking device used as ground truth. Qualitative evaluation with the ACR phantom shows the advantage of the motion tracking application. The developed system is able to perform tracking with accuracy close to millimeter and can help to preserve resolution of brain PET images in presence of movements.

SU-E-J-115: Correlation of Displacement Vector Fields Calculated by Deformable Image Registration Algorithms with Motion Parameters of CT Images with Well-Defined Targets and Controlled-Motion

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

Jaskowiak, J; Ahmad, S; Ali, I

Purpose: To investigate correlation of displacement vector fields (DVF) calculated by deformable image registration algorithms with motion parameters in helical axial and cone-beam CT images with motion artifacts. Methods: A mobile thorax phantom with well-known targets with different sizes that were made from water-equivalent material and inserted in foam to simulate lung lesions. The thorax phantom was imaged with helical, axial and cone-beam CT. The phantom was moved with a cyclic motion with different motion amplitudes and frequencies along the superior-inferior direction. Different deformable image registration algorithms including demons, fast demons, Horn-Shunck and iterative-optical-flow from the DIRART software were usedmore » to deform CT images for the phantom with different motion patterns. The CT images of the mobile phantom were deformed to CT images of the stationary phantom. Results: The values of displacement vectors calculated by deformable image registration algorithm correlated strongly with motion amplitude where large displacement vectors were calculated for CT images with large motion amplitudes. For example, the maximal displacement vectors were nearly equal to the motion amplitudes (5mm, 10mm or 20mm) at interfaces between the mobile targets lung tissue, while the minimal displacement vectors were nearly equal to negative the motion amplitudes. The maximal and minimal displacement vectors matched with edges of the blurred targets along the Z-axis (motion-direction), while DVF’s were small in the other directions. This indicates that the blurred edges by phantom motion were shifted largely to match with the actual target edge. These shifts were nearly equal to the motion amplitude. Conclusions: The DVF from deformable-image registration algorithms correlated well with motion amplitude of well-defined mobile targets. This can be used to extract motion parameters such as amplitude. However, as motion amplitudes increased, image artifacts increased significantly and that limited image quality and poor correlation between the motion amplitude and DVF was obtained.« less

SU-F-J-124: Reduction in Dosimetric Impact of Motion Using VMAT Compared to IMRT in Hypofractionated Prostate Cancer Patients

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

Ravindranath, B; Xiong, J; Happersett, L

2016-06-15

Purpose: To quantify and compare the dosimetric impact of motion management correction strategies during VMAT and IMRT for hypofractionated prostate treatment. Methods: Two arc VMAT and 9 field IMRT plans were generated for two prostate cancer patients undergoing hypofractionated radiotherapy (7.5Gy × 5 and 8Gy × 5). 212 motion traces were retrospectively extracted from treatment records of prostate cancer patients with implanted Calypso beacons. Dose to the CTV and normal tissues was reconstructed for each trace and plan taking into account the actual treatment delivery time. Following motion correction scenarios were simulated: (1) VMAT plan – (a) No correction, (b)more » correction between arcs, (c) correction every 20 degrees of gantry rotation and (2) IMRT plan - (a) No correction,(b) correction between fields. Two mm action threshold for position correction was assumed. The 5–95% confidence interval (CI) range was extracted from the family of DVHs for each correction scenario. Results: Treatment duration for 8Gy plan (VMAT vs IMRT) was 3 vs 12 mins and for 7.5Gy plan was 3 vs 9 mins. In the absence of correction, the VMAT 5–−95% CI dose spread was, on average, less than the IMRT dose spread by 2% for CTVD95, 9% for rectalwall (RW) D1cc and 9% for bladderwall (BW) D53. Further, VMAT b/w arcs correction strategy reduced the spread about the planned value compared to IMRT b/w fields correction by: 1% for CTVD95, 2.6% for RW1cc and 2% for BWD53. VMAT 20 degree strategy led to greater reduction in dose spread compared to IMRT by: 2% for CTVD95, 4.5% for RW1cc and 6.7% for BWD53. Conclusion: In the absence of a correction strategy, the limited motion during VMAT’s shorter delivery times translates into less motion-induced dosimetric degradation than IMRT. Performing limited periodic motion correction during VMAT can yield excellent conformity to planned values that is superior to IMRT. This work was partially supported by Varian Medical Systems.« less

A quantitative comparison of two methods to correct eddy current-induced distortions in DT-MRI.

PubMed

Muñoz Maniega, Susana; Bastin, Mark E; Armitage, Paul A

2007-04-01

Eddy current-induced geometric distortions of single-shot, diffusion-weighted, echo-planar (DW-EP) images are a major confounding factor to the accurate determination of water diffusion parameters in diffusion tensor MRI (DT-MRI). Previously, it has been suggested that these geometric distortions can be removed from brain DW-EP images using affine transformations determined from phantom calibration experiments using iterative cross-correlation (ICC). Since this approach was first described, a number of image-based registration methods have become available that can also correct eddy current-induced distortions in DW-EP images. However, as yet no study has investigated whether separate eddy current calibration or image-based registration provides the most accurate way of removing these artefacts from DT-MRI data. Here we compare how ICC phantom calibration and affine FLIRT (http://www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk), a popular image-based multi-modal registration method that can correct both eddy current-induced distortions and bulk subject motion, perform when registering DW-EP images acquired with different slice thicknesses (2.8 and 5 mm) and b-values (1000 and 3000 s/mm(2)). With the use of consistency testing, it was found that ICC was a more robust algorithm for correcting eddy current-induced distortions than affine FLIRT, especially at high b-value and small slice thickness. In addition, principal component analysis demonstrated that the combination of ICC phantom calibration (to remove eddy current-induced distortions) with rigid body FLIRT (to remove bulk subject motion) provided a more accurate registration of DT-MRI data than that achieved by affine FLIRT.

Scene-based nonuniformity correction and enhancement: pixel statistics and subpixel motion.

PubMed

Zhao, Wenyi; Zhang, Chao

2008-07-01

We propose a framework for scene-based nonuniformity correction (NUC) and nonuniformity correction and enhancement (NUCE) that is required for focal-plane array-like sensors to obtain clean and enhanced-quality images. The core of the proposed framework is a novel registration-based nonuniformity correction super-resolution (NUCSR) method that is bootstrapped by statistical scene-based NUC methods. Based on a comprehensive imaging model and an accurate parametric motion estimation, we are able to remove severe/structured nonuniformity and in the presence of subpixel motion to simultaneously improve image resolution. One important feature of our NUCSR method is the adoption of a parametric motion model that allows us to (1) handle many practical scenarios where parametric motions are present and (2) carry out perfect super-resolution in principle by exploring available subpixel motions. Experiments with real data demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed NUCE framework and the effectiveness of the NUCSR method.

Simultaneous motion estimation and image reconstruction (SMEIR) for 4D cone-beam CT

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

Wang, Jing; Gu, Xuejun

2013-10-15

Purpose: Image reconstruction and motion model estimation in four-dimensional cone-beam CT (4D-CBCT) are conventionally handled as two sequential steps. Due to the limited number of projections at each phase, the image quality of 4D-CBCT is degraded by view aliasing artifacts, and the accuracy of subsequent motion modeling is decreased by the inferior 4D-CBCT. The objective of this work is to enhance both the image quality of 4D-CBCT and the accuracy of motion model estimation with a novel strategy enabling simultaneous motion estimation and image reconstruction (SMEIR).Methods: The proposed SMEIR algorithm consists of two alternating steps: (1) model-based iterative image reconstructionmore » to obtain a motion-compensated primary CBCT (m-pCBCT) and (2) motion model estimation to obtain an optimal set of deformation vector fields (DVFs) between the m-pCBCT and other 4D-CBCT phases. The motion-compensated image reconstruction is based on the simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique (SART) coupled with total variation minimization. During the forward- and backprojection of SART, measured projections from an entire set of 4D-CBCT are used for reconstruction of the m-pCBCT by utilizing the updated DVF. The DVF is estimated by matching the forward projection of the deformed m-pCBCT and measured projections of other phases of 4D-CBCT. The performance of the SMEIR algorithm is quantitatively evaluated on a 4D NCAT phantom. The quality of reconstructed 4D images and the accuracy of tumor motion trajectory are assessed by comparing with those resulting from conventional sequential 4D-CBCT reconstructions (FDK and total variation minimization) and motion estimation (demons algorithm). The performance of the SMEIR algorithm is further evaluated by reconstructing a lung cancer patient 4D-CBCT.Results: Image quality of 4D-CBCT is greatly improved by the SMEIR algorithm in both phantom and patient studies. When all projections are used to reconstruct a 3D-CBCT by FDK, motion-blurring artifacts are present, leading to a 24.4% relative reconstruction error in the NACT phantom. View aliasing artifacts are present in 4D-CBCT reconstructed by FDK from 20 projections, with a relative error of 32.1%. When total variation minimization is used to reconstruct 4D-CBCT, the relative error is 18.9%. Image quality of 4D-CBCT is substantially improved by using the SMEIR algorithm and relative error is reduced to 7.6%. The maximum error (MaxE) of tumor motion determined from the DVF obtained by demons registration on a FDK-reconstructed 4D-CBCT is 3.0, 2.3, and 7.1 mm along left–right (L-R), anterior–posterior (A-P), and superior–inferior (S-I) directions, respectively. From the DVF obtained by demons registration on 4D-CBCT reconstructed by total variation minimization, the MaxE of tumor motion is reduced to 1.5, 0.5, and 5.5 mm along L-R, A-P, and S-I directions. From the DVF estimated by SMEIR algorithm, the MaxE of tumor motion is further reduced to 0.8, 0.4, and 1.5 mm along L-R, A-P, and S-I directions, respectively.Conclusions: The proposed SMEIR algorithm is able to estimate a motion model and reconstruct motion-compensated 4D-CBCT. The SMEIR algorithm improves image reconstruction accuracy of 4D-CBCT and tumor motion trajectory estimation accuracy as compared to conventional sequential 4D-CBCT reconstruction and motion estimation.« less

Prospective motion correction with volumetric navigators (vNavs) reduces the bias and variance in brain morphometry induced by subject motion.

PubMed

Tisdall, M Dylan; Reuter, Martin; Qureshi, Abid; Buckner, Randy L; Fischl, Bruce; van der Kouwe, André J W

2016-02-15

Recent work has demonstrated that subject motion produces systematic biases in the metrics computed by widely used morphometry software packages, even when the motion is too small to produce noticeable image artifacts. In the common situation where the control population exhibits different behaviors in the scanner when compared to the experimental population, these systematic measurement biases may produce significant confounds for between-group analyses, leading to erroneous conclusions about group differences. While previous work has shown that prospective motion correction can improve perceived image quality, here we demonstrate that, in healthy subjects performing a variety of directed motions, the use of the volumetric navigator (vNav) prospective motion correction system significantly reduces the motion-induced bias and variance in morphometry. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Experimental testing of four correction algorithms for the forward scattering spectrometer probe

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hovenac, Edward A.; Oldenburg, John R.; Lock, James A.

1992-01-01

Three number density correction algorithms and one size distribution correction algorithm for the Forward Scattering Spectrometer Probe (FSSP) were compared with data taken by the Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer (PDPA) and an optical number density measuring instrument (NDMI). Of the three number density correction algorithms, the one that compared best to the PDPA and NDMI data was the algorithm developed by Baumgardner, Strapp, and Dye (1985). The algorithm that corrects sizing errors in the FSSP that was developed by Lock and Hovenac (1989) was shown to be within 25 percent of the Phase Doppler measurements at number densities as high as 3000/cc.

Final Report: CNC Micromachines LDRD No.10793

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

JOKIEL JR., BERNHARD; BENAVIDES, GILBERT L.; BIEG, LOTHAR F.

2003-04-01

The three-year LDRD ''CNC Micromachines'' was successfully completed at the end of FY02. The project had four major breakthroughs in spatial motion control in MEMS: (1) A unified method for designing scalable planar and spatial on-chip motion control systems was developed. The method relies on the use of parallel kinematic mechanisms (PKMs) that when properly designed provide different types of motion on-chip without the need for post-fabrication assembly, (2) A new type of actuator was developed--the linear stepping track drive (LSTD) that provides open loop linear position control that is scalable in displacement, output force and step size. Several versionsmore » of this actuator were designed, fabricated and successfully tested. (3) Different versions of XYZ translation only and PTT motion stages were designed, successfully fabricated and successfully tested demonstrating absolutely that on-chip spatial motion control systems are not only possible, but are a reality. (4) Control algorithms, software and infrastructure based on MATLAB were created and successfully implemented to drive the XYZ and PTT motion platforms in a controlled manner. The control software is capable of reading an M/G code machine tool language file, decode the instructions and correctly calculate and apply position and velocity trajectories to the motion devices linear drive inputs to position the device platform along the trajectory as specified by the input file. A full and detailed account of design methodology, theory and experimental results (failures and successes) is provided.« less

Radiation camera motion correction system

DOEpatents

Hoffer, P.B.

1973-12-18

The device determines the ratio of the intensity of radiation received by a radiation camera from two separate portions of the object. A correction signal is developed to maintain this ratio at a substantially constant value and this correction signal is combined with the camera signal to correct for object motion. (Official Gazette)

Correlation-based motion vector processing with adaptive interpolation scheme for motion-compensated frame interpolation.

PubMed

Huang, Ai-Mei; Nguyen, Truong

2009-04-01

In this paper, we address the problems of unreliable motion vectors that cause visual artifacts but cannot be detected by high residual energy or bidirectional prediction difference in motion-compensated frame interpolation. A correlation-based motion vector processing method is proposed to detect and correct those unreliable motion vectors by explicitly considering motion vector correlation in the motion vector reliability classification, motion vector correction, and frame interpolation stages. Since our method gradually corrects unreliable motion vectors based on their reliability, we can effectively discover the areas where no motion is reliable to be used, such as occlusions and deformed structures. We also propose an adaptive frame interpolation scheme for the occlusion areas based on the analysis of their surrounding motion distribution. As a result, the interpolated frames using the proposed scheme have clearer structure edges and ghost artifacts are also greatly reduced. Experimental results show that our interpolated results have better visual quality than other methods. In addition, the proposed scheme is robust even for those video sequences that contain multiple and fast motions.

Relationships between autofocus methods for SAR and self-survey techniques for SONAR. [Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)

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

Wahl, D.E.; Jakowatz, C.V. Jr.; Ghiglia, D.C.

1991-01-01

Autofocus methods in SAR and self-survey techniques in SONAR have a common mathematical basis in that they both involve estimation and correction of phase errors introduced by sensor position uncertainties. Time delay estimation and correlation methods have been shown to be effective in solving the self-survey problem for towed SONAR arrays. Since it can be shown that platform motion errors introduce similar time-delay estimation problems in SAR imaging, the question arises as to whether such techniques could be effectively employed for autofocus of SAR imagery. With a simple mathematical model for motion errors in SAR, we will show why suchmore » correlation/time-delay techniques are not nearly as effective as established SAR autofocus algorithms such as phase gradient autofocus or sub-aperture based methods. This analysis forms an important bridge between signal processing methodologies for SAR and SONAR. 5 refs., 4 figs.« less

Clustering Of Left Ventricular Wall Motion Patterns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bjelogrlic, Z.; Jakopin, J.; Gyergyek, L.

1982-11-01

A method for detection of wall regions with similar motion was presented. A model based on local direction information was used to measure the left ventricular wall motion from cineangiographic sequence. Three time functions were used to define segmental motion patterns: distance of a ventricular contour segment from the mean contour, the velocity of a segment and its acceleration. Motion patterns were clustered by the UPGMA algorithm and by an algorithm based on K-nearest neighboor classification rule.

Data fusion strategies for hazard detection and safe site selection for planetary and small body landings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Câmara, F.; Oliveira, J.; Hormigo, T.; Araújo, J.; Ribeiro, R.; Falcão, A.; Gomes, M.; Dubois-Matra, O.; Vijendran, S.

2015-06-01

This paper discusses the design and evaluation of data fusion strategies to perform tiered fusion of several heterogeneous sensors and a priori data. The aim is to increase robustness and performance of hazard detection and avoidance systems, while enabling safe planetary and small body landings anytime, anywhere. The focus is on Mars and asteroid landing mission scenarios and three distinct data fusion algorithms are introduced and compared. The first algorithm consists of a hybrid camera-LIDAR hazard detection and avoidance system, the H2DAS, in which data fusion is performed at both sensor-level data (reconstruction of the point cloud obtained with a scanning LIDAR using the navigation motion states and correcting the image for motion compensation using IMU data), feature-level data (concatenation of multiple digital elevation maps, obtained from consecutive LIDAR images, to achieve higher accuracy and resolution maps while enabling relative positioning) as well as decision-level data (fusing hazard maps from multiple sensors onto a single image space, with a single grid orientation and spacing). The second method presented is a hybrid reasoning fusion, the HRF, in which innovative algorithms replace the decision-level functions of the previous method, by combining three different reasoning engines—a fuzzy reasoning engine, a probabilistic reasoning engine and an evidential reasoning engine—to produce safety maps. Finally, the third method presented is called Intelligent Planetary Site Selection, the IPSIS, an innovative multi-criteria, dynamic decision-level data fusion algorithm that takes into account historical information for the selection of landing sites and a piloting function with a non-exhaustive landing site search capability, i.e., capable of finding local optima by searching a reduced set of global maps. All the discussed data fusion strategies and algorithms have been integrated, verified and validated in a closed-loop simulation environment. Monte Carlo simulation campaigns were performed for the algorithms performance assessment and benchmarking. The simulations results comprise the landing phases of Mars and Phobos landing mission scenarios.

Temporal high-pass non-uniformity correction algorithm based on grayscale mapping and hardware implementation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, Minglei; Jin, Weiqi; Li, Yiyang; Li, Shuo

2015-08-01

In this paper, we propose a novel scene-based non-uniformity correction algorithm for infrared image processing-temporal high-pass non-uniformity correction algorithm based on grayscale mapping (THP and GM). The main sources of non-uniformity are: (1) detector fabrication inaccuracies; (2) non-linearity and variations in the read-out electronics and (3) optical path effects. The non-uniformity will be reduced by non-uniformity correction (NUC) algorithms. The NUC algorithms are often divided into calibration-based non-uniformity correction (CBNUC) algorithms and scene-based non-uniformity correction (SBNUC) algorithms. As non-uniformity drifts temporally, CBNUC algorithms must be repeated by inserting a uniform radiation source which SBNUC algorithms do not need into the view, so the SBNUC algorithm becomes an essential part of infrared imaging system. The SBNUC algorithms' poor robustness often leads two defects: artifacts and over-correction, meanwhile due to complicated calculation process and large storage consumption, hardware implementation of the SBNUC algorithms is difficult, especially in Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) platform. The THP and GM algorithm proposed in this paper can eliminate the non-uniformity without causing defects. The hardware implementation of the algorithm only based on FPGA has two advantages: (1) low resources consumption, and (2) small hardware delay: less than 20 lines, it can be transplanted to a variety of infrared detectors equipped with FPGA image processing module, it can reduce the stripe non-uniformity and the ripple non-uniformity.

Fast instantaneous center of rotation estimation algorithm for a skied-steered robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kniaz, V. V.

2015-05-01

Skid-steered robots are widely used as mobile platforms for machine vision systems. However it is hard to achieve a stable motion of such robots along desired trajectory due to an unpredictable wheel slip. It is possible to compensate the unpredictable wheel slip and stabilize the motion of the robot using visual odometry. This paper presents a fast optical flow based algorithm for estimation of instantaneous center of rotation, angular and longitudinal speed of the robot. The proposed algorithm is based on Horn-Schunck variational optical flow estimation method. The instantaneous center of rotation and motion of the robot is estimated by back projection of optical flow field to the ground surface. The developed algorithm was tested using skid-steered mobile robot. The robot is based on a mobile platform that includes two pairs of differential driven motors and a motor controller. Monocular visual odometry system consisting of a singleboard computer and a low cost webcam is mounted on the mobile platform. A state-space model of the robot was derived using standard black-box system identification. The input (commands) and the output (motion) were recorded using a dedicated external motion capture system. The obtained model was used to control the robot without visual odometry data. The paper is concluded with the algorithm quality estimation by comparison of the trajectories estimated by the algorithm with the data from motion capture system.

A new unequal-weighted triple-frequency first order ionosphere correction algorithm and its application in COMPASS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, WenXiang; Mou, WeiHua; Wang, FeiXue

2012-03-01

As the introduction of triple-frequency signals in GNSS, the multi-frequency ionosphere correction technology has been fast developing. References indicate that the triple-frequency second order ionosphere correction is worse than the dual-frequency first order ionosphere correction because of the larger noise amplification factor. On the assumption that the variances of three frequency pseudoranges were equal, other references presented the triple-frequency first order ionosphere correction, which proved worse or better than the dual-frequency first order correction in different situations. In practice, the PN code rate, carrier-to-noise ratio, parameters of DLL and multipath effect of each frequency are not the same, so three frequency pseudorange variances are unequal. Under this consideration, a new unequal-weighted triple-frequency first order ionosphere correction algorithm, which minimizes the variance of the pseudorange ionosphere-free combination, is proposed in this paper. It is found that conventional dual-frequency first-order correction algorithms and the equal-weighted triple-frequency first order correction algorithm are special cases of the new algorithm. A new pseudorange variance estimation method based on the three carrier combination is also introduced. Theoretical analysis shows that the new algorithm is optimal. The experiment with COMPASS G3 satellite observations demonstrates that the ionosphere-free pseudorange combination variance of the new algorithm is smaller than traditional multi-frequency correction algorithms.

New algorithms for motion error detection of numerical control machine tool by laser tracking measurement on the basis of GPS principle.

PubMed

Wang, Jindong; Chen, Peng; Deng, Yufen; Guo, Junjie

2018-01-01

As a three-dimensional measuring instrument, the laser tracker is widely used in industrial measurement. To avoid the influence of angle measurement error on the overall measurement accuracy, the multi-station and time-sharing measurement with a laser tracker is introduced on the basis of the global positioning system (GPS) principle in this paper. For the proposed method, how to accurately determine the coordinates of each measuring point by using a large amount of measured data is a critical issue. Taking detecting motion error of a numerical control machine tool, for example, the corresponding measurement algorithms are investigated thoroughly. By establishing the mathematical model of detecting motion error of a machine tool with this method, the analytical algorithm concerning on base station calibration and measuring point determination is deduced without selecting the initial iterative value in calculation. However, when the motion area of the machine tool is in a 2D plane, the coefficient matrix of base station calibration is singular, which generates a distortion result. In order to overcome the limitation of the original algorithm, an improved analytical algorithm is also derived. Meanwhile, the calibration accuracy of the base station with the improved algorithm is compared with that with the original analytical algorithm and some iterative algorithms, such as the Gauss-Newton algorithm and Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. The experiment further verifies the feasibility and effectiveness of the improved algorithm. In addition, the different motion areas of the machine tool have certain influence on the calibration accuracy of the base station, and the corresponding influence of measurement error on the calibration result of the base station depending on the condition number of coefficient matrix are analyzed.

New algorithms for motion error detection of numerical control machine tool by laser tracking measurement on the basis of GPS principle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Jindong; Chen, Peng; Deng, Yufen; Guo, Junjie

2018-01-01

As a three-dimensional measuring instrument, the laser tracker is widely used in industrial measurement. To avoid the influence of angle measurement error on the overall measurement accuracy, the multi-station and time-sharing measurement with a laser tracker is introduced on the basis of the global positioning system (GPS) principle in this paper. For the proposed method, how to accurately determine the coordinates of each measuring point by using a large amount of measured data is a critical issue. Taking detecting motion error of a numerical control machine tool, for example, the corresponding measurement algorithms are investigated thoroughly. By establishing the mathematical model of detecting motion error of a machine tool with this method, the analytical algorithm concerning on base station calibration and measuring point determination is deduced without selecting the initial iterative value in calculation. However, when the motion area of the machine tool is in a 2D plane, the coefficient matrix of base station calibration is singular, which generates a distortion result. In order to overcome the limitation of the original algorithm, an improved analytical algorithm is also derived. Meanwhile, the calibration accuracy of the base station with the improved algorithm is compared with that with the original analytical algorithm and some iterative algorithms, such as the Gauss-Newton algorithm and Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. The experiment further verifies the feasibility and effectiveness of the improved algorithm. In addition, the different motion areas of the machine tool have certain influence on the calibration accuracy of the base station, and the corresponding influence of measurement error on the calibration result of the base station depending on the condition number of coefficient matrix are analyzed.

Inertial sensor-based smoother for gait analysis.

PubMed

Suh, Young Soo

2014-12-17

An off-line smoother algorithm is proposed to estimate foot motion using an inertial sensor unit (three-axis gyroscopes and accelerometers) attached to a shoe. The smoother gives more accurate foot motion estimation than filter-based algorithms by using all of the sensor data instead of using the current sensor data. The algorithm consists of two parts. In the first part, a Kalman filter is used to obtain initial foot motion estimation. In the second part, the error in the initial estimation is compensated using a smoother, where the problem is formulated in the quadratic optimization problem. An efficient solution of the quadratic optimization problem is given using the sparse structure. Through experiments, it is shown that the proposed algorithm can estimate foot motion more accurately than a filter-based algorithm with reasonable computation time. In particular, there is significant improvement in the foot motion estimation when the foot is moving off the floor: the z-axis position error squared sum (total time: 3.47 s) when the foot is in the air is 0.0807 m2 (Kalman filter) and 0.0020 m2 (the proposed smoother).

Motion-adaptive spatio-temporal regularization for accelerated dynamic MRI.

PubMed

Asif, M Salman; Hamilton, Lei; Brummer, Marijn; Romberg, Justin

2013-09-01

Accelerated magnetic resonance imaging techniques reduce signal acquisition time by undersampling k-space. A fundamental problem in accelerated magnetic resonance imaging is the recovery of quality images from undersampled k-space data. Current state-of-the-art recovery algorithms exploit the spatial and temporal structures in underlying images to improve the reconstruction quality. In recent years, compressed sensing theory has helped formulate mathematical principles and conditions that ensure recovery of (structured) sparse signals from undersampled, incoherent measurements. In this article, a new recovery algorithm, motion-adaptive spatio-temporal regularization, is presented that uses spatial and temporal structured sparsity of MR images in the compressed sensing framework to recover dynamic MR images from highly undersampled k-space data. In contrast to existing algorithms, our proposed algorithm models temporal sparsity using motion-adaptive linear transformations between neighboring images. The efficiency of motion-adaptive spatio-temporal regularization is demonstrated with experiments on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging for a range of reduction factors. Results are also compared with k-t FOCUSS with motion estimation and compensation-another recently proposed recovery algorithm for dynamic magnetic resonance imaging. . Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Simple motion correction strategy reduces respiratory-induced motion artifacts for k-t accelerated and compressed-sensing cardiovascular magnetic resonance perfusion imaging.

PubMed

Zhou, Ruixi; Huang, Wei; Yang, Yang; Chen, Xiao; Weller, Daniel S; Kramer, Christopher M; Kozerke, Sebastian; Salerno, Michael

2018-02-01

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) stress perfusion imaging provides important diagnostic and prognostic information in coronary artery disease (CAD). Current clinical sequences have limited temporal and/or spatial resolution, and incomplete heart coverage. Techniques such as k-t principal component analysis (PCA) or k-t sparcity and low rank structure (SLR), which rely on the high degree of spatiotemporal correlation in first-pass perfusion data, can significantly accelerate image acquisition mitigating these problems. However, in the presence of respiratory motion, these techniques can suffer from significant degradation of image quality. A number of techniques based on non-rigid registration have been developed. However, to first approximation, breathing motion predominantly results in rigid motion of the heart. To this end, a simple robust motion correction strategy is proposed for k-t accelerated and compressed sensing (CS) perfusion imaging. A simple respiratory motion compensation (MC) strategy for k-t accelerated and compressed-sensing CMR perfusion imaging to selectively correct respiratory motion of the heart was implemented based on linear k-space phase shifts derived from rigid motion registration of a region-of-interest (ROI) encompassing the heart. A variable density Poisson disk acquisition strategy was used to minimize coherent aliasing in the presence of respiratory motion, and images were reconstructed using k-t PCA and k-t SLR with or without motion correction. The strategy was evaluated in a CMR-extended cardiac torso digital (XCAT) phantom and in prospectively acquired first-pass perfusion studies in 12 subjects undergoing clinically ordered CMR studies. Phantom studies were assessed using the Structural Similarity Index (SSIM) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). In patient studies, image quality was scored in a blinded fashion by two experienced cardiologists. In the phantom experiments, images reconstructed with the MC strategy had higher SSIM (p < 0.01) and lower RMSE (p < 0.01) in the presence of respiratory motion. For patient studies, the MC strategy improved k-t PCA and k-t SLR reconstruction image quality (p < 0.01). The performance of k-t SLR without motion correction demonstrated improved image quality as compared to k-t PCA in the setting of respiratory motion (p < 0.01), while with motion correction there is a trend of better performance in k-t SLR as compared with motion corrected k-t PCA. Our simple and robust rigid motion compensation strategy greatly reduces motion artifacts and improves image quality for standard k-t PCA and k-t SLR techniques in setting of respiratory motion due to imperfect breath-holding.

Understanding Human Motion Skill with Peak Timing Synergy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ueno, Ken; Furukawa, Koichi

The careful observation of motion phenomena is important in understanding the skillful human motion. However, this is a difficult task due to the complexities in timing when dealing with the skilful control of anatomical structures. To investigate the dexterity of human motion, we decided to concentrate on timing with respect to motion, and we have proposed a method to extract the peak timing synergy from multivariate motion data. The peak timing synergy is defined as a frequent ordered graph with time stamps, which has nodes consisting of turning points in motion waveforms. A proposed algorithm, PRESTO automatically extracts the peak timing synergy. PRESTO comprises the following 3 processes: (1) detecting peak sequences with polygonal approximation; (2) generating peak-event sequences; and (3) finding frequent peak-event sequences using a sequential pattern mining method, generalized sequential patterns (GSP). Here, we measured right arm motion during the task of cello bowing and prepared a data set of the right shoulder and arm motion. We successfully extracted the peak timing synergy on cello bowing data set using the PRESTO algorithm, which consisted of common skills among cellists and personal skill differences. To evaluate the sequential pattern mining algorithm GSP in PRESTO, we compared the peak timing synergy by using GSP algorithm and the one by using filtering by reciprocal voting (FRV) algorithm as a non time-series method. We found that the support is 95 - 100% in GSP, while 83 - 96% in FRV and that the results by GSP are better than the one by FRV in the reproducibility of human motion. Therefore we show that sequential pattern mining approach is more effective to extract the peak timing synergy than non-time series analysis approach.

A two-degrees-of-freedom miniature manipulator actuated by antagonistic shape memory alloys

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lai, Chih-Ming; Chu, Cheng-Yu; Lan, Chao-Chieh

2013-08-01

This paper presents a miniature manipulator that can provide rotations around two perpendicularly intersecting axes. Each axis is actuated by a pair of shape memory alloy (SMA) wires. SMA wire actuators are known for their large energy density and ease of actuation. These advantages make them ideal for applications that have stringent size and weight constraints. SMA actuators can be temperature-controlled to contract and relax like muscles. When correctly designed, antagonistic SMA actuators have a faster response and larger range of motion than bias-type SMA actuators. This paper proposes an antagonistic actuation model to determine the manipulator parameters that are required to generate sufficient workspace. Effects of SMA prestrain and spring stiffness on the manipulator are investigated. Taking advantage of proper prestrain, the actuator size can be made much smaller while maintaining the same motion. The use of springs in series with SMA can effectively reduce actuator stress. A controller and an anti-slack algorithm are developed to ensure fast and accurate motion. Speed, stress, and loading experiments are conducted to demonstrate the performance of the manipulator.

Evaluation of tumor localization in respiration motion-corrected cone-beam CT: Prospective study in lung

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

Dzyubak, Oleksandr; Kincaid, Russell; Hertanto, Agung

Purpose: Target localization accuracy of cone-beam CT (CBCT) images used in radiation treatment of respiratory disease sites is affected by motion artifacts (blurring and streaking). The authors have previously reported on a method of respiratory motion correction in thoracic CBCT at end expiration (EE). The previous retrospective study was limited to examination of reducing motion artifacts in a small number of patient cases. They report here on a prospective study in a larger group of lung cancer patients to evaluate respiratory motion-corrected (RMC)-CBCT ability to improve lung tumor localization accuracy and reduce motion artifacts in Linac-mounted CBCT images. A secondmore » study goal examines whether the motion correction derived from a respiration-correlated CT (RCCT) at simulation yields similar tumor localization accuracy at treatment. Methods: In an IRB-approved study, 19 lung cancer patients (22 tumors) received a RCCT at simulation, and on one treatment day received a RCCT, a respiratory-gated CBCT at end expiration, and a 1-min CBCT. A respiration monitor of abdominal displacement was used during all scans. In addition to a CBCT reconstruction without motion correction, the motion correction method was applied to the same 1-min scan. Projection images were sorted into ten bins based on abdominal displacement, and each bin was reconstructed to produce ten intermediate CBCT images. Each intermediate CBCT was deformed to the end expiration state using a motion model derived from RCCT. The deformed intermediate CBCT images were then added to produce a final RMC-CBCT. In order to evaluate the second study goal, the CBCT was corrected in two ways, one using a model derived from the RCCT at simulation [RMC-CBCT(sim)], the other from the RCCT at treatment [RMC-CBCT(tx)]. Image evaluation compared uncorrected CBCT, RMC-CBCT(sim), and RMC-CBCT(tx). The gated CBCT at end expiration served as the criterion standard for comparison. Using automatic rigid image registration, each CBCT was registered twice to the gated CBCT, first aligned to spine, second to tumor in lung. Localization discrepancy was defined as the difference between tumor and spine registration. Agreement in tumor localization with the gated CBCT was further evaluated by calculating a normalized cross correlation (NCC) of pixel intensities within a volume-of-interest enclosing the tumor in lung. Results: Tumor localization discrepancy was reduced with RMC-CBCT(tx) in 17 out of 22 cases relative to no correction. If one considers cases in which tumor motion is 5 mm or more in the RCCT, tumor localization discrepancy is reduced with RMC-CBCT(tx) in 14 out of 17 cases (p = 0.04), and with RMC-CBCT(sim) in 13 out of 17 cases (p = 0.05). Differences in localization discrepancy between correction models [RMC-CBCT(sim) vs RMC-CBCT(tx)] were less than 2 mm. In 21 out of 22 cases, improvement in NCC was higher with RMC-CBCT(tx) relative to no correction (p < 0.0001). Differences in NCC between RMC-CBCT(sim) and RMC-CBCT(tx) were small. Conclusions: Motion-corrected CBCT improves lung tumor localization accuracy and reduces motion artifacts in nearly all cases. Motion correction at end expiration using RCCT acquired at simulation yields similar results to that using a RCCT on the treatment day (2–3 weeks after simulation)« less

Evaluation of tumor localization in respiration motion-corrected cone-beam CT: prospective study in lung.

PubMed

Dzyubak, Oleksandr; Kincaid, Russell; Hertanto, Agung; Hu, Yu-Chi; Pham, Hai; Rimner, Andreas; Yorke, Ellen; Zhang, Qinghui; Mageras, Gig S

2014-10-01

Target localization accuracy of cone-beam CT (CBCT) images used in radiation treatment of respiratory disease sites is affected by motion artifacts (blurring and streaking). The authors have previously reported on a method of respiratory motion correction in thoracic CBCT at end expiration (EE). The previous retrospective study was limited to examination of reducing motion artifacts in a small number of patient cases. They report here on a prospective study in a larger group of lung cancer patients to evaluate respiratory motion-corrected (RMC)-CBCT ability to improve lung tumor localization accuracy and reduce motion artifacts in Linac-mounted CBCT images. A second study goal examines whether the motion correction derived from a respiration-correlated CT (RCCT) at simulation yields similar tumor localization accuracy at treatment. In an IRB-approved study, 19 lung cancer patients (22 tumors) received a RCCT at simulation, and on one treatment day received a RCCT, a respiratory-gated CBCT at end expiration, and a 1-min CBCT. A respiration monitor of abdominal displacement was used during all scans. In addition to a CBCT reconstruction without motion correction, the motion correction method was applied to the same 1-min scan. Projection images were sorted into ten bins based on abdominal displacement, and each bin was reconstructed to produce ten intermediate CBCT images. Each intermediate CBCT was deformed to the end expiration state using a motion model derived from RCCT. The deformed intermediate CBCT images were then added to produce a final RMC-CBCT. In order to evaluate the second study goal, the CBCT was corrected in two ways, one using a model derived from the RCCT at simulation [RMC-CBCT(sim)], the other from the RCCT at treatment [RMC-CBCT(tx)]. Image evaluation compared uncorrected CBCT, RMC-CBCT(sim), and RMC-CBCT(tx). The gated CBCT at end expiration served as the criterion standard for comparison. Using automatic rigid image registration, each CBCT was registered twice to the gated CBCT, first aligned to spine, second to tumor in lung. Localization discrepancy was defined as the difference between tumor and spine registration. Agreement in tumor localization with the gated CBCT was further evaluated by calculating a normalized cross correlation (NCC) of pixel intensities within a volume-of-interest enclosing the tumor in lung. Tumor localization discrepancy was reduced with RMC-CBCT(tx) in 17 out of 22 cases relative to no correction. If one considers cases in which tumor motion is 5 mm or more in the RCCT, tumor localization discrepancy is reduced with RMC-CBCT(tx) in 14 out of 17 cases (p = 0.04), and with RMC-CBCT(sim) in 13 out of 17 cases (p = 0.05). Differences in localization discrepancy between correction models [RMC-CBCT(sim) vs RMC-CBCT(tx)] were less than 2 mm. In 21 out of 22 cases, improvement in NCC was higher with RMC-CBCT(tx) relative to no correction (p < 0.0001). Differences in NCC between RMC-CBCT(sim) and RMC-CBCT(tx) were small. Motion-corrected CBCT improves lung tumor localization accuracy and reduces motion artifacts in nearly all cases. Motion correction at end expiration using RCCT acquired at simulation yields similar results to that using a RCCT on the treatment day (2-3 weeks after simulation).

Attenuation correction in emission tomography using the emission data—A review

PubMed Central

Li, Yusheng

2016-01-01

The problem of attenuation correction (AC) for quantitative positron emission tomography (PET) had been considered solved to a large extent after the commercial availability of devices combining PET with computed tomography (CT) in 2001; single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) has seen a similar development. However, stimulated in particular by technical advances toward clinical systems combining PET and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), research interest in alternative approaches for PET AC has grown substantially in the last years. In this comprehensive literature review, the authors first present theoretical results with relevance to simultaneous reconstruction of attenuation and activity. The authors then look back at the early history of this research area especially in PET; since this history is closely interwoven with that of similar approaches in SPECT, these will also be covered. We then review algorithmic advances in PET, including analytic and iterative algorithms. The analytic approaches are either based on the Helgason–Ludwig data consistency conditions of the Radon transform, or generalizations of John’s partial differential equation; with respect to iterative methods, we discuss maximum likelihood reconstruction of attenuation and activity (MLAA), the maximum likelihood attenuation correction factors (MLACF) algorithm, and their offspring. The description of methods is followed by a structured account of applications for simultaneous reconstruction techniques: this discussion covers organ-specific applications, applications specific to PET/MRI, applications using supplemental transmission information, and motion-aware applications. After briefly summarizing SPECT applications, we consider recent developments using emission data other than unscattered photons. In summary, developments using time-of-flight (TOF) PET emission data for AC have shown promising advances and open a wide range of applications. These techniques may both remedy deficiencies of purely MRI-based AC approaches in PET/MRI and improve standalone PET imaging. PMID:26843243

Attenuation correction in emission tomography using the emission data—A review

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

Berker, Yannick, E-mail: berker@mail.med.upenn.edu; Li, Yusheng

2016-02-15

The problem of attenuation correction (AC) for quantitative positron emission tomography (PET) had been considered solved to a large extent after the commercial availability of devices combining PET with computed tomography (CT) in 2001; single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) has seen a similar development. However, stimulated in particular by technical advances toward clinical systems combining PET and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), research interest in alternative approaches for PET AC has grown substantially in the last years. In this comprehensive literature review, the authors first present theoretical results with relevance to simultaneous reconstruction of attenuation and activity. The authors thenmore » look back at the early history of this research area especially in PET; since this history is closely interwoven with that of similar approaches in SPECT, these will also be covered. We then review algorithmic advances in PET, including analytic and iterative algorithms. The analytic approaches are either based on the Helgason–Ludwig data consistency conditions of the Radon transform, or generalizations of John’s partial differential equation; with respect to iterative methods, we discuss maximum likelihood reconstruction of attenuation and activity (MLAA), the maximum likelihood attenuation correction factors (MLACF) algorithm, and their offspring. The description of methods is followed by a structured account of applications for simultaneous reconstruction techniques: this discussion covers organ-specific applications, applications specific to PET/MRI, applications using supplemental transmission information, and motion-aware applications. After briefly summarizing SPECT applications, we consider recent developments using emission data other than unscattered photons. In summary, developments using time-of-flight (TOF) PET emission data for AC have shown promising advances and open a wide range of applications. These techniques may both remedy deficiencies of purely MRI-based AC approaches in PET/MRI and improve standalone PET imaging.« less

Atmospheric Correction Algorithm for Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Ocean Color from Space

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-02-20

Existing atmospheric correction algorithms for multichannel remote sensing of ocean color from space were designed for retrieving water-leaving...atmospheric correction algorithm for hyperspectral remote sensing of ocean color with the near-future Coastal Ocean Imaging Spectrometer. The algorithm uses

Signal Quality Improvement Algorithms for MEMS Gyroscope-Based Human Motion Analysis Systems: A Systematic Review.

PubMed

Du, Jiaying; Gerdtman, Christer; Lindén, Maria

2018-04-06

Motion sensors such as MEMS gyroscopes and accelerometers are characterized by a small size, light weight, high sensitivity, and low cost. They are used in an increasing number of applications. However, they are easily influenced by environmental effects such as temperature change, shock, and vibration. Thus, signal processing is essential for minimizing errors and improving signal quality and system stability. The aim of this work is to investigate and present a systematic review of different signal error reduction algorithms that are used for MEMS gyroscope-based motion analysis systems for human motion analysis or have the potential to be used in this area. A systematic search was performed with the search engines/databases of the ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, PubMed, and Scopus. Sixteen papers that focus on MEMS gyroscope-related signal processing and were published in journals or conference proceedings in the past 10 years were found and fully reviewed. Seventeen algorithms were categorized into four main groups: Kalman-filter-based algorithms, adaptive-based algorithms, simple filter algorithms, and compensation-based algorithms. The algorithms were analyzed and presented along with their characteristics such as advantages, disadvantages, and time limitations. A user guide to the most suitable signal processing algorithms within this area is presented.

Signal Quality Improvement Algorithms for MEMS Gyroscope-Based Human Motion Analysis Systems: A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Gerdtman, Christer

2018-01-01

Motion sensors such as MEMS gyroscopes and accelerometers are characterized by a small size, light weight, high sensitivity, and low cost. They are used in an increasing number of applications. However, they are easily influenced by environmental effects such as temperature change, shock, and vibration. Thus, signal processing is essential for minimizing errors and improving signal quality and system stability. The aim of this work is to investigate and present a systematic review of different signal error reduction algorithms that are used for MEMS gyroscope-based motion analysis systems for human motion analysis or have the potential to be used in this area. A systematic search was performed with the search engines/databases of the ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, PubMed, and Scopus. Sixteen papers that focus on MEMS gyroscope-related signal processing and were published in journals or conference proceedings in the past 10 years were found and fully reviewed. Seventeen algorithms were categorized into four main groups: Kalman-filter-based algorithms, adaptive-based algorithms, simple filter algorithms, and compensation-based algorithms. The algorithms were analyzed and presented along with their characteristics such as advantages, disadvantages, and time limitations. A user guide to the most suitable signal processing algorithms within this area is presented. PMID:29642412

Optimum location of external markers using feature selection algorithms for real‐time tumor tracking in external‐beam radiotherapy: a virtual phantom study

PubMed Central

Nankali, Saber; Miandoab, Payam Samadi; Baghizadeh, Amin

2016-01-01

In external‐beam radiotherapy, using external markers is one of the most reliable tools to predict tumor position, in clinical applications. The main challenge in this approach is tumor motion tracking with highest accuracy that depends heavily on external markers location, and this issue is the objective of this study. Four commercially available feature selection algorithms entitled 1) Correlation‐based Feature Selection, 2) Classifier, 3) Principal Components, and 4) Relief were proposed to find optimum location of external markers in combination with two “Genetic” and “Ranker” searching procedures. The performance of these algorithms has been evaluated using four‐dimensional extended cardiac‐torso anthropomorphic phantom. Six tumors in lung, three tumors in liver, and 49 points on the thorax surface were taken into account to simulate internal and external motions, respectively. The root mean square error of an adaptive neuro‐fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) as prediction model was considered as metric for quantitatively evaluating the performance of proposed feature selection algorithms. To do this, the thorax surface region was divided into nine smaller segments and predefined tumors motion was predicted by ANFIS using external motion data of given markers at each small segment, separately. Our comparative results showed that all feature selection algorithms can reasonably select specific external markers from those segments where the root mean square error of the ANFIS model is minimum. Moreover, the performance accuracy of proposed feature selection algorithms was compared, separately. For this, each tumor motion was predicted using motion data of those external markers selected by each feature selection algorithm. Duncan statistical test, followed by F‐test, on final results reflected that all proposed feature selection algorithms have the same performance accuracy for lung tumors. But for liver tumors, a correlation‐based feature selection algorithm, in combination with a genetic search algorithm, proved to yield best performance accuracy for selecting optimum markers. PACS numbers: 87.55.km, 87.56.Fc PMID:26894358

Optimum location of external markers using feature selection algorithms for real-time tumor tracking in external-beam radiotherapy: a virtual phantom study.

PubMed

Nankali, Saber; Torshabi, Ahmad Esmaili; Miandoab, Payam Samadi; Baghizadeh, Amin

2016-01-08

In external-beam radiotherapy, using external markers is one of the most reliable tools to predict tumor position, in clinical applications. The main challenge in this approach is tumor motion tracking with highest accuracy that depends heavily on external markers location, and this issue is the objective of this study. Four commercially available feature selection algorithms entitled 1) Correlation-based Feature Selection, 2) Classifier, 3) Principal Components, and 4) Relief were proposed to find optimum location of external markers in combination with two "Genetic" and "Ranker" searching procedures. The performance of these algorithms has been evaluated using four-dimensional extended cardiac-torso anthropomorphic phantom. Six tumors in lung, three tumors in liver, and 49 points on the thorax surface were taken into account to simulate internal and external motions, respectively. The root mean square error of an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) as prediction model was considered as metric for quantitatively evaluating the performance of proposed feature selection algorithms. To do this, the thorax surface region was divided into nine smaller segments and predefined tumors motion was predicted by ANFIS using external motion data of given markers at each small segment, separately. Our comparative results showed that all feature selection algorithms can reasonably select specific external markers from those segments where the root mean square error of the ANFIS model is minimum. Moreover, the performance accuracy of proposed feature selection algorithms was compared, separately. For this, each tumor motion was predicted using motion data of those external markers selected by each feature selection algorithm. Duncan statistical test, followed by F-test, on final results reflected that all proposed feature selection algorithms have the same performance accuracy for lung tumors. But for liver tumors, a correlation-based feature selection algorithm, in combination with a genetic search algorithm, proved to yield best performance accuracy for selecting optimum markers.

Development of PET projection data correction algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bazhanov, P. V.; Kotina, E. D.

2017-12-01

Positron emission tomography is modern nuclear medicine method used in metabolism and internals functions examinations. This method allows to diagnosticate treatments on their early stages. Mathematical algorithms are widely used not only for images reconstruction but also for PET data correction. In this paper random coincidences and scatter correction algorithms implementation are considered, as well as algorithm of PET projection data acquisition modeling for corrections verification.

Sci-Fri PM: Radiation Therapy, Planning, Imaging, and Special Techniques - 11: Quantification of chest wall motion during deep inspiration breast hold treatments using cine EPID images and a physics based algorithm

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

Alpuche Aviles, Jorge E.; VanBeek, Timothy

Purpose: This work presents an algorithm used to quantify intra-fraction motion for patients treated using deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH). The algorithm quantifies the position of the chest wall in breast tangent fields using electronic portal images. Methods: The algorithm assumes that image profiles, taken along a direction perpendicular to the medial border of the field, follow a monotonically and smooth decreasing function. This assumption is invalid in the presence of lung and can be used to calculate chest wall position. The algorithm was validated by determining the position of the chest wall for varying field edge positions in portalmore » images of a thoracic phantom. The algorithm was used to quantify intra-fraction motion in cine images for 7 patients treated with DIBH. Results: Phantom results show that changes in the distance between chest wall and field edge were accurate within 0.1 mm on average. For a fixed field edge, the algorithm calculates the position of the chest wall with a 0.2 mm standard deviation. Intra-fraction motion for DIBH patients was within 1 mm 91.4% of the time and within 1.5 mm 97.9% of the time. The maximum intra-fraction motion was 3.0 mm. Conclusions: A physics based algorithm was developed and can be used to quantify the position of chest wall irradiated in tangent portal images with an accuracy of 0.1 mm and precision of 0.6 mm. Intra-fraction motion for patients treated with DIBH at our clinic is less than 3 mm.« less

Cloud and DNI nowcasting with MSG/SEVIRI for the optimized operation of concentrating solar power plants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sirch, Tobias; Bugliaro, Luca; Zinner, Tobias; Möhrlein, Matthias; Vazquez-Navarro, Margarita

2017-02-01

A novel approach for the nowcasting of clouds and direct normal irradiance (DNI) based on the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) aboard the geostationary Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite is presented for a forecast horizon up to 120 min. The basis of the algorithm is an optical flow method to derive cloud motion vectors for all cloudy pixels. To facilitate forecasts over a relevant time period, a classification of clouds into objects and a weighted triangular interpolation of clear-sky regions are used. Low and high level clouds are forecasted separately because they show different velocities and motion directions. Additionally a distinction in advective and convective clouds together with an intensity correction for quickly thinning convective clouds is integrated. The DNI is calculated from the forecasted optical thickness of the low and high level clouds. In order to quantitatively assess the performance of the algorithm, a forecast validation against MSG/SEVIRI observations is performed for a period of 2 months. Error rates and Hanssen-Kuiper skill scores are derived for forecasted cloud masks. For a forecast of 5 min for most cloud situations more than 95 % of all pixels are predicted correctly cloudy or clear. This number decreases to 80-95 % for a forecast of 2 h depending on cloud type and vertical cloud level. Hanssen-Kuiper skill scores for cloud mask go down to 0.6-0.7 for a 2 h forecast. Compared to persistence an improvement of forecast horizon by a factor of 2 is reached for all forecasts up to 2 h. A comparison of forecasted optical thickness distributions and DNI against observations yields correlation coefficients larger than 0.9 for 15 min forecasts and around 0.65 for 2 h forecasts.

An efficient algorithm for automatic phase correction of NMR spectra based on entropy minimization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Li; Weng, Zhiqiang; Goh, LaiYoong; Garland, Marc

2002-09-01

A new algorithm for automatic phase correction of NMR spectra based on entropy minimization is proposed. The optimal zero-order and first-order phase corrections for a NMR spectrum are determined by minimizing entropy. The objective function is constructed using a Shannon-type information entropy measure. Entropy is defined as the normalized derivative of the NMR spectral data. The algorithm has been successfully applied to experimental 1H NMR spectra. The results of automatic phase correction are found to be comparable to, or perhaps better than, manual phase correction. The advantages of this automatic phase correction algorithm include its simple mathematical basis and the straightforward, reproducible, and efficient optimization procedure. The algorithm is implemented in the Matlab program ACME—Automated phase Correction based on Minimization of Entropy.

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) with retrospective motion correction for large-scale pediatric imaging.

PubMed

Holdsworth, Samantha J; Aksoy, Murat; Newbould, Rexford D; Yeom, Kristen; Van, Anh T; Ooi, Melvyn B; Barnes, Patrick D; Bammer, Roland; Skare, Stefan

2012-10-01

To develop and implement a clinical DTI technique suitable for the pediatric setting that retrospectively corrects for large motion without the need for rescanning and/or reacquisition strategies, and to deliver high-quality DTI images (both in the presence and absence of large motion) using procedures that reduce image noise and artifacts. We implemented an in-house built generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisitions (GRAPPA)-accelerated diffusion tensor (DT) echo-planar imaging (EPI) sequence at 1.5T and 3T on 1600 patients between 1 month and 18 years old. To reconstruct the data, we developed a fully automated tailored reconstruction software that selects the best GRAPPA and ghost calibration weights; does 3D rigid-body realignment with importance weighting; and employs phase correction and complex averaging to lower Rician noise and reduce phase artifacts. For select cases we investigated the use of an additional volume rejection criterion and b-matrix correction for large motion. The DTI image reconstruction procedures developed here were extremely robust in correcting for motion, failing on only three subjects, while providing the radiologists high-quality data for routine evaluation. This work suggests that, apart from the rare instance of continuous motion throughout the scan, high-quality DTI brain data can be acquired using our proposed integrated sequence and reconstruction that uses a retrospective approach to motion correction. In addition, we demonstrate a substantial improvement in overall image quality by combining phase correction with complex averaging, which reduces the Rician noise that biases noisy data. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

SU-G-JeP1-07: Development of a Programmable Motion Testbed for the Validation of Ultrasound Tracking Algorithms

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

Shepard, A; Matrosic, C; Zagzebski, J

Purpose: To develop an advanced testbed that combines a 3D motion stage and ultrasound phantom to optimize and validate 2D and 3D tracking algorithms for real-time motion management during radiation therapy. Methods: A Siemens S2000 Ultrasound scanner utilizing a 9L4 transducer was coupled with the Washington University 4D Phantom to simulate patient motion. The transducer was securely fastened to the 3D stage and positioned to image three cylinders of varying contrast in a Gammex 404GS LE phantom. The transducer was placed within a water bath above the phantom in order to maintain sufficient coupling for the entire range of simulatedmore » motion. A programmed motion sequence was used to move the transducer during image acquisition and a cine video was acquired for one minute to allow for long sequence tracking. Images were analyzed using a normalized cross-correlation block matching tracking algorithm and compared to the known motion of the transducer relative to the phantom. Results: The setup produced stable ultrasound motion traces consistent with those programmed into the 3D motion stage. The acquired ultrasound images showed minimal artifacts and an image quality that was more than suitable for tracking algorithm verification. Comparisons of a block matching tracking algorithm with the known motion trace for the three features resulted in an average tracking error of 0.59 mm. Conclusion: The high accuracy and programmability of the 4D phantom allows for the acquisition of ultrasound motion sequences that are highly customizable; allowing for focused analysis of some common pitfalls of tracking algorithms such as partial feature occlusion or feature disappearance, among others. The design can easily be modified to adapt to any probe such that the process can be extended to 3D acquisition. Further development of an anatomy specific phantom better resembling true anatomical landmarks could lead to an even more robust validation. This work is partially funded by NIH grant R01CA190298.« less

Refraction-compensated motion tracking of unrestrained small animals in positron emission tomography.

PubMed

Kyme, Andre; Meikle, Steven; Baldock, Clive; Fulton, Roger

2012-08-01

Motion-compensated radiotracer imaging of fully conscious rodents represents an important paradigm shift for preclinical investigations. In such studies, if motion tracking is performed through a transparent enclosure containing the awake animal, light refraction at the interface will introduce errors in stereo pose estimation. We have performed a thorough investigation of how this impacts the accuracy of pose estimates and the resulting motion correction, and developed an efficient method to predict and correct for refraction-based error. The refraction model underlying this study was validated using a state-of-the-art motion tracking system. Refraction-based error was shown to be dependent on tracking marker size, working distance, and interface thickness and tilt. Correcting for refraction error improved the spatial resolution and quantitative accuracy of motion-corrected positron emission tomography images. Since the methods are general, they may also be useful in other contexts where data are corrupted by refraction effects. Crown Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Upgrade of the HET segment control system, utilizing state-of-the-art, decentralized and embedded system controllers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Häuser, Marco; Richter, Josef; Kriel, Herman; Turbyfill, Amanda; Buetow, Brent; Ward, Michael

2016-07-01

Together with the ongoing major instrument upgrade of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) we present the planned upgrade of the HET Segment Control System (SCS) to SCS2. Because HET's primary mirror is segmented into 91 individual 1-meter hexagonal mirrors, the SCS is essential to maintain the mirror alignment throughout an entire night of observations. SCS2 will complete tip, tilt and piston corrections of each mirror segment at a significantly higher rate than the original SCS. The new motion control hardware will further increase the system's reliability. The initial optical measurements of this array are performed by the Mirror Alignment Recovery System (MARS) and the HET Extra Focal Instrument (HEFI). Once the segments are optically aligned, the inductive edge sensors give sub-micron precise feedback of each segment's positions relative to its adjacent segments. These sensors are part of the Segment Alignment Maintenance System (SAMS) and are responsible for providing information about positional changes due to external influences, such as steep temperature changes and mechanical stress, and for making compensatory calculations while tracking the telescope on sky. SCS2 will use the optical alignment systems and SAMS inputs to command corrections of every segment in a closed loop. The correction period will be roughly 30 seconds, mostly due to the measurement and averaging process of the SAMS algorithm. The segment actuators will be controlled by the custom developed HET Segment MOtion COntroller (SMOCO). It is a direct descendant of University Observatory Munich's embedded, CAN-based system and instrument control tool-kit. To preserve the existing HET hardware layout, each SMOCO will control two adjacent mirror segments. Unlike the original SCS motor controllers, SMOCO is able to drive all six axes of its two segments at the same time. SCS2 will continue to allow for sub-arcsecond precision in tip and tilt as well as sub-micro meter precision in piston. These estimations are based on the current performance of the segment support mechanics. SMOCO's smart motion control allows for on-the-y correction of the move targets. Since SMOCO uses state-of-the-art motion control electronics and embedded decentralized controllers, we expect reduction in thermal emission as well as less maintenance time.

Effect of Non-Alignment/Alignment of Attenuation Map Without/With Emission Motion Correction in Cardiac SPECT/CT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dey, Joyoni; Segars, W. Paul; Pretorius, P. Hendrik; King, Michael A.

2015-08-01

Purpose: We investigate the differences without/with respiratory motion correction in apparent imaging agent localization induced in reconstructed emission images when the attenuation maps used for attenuation correction (from CT) are misaligned with the patient anatomy during emission imaging due to differences in respiratory state. Methods: We investigated use of attenuation maps acquired at different states of a 2 cm amplitude respiratory cycle (at end-expiration, at end-inspiration, the center map, the average transmission map, and a large breath-hold beyond range of respiration during emission imaging) to correct for attenuation in MLEM reconstruction for several anatomical variants of the NCAT phantom which included both with and without non-rigid motion between heart and sub-diaphragmatic regions (such as liver, kidneys etc). We tested these cases with and without emission motion correction and attenuation map alignment/non-alignment. Results: For the NCAT default male anatomy the false count-reduction due to breathing was largely removed upon emission motion correction for the large majority of the cases. Exceptions (for the default male) were for the cases when using the large-breathhold end-inspiration map (TI_EXT), when we used the end-expiration (TE) map, and to a smaller extent, the end-inspiration map (TI). However moving the attenuation maps rigidly to align the heart region, reduced the remaining count-reduction artifacts. For the female patient count-reduction remained post motion correction using rigid map-alignment due to the breast soft-tissue misalignment. Quantitatively, after the transmission (rigid) alignment correction, the polar-map 17-segment RMS error with respect to the reference (motion-less case) reduced by 46.5% on average for the extreme breathhold case. The reductions were 40.8% for end-expiration map and 31.9% for end-inspiration cases on the average, comparable to the semi-ideal case where each state uses its own attenuation map for correction. Conclusions: Two main conclusions are that even rigid emission motion correction to rigidly align the heart region to the attenuation map helps in average cases to reduce the count-reduction artifacts and secondly, within the limits of the study (ex. rigid correction) when there is lung tissue inferior to the heart as with the NCAT phantom employed in this study end-expiration maps (TE) might best be avoided as they may create more artifacts than the end-inspiration (TI) maps.

Joint correction of respiratory motion artifact and partial volume effect in lung/thoracic PET/CT imaging.

PubMed

Chang, Guoping; Chang, Tingting; Pan, Tinsu; Clark, John W; Mawlawi, Osama R

2010-12-01

Respiratory motion artifacts and partial volume effects (PVEs) are two degrading factors that affect the accuracy of image quantification in PET/CT imaging. In this article, the authors propose a joint motion and PVE correction approach (JMPC) to improve PET quantification by simultaneously correcting for respiratory motion artifacts and PVE in patients with lung/thoracic cancer. The objective of this article is to describe this approach and evaluate its performance using phantom and patient studies. The proposed joint correction approach incorporates a model of motion blurring, PVE, and object size/shape. A motion blurring kernel (MBK) is then estimated from the deconvolution of the joint model, while the activity concentration (AC) of the tumor is estimated from the normalization of the derived MBK. To evaluate the performance of this approach, two phantom studies and eight patient studies were performed. In the phantom studies, two motion waveforms-a linear sinusoidal and a circular motion-were used to control the motion of a sphere, while in the patient studies, all participants were instructed to breathe regularly. For the phantom studies, the resultant MBK was compared to the true MBK by measuring a correlation coefficient between the two kernels. The measured sphere AC derived from the proposed method was compared to the true AC as well as the ACs in images exhibiting PVE only and images exhibiting both PVE and motion blurring. For the patient studies, the resultant MBK was compared to the motion extent derived from a 4D-CT study, while the measured tumor AC was compared to the AC in images exhibiting both PVE and motion blurring. For the phantom studies, the estimated MBK approximated the true MBK with an average correlation coefficient of 0.91. The tumor ACs following the joint correction technique were similar to the true AC with an average difference of 2%. Furthermore, the tumor ACs on the PVE only images and images with both motion blur and PVE effects were, on average, 75% and 47.5% (10%) of the true AC, respectively, for the linear (circular) motion phantom study. For the patient studies, the maximum and mean AC/SUV on the PET images following the joint correction are, on average, increased by 125.9% and 371.6%, respectively, when compared to the PET images with both PVE and motion. The motion extents measured from the derived MBK and 4D-CT exhibited an average difference of 1.9 mm. The proposed joint correction approach can improve the accuracy of PET quantification by simultaneously compensating for the respiratory motion artifacts and PVE in lung/thoracic PET/CT imaging.

Turbulence Measurements from Compliant Moorings. Part II: Motion Correction

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

Kilcher, Levi F.; Thomson, Jim; Harding, Samuel

2017-06-01

Acoustic Doppler velocimeters (ADVs) are a valuable tool for making highprecision measurements of turbulence, and moorings are a convenient and ubiquitous platform for making many kinds of measurements in the ocean. However—because of concerns that mooring motion can contaminate turbulence measurements and acoustic Doppler profilers are relatively easy to deploy—ADVs are not frequently deployed from moorings. This work details a method for measuring turbulence using moored ADVs that corrects for mooring motion using measurements from inertial motion sensors. Three distinct mooring platforms were deployed in a tidal channel with inertial motion-sensor-equipped ADVs. In each case, the motion correction based onmore » the inertial measurements dramatically reduced contamination from mooring motion. The spectra from these measurements have a shape that is consistent with other measurements in tidal channels, and have a f^(5/3) slope at high frequencies—consistent with Kolmogorov’s theory of isotropic turbulence. Motion correction also improves estimates of cross-spectra and Reynold’s stresses. Comparison of turbulence dissipation with flow speed and turbulence production indicates a bottom boundary layer production-dissipation balance during ebb and flood that is consistent with the strong tidal forcing at the site. These results indicate that inertial-motion-sensor-equipped ADVs are a valuable new tool for measuring turbulence from moorings.« less

Motion-corrected whole-heart PET-MR for the simultaneous visualisation of coronary artery integrity and myocardial viability: an initial clinical validation.

PubMed

Munoz, Camila; Kunze, Karl P; Neji, Radhouene; Vitadello, Teresa; Rischpler, Christoph; Botnar, René M; Nekolla, Stephan G; Prieto, Claudia

2018-05-12

Cardiac PET-MR has shown potential for the comprehensive assessment of coronary heart disease. However, image degradation due to physiological motion remains a challenge that could hinder the adoption of this technology in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to validate a recently proposed respiratory motion-corrected PET-MR framework for the simultaneous visualisation of myocardial viability ( 18 F-FDG PET) and coronary artery anatomy (coronary MR angiography, CMRA) in patients with chronic total occlusion (CTO). A cohort of 14 patients was scanned with the proposed PET-CMRA framework. PET and CMRA images were reconstructed with and without the proposed motion correction approach for comparison purposes. Metrics of image quality including visible vessel length and sharpness were obtained for CMRA for both the right and left anterior descending coronary arteries (RCA, LAD), and relative increase in 18 F-FDG PET signal after motion correction for standard 17-segment polar maps was computed. Resulting coronary anatomy by CMRA and myocardial integrity by PET were visually compared against X-ray angiography and conventional Late Gadolinium Enhancement (LGE) MRI, respectively. Motion correction increased CMRA visible vessel length by 49.9% and 32.6% (RCA, LAD) and vessel sharpness by 12.3% and 18.9% (RCA, LAD) on average compared to uncorrected images. Coronary lumen delineation on motion-corrected CMRA images was in good agreement with X-ray angiography findings. For PET, motion correction resulted in an average 8% increase in 18 F-FDG signal in the inferior and inferolateral segments of the myocardial wall. An improved delineation of myocardial viability defects and reduced noise in the 18 F-FDG PET images was observed, improving correspondence to subendocardial LGE-MRI findings compared to uncorrected images. The feasibility of the PET-CMRA framework for simultaneous cardiac PET-MR imaging in a short and predictable scan time (~11 min) has been demonstrated in 14 patients with CTO. Motion correction increased visible length and sharpness of the coronary arteries by CMRA, and improved delineation of the myocardium by 18 F-FDG PET, resulting in good agreement with X-ray angiography and LGE-MRI.

Motion-induced phase error estimation and correction in 3D diffusion tensor imaging.

PubMed

Van, Anh T; Hernando, Diego; Sutton, Bradley P

2011-11-01

A multishot data acquisition strategy is one way to mitigate B0 distortion and T2∗ blurring for high-resolution diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging experiments. However, different object motions that take place during different shots cause phase inconsistencies in the data, leading to significant image artifacts. This work proposes a maximum likelihood estimation and k-space correction of motion-induced phase errors in 3D multishot diffusion tensor imaging. The proposed error estimation is robust, unbiased, and approaches the Cramer-Rao lower bound. For rigid body motion, the proposed correction effectively removes motion-induced phase errors regardless of the k-space trajectory used and gives comparable performance to the more computationally expensive 3D iterative nonlinear phase error correction method. The method has been extended to handle multichannel data collected using phased-array coils. Simulation and in vivo data are shown to demonstrate the performance of the method.

Real-time look-up table-based color correction for still image stabilization of digital cameras without using frame memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Lin-Bo; An, Sang-Woo; Wang, Chang-Shuai; Li, Ying-Chun; Chong, Jong-Wha

2012-09-01

Digital cameras usually decrease exposure time to capture motion-blur-free images. However, this operation will generate an under-exposed image with a low-budget complementary metal-oxide semiconductor image sensor (CIS). Conventional color correction algorithms can efficiently correct under-exposed images; however, they are generally not performed in real time and need at least one frame memory if they are implemented by hardware. The authors propose a real-time look-up table-based color correction method that corrects under-exposed images with hardware without using frame memory. The method utilizes histogram matching of two preview images, which are exposed for a long and short time, respectively, to construct an improved look-up table (ILUT) and then corrects the captured under-exposed image in real time. Because the ILUT is calculated in real time before processing the captured image, this method does not require frame memory to buffer image data, and therefore can greatly save the cost of CIS. This method not only supports single image capture, but also bracketing to capture three images at a time. The proposed method was implemented by hardware description language and verified by a field-programmable gate array with a 5 M CIS. Simulations show that the system can perform in real time with a low cost and can correct the color of under-exposed images well.

2-tier in-plane motion correction and out-of-plane motion filtering for contrast-enhanced ultrasound.

PubMed

Ta, Casey N; Eghtedari, Mohammad; Mattrey, Robert F; Kono, Yuko; Kummel, Andrew C

2014-11-01

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) cines of focal liver lesions (FLLs) can be quantitatively analyzed to measure tumor perfusion on a pixel-by-pixel basis for diagnostic indication. However, CEUS cines acquired freehand and during free breathing cause nonuniform in-plane and out-of-plane motion from frame to frame. These motions create fluctuations in the time-intensity curves (TICs), reducing the accuracy of quantitative measurements. Out-of-plane motion cannot be corrected by image registration in 2-dimensional CEUS and degrades the quality of in-plane motion correction (IPMC). A 2-tier IPMC strategy and adaptive out-of-plane motion filter (OPMF) are proposed to provide a stable correction of nonuniform motion to reduce the impact of motion on quantitative analyses. A total of 22 cines of FLLs were imaged with dual B-mode and contrast specific imaging to acquire a 3-minute TIC. B-mode images were analyzed for motion, and the motion correction was applied to both B-mode and contrast images. For IPMC, the main reference frame was automatically selected for each cine, and subreference frames were selected in each respiratory cycle and sequentially registered toward the main reference frame. All other frames were sequentially registered toward the local subreference frame. Four OPMFs were developed and tested: subsample normalized correlation (NC), subsample sum of absolute differences, mean frame NC, and histogram. The frames that were most dissimilar to the OPMF reference frame using 1 of the 4 above criteria in each respiratory cycle were adaptively removed by thresholding against the low-pass filter of the similarity curve. Out-of-plane motion filter was quantitatively evaluated by an out-of-plane motion metric (OPMM) that measured normalized variance in the high-pass filtered TIC within the tumor region-of-interest with low OPMM being the goal. Results for IPMC and OPMF were qualitatively evaluated by 2 blinded observers who ranked the motion in the cines before and after various combinations of motion correction steps. Quantitative measurements showed that 2-tier IPMC and OPMF improved imaging stability. With IPMC, the NC B-mode metric increased from 0.504 ± 0.149 to 0.585 ± 0.145 over all cines (P < 0.001). Two-tier IPMC also produced better fits on the contrast-specific TIC than industry standard IPMC techniques did (P < 0.02). In-plane motion correction and OPMF were shown to improve goodness of fit for pixel-by-pixel analysis (P < 0.001). Out-of-plane motion filter reduced variance in the contrast-specific signal as shown by a median decrease of 49.8% in the OPMM. Two-tier IPMC and OPMF were also shown to qualitatively reduce motion. Observers consistently ranked cines with IPMC higher than the same cine before IPMC (P < 0.001) as well as ranked cines with OPMF higher than when they were uncorrected. The 2-tier sequential IPMC and adaptive OPMF significantly reduced motion in 3-minute CEUS cines of FLLs, thereby overcoming the challenges of drift and irregular breathing motion in long cines. The 2-tier IPMC strategy provided stable motion correction tolerant of out-of-plane motion throughout the cine by sequentially registering subreference frames that bypassed the motion cycles, thereby overcoming the lack of a nearly stationary reference point in long cines. Out-of-plane motion filter reduced apparent motion by adaptively removing frames imaged off-plane from the automatically selected OPMF reference frame, thereby tolerating nonuniform breathing motion. Selection of the best OPMF by minimizing OPMM effectively reduced motion under a wide variety of motion patterns applicable to clinical CEUS. These semiautomated processes only required user input for region-of-interest selection and can improve the accuracy of quantitative perfusion measurements.

Automatic localization of the left ventricular blood pool centroid in short axis cardiac cine MR images.

PubMed

Tan, Li Kuo; Liew, Yih Miin; Lim, Einly; Abdul Aziz, Yang Faridah; Chee, Kok Han; McLaughlin, Robert A

2018-06-01

In this paper, we develop and validate an open source, fully automatic algorithm to localize the left ventricular (LV) blood pool centroid in short axis cardiac cine MR images, enabling follow-on automated LV segmentation algorithms. The algorithm comprises four steps: (i) quantify motion to determine an initial region of interest surrounding the heart, (ii) identify potential 2D objects of interest using an intensity-based segmentation, (iii) assess contraction/expansion, circularity, and proximity to lung tissue to score all objects of interest in terms of their likelihood of constituting part of the LV, and (iv) aggregate the objects into connected groups and construct the final LV blood pool volume and centroid. This algorithm was tested against 1140 datasets from the Kaggle Second Annual Data Science Bowl, as well as 45 datasets from the STACOM 2009 Cardiac MR Left Ventricle Segmentation Challenge. Correct LV localization was confirmed in 97.3% of the datasets. The mean absolute error between the gold standard and localization centroids was 2.8 to 4.7 mm, or 12 to 22% of the average endocardial radius. Graphical abstract Fully automated localization of the left ventricular blood pool in short axis cardiac cine MR images.

Distance correction system for localization based on linear regression and smoothing in ambient intelligence display.

PubMed

Kim, Dae-Hee; Choi, Jae-Hun; Lim, Myung-Eun; Park, Soo-Jun

2008-01-01

This paper suggests the method of correcting distance between an ambient intelligence display and a user based on linear regression and smoothing method, by which distance information of a user who approaches to the display can he accurately output even in an unanticipated condition using a passive infrared VIR) sensor and an ultrasonic device. The developed system consists of an ambient intelligence display and an ultrasonic transmitter, and a sensor gateway. Each module communicates with each other through RF (Radio frequency) communication. The ambient intelligence display includes an ultrasonic receiver and a PIR sensor for motion detection. In particular, this system selects and processes algorithms such as smoothing or linear regression for current input data processing dynamically through judgment process that is determined using the previous reliable data stored in a queue. In addition, we implemented GUI software with JAVA for real time location tracking and an ambient intelligence display.

Whole-heart coronary MRA with 3D affine motion correction using 3D image-based navigation.

PubMed

Henningsson, Markus; Prieto, Claudia; Chiribiri, Amedeo; Vaillant, Ghislain; Razavi, Reza; Botnar, René M

2014-01-01

Robust motion correction is necessary to minimize respiratory motion artefacts in coronary MR angiography (CMRA). The state-of-the-art method uses a 1D feet-head translational motion correction approach, and data acquisition is limited to a small window in the respiratory cycle, which prolongs the scan by a factor of 2-3. The purpose of this work was to implement 3D affine motion correction for Cartesian whole-heart CMRA using a 3D navigator (3D-NAV) to allow for data acquisition throughout the whole respiratory cycle. 3D affine transformations for different respiratory states (bins) were estimated by using 3D-NAV image acquisitions which were acquired during the startup profiles of a steady-state free precession sequence. The calculated 3D affine transformations were applied to the corresponding high-resolution Cartesian image acquisition which had been similarly binned, to correct for respiratory motion between bins. Quantitative and qualitative comparisons showed no statistical difference between images acquired with the proposed method and the reference method using a diaphragmatic navigator with a narrow gating window. We demonstrate that 3D-NAV and 3D affine correction can be used to acquire Cartesian whole-heart 3D coronary artery images with 100% scan efficiency with similar image quality as with the state-of-the-art gated and corrected method with approximately 50% scan efficiency. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Time step rescaling recovers continuous-time dynamical properties for discrete-time Langevin integration of nonequilibrium systems.

PubMed

Sivak, David A; Chodera, John D; Crooks, Gavin E

2014-06-19

When simulating molecular systems using deterministic equations of motion (e.g., Newtonian dynamics), such equations are generally numerically integrated according to a well-developed set of algorithms that share commonly agreed-upon desirable properties. However, for stochastic equations of motion (e.g., Langevin dynamics), there is still broad disagreement over which integration algorithms are most appropriate. While multiple desiderata have been proposed throughout the literature, consensus on which criteria are important is absent, and no published integration scheme satisfies all desiderata simultaneously. Additional nontrivial complications stem from simulating systems driven out of equilibrium using existing stochastic integration schemes in conjunction with recently developed nonequilibrium fluctuation theorems. Here, we examine a family of discrete time integration schemes for Langevin dynamics, assessing how each member satisfies a variety of desiderata that have been enumerated in prior efforts to construct suitable Langevin integrators. We show that the incorporation of a novel time step rescaling in the deterministic updates of position and velocity can correct a number of dynamical defects in these integrators. Finally, we identify a particular splitting (related to the velocity Verlet discretization) that has essentially universally appropriate properties for the simulation of Langevin dynamics for molecular systems in equilibrium, nonequilibrium, and path sampling contexts.

Nonuniformity correction for an infrared focal plane array based on diamond search block matching.

PubMed

Sheng-Hui, Rong; Hui-Xin, Zhou; Han-Lin, Qin; Rui, Lai; Kun, Qian

2016-05-01

In scene-based nonuniformity correction algorithms, artificial ghosting and image blurring degrade the correction quality severely. In this paper, an improved algorithm based on the diamond search block matching algorithm and the adaptive learning rate is proposed. First, accurate transform pairs between two adjacent frames are estimated by the diamond search block matching algorithm. Then, based on the error between the corresponding transform pairs, the gradient descent algorithm is applied to update correction parameters. During the process of gradient descent, the local standard deviation and a threshold are utilized to control the learning rate to avoid the accumulation of matching error. Finally, the nonuniformity correction would be realized by a linear model with updated correction parameters. The performance of the proposed algorithm is thoroughly studied with four real infrared image sequences. Experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can reduce the nonuniformity with less ghosting artifacts in moving areas and can also overcome the problem of image blurring in static areas.

Restoration of non-uniform exposure motion blurred image

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Yuanhong; Xu, Tingfa; Wang, Ningming; Liu, Feng

2014-11-01

Restoring motion-blurred image is the key technologies in the opto-electronic detection system. The imaging sensors such as CCD and infrared imaging sensor, which are mounted on the motion platforms, quickly move together with the platforms of high speed. As a result, the images become blur. The image degradation will cause great trouble for the succeeding jobs such as objects detection, target recognition and tracking. So the motion-blurred images must be restoration before detecting motion targets in the subsequent images. On the demand of the real weapon task, in order to deal with targets in the complex background, this dissertation uses the new theories in the field of image processing and computer vision to research the new technology of motion deblurring and motion detection. The principle content is as follows: 1) When the prior knowledge about degradation function is unknown, the uniform motion blurred images are restored. At first, the blur parameters, including the motion blur extent and direction of PSF(point spread function), are estimated individually in domain of logarithmic frequency. The direction of PSF is calculated by extracting the central light line of the spectrum, and the extent is computed by minimizing the correction between the fourier spectrum of the blurred image and a detecting function. Moreover, in order to remove the strip in the deblurred image, windows technique is employed in the algorithm, which makes the deblurred image clear. 2) According to the principle of infrared image non-uniform exposure, a new restoration model for infrared blurred images is developed. The fitting of infrared image non-uniform exposure curve is performed by experiment data. The blurred images are restored by the fitting curve.

An Improved Perturb and Observe Algorithm for Photovoltaic Motion Carriers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peng, Lele; Xu, Wei; Li, Liming; Zheng, Shubin

2018-03-01

An improved perturbation and observation algorithm for photovoltaic motion carriers is proposed in this paper. The model of the proposed algorithm is given by using Lambert W function and tangent error method. Moreover, by using matlab and experiment of photovoltaic system, the tracking performance of the proposed algorithm is tested. And the results demonstrate that the improved algorithm has fast tracking speed and high efficiency. Furthermore, the energy conversion efficiency by the improved method has increased by nearly 8.2%.

Four-dimensional respiratory motion-resolved whole heart coronary MR angiography.

PubMed

Piccini, Davide; Feng, Li; Bonanno, Gabriele; Coppo, Simone; Yerly, Jérôme; Lim, Ruth P; Schwitter, Juerg; Sodickson, Daniel K; Otazo, Ricardo; Stuber, Matthias

2017-04-01

Free-breathing whole-heart coronary MR angiography (MRA) commonly uses navigators to gate respiratory motion, resulting in lengthy and unpredictable acquisition times. Conversely, self-navigation has 100% scan efficiency, but requires motion correction over a broad range of respiratory displacements, which may introduce image artifacts. We propose replacing navigators and self-navigation with a respiratory motion-resolved reconstruction approach. Using a respiratory signal extracted directly from the imaging data, individual signal-readouts are binned according to their respiratory states. The resultant series of undersampled images are reconstructed using an extradimensional golden-angle radial sparse parallel imaging (XD-GRASP) algorithm, which exploits sparsity along the respiratory dimension. Whole-heart coronary MRA was performed in 11 volunteers and four patients with the proposed methodology. Image quality was compared with that obtained with one-dimensional respiratory self-navigation. Respiratory-resolved reconstruction effectively suppressed respiratory motion artifacts. The quality score for XD-GRASP reconstructions was greater than or equal to self-navigation in 80/88 coronary segments, reaching diagnostic quality in 61/88 segments versus 41/88. Coronary sharpness and length were always superior for the respiratory-resolved datasets, reaching statistical significance (P < 0.05) in most cases. XD-GRASP represents an attractive alternative for handling respiratory motion in free-breathing whole heart MRI and provides an effective alternative to self-navigation. Magn Reson Med 77:1473-1484, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Registration Methods for IVUS: Transversal and Longitudinal Transducer Motion Compensation.

PubMed

Talou, Gonzalo D Maso; Blanco, Pablo J; Larrabide, Ignacio; Bezerra, Cristiano Guedes; Lemos, Pedro A; Feijoo, Raul A

2017-04-01

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is a fundamental imaging technique for atherosclerotic plaque assessment, interventionist guidance, and, ultimately, as a tissue characterization tool. The studies acquired by this technique present the spatial description of the vessel during the cardiac cycle. However, the study frames are not properly sorted. As gating methods deal with the cardiac phase classification of the frames, the gated studies lack motion compensation between vessel and catheter. In this study, we develop registration strategies to arrange the vessel data into its rightful spatial sequence. Registration is performed by compensating longitudinal and transversal relative motion between vessel and catheter. Transversal motion is identified through maximum likelihood estimator optimization, while longitudinal motion is estimated by a neighborhood similarity estimator among the study frames. A strongly coupled implementation is proposed to compensate for both motion components at once. Loosely coupled implementations (DLT and DTL) decouple the registration process, resulting in more computationally efficient algorithms in detriment of the size of the set of candidate solutions. The DTL outperforms DLT and coupled implementations in terms of accuracy by a factor of 1.9 and 1.4, respectively. Sensitivity analysis shows that perivascular tissue must be considered to obtain the best registration outcome. Evidences suggest that the method is able to measure axial strain along the vessel wall. The proposed registration sorts the IVUS frames for spatial location, which is crucial for a correct interpretation of the vessel wall kinematics along the cardiac phases.

A new calibration methodology for thorax and upper limbs motion capture in children using magneto and inertial sensors.

PubMed

Ricci, Luca; Formica, Domenico; Sparaci, Laura; Lasorsa, Francesca Romana; Taffoni, Fabrizio; Tamilia, Eleonora; Guglielmelli, Eugenio

2014-01-09

Recent advances in wearable sensor technologies for motion capture have produced devices, mainly based on magneto and inertial measurement units (M-IMU), that are now suitable for out-of-the-lab use with children. In fact, the reduced size, weight and the wireless connectivity meet the requirement of minimum obtrusivity and give scientists the possibility to analyze children's motion in daily life contexts. Typical use of magneto and inertial measurement units (M-IMU) motion capture systems is based on attaching a sensing unit to each body segment of interest. The correct use of this setup requires a specific calibration methodology that allows mapping measurements from the sensors' frames of reference into useful kinematic information in the human limbs' frames of reference. The present work addresses this specific issue, presenting a calibration protocol to capture the kinematics of the upper limbs and thorax in typically developing (TD) children. The proposed method allows the construction, on each body segment, of a meaningful system of coordinates that are representative of real physiological motions and that are referred to as functional frames (FFs). We will also present a novel cost function for the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, to retrieve the rotation matrices between each sensor frame (SF) and the corresponding FF. Reported results on a group of 40 children suggest that the method is repeatable and reliable, opening the way to the extensive use of this technology for out-of-the-lab motion capture in children.

Experimental investigation of a moving averaging algorithm for motion perpendicular to the leaf travel direction in dynamic MLC target tracking.

PubMed

Yoon, Jai-Woong; Sawant, Amit; Suh, Yelin; Cho, Byung-Chul; Suh, Tae-Suk; Keall, Paul

2011-07-01

In dynamic multileaf collimator (MLC) motion tracking with complex intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) fields, target motion perpendicular to the MLC leaf travel direction can cause beam holds, which increase beam delivery time by up to a factor of 4. As a means to balance delivery efficiency and accuracy, a moving average algorithm was incorporated into a dynamic MLC motion tracking system (i.e., moving average tracking) to account for target motion perpendicular to the MLC leaf travel direction. The experimental investigation of the moving average algorithm compared with real-time tracking and no compensation beam delivery is described. The properties of the moving average algorithm were measured and compared with those of real-time tracking (dynamic MLC motion tracking accounting for both target motion parallel and perpendicular to the leaf travel direction) and no compensation beam delivery. The algorithm was investigated using a synthetic motion trace with a baseline drift and four patient-measured 3D tumor motion traces representing regular and irregular motions with varying baseline drifts. Each motion trace was reproduced by a moving platform. The delivery efficiency, geometric accuracy, and dosimetric accuracy were evaluated for conformal, step-and-shoot IMRT, and dynamic sliding window IMRT treatment plans using the synthetic and patient motion traces. The dosimetric accuracy was quantified via a tgamma-test with a 3%/3 mm criterion. The delivery efficiency ranged from 89 to 100% for moving average tracking, 26%-100% for real-time tracking, and 100% (by definition) for no compensation. The root-mean-square geometric error ranged from 3.2 to 4.0 mm for moving average tracking, 0.7-1.1 mm for real-time tracking, and 3.7-7.2 mm for no compensation. The percentage of dosimetric points failing the gamma-test ranged from 4 to 30% for moving average tracking, 0%-23% for real-time tracking, and 10%-47% for no compensation. The delivery efficiency of moving average tracking was up to four times higher than that of real-time tracking and approached the efficiency of no compensation for all cases. The geometric accuracy and dosimetric accuracy of the moving average algorithm was between real-time tracking and no compensation, approximately half the percentage of dosimetric points failing the gamma-test compared with no compensation.

4D Cone-beam CT reconstruction using a motion model based on principal component analysis

PubMed Central

Staub, David; Docef, Alen; Brock, Robert S.; Vaman, Constantin; Murphy, Martin J.

2011-01-01

Purpose: To provide a proof of concept validation of a novel 4D cone-beam CT (4DCBCT) reconstruction algorithm and to determine the best methods to train and optimize the algorithm. Methods: The algorithm animates a patient fan-beam CT (FBCT) with a patient specific parametric motion model in order to generate a time series of deformed CTs (the reconstructed 4DCBCT) that track the motion of the patient anatomy on a voxel by voxel scale. The motion model is constrained by requiring that projections cast through the deformed CT time series match the projections of the raw patient 4DCBCT. The motion model uses a basis of eigenvectors that are generated via principal component analysis (PCA) of a training set of displacement vector fields (DVFs) that approximate patient motion. The eigenvectors are weighted by a parameterized function of the patient breathing trace recorded during 4DCBCT. The algorithm is demonstrated and tested via numerical simulation. Results: The algorithm is shown to produce accurate reconstruction results for the most complicated simulated motion, in which voxels move with a pseudo-periodic pattern and relative phase shifts exist between voxels. The tests show that principal component eigenvectors trained on DVFs from a novel 2D/3D registration method give substantially better results than eigenvectors trained on DVFs obtained by conventionally registering 4DCBCT phases reconstructed via filtered backprojection. Conclusions: Proof of concept testing has validated the 4DCBCT reconstruction approach for the types of simulated data considered. In addition, the authors found the 2D/3D registration approach to be our best choice for generating the DVF training set, and the Nelder-Mead simplex algorithm the most robust optimization routine. PMID:22149852

Motion correction for functional MRI with three‐dimensional hybrid radial‐Cartesian EPI

PubMed Central

McNab, Jennifer A.; Chiew, Mark; Miller, Karla L.

2016-01-01

Purpose Subject motion is a major source of image degradation for functional MRI (fMRI), especially when using multishot sequences like three‐dimensional (3D EPI). We present a hybrid radial‐Cartesian 3D EPI trajectory enabling motion correction in k‐space for functional MRI. Methods The EPI “blades” of the 3D hybrid radial‐Cartesian EPI sequence, called TURBINE, are rotated about the phase‐encoding axis to fill out a cylinder in 3D k‐space. Angular blades are acquired over time using a golden‐angle rotation increment, allowing reconstruction at flexible temporal resolution. The self‐navigating properties of the sequence are used to determine motion parameters from a high temporal‐resolution navigator time series. The motion is corrected in k‐space as part of the image reconstruction, and evaluated for experiments with both cued and natural motion. Results We demonstrate that the motion correction works robustly and that we can achieve substantial artifact reduction as well as improvement in temporal signal‐to‐noise ratio and fMRI activation in the presence of both severe and subtle motion. Conclusion We show the potential for hybrid radial‐Cartesian 3D EPI to substantially reduce artifacts for application in fMRI, especially for subject groups with significant head motion. The motion correction approach does not prolong the scan, and no extra hardware is required. Magn Reson Med 78:527–540, 2017. © 2016 The Authors Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. PMID:27604503

Rigid-body transformation of list-mode projection data for respiratory motion correction in cardiac PET.

PubMed

Livieratos, L; Stegger, L; Bloomfield, P M; Schafers, K; Bailey, D L; Camici, P G

2005-07-21

High-resolution cardiac PET imaging with emphasis on quantification would benefit from eliminating the problem of respiratory movement during data acquisition. Respiratory gating on the basis of list-mode data has been employed previously as one approach to reduce motion effects. However, it results in poor count statistics with degradation of image quality. This work reports on the implementation of a technique to correct for respiratory motion in the area of the heart at no extra cost for count statistics and with the potential to maintain ECG gating, based on rigid-body transformations on list-mode data event-by-event. A motion-corrected data set is obtained by assigning, after pre-correction for detector efficiency and photon attenuation, individual lines-of-response to new detector pairs with consideration of respiratory motion. Parameters of respiratory motion are obtained from a series of gated image sets by means of image registration. Respiration is recorded simultaneously with the list-mode data using an inductive respiration monitor with an elasticized belt at chest level. The accuracy of the technique was assessed with point-source data showing a good correlation between measured and true transformations. The technique was applied on phantom data with simulated respiratory motion, showing successful recovery of tracer distribution and contrast on the motion-corrected images, and on patient data with C15O and 18FDG. Quantitative assessment of preliminary C15O patient data showed improvement in the recovery coefficient at the centre of the left ventricle.

Motion compensation for ultra wide band SAR

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Madsen, S.

2001-01-01

This paper describes an algorithm that combines wavenumber domain processing with a procedure that enables motion compensation to be applied as a function of target range and azimuth angle. First, data are processed with nominal motion compensation applied, partially focusing the image, then the motion compensation of individual subpatches is refined. The results show that the proposed algorithm is effective in compensating for deviations from a straight flight path, from both a performance and a computational efficiency point of view.

Spillover Compensation in the Presence of Respiratory Motion Embedded in SPECT Perfusion Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pretorius, P. Hendrik; King, Michael A.

2008-02-01

Spillover from adjacent significant accumulations of extra-cardiac activity decreases diagnostic accuracy of SPECT perfusion imaging in especially the inferior/septal cardiac region. One method of compensating for the spillover at some location outside of a structure is to estimate it as the counts blurred into this location when a template (3D model) of the structure undergoes simulated imaging followed by reconstruction. The objective of this study was to determine what impact uncorrected respiratory motion has on such spillover compensation of extra-cardiac activity in the right coronary artery (RCA) territory, and if it is possible to use manual segmentation to define the extra-cardiac activity template(s) used in spillover correction. Two separate MCAT phantoms (1283 matrices) were simulated to represent the source and attenuation distributions of patients with and without respiratory motion. For each phantom the heart was modeled: 1) with a normal perfusion pattern and 2) with an RCA defect equal to 50% of the normal myocardium count level. After Monte Carlo simulation of 64times64times120 projections with appropriate noise, data were reconstructed using the rescaled block iterative (RBI) algorithm with 30 subsets and 5 iterations with compensation for attenuation, scatter and resolution. A 3D Gaussian post-filter with a sigma of 0.476 cm was used to suppress noise. Manual segmentation of the liver in filtered emission slices was used to create 3D binary templates. The true liver distribution (with and without respiratory motion included) was also used as binary templates. These templates were projected using a ray-driven projector simulating the imaging system with the exclusion of Compton scatter and reconstructed using the same protocol as for the emission data, excluding scatter compensation. Reconstructed templates were scaled using reconstructed emission count levels from the liver, and spillover subtracted outside the template. It was evident from the polar maps that the manually segmented template reconstructions were unable to remove all the spillover originating in the liver from the inferior wall. This was especially noticeable when a perfusion defect is present. Templates based on the true liver distribution appreciably improved spillover correction. Thus the emerging combined SPECT/CT technology may play a vital role in identifying and segmenting extra-cardiac structures more reliably thereby facilitating spillover correction. This study also indicates that compensation for respiratory motion might play an important role in spillover compensation.

Multi-temporal InSAR measurement of interseimic motion on the eastern Tibet border

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doin, M. P.; Lasserre, C.; He, P.; de Sigoyer, J.

2014-12-01

We use here SAR interferometry using archived Envisat data to map the interseismic deformation of eastern Tibet. The area under study starts just South of the Haiyuan fault, crosses the eastern termination of the Kunlun fault and the bend on the XianShuiHe fault to the South. It includes the Longriba fault system, an active structure located 150 km west of the Longmen Shan front (Xu et al., 2008, Ren et al., 2013). GPS data suggest that it may accommodate a large part of the present-day relative movement (6-8 mm/yr) between the Aba block and the south China block (Thatcher, 2007, Shen et al 2005). The Longriba and the Longmen Shan faults might be linked at depth by a decollement zone or by ductile shear in the crust (Shu et al., 2008). We process three adjacent Envisat 1000 km long swaths crossing this mountainous and vegetated terrain using a small baseline strategy. The interferograms show numerous phase perturbations that mask the interseismic motion due to : (1) coherence loss, (2) stratified atmospheric delays, (3) DEM error contribution, (4) the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. We will show how we tackle these limitations and display the effect of successive corrections. Focus will first be brought to the corrections applied before filtering and unwrapping, that increase phase spatial continuity. We estimate empirically stratified atmospheric delay polynomial relationship, depending on azimuth and elevation, on wrapped interferograms. We then estimate the local DEM error for each pixel. Multi-looking and filtering are based on various measures of pixel reliability in order to increase the signal to noise ratio of filtered interferograms. Finally, unwrapping is obtained by a region growing algorithm, from the most reliable areas to the least, avoiding to cross layover areas. Time series of phase delay maps in the Longriba area are dominated by a side lobe of the May 2008 Sichuan earthquake. After its extraction and correction, principal component analysis clearly evidences a linear trend modulated south of the Longriba fault system by post-seismic transient motion, in agreement with GPS data (Huang et al., 2014). Finally, we obtain a LOS velocity map of interseismic motion with an amplitude of a few mm/yr. We will discuss strain localization along the main eastern Tibet faults and possible vertical motion.

Overview of Akatsuki data products: definition of data levels, method and accuracy of geometric correction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ogohara, Kazunori; Takagi, Masahiro; Murakami, Shin-ya; Horinouchi, Takeshi; Yamada, Manabu; Kouyama, Toru; Hashimoto, George L.; Imamura, Takeshi; Yamamoto, Yukio; Kashimura, Hiroki; Hirata, Naru; Sato, Naoki; Yamazaki, Atsushi; Satoh, Takehiko; Iwagami, Naomoto; Taguchi, Makoto; Watanabe, Shigeto; Sato, Takao M.; Ohtsuki, Shoko; Fukuhara, Tetsuya; Futaguchi, Masahiko; Sakanoi, Takeshi; Kameda, Shingo; Sugiyama, Ko-ichiro; Ando, Hiroki; Lee, Yeon Joo; Nakamura, Masato; Suzuki, Makoto; Hirose, Chikako; Ishii, Nobuaki; Abe, Takumi

2017-12-01

We provide an overview of data products from observations by the Japanese Venus Climate Orbiter, Akatsuki, and describe the definition and content of each data-processing level. Levels 1 and 2 consist of non-calibrated and calibrated radiance (or brightness temperature), respectively, as well as geometry information (e.g., illumination angles). Level 3 data are global-grid data in the regular longitude-latitude coordinate system, produced from the contents of Level 2. Non-negligible errors in navigational data and instrumental alignment can result in serious errors in the geometry calculations. Such errors cause mismapping of the data and lead to inconsistencies between radiances and illumination angles, along with errors in cloud-motion vectors. Thus, we carefully correct the boresight pointing of each camera by fitting an ellipse to the observed Venusian limb to provide improved longitude-latitude maps for Level 3 products, if possible. The accuracy of the pointing correction is also estimated statistically by simulating observed limb distributions. The results show that our algorithm successfully corrects instrumental pointing and will enable a variety of studies on the Venusian atmosphere using Akatsuki data.[Figure not available: see fulltext.

An analysis of USSPACECOM's space surveillance network sensor tasking methodology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berger, Jeff M.; Moles, Joseph B.; Wilsey, David G.

1992-12-01

This study provides the basis for the development of a cost/benefit assessment model to determine the effects of alterations to the Space Surveillance Network (SSN) on orbital element (OE) set accuracy. It provides a review of current methods used by NORAD and the SSN to gather and process observations, an alternative to the current Gabbard classification method, and the development of a model to determine the effects of observation rate and correction interval on OE set accuracy. The proposed classification scheme is based on satellite J2 perturbations. Specifically, classes were established based on mean motion, eccentricity, and inclination since J2 perturbation effects are functions of only these elements. Model development began by creating representative sensor observations using a highly accurate orbital propagation model. These observations were compared to predicted observations generated using the NORAD Simplified General Perturbation (SGP4) model and differentially corrected using a Bayes, sequential estimation, algorithm. A 10-run Monte Carlo analysis was performed using this model on 12 satellites using 16 different observation rate/correction interval combinations. An ANOVA and confidence interval analysis of the results show that this model does demonstrate the differences in steady state position error based on varying observation rate and correction interval.

2001 Bhuj, India, earthquake engineering seismoscope recordings and Eastern North America ground-motion attenuation relations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Cramer, C.H.; Kumar, A.

2003-01-01

Engineering seismoscope data collected at distances less than 300 km for the M 7.7 Bhuj, India, mainshock are compatible with ground-motion attenuation in eastern North America (ENA). The mainshock ground-motion data have been corrected to a common geological site condition using the factors of Joyner and Boore (2000) and a classification scheme of Quaternary or Tertiary sediments or rock. We then compare these data to ENA ground-motion attenuation relations. Despite uncertainties in recording method, geological site corrections, common tectonic setting, and the amount of regional seismic attenuation, the corrected Bhuj dataset agrees with the collective predictions by ENA ground-motion attenuation relations within a factor of 2. This level of agreement is within the dataset uncertainties and the normal variance for recorded earthquake ground motions.

GENERAL: Application of Symplectic Algebraic Dynamics Algorithm to Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Wei-Tao; Zhang, Hua; Wang, Shun-Jin

2008-07-01

Symplectic algebraic dynamics algorithm (SADA) for ordinary differential equations is applied to solve numerically the circular restricted three-body problem (CR3BP) in dynamical astronomy for both stable motion and chaotic motion. The result is compared with those of Runge-Kutta algorithm and symplectic algorithm under the fourth order, which shows that SADA has higher accuracy than the others in the long-term calculations of the CR3BP.

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

Zawisza, I; Yan, H; Yin, F

Purpose: To assure that tumor motion is within the radiation field during high-dose and high-precision radiosurgery, real-time imaging and surrogate monitoring are employed. These methods are useful in providing real-time tumor/surrogate motion but no future information is available. In order to anticipate future tumor/surrogate motion and track target location precisely, an algorithm is developed and investigated for estimating surrogate motion multiple-steps ahead. Methods: The study utilized a one-dimensional surrogate motion signal divided into three components: (a) training component containing the primary data including the first frame to the beginning of the input subsequence; (b) input subsequence component of the surrogatemore » signal used as input to the prediction algorithm: (c) output subsequence component is the remaining signal used as the known output of the prediction algorithm for validation. The prediction algorithm consists of three major steps: (1) extracting subsequences from training component which best-match the input subsequence according to given criterion; (2) calculating weighting factors from these best-matched subsequence; (3) collecting the proceeding parts of the subsequences and combining them together with assigned weighting factors to form output. The prediction algorithm was examined for several patients, and its performance is assessed based on the correlation between prediction and known output. Results: Respiratory motion data was collected for 20 patients using the RPM system. The output subsequence is the last 50 samples (∼2 seconds) of a surrogate signal, and the input subsequence was 100 (∼3 seconds) frames prior to the output subsequence. Based on the analysis of correlation coefficient between predicted and known output subsequence, the average correlation is 0.9644±0.0394 and 0.9789±0.0239 for equal-weighting and relative-weighting strategies, respectively. Conclusion: Preliminary results indicate that the prediction algorithm is effective in estimating surrogate motion multiple-steps in advance. Relative-weighting method shows better prediction accuracy than equal-weighting method. More parameters of this algorithm are under investigation.« less

Non-model-based correction of respiratory motion using beat-to-beat 3D spiral fat-selective imaging.

PubMed

Keegan, Jennifer; Gatehouse, Peter D; Yang, Guang-Zhong; Firmin, David N

2007-09-01

To demonstrate the feasibility of retrospective beat-to-beat correction of respiratory motion, without the need for a respiratory motion model. A high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) spiral black-blood scan of the right coronary artery (RCA) of six healthy volunteers was acquired over 160 cardiac cycles without respiratory gating. One spiral interleaf was acquired per cardiac cycle, prior to each of which a complete low-resolution fat-selective 3D spiral dataset was acquired. The respiratory motion (3D translation) on each cardiac cycle was determined by cross-correlating a region of interest (ROI) in the fat around the artery in the low-resolution datasets with that on a reference end-expiratory dataset. The measured translations were used to correct the raw data of the high-resolution spiral interleaves. Beat-to-beat correction provided consistently good results, with the image quality being better than that obtained with a fixed superior-inferior tracking factor of 0.6 and better than (N = 5) or equal to (N = 1) that achieved using a subject-specific retrospective 3D translation motion model. Non-model-based correction of respiratory motion using 3D spiral fat-selective imaging is feasible, and in this small group of volunteers produced better-quality images than a subject-specific retrospective 3D translation motion model. (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

[Joint correction for motion artifacts and off-resonance artifacts in multi-shot diffusion magnetic resonance imaging].

PubMed

Wu, Wenchuan; Fang, Sheng; Guo, Hua

2014-06-01

Aiming at motion artifacts and off-resonance artifacts in multi-shot diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we proposed a joint correction method in this paper to correct the two kinds of artifacts simultaneously without additional acquisition of navigation data and field map. We utilized the proposed method using multi-shot variable density spiral sequence to acquire MRI data and used auto-focusing technique for image deblurring. We also used direct method or iterative method to correct motion induced phase errors in the process of deblurring. In vivo MRI experiments demonstrated that the proposed method could effectively suppress motion artifacts and off-resonance artifacts and achieve images with fine structures. In addition, the scan time was not increased in applying the proposed method.

Persistent aerial video registration and fast multi-view mosaicing.

PubMed

Molina, Edgardo; Zhu, Zhigang

2014-05-01

Capturing aerial imagery at high resolutions often leads to very low frame rate video streams, well under full motion video standards, due to bandwidth, storage, and cost constraints. Low frame rates make registration difficult when an aircraft is moving at high speeds or when global positioning system (GPS) contains large errors or it fails. We present a method that takes advantage of persistent cyclic video data collections to perform an online registration with drift correction. We split the persistent aerial imagery collection into individual cycles of the scene, identify and correct the registration errors on the first cycle in a batch operation, and then use the corrected base cycle as a reference pass to register and correct subsequent passes online. A set of multi-view panoramic mosaics is then constructed for each aerial pass for representation, presentation and exploitation of the 3D dynamic scene. These sets of mosaics are all in alignment to the reference cycle allowing their direct use in change detection, tracking, and 3D reconstruction/visualization algorithms. Stereo viewing with adaptive baselines and varying view angles is realized by choosing a pair of mosaics from a set of multi-view mosaics. Further, the mosaics for the second pass and later can be generated and visualized online as their is no further batch error correction.

An efficient motion-resistant method for wearable pulse oximeter.

PubMed

Yan, Yong-Sheng; Zhang, Yuan-Ting

2008-05-01

Reduction of motion artifact and power saving are crucial in designing a wearable pulse oximeter for long-term telemedicine application. In this paper, a novel algorithm, minimum correlation discrete saturation transform (MCDST) has been developed for the estimation of arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2), based on an optical model derived from photon diffusion analysis. The simulation shows that the new algorithm MCDST is more robust under low SNRs than the clinically verified motion-resistant algorithm discrete saturation transform (DST). Further, the experiment with different severity of motions demonstrates that MCDST has a slightly better performance than DST algorithm. Moreover, MCDST is more computationally efficient than DST because the former uses linear algebra instead of the time-consuming adaptive filter used by latter, which indicates that MCDST can reduce the required power consumption and circuit complexity of the implementation. This is vital for wearable devices, where the physical size and long battery life are crucial.

Humanoid assessing rehabilitative exercises.

PubMed

Simonov, M; Delconte, G

2015-01-01

This article is part of the Focus Theme of Methods of Information in Medicine on "New Methodologies for Patients Rehabilitation". The article presents the approach in which the rehabilitative exercise prepared by healthcare professional is encoded as formal knowledge and used by humanoid robot to assist patients without involving other care actors. The main objective is the use of humanoids in rehabilitative care. An example is pulmonary rehabilitation in COPD patients. Another goal is the automated judgment functionality to determine how the rehabilitation exercise matches the pre-programmed correct sequence. We use the Aldebaran Robotics' NAO humanoid to set up artificial cognitive application. Pre-programmed NAO induces elderly patient to undertake humanoid-driven rehabilitation exercise, but needs to evaluate the human actions against the correct template. Patient is observed using NAO's eyes. We use the Microsoft Kinect SDK to extract motion path from the humanoid's recorded video. We compare human- and humanoid-operated process sequences by using the Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) and test the prototype. This artificial cognitive software showcases the use of DTW algorithm to enable humanoids to judge in near real-time about the correctness of rehabilitative exercises performed by patients following the robot's indications. One could enable better sustainable rehabilitative care services in remote residential settings by combining intelligent applications piloting humanoids with the DTW pattern matching algorithm applied at run time to compare humanoid- and human-operated process sequences. In turn, it will lower the need of human care.

1 kHz 2D Visual Motion Sensor Using 20 × 20 Silicon Retina Optical Sensor and DSP Microcontroller.

PubMed

Liu, Shih-Chii; Yang, MinHao; Steiner, Andreas; Moeckel, Rico; Delbruck, Tobi

2015-04-01

Optical flow sensors have been a long running theme in neuromorphic vision sensors which include circuits that implement the local background intensity adaptation mechanism seen in biological retinas. This paper reports a bio-inspired optical motion sensor aimed towards miniature robotic and aerial platforms. It combines a 20 × 20 continuous-time CMOS silicon retina vision sensor with a DSP microcontroller. The retina sensor has pixels that have local gain control and adapt to background lighting. The system allows the user to validate various motion algorithms without building dedicated custom solutions. Measurements are presented to show that the system can compute global 2D translational motion from complex natural scenes using one particular algorithm: the image interpolation algorithm (I2A). With this algorithm, the system can compute global translational motion vectors at a sample rate of 1 kHz, for speeds up to ±1000 pixels/s, using less than 5 k instruction cycles (12 instructions per pixel) per frame. At 1 kHz sample rate the DSP is 12% occupied with motion computation. The sensor is implemented as a 6 g PCB consuming 170 mW of power.

Curves from Motion, Motion from Curves

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-01-01

De linearum curvarum cum lineis rectis comparatione dissertatio geometrica - an appendix to a treatise by de Lalouv~re (this was the only publication... correct solution to the problem of motion in the gravity of a permeable rotating Earth, considered by Torricelli (see §3). If the Earth is a homogeneous...in 1686, which contains the correct solution as part of a remarkably comprehensive theory of orbital motions under centripetal forces. It is a

Error analysis of motion correction method for laser scanning of moving objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goel, S.; Lohani, B.

2014-05-01

The limitation of conventional laser scanning methods is that the objects being scanned should be static. The need of scanning moving objects has resulted in the development of new methods capable of generating correct 3D geometry of moving objects. Limited literature is available showing development of very few methods capable of catering to the problem of object motion during scanning. All the existing methods utilize their own models or sensors. Any studies on error modelling or analysis of any of the motion correction methods are found to be lacking in literature. In this paper, we develop the error budget and present the analysis of one such `motion correction' method. This method assumes availability of position and orientation information of the moving object which in general can be obtained by installing a POS system on board or by use of some tracking devices. It then uses this information along with laser scanner data to apply correction to laser data, thus resulting in correct geometry despite the object being mobile during scanning. The major application of this method lie in the shipping industry to scan ships either moving or parked in the sea and to scan other objects like hot air balloons or aerostats. It is to be noted that the other methods of "motion correction" explained in literature can not be applied to scan the objects mentioned here making the chosen method quite unique. This paper presents some interesting insights in to the functioning of "motion correction" method as well as a detailed account of the behavior and variation of the error due to different sensor components alone and in combination with each other. The analysis can be used to obtain insights in to optimal utilization of available components for achieving the best results.

Projectile Motion Details.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schnick, Jeffrey W.

1994-01-01

Presents an exercise that attempts to correct for the common discrepancies between theoretical and experimental predictions concerning projectile motion using a spring-loaded projectile ball launcher. Includes common correction factors for student use. (MVL)

Improved artificial bee colony algorithm for wavefront sensor-less system in free space optical communication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Niu, Chaojun; Han, Xiang'e.

2015-10-01

Adaptive optics (AO) technology is an effective way to alleviate the effect of turbulence on free space optical communication (FSO). A new adaptive compensation method can be used without a wave-front sensor. Artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC) is a population-based heuristic evolutionary algorithm inspired by the intelligent foraging behaviour of the honeybee swarm with the advantage of simple, good convergence rate, robust and less parameter setting. In this paper, we simulate the application of the improved ABC to correct the distorted wavefront and proved its effectiveness. Then we simulate the application of ABC algorithm, differential evolution (DE) algorithm and stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) algorithm to the FSO system and analyze the wavefront correction capabilities by comparison of the coupling efficiency, the error rate and the intensity fluctuation in different turbulence before and after the correction. The results show that the ABC algorithm has much faster correction speed than DE algorithm and better correct ability for strong turbulence than SPGD algorithm. Intensity fluctuation can be effectively reduced in strong turbulence, but not so effective in week turbulence.

Myocardial motion estimation of tagged cardiac magnetic resonance images using tag motion constraints and multi-level b-splines interpolation.

PubMed

Liu, Hong; Yan, Meng; Song, Enmin; Wang, Jie; Wang, Qian; Jin, Renchao; Jin, Lianghai; Hung, Chih-Cheng

2016-05-01

Myocardial motion estimation of tagged cardiac magnetic resonance (TCMR) images is of great significance in clinical diagnosis and the treatment of heart disease. Currently, the harmonic phase analysis method (HARP) and the local sine-wave modeling method (SinMod) have been proven as two state-of-the-art motion estimation methods for TCMR images, since they can directly obtain the inter-frame motion displacement vector field (MDVF) with high accuracy and fast speed. By comparison, SinMod has better performance over HARP in terms of displacement detection, noise and artifacts reduction. However, the SinMod method has some drawbacks: 1) it is unable to estimate local displacements larger than half of the tag spacing; 2) it has observable errors in tracking of tag motion; and 3) the estimated MDVF usually has large local errors. To overcome these problems, we present a novel motion estimation method in this study. The proposed method tracks the motion of tags and then estimates the dense MDVF by using the interpolation. In this new method, a parameter estimation procedure for global motion is applied to match tag intersections between different frames, ensuring specific kinds of large displacements being correctly estimated. In addition, a strategy of tag motion constraints is applied to eliminate most of errors produced by inter-frame tracking of tags and the multi-level b-splines approximation algorithm is utilized, so as to enhance the local continuity and accuracy of the final MDVF. In the estimation of the motion displacement, our proposed method can obtain a more accurate MDVF compared with the SinMod method and our method can overcome the drawbacks of the SinMod method. However, the motion estimation accuracy of our method depends on the accuracy of tag lines detection and our method has a higher time complexity. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Real-Time Position-Locating Algorithm for CCD-Based Sunspot Tracking

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Taylor, Jaime R.

1996-01-01

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC) EXperimental Vector Magnetograph (EXVM) polarimeter measures the sun's vector magnetic field. These measurements are taken to improve understanding of the sun's magnetic field in the hopes to better predict solar flares. Part of the procedure for the EXVM requires image motion stabilization over a period of a few minutes. A high speed tracker can be used to reduce image motion produced by wind loading on the EXVM, fluctuations in the atmosphere and other vibrations. The tracker consists of two elements, an image motion detector and a control system. The image motion detector determines the image movement from one frame to the next and sends an error signal to the control system. For the ground based application to reduce image motion due to atmospheric fluctuations requires an error determination at the rate of at least 100 hz. It would be desirable to have an error determination rate of 1 kHz to assure that higher rate image motion is reduced and to increase the control system stability. Two algorithms are presented that are typically used for tracking. These algorithms are examined for their applicability for tracking sunspots, specifically their accuracy if only one column and one row of CCD pixels are used. To examine the accuracy of this method two techniques are used. One involves moving a sunspot image a known distance with computer software, then applying the particular algorithm to see how accurately it determines this movement. The second technique involves using a rate table to control the object motion, then applying the algorithms to see how accurately each determines the actual motion. Results from these two techniques are presented.

Precise Aperture-Dependent Motion Compensation with Frequency Domain Fast Back-Projection Algorithm.

PubMed

Zhang, Man; Wang, Guanyong; Zhang, Lei

2017-10-26

Precise azimuth-variant motion compensation (MOCO) is an essential and difficult task for high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. In conventional post-filtering approaches, residual azimuth-variant motion errors are generally compensated through a set of spatial post-filters, where the coarse-focused image is segmented into overlapped blocks concerning the azimuth-dependent residual errors. However, image domain post-filtering approaches, such as precise topography- and aperture-dependent motion compensation algorithm (PTA), have difficulty of robustness in declining, when strong motion errors are involved in the coarse-focused image. In this case, in order to capture the complete motion blurring function within each image block, both the block size and the overlapped part need necessary extension leading to degeneration of efficiency and robustness inevitably. Herein, a frequency domain fast back-projection algorithm (FDFBPA) is introduced to deal with strong azimuth-variant motion errors. FDFBPA disposes of the azimuth-variant motion errors based on a precise azimuth spectrum expression in the azimuth wavenumber domain. First, a wavenumber domain sub-aperture processing strategy is introduced to accelerate computation. After that, the azimuth wavenumber spectrum is partitioned into a set of wavenumber blocks, and each block is formed into a sub-aperture coarse resolution image via the back-projection integral. Then, the sub-aperture images are straightforwardly fused together in azimuth wavenumber domain to obtain a full resolution image. Moreover, chirp-Z transform (CZT) is also introduced to implement the sub-aperture back-projection integral, increasing the efficiency of the algorithm. By disusing the image domain post-filtering strategy, robustness of the proposed algorithm is improved. Both simulation and real-measured data experiments demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposal.

Motion planning in velocity affine mechanical systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jakubiak, Janusz; Tchoń, Krzysztof; Magiera, Władysław

2010-09-01

We address the motion planning problem in specific mechanical systems whose linear and angular velocities depend affinely on control. The configuration space of these systems encompasses the rotation group, and the motion planning involves the system orientation. Derivation of the motion planning algorithm for velocity affine systems has been inspired by the continuation method. Performance of this algorithm is illustrated with examples of the kinematics of a serial nonholonomic manipulator, the plate-ball kinematics and the attitude control of a rigid body.

Preliminary Studies for a CBCT Imaging Protocol for Offline Organ Motion Analysis: Registration Software Validation and CTDI Measurements

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

Falco, Maria Daniela, E-mail: mdanielafalco@hotmail.co; Fontanarosa, Davide; Miceli, Roberto

2011-04-01

Cone-beam X-ray volumetric imaging in the treatment room, allows online correction of set-up errors and offline assessment of residual set-up errors and organ motion. In this study the registration algorithm of the X-ray volume imaging software (XVI, Elekta, Crawley, United Kingdom), which manages a commercial cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT)-based positioning system, has been tested using a homemade and an anthropomorphic phantom to: (1) assess its performance in detecting known translational and rotational set-up errors and (2) transfer the transformation matrix of its registrations into a commercial treatment planning system (TPS) for offline organ motion analysis. Furthermore, CBCT dose index hasmore » been measured for a particular site (prostate: 120 kV, 1028.8 mAs, approximately 640 frames) using a standard Perspex cylindrical body phantom (diameter 32 cm, length 15 cm) and a 10-cm-long pencil ionization chamber. We have found that known displacements were correctly calculated by the registration software to within 1.3 mm and 0.4{sup o}. For the anthropomorphic phantom, only translational displacements have been considered. Both studies have shown errors within the intrinsic uncertainty of our system for translational displacements (estimated as 0.87 mm) and rotational displacements (estimated as 0.22{sup o}). The resulting table translations proposed by the system to correct the displacements were also checked with portal images and found to place the isocenter of the plan on the linac isocenter within an error of 1 mm, which is the dimension of the spherical lead marker inserted at the center of the homemade phantom. The registration matrix translated into the TPS image fusion module correctly reproduced the alignment between planning CT scans and CBCT scans. Finally, measurements on the CBCT dose index indicate that CBCT acquisition delivers less dose than conventional CT scans and electronic portal imaging device portals. The registration software was found to be accurate, and its registration matrix can be easily translated into the TPS and a low dose is delivered to the patient during image acquisition. These results can help in designing imaging protocols for offline evaluations.« less

WE-H-207A-02: Attenuation Correction in 4D-PET Using a Single-Phase Attenuation Map

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

Kalantari, F; Wang, J

2016-06-15

Purpose: 4D-PET imaging has been proposed as a potential solution to the respiratory motion effect in thoracic region. CT-based attenuation correction (AC) is an essential step toward quantitative imaging for PET. However, due to the temporal difference of 4D-PET and a single breath-hold CT, motion artifacts are observed in the attenuation-corrected PET images that can lead to error in tumor shape and uptake. We introduce a practical method for aligning single-phase CT to all other 4D-PET phases using a penalized non-rigid demons registration. Methods: Individual 4D-PET frames were reconstructed without AC. Non-rigid Demons registration was used to derive deformation vectormore » fields (DVFs) between the PET matched with CT phase and other 4D-PET images. While attenuated PET images provide enough useful data for organ borders such as lung and liver, tumors are not distinguishable from background due to loss of contrast. To preserve tumor shape in different phases, from CT image an ROI covering tumor was excluded from non-rigid transformation. Mean DVF of the central region of the tumor was assigned to all voxels in the ROI. This process mimics a rigid transformation of tumor along with a non-rigid transformation of other organs. 4D XCAT phantom with spherical tumors in lung with diameters ranging from 10 to 40 mm was used to evaluate the algorithm. Results: Motion related induced artifacts in attenuation-corrected 4D-PET images were significantly reduced. For tumors smaller than 20 mm, non-rigid transformation was capable to provide quantitative results. However, for larger tumors, where tumor self-attenuation is considerable, our combined method yields superior results. Conclusion: We introduced a practical method for deforming a single CT to match all 4D-PET images for accurate AC. Although 4D-PET data include insignificant anatomical information, we showed that they are still useful to estimate DVFs for aligning attenuation map and accurate AC.« less

Novel techniques for data decomposition and load balancing for parallel processing of vision systems: Implementation and evaluation using a motion estimation system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Choudhary, Alok Nidhi; Leung, Mun K.; Huang, Thomas S.; Patel, Janak H.

1989-01-01

Computer vision systems employ a sequence of vision algorithms in which the output of an algorithm is the input of the next algorithm in the sequence. Algorithms that constitute such systems exhibit vastly different computational characteristics, and therefore, require different data decomposition techniques and efficient load balancing techniques for parallel implementation. However, since the input data for a task is produced as the output data of the previous task, this information can be exploited to perform knowledge based data decomposition and load balancing. Presented here are algorithms for a motion estimation system. The motion estimation is based on the point correspondence between the involved images which are a sequence of stereo image pairs. Researchers propose algorithms to obtain point correspondences by matching feature points among stereo image pairs at any two consecutive time instants. Furthermore, the proposed algorithms employ non-iterative procedures, which results in saving considerable amounts of computation time. The system consists of the following steps: (1) extraction of features; (2) stereo match of images in one time instant; (3) time match of images from consecutive time instants; (4) stereo match to compute final unambiguous points; and (5) computation of motion parameters.

A flocking algorithm for multi-agent systems with connectivity preservation under hybrid metric-topological interactions.

PubMed

He, Chenlong; Feng, Zuren; Ren, Zhigang

2018-01-01

In this paper, we propose a connectivity-preserving flocking algorithm for multi-agent systems in which the neighbor set of each agent is determined by the hybrid metric-topological distance so that the interaction topology can be represented as the range-limited Delaunay graph, which combines the properties of the commonly used disk graph and Delaunay graph. As a result, the proposed flocking algorithm has the following advantages over the existing ones. First, range-limited Delaunay graph is sparser than the disk graph so that the information exchange among agents is reduced significantly. Second, some links irrelevant to the connectivity can be dynamically deleted during the evolution of the system. Thus, the proposed flocking algorithm is more flexible than existing algorithms, where links are not allowed to be disconnected once they are created. Finally, the multi-agent system spontaneously generates a regular quasi-lattice formation without imposing the constraint on the ratio of the sensing range of the agent to the desired distance between two adjacent agents. With the interaction topology induced by the hybrid distance, the proposed flocking algorithm can still be implemented in a distributed manner. We prove that the proposed flocking algorithm can steer the multi-agent system to a stable flocking motion, provided the initial interaction topology of multi-agent systems is connected and the hysteresis in link addition is smaller than a derived upper bound. The correctness and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm are verified by extensive numerical simulations, where the flocking algorithms based on the disk and Delaunay graph are compared.

A flocking algorithm for multi-agent systems with connectivity preservation under hybrid metric-topological interactions

PubMed Central

Feng, Zuren; Ren, Zhigang

2018-01-01

In this paper, we propose a connectivity-preserving flocking algorithm for multi-agent systems in which the neighbor set of each agent is determined by the hybrid metric-topological distance so that the interaction topology can be represented as the range-limited Delaunay graph, which combines the properties of the commonly used disk graph and Delaunay graph. As a result, the proposed flocking algorithm has the following advantages over the existing ones. First, range-limited Delaunay graph is sparser than the disk graph so that the information exchange among agents is reduced significantly. Second, some links irrelevant to the connectivity can be dynamically deleted during the evolution of the system. Thus, the proposed flocking algorithm is more flexible than existing algorithms, where links are not allowed to be disconnected once they are created. Finally, the multi-agent system spontaneously generates a regular quasi-lattice formation without imposing the constraint on the ratio of the sensing range of the agent to the desired distance between two adjacent agents. With the interaction topology induced by the hybrid distance, the proposed flocking algorithm can still be implemented in a distributed manner. We prove that the proposed flocking algorithm can steer the multi-agent system to a stable flocking motion, provided the initial interaction topology of multi-agent systems is connected and the hysteresis in link addition is smaller than a derived upper bound. The correctness and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm are verified by extensive numerical simulations, where the flocking algorithms based on the disk and Delaunay graph are compared. PMID:29462217

A General, Adaptive, Roadmap-Based Algorithm for Protein Motion Computation.

PubMed

Molloy, Kevin; Shehu, Amarda

2016-03-01

Precious information on protein function can be extracted from a detailed characterization of protein equilibrium dynamics. This remains elusive in wet and dry laboratories, as function-modulating transitions of a protein between functionally-relevant, thermodynamically-stable and meta-stable structural states often span disparate time scales. In this paper we propose a novel, robotics-inspired algorithm that circumvents time-scale challenges by drawing analogies between protein motion and robot motion. The algorithm adapts the popular roadmap-based framework in robot motion computation to handle the more complex protein conformation space and its underlying rugged energy surface. Given known structures representing stable and meta-stable states of a protein, the algorithm yields a time- and energy-prioritized list of transition paths between the structures, with each path represented as a series of conformations. The algorithm balances computational resources between a global search aimed at obtaining a global view of the network of protein conformations and their connectivity and a detailed local search focused on realizing such connections with physically-realistic models. Promising results are presented on a variety of proteins that demonstrate the general utility of the algorithm and its capability to improve the state of the art without employing system-specific insight.

Motion-compensated cone beam computed tomography using a conjugate gradient least-squares algorithm and electrical impedance tomography imaging motion data.

PubMed

Pengpen, T; Soleimani, M

2015-06-13

Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) is an imaging modality that has been used in image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT). For applications such as lung radiation therapy, CBCT images are greatly affected by the motion artefacts. This is mainly due to low temporal resolution of CBCT. Recently, a dual modality of electrical impedance tomography (EIT) and CBCT has been proposed, in which the high temporal resolution EIT imaging system provides motion data to a motion-compensated algebraic reconstruction technique (ART)-based CBCT reconstruction software. High computational time associated with ART and indeed other variations of ART make it less practical for real applications. This paper develops a motion-compensated conjugate gradient least-squares (CGLS) algorithm for CBCT. A motion-compensated CGLS offers several advantages over ART-based methods, including possibilities for explicit regularization, rapid convergence and parallel computations. This paper for the first time demonstrates motion-compensated CBCT reconstruction using CGLS and reconstruction results are shown in limited data CBCT considering only a quarter of the full dataset. The proposed algorithm is tested using simulated motion data in generic motion-compensated CBCT as well as measured EIT data in dual EIT-CBCT imaging. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

A semi-learning algorithm for noise rejection: an fNIRS study on ADHD children

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sutoko, Stephanie; Funane, Tsukasa; Katura, Takusige; Sato, Hiroki; Kiguchi, Masashi; Maki, Atsushi; Monden, Yukifumi; Nagashima, Masako; Yamagata, Takanori; Dan, Ippeita

2017-02-01

In pediatrics studies, the quality of functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) signals is often reduced by motion artifacts. These artifacts likely mislead brain functionality analysis, causing false discoveries. While noise correction methods and their performance have been investigated, these methods require several parameter assumptions that apparently result in noise overfitting. In contrast, the rejection of noisy signals serves as a preferable method because it maintains the originality of the signal waveform. Here, we describe a semi-learning algorithm to detect and eliminate noisy signals. The algorithm dynamically adjusts noise detection according to the predetermined noise criteria, which are spikes, unusual activation values (averaged amplitude signals within the brain activation period), and high activation variances (among trials). Criteria were sequentially organized in the algorithm and orderly assessed signals based on each criterion. By initially setting an acceptable rejection rate, particular criteria causing excessive data rejections are neglected, whereas others with tolerable rejections practically eliminate noises. fNIRS data measured during the attention response paradigm (oddball task) in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were utilized to evaluate and optimize the algorithm's performance. This algorithm successfully substituted the visual noise identification done in the previous studies and consistently found significantly lower activation of the right prefrontal and parietal cortices in ADHD patients than in typical developing children. Thus, we conclude that the semi-learning algorithm confers more objective and standardized judgment for noise rejection and presents a promising alternative to visual noise rejection

Fixing the reference frame for PPMXL proper motions using extragalactic sources

DOE PAGES

Grabowski, Kathleen; Carlin, Jeffrey L.; Newberg, Heidi Jo; ...

2015-05-27

In this study, we quantify and correct systematic errors in PPMXL proper motions using extragalactic sources from the first two LAMOST data releases and the Vèron-Cetty & Vèron Catalog of Quasars. Although the majority of the sources are from the Vèron catalog, LAMOST makes important contributions in regions that are not well-sampled by previous catalogs, particularly at low Galactic latitudes and in the south Galactic cap. We show that quasars in PPMXL have measurable and significant proper motions, which reflect the systematic zero-point offsets present in the catalog. We confirm the global proper motion shifts seen by Wu et al.,more » and additionally find smaller-scale fluctuations of the QSO-derived corrections to an absolute frame. Finally, we average the proper motions of 158 106 extragalactic objects in bins of 3° × 3° and present a table of proper motion corrections.« less

The lucky image-motion prediction for simple scene observation based soft-sensor technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yan; Su, Yun; Hu, Bin

2015-08-01

High resolution is important to earth remote sensors, while the vibration of the platforms of the remote sensors is a major factor restricting high resolution imaging. The image-motion prediction and real-time compensation are key technologies to solve this problem. For the reason that the traditional autocorrelation image algorithm cannot meet the demand for the simple scene image stabilization, this paper proposes to utilize soft-sensor technology in image-motion prediction, and focus on the research of algorithm optimization in imaging image-motion prediction. Simulations results indicate that the improving lucky image-motion stabilization algorithm combining the Back Propagation Network (BP NN) and support vector machine (SVM) is the most suitable for the simple scene image stabilization. The relative error of the image-motion prediction based the soft-sensor technology is below 5%, the training computing speed of the mathematical predication model is as fast as the real-time image stabilization in aerial photography.

Inertial Sensor-Based Touch and Shake Metaphor for Expressive Control of 3D Virtual Avatars

PubMed Central

Patil, Shashidhar; Chintalapalli, Harinadha Reddy; Kim, Dubeom; Chai, Youngho

2015-01-01

In this paper, we present an inertial sensor-based touch and shake metaphor for expressive control of a 3D virtual avatar in a virtual environment. An intuitive six degrees-of-freedom wireless inertial motion sensor is used as a gesture and motion control input device with a sensor fusion algorithm. The algorithm enables user hand motions to be tracked in 3D space via magnetic, angular rate, and gravity sensors. A quaternion-based complementary filter is implemented to reduce noise and drift. An algorithm based on dynamic time-warping is developed for efficient recognition of dynamic hand gestures with real-time automatic hand gesture segmentation. Our approach enables the recognition of gestures and estimates gesture variations for continuous interaction. We demonstrate the gesture expressivity using an interactive flexible gesture mapping interface for authoring and controlling a 3D virtual avatar and its motion by tracking user dynamic hand gestures. This synthesizes stylistic variations in a 3D virtual avatar, producing motions that are not present in the motion database using hand gesture sequences from a single inertial motion sensor. PMID:26094629

Measuring the self-similarity exponent in Lévy stable processes of financial time series

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernández-Martínez, M.; Sánchez-Granero, M. A.; Trinidad Segovia, J. E.

2013-11-01

Geometric method-based procedures, which will be called GM algorithms herein, were introduced in [M.A. Sánchez Granero, J.E. Trinidad Segovia, J. García Pérez, Some comments on Hurst exponent and the long memory processes on capital markets, Phys. A 387 (2008) 5543-5551], to efficiently calculate the self-similarity exponent of a time series. In that paper, the authors showed empirically that these algorithms, based on a geometrical approach, are more accurate than the classical algorithms, especially with short length time series. The authors checked that GM algorithms are good when working with (fractional) Brownian motions. Moreover, in [J.E. Trinidad Segovia, M. Fernández-Martínez, M.A. Sánchez-Granero, A note on geometric method-based procedures to calculate the Hurst exponent, Phys. A 391 (2012) 2209-2214], a mathematical background for the validity of such procedures to estimate the self-similarity index of any random process with stationary and self-affine increments was provided. In particular, they proved theoretically that GM algorithms are also valid to explore long-memory in (fractional) Lévy stable motions. In this paper, we prove empirically by Monte Carlo simulation that GM algorithms are able to calculate accurately the self-similarity index in Lévy stable motions and find empirical evidence that they are more precise than the absolute value exponent (denoted by AVE onwards) and the multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA) algorithms, especially with a short length time series. We also compare them with the generalized Hurst exponent (GHE) algorithm and conclude that both GM2 and GHE algorithms are the most accurate to study financial series. In addition to that, we provide empirical evidence, based on the accuracy of GM algorithms to estimate the self-similarity index in Lévy motions, that the evolution of the stocks of some international market indices, such as U.S. Small Cap and Nasdaq100, cannot be modelized by means of a Brownian motion.

Research and implementation of the algorithm for unwrapped and distortion correction basing on CORDIC for panoramic image

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Zhenhai; Li, Kejie; Wu, Xiaobing; Zhang, Shujiang

2008-03-01

The unwrapped and correcting algorithm based on Coordinate Rotation Digital Computer (CORDIC) and bilinear interpolation algorithm was presented in this paper, with the purpose of processing dynamic panoramic annular image. An original annular panoramic image captured by panoramic annular lens (PAL) can be unwrapped and corrected to conventional rectangular image without distortion, which is much more coincident with people's vision. The algorithm for panoramic image processing is modeled by VHDL and implemented in FPGA. The experimental results show that the proposed panoramic image algorithm for unwrapped and distortion correction has the lower computation complexity and the architecture for dynamic panoramic image processing has lower hardware cost and power consumption. And the proposed algorithm is valid.

Analysis of facial motion patterns during speech using a matrix factorization algorithm

PubMed Central

Lucero, Jorge C.; Munhall, Kevin G.

2008-01-01

This paper presents an analysis of facial motion during speech to identify linearly independent kinematic regions. The data consists of three-dimensional displacement records of a set of markers located on a subject’s face while producing speech. A QR factorization with column pivoting algorithm selects a subset of markers with independent motion patterns. The subset is used as a basis to fit the motion of the other facial markers, which determines facial regions of influence of each of the linearly independent markers. Those regions constitute kinematic “eigenregions” whose combined motion produces the total motion of the face. Facial animations may be generated by driving the independent markers with collected displacement records. PMID:19062866

Impact of motion and partial volume effects correction on PET myocardial perfusion imaging using simultaneous PET-MR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petibon, Yoann; Guehl, Nicolas J.; Reese, Timothy G.; Ebrahimi, Behzad; Normandin, Marc D.; Shoup, Timothy M.; Alpert, Nathaniel M.; El Fakhri, Georges; Ouyang, Jinsong

2017-01-01

PET is an established modality for myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) which enables quantification of absolute myocardial blood flow (MBF) using dynamic imaging and kinetic modeling. However, heart motion and partial volume effects (PVE) significantly limit the spatial resolution and quantitative accuracy of PET MPI. Simultaneous PET-MR offers a solution to the motion problem in PET by enabling MR-based motion correction of PET data. The aim of this study was to develop a motion and PVE correction methodology for PET MPI using simultaneous PET-MR, and to assess its impact on both static and dynamic PET MPI using 18F-Flurpiridaz, a novel 18F-labeled perfusion tracer. Two dynamic 18F-Flurpiridaz MPI scans were performed on healthy pigs using a PET-MR scanner. Cardiac motion was tracked using a dedicated tagged-MRI (tMR) sequence. Motion fields were estimated using non-rigid registration of tMR images and used to calculate motion-dependent attenuation maps. Motion correction of PET data was achieved by incorporating tMR-based motion fields and motion-dependent attenuation coefficients into image reconstruction. Dynamic and static PET datasets were created for each scan. Each dataset was reconstructed as (i) Ungated, (ii) Gated (end-diastolic phase), and (iii) Motion-Corrected (MoCo), each without and with point spread function (PSF) modeling for PVE correction. Myocardium-to-blood concentration ratios (MBR) and apparent wall thickness were calculated to assess image quality for static MPI. For dynamic MPI, segment- and voxel-wise MBF values were estimated by non-linear fitting of a 2-tissue compartment model to tissue time-activity-curves. MoCo and Gating respectively decreased mean apparent wall thickness by 15.1% and 14.4% and increased MBR by 20.3% and 13.6% compared to Ungated images (P  <  0.01). Combined motion and PSF correction (MoCo-PSF) yielded 30.9% (15.7%) lower wall thickness and 82.2% (20.5%) higher MBR compared to Ungated data reconstructed without (with) PSF modeling (P  <  0.01). For dynamic PET, mean MBF across all segments were comparable for MoCo (0.72  ±  0.21 ml/min/ml) and Gating (0.69  ±  0.18 ml/min/ml). Ungated data yielded significantly lower mean MBF (0.59  ±  0.16 ml/min/ml). Mean MBF for MoCo-PSF was 0.80  ±  0.22 ml/min/ml, which was 37.9% (25.0%) higher than that obtained from Ungated data without (with) PSF correction (P  <  0.01). The developed methodology holds promise to improve the image quality and sensitivity of PET MPI studies performed using PET-MR.

Real-time 3D motion tracking for small animal brain PET

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kyme, A. Z.; Zhou, V. W.; Meikle, S. R.; Fulton, R. R.

2008-05-01

High-resolution positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of conscious, unrestrained laboratory animals presents many challenges. Some form of motion correction will normally be necessary to avoid motion artefacts in the reconstruction. The aim of the current work was to develop and evaluate a motion tracking system potentially suitable for use in small animal PET. This system is based on the commercially available stereo-optical MicronTracker S60 which we have integrated with a Siemens Focus-220 microPET scanner. We present measured performance limits of the tracker and the technical details of our implementation, including calibration and synchronization of the system. A phantom study demonstrating motion tracking and correction was also performed. The system can be calibrated with sub-millimetre accuracy, and small lightweight markers can be constructed to provide accurate 3D motion data. A marked reduction in motion artefacts was demonstrated in the phantom study. The techniques and results described here represent a step towards a practical method for rigid-body motion correction in small animal PET. There is scope to achieve further improvements in the accuracy of synchronization and pose measurements in future work.

Constraint Embedding Technique for Multibody System Dynamics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Woo, Simon S.; Cheng, Michael K.

2011-01-01

Multibody dynamics play a critical role in simulation testbeds for space missions. There has been a considerable interest in the development of efficient computational algorithms for solving the dynamics of multibody systems. Mass matrix factorization and inversion techniques and the O(N) class of forward dynamics algorithms developed using a spatial operator algebra stand out as important breakthrough on this front. Techniques such as these provide the efficient algorithms and methods for the application and implementation of such multibody dynamics models. However, these methods are limited only to tree-topology multibody systems. Closed-chain topology systems require different techniques that are not as efficient or as broad as those for tree-topology systems. The closed-chain forward dynamics approach consists of treating the closed-chain topology as a tree-topology system subject to additional closure constraints. The resulting forward dynamics solution consists of: (a) ignoring the closure constraints and using the O(N) algorithm to solve for the free unconstrained accelerations for the system; (b) using the tree-topology solution to compute a correction force to enforce the closure constraints; and (c) correcting the unconstrained accelerations with correction accelerations resulting from the correction forces. This constraint-embedding technique shows how to use direct embedding to eliminate local closure-loops in the system and effectively convert the system back to a tree-topology system. At this point, standard tree-topology techniques can be brought to bear on the problem. The approach uses a spatial operator algebra approach to formulating the equations of motion. The operators are block-partitioned around the local body subgroups to convert them into aggregate bodies. Mass matrix operator factorization and inversion techniques are applied to the reformulated tree-topology system. Thus in essence, the new technique allows conversion of a system with closure-constraints into an equivalent tree-topology system, and thus allows one to take advantage of the host of techniques available to the latter class of systems. This technology is highly suitable for the class of multibody systems where the closure-constraints are local, i.e., where they are confined to small groupings of bodies within the system. Important examples of such local closure-constraints are constraints associated with four-bar linkages, geared motors, differential suspensions, etc. One can eliminate these closure-constraints and convert the system into a tree-topology system by embedding the constraints directly into the system dynamics and effectively replacing the body groupings with virtual aggregate bodies. Once eliminated, one can apply the well-known results and algorithms for tree-topology systems to solve the dynamics of such closed-chain system.

SU-G-BRA-17: Tracking Multiple Targets with Independent Motion in Real-Time Using a Multi-Leaf Collimator

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

Ge, Y; Keall, P; Poulsen, P

Purpose: Multiple targets with large intrafraction independent motion are often involved in advanced prostate, lung, abdominal, and head and neck cancer radiotherapy. Current standard of care treats these with the originally planned fields, jeopardizing the treatment outcomes. A real-time multi-leaf collimator (MLC) tracking method has been developed to address this problem for the first time. This study evaluates the geometric uncertainty of the multi-target tracking method. Methods: Four treatment scenarios are simulated based on a prostate IMAT plan to treat a moving prostate target and static pelvic node target: 1) real-time multi-target MLC tracking; 2) real-time prostate-only MLC tracking; 3)more » correcting for prostate interfraction motion at setup only; and 4) no motion correction. The geometric uncertainty of the treatment is assessed by the sum of the erroneously underexposed target area and overexposed healthy tissue areas for each individual target. Two patient-measured prostate trajectories of average 2 and 5 mm motion magnitude are used for simulations. Results: Real-time multi-target tracking accumulates the least uncertainty overall. As expected, it covers the static nodes similarly well as no motion correction treatment and covers the moving prostate similarly well as the real-time prostate-only tracking. Multi-target tracking reduces >90% of uncertainty for the static nodal target compared to the real-time prostate-only tracking or interfraction motion correction. For prostate target, depending on the motion trajectory which affects the uncertainty due to leaf-fitting, multi-target tracking may or may not perform better than correcting for interfraction prostate motion by shifting patient at setup, but it reduces ∼50% of uncertainty compared to no motion correction. Conclusion: The developed real-time multi-target MLC tracking can adapt for the independently moving targets better than other available treatment adaptations. This will enable PTV margin reduction to minimize health tissue toxicity while remain tumor coverage when treating advanced disease with independently moving targets involved. The authors acknowledge funding support from the Australian NHMRC Australia Fellowship and NHMRC Project Grant No. APP1042375.« less

Finite element formulation of fluctuating hydrodynamics for fluids filled with rigid particles using boundary fitted meshes

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

De Corato, M., E-mail: marco.decorato@unina.it; Slot, J.J.M., E-mail: j.j.m.slot@tue.nl; Hütter, M., E-mail: m.huetter@tue.nl

In this paper, we present a finite element implementation of fluctuating hydrodynamics with a moving boundary fitted mesh for treating the suspended particles. The thermal fluctuations are incorporated into the continuum equations using the Landau and Lifshitz approach [1]. The proposed implementation fulfills the fluctuation–dissipation theorem exactly at the discrete level. Since we restrict the equations to the creeping flow case, this takes the form of a relation between the diffusion coefficient matrix and friction matrix both at the particle and nodal level of the finite elements. Brownian motion of arbitrarily shaped particles in complex confinements can be considered withinmore » the present formulation. A multi-step time integration scheme is developed to correctly capture the drift term required in the stochastic differential equation (SDE) describing the evolution of the positions of the particles. The proposed approach is validated by simulating the Brownian motion of a sphere between two parallel plates and the motion of a spherical particle in a cylindrical cavity. The time integration algorithm and the fluctuating hydrodynamics implementation are then applied to study the diffusion and the equilibrium probability distribution of a confined circle under an external harmonic potential.« less

Multimodal Speech Capture System for Speech Rehabilitation and Learning.

PubMed

Sebkhi, Nordine; Desai, Dhyey; Islam, Mohammad; Lu, Jun; Wilson, Kimberly; Ghovanloo, Maysam

2017-11-01

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are trained to correct articulation of people diagnosed with motor speech disorders by analyzing articulators' motion and assessing speech outcome while patients speak. To assist SLPs in this task, we are presenting the multimodal speech capture system (MSCS) that records and displays kinematics of key speech articulators, the tongue and lips, along with voice, using unobtrusive methods. Collected speech modalities, tongue motion, lips gestures, and voice are visualized not only in real-time to provide patients with instant feedback but also offline to allow SLPs to perform post-analysis of articulators' motion, particularly the tongue, with its prominent but hardly visible role in articulation. We describe the MSCS hardware and software components, and demonstrate its basic visualization capabilities by a healthy individual repeating the words "Hello World." A proof-of-concept prototype has been successfully developed for this purpose, and will be used in future clinical studies to evaluate its potential impact on accelerating speech rehabilitation by enabling patients to speak naturally. Pattern matching algorithms to be applied to the collected data can provide patients with quantitative and objective feedback on their speech performance, unlike current methods that are mostly subjective, and may vary from one SLP to another.

Fetal lung apparent diffusion coefficient measurement using diffusion-weighted MRI at 3 Tesla: Correlation with gestational age.

PubMed

Afacan, Onur; Gholipour, Ali; Mulkern, Robert V; Barnewolt, Carol E; Estroff, Judy A; Connolly, Susan A; Parad, Richard B; Bairdain, Sigrid; Warfield, Simon K

2016-12-01

To evaluate the feasibility of using diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) to assess the fetal lung apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) at 3 Tesla (T). Seventy-one pregnant women (32 second trimester, 39 third trimester) were scanned with a twice-refocused Echo-planar diffusion-weighted imaging sequence with 6 different b-values in 3 orthogonal diffusion orientations at 3T. After each scan, a region-of-interest (ROI) mask was drawn to select a region in the fetal lung and an automated robust maximum likelihood estimation algorithm was used to compute the ADC parameter. The amount of motion in each scan was visually rated. When scans with unacceptable levels of motion were eliminated, the lung ADC values showed a strong association with gestational age (P < 0.01), increasing dramatically between 16 and 27 weeks and then achieving a plateau around 27 weeks. We show that to get reliable estimates of ADC values of fetal lungs, a multiple b-value acquisition, where motion is either corrected or considered, can be performed. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2016;44:1650-1655. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Highest Resolution In Vivo Human Brain MRI Using Prospective Motion Correction

PubMed Central

Stucht, Daniel; Danishad, K. Appu; Schulze, Peter; Godenschweger, Frank; Zaitsev, Maxim; Speck, Oliver

2015-01-01

High field MRI systems, such as 7 Tesla (T) scanners, can deliver higher signal to noise ratio (SNR) than lower field scanners and thus allow for the acquisition of data with higher spatial resolution, which is often demanded by users in the fields of clinical and neuroscientific imaging. However, high resolution scans may require long acquisition times, which in turn increase the discomfort for the subject and the risk of subject motion. Even with a cooperative and trained subject, involuntary motion due to heartbeat, swallowing, respiration and changes in muscle tone can cause image artifacts that reduce the effective resolution. In addition, scanning with higher resolution leads to increased sensitivity to even very small movements. Prospective motion correction (PMC) at 3T and 7T has proven to increase image quality in case of subject motion. Although the application of prospective motion correction is becoming more popular, previous articles focused on proof of concept studies and technical descriptions, whereas this paper briefly describes the technical aspects of the optical tracking system, marker fixation and cross calibration and focuses on the application of PMC to very high resolution imaging without intentional motion. In this study we acquired in vivo MR images at 7T using prospective motion correction during long acquisitions. As a result, we present images among the highest, if not the highest resolution of in vivo human brain MRI ever acquired. PMID:26226146

Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of six algorithms for correcting intensity nonuniformity effects.

PubMed

Arnold, J B; Liow, J S; Schaper, K A; Stern, J J; Sled, J G; Shattuck, D W; Worth, A J; Cohen, M S; Leahy, R M; Mazziotta, J C; Rottenberg, D A

2001-05-01

The desire to correct intensity nonuniformity in magnetic resonance images has led to the proliferation of nonuniformity-correction (NUC) algorithms with different theoretical underpinnings. In order to provide end users with a rational basis for selecting a given algorithm for a specific neuroscientific application, we evaluated the performance of six NUC algorithms. We used simulated and real MRI data volumes, including six repeat scans of the same subject, in order to rank the accuracy, precision, and stability of the nonuniformity corrections. We also compared algorithms using data volumes from different subjects and different (1.5T and 3.0T) MRI scanners in order to relate differences in algorithmic performance to intersubject variability and/or differences in scanner performance. In phantom studies, the correlation of the extracted with the applied nonuniformity was highest in the transaxial (left-to-right) direction and lowest in the axial (top-to-bottom) direction. Two of the six algorithms demonstrated a high degree of stability, as measured by the iterative application of the algorithm to its corrected output. While none of the algorithms performed ideally under all circumstances, locally adaptive methods generally outperformed nonadaptive methods. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

High speed multiphoton imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yongxiao; Brustle, Anne; Gautam, Vini; Cockburn, Ian; Gillespie, Cathy; Gaus, Katharina; Lee, Woei Ming

2016-12-01

Intravital multiphoton microscopy has emerged as a powerful technique to visualize cellular processes in-vivo. Real time processes revealed through live imaging provided many opportunities to capture cellular activities in living animals. The typical parameters that determine the performance of multiphoton microscopy are speed, field of view, 3D imaging and imaging depth; many of these are important to achieving data from in-vivo. Here, we provide a full exposition of the flexible polygon mirror based high speed laser scanning multiphoton imaging system, PCI-6110 card (National Instruments) and high speed analog frame grabber card (Matrox Solios eA/XA), which allows for rapid adjustments between frame rates i.e. 5 Hz to 50 Hz with 512 × 512 pixels. Furthermore, a motion correction algorithm is also used to mitigate motion artifacts. A customized control software called Pscan 1.0 is developed for the system. This is then followed by calibration of the imaging performance of the system and a series of quantitative in-vitro and in-vivo imaging in neuronal tissues and mice.

3D Numerical Simulation on the Rockslide Generated Tsunamis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chuang, M.; Wu, T.; Wang, C.; Chu, C.

2013-12-01

The rockslide generated tsunami is one of the most devastating nature hazards. However, the involvement of the moving obstacle and dynamic free-surface movement makes the numerical simulation a difficult task. To describe both the fluid motion and solid movement at the same time, we newly developed a two-way fully-coupled moving solid algorithm with 3D LES turbulent model. The free-surface movement is tracked by volume of fluid (VOF) method. The two-step projection method is adopted to solve the Navier-Stokes type government equations. In the new moving solid algorithm, a fictitious body force is implicitly prescribed in MAC correction step to make the cell-center velocity satisfied with the obstacle velocity. We called this method the implicit velocity method (IVM). Because no extra terms are added to the pressure Poission correction, the pressure field of the fluid part is stable, which is the key of the two-way fluid-solid coupling. Because no real solid material is presented in the IVM, the time marching step is not restricted to the smallest effective grid size. Also, because the fictitious force is implicitly added to the correction step, the resulting velocity is accurate and fully coupled with the resulting pressure field. We validated the IVM by simulating a floating box moving up and down on the free-surface. We presented the time-history obstacle trajectory and compared it with the experimental data. Very accurate result can be seen in terms of the oscillating amplitude and the period (Fig. 1). We also presented the free-surface comparison with the high-speed snapshots. At the end, the IVM was used to study the rock-slide generated tsunamis (Liu et al., 2005). Good validations on the slide trajectory and the free-surface movement will be presented in the full paper. From the simulation results (Fig. 2), we observed that the rockslide generated waves are manly caused by the rebounding waves from two sides of the sliding rock after the water is dragging down by the solid downward motion. We also found that the turbulence has minor effect to the main flow field. The rock size, rock density, and the steepness of the slope were analyzed to understand their effects to the maximum runup height. The detailed algorithm of IVM, the validation, the simulation and analysis of rockslide tsunami will be presented in the full paper. Figure 1. Time-history trajectory of obstacle for the floating obstacle simulation. Figure 2. Snapshots of the free-surface elevation with streamlines for the rockslide tsunami simulation.

Graphics processing unit accelerated intensity-based optical coherence tomography angiography using differential frames with real-time motion correction.

PubMed

Watanabe, Yuuki; Takahashi, Yuhei; Numazawa, Hiroshi

2014-02-01

We demonstrate intensity-based optical coherence tomography (OCT) angiography using the squared difference of two sequential frames with bulk-tissue-motion (BTM) correction. This motion correction was performed by minimization of the sum of the pixel values using axial- and lateral-pixel-shifted structural OCT images. We extract the BTM-corrected image from a total of 25 calculated OCT angiographic images. Image processing was accelerated by a graphics processing unit (GPU) with many stream processors to optimize the parallel processing procedure. The GPU processing rate was faster than that of a line scan camera (46.9 kHz). Our OCT system provides the means of displaying structural OCT images and BTM-corrected OCT angiographic images in real time.

A nowcasting technique based on application of the particle filter blending algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Yuanzhao; Lan, Hongping; Chen, Xunlai; Zhang, Wenhai

2017-10-01

To improve the accuracy of nowcasting, a new extrapolation technique called particle filter blending was configured in this study and applied to experimental nowcasting. Radar echo extrapolation was performed by using the radar mosaic at an altitude of 2.5 km obtained from the radar images of 12 S-band radars in Guangdong Province, China. The first bilateral filter was applied in the quality control of the radar data; an optical flow method based on the Lucas-Kanade algorithm and the Harris corner detection algorithm were used to track radar echoes and retrieve the echo motion vectors; then, the motion vectors were blended with the particle filter blending algorithm to estimate the optimal motion vector of the true echo motions; finally, semi-Lagrangian extrapolation was used for radar echo extrapolation based on the obtained motion vector field. A comparative study of the extrapolated forecasts of four precipitation events in 2016 in Guangdong was conducted. The results indicate that the particle filter blending algorithm could realistically reproduce the spatial pattern, echo intensity, and echo location at 30- and 60-min forecast lead times. The forecasts agreed well with observations, and the results were of operational significance. Quantitative evaluation of the forecasts indicates that the particle filter blending algorithm performed better than the cross-correlation method and the optical flow method. Therefore, the particle filter blending method is proved to be superior to the traditional forecasting methods and it can be used to enhance the ability of nowcasting in operational weather forecasts.

Atmospheric Correction Prototype Algorithm for High Spatial Resolution Multispectral Earth Observing Imaging Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pagnutti, Mary

2006-01-01

This viewgraph presentation reviews the creation of a prototype algorithm for atmospheric correction using high spatial resolution earth observing imaging systems. The objective of the work was to evaluate accuracy of a prototype algorithm that uses satellite-derived atmospheric products to generate scene reflectance maps for high spatial resolution (HSR) systems. This presentation focused on preliminary results of only the satellite-based atmospheric correction algorithm.

A rain pixel recovery algorithm for videos with highly dynamic scenes.

PubMed

Jie Chen; Lap-Pui Chau

2014-03-01

Rain removal is a very useful and important technique in applications such as security surveillance and movie editing. Several rain removal algorithms have been proposed these years, where photometric, chromatic, and probabilistic properties of the rain have been exploited to detect and remove the rainy effect. Current methods generally work well with light rain and relatively static scenes, when dealing with heavier rainfall in dynamic scenes, these methods give very poor visual results. The proposed algorithm is based on motion segmentation of dynamic scene. After applying photometric and chromatic constraints for rain detection, rain removal filters are applied on pixels such that their dynamic property as well as motion occlusion clue are considered; both spatial and temporal informations are then adaptively exploited during rain pixel recovery. Results show that the proposed algorithm has a much better performance for rainy scenes with large motion than existing algorithms.

Models for the Effects of G-seat Cuing on Roll-axis Tracking Performance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Levison, W. H.; Mcmillan, G. R.; Martin, E. A.

1984-01-01

Including whole-body motion in a flight simulator improves performance for a variety of tasks requiring a pilot to compensate for the effects of unexpected disturbances. A possible mechanism for this improvement is that whole-body motion provides high derivative vehicle state information whic allows the pilot to generate more lead in responding to the external disturbances. During development of motion simulating algorithms for an advanced g-cuing system it was discovered that an algorithm based on aircraft roll acceleration producted little or no performance improvement. On the other hand, algorithms based on roll position or roll velocity produced performance equivalent to whole-body motion. The analysis and modeling conducted at both the sensory system and manual control performance levels to explain the above results are described.

Using Passive Sensing to Estimate Relative Energy Expenditure for Eldercare Monitoring

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

This paper describes ongoing work in analyzing sensor data logged in the homes of seniors. An estimation of relative energy expenditure is computed using motion density from passive infrared motion sensors mounted in the environment. We introduce a new algorithm for detecting visitors in the home using motion sensor data and a set of fuzzy rules. The visitor algorithm, as well as a previous algorithm for identifying time-away-from-home (TAFH), are used to filter the logged motion sensor data. Thus, the energy expenditure estimate uses data collected only when the resident is home alone. Case studies are included from TigerPlace, an Aging in Place community, to illustrate how the relative energy expenditure estimate can be used to track health conditions over time. PMID:25266777

Offline Performance of the Filter Bank EEW Algorithm in the 2014 M6.0 South Napa Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meier, M. A.; Heaton, T. H.; Clinton, J. F.

2014-12-01

Medium size events like the M6.0 South Napa earthquake are very challenging for EEW: the damage such events produce can be severe, but it is generally confined to relatively small zones around the epicenter and the shaking duration is short. This leaves a very short window for timely EEW alerts. Algorithms that wait for several stations to trigger before sending out EEW alerts are typically not fast enough for these kind of events because their blind zone (the zone where strong ground motions start before the warnings arrive) typically covers all or most of the area that experiences strong ground motions. At the same time, single station algorithms are often too unreliable to provide useful alerts. The filter bank EEW algorithm is a new algorithm that is designed to provide maximally accurate and precise earthquake parameter estimates with minimum data input, with the goal of producing reliable EEW alerts when only a very small number of stations have been reached by the p-wave. It combines the strengths of single station and network based algorithms in that it starts parameter estimates as soon as 0.5 seconds of data are available from the first station, but then perpetually incorporates additional data from the same or from any number of other stations. The algorithm analyzes the time dependent frequency content of real time waveforms with a filter bank. It then uses an extensive training data set to find earthquake records from the past that have had similar frequency content at a given time since the p-wave onset. The source parameters of the most similar events are used to parameterize a likelihood function for the source parameters of the ongoing event, which can then be maximized to find the most likely parameter estimates. Our preliminary results show that the filter bank EEW algorithm correctly estimated the magnitude of the South Napa earthquake to be ~M6 with only 1 second worth of data at the nearest station to the epicenter. This estimate is then confirmed when updates based on more data from stations at farther distances become available. Because these early estimates saturate at ~M6.5, however, the magnitude estimate might have had to be considered a minimum bound.

Motion correction for functional MRI with three-dimensional hybrid radial-Cartesian EPI.

PubMed

Graedel, Nadine N; McNab, Jennifer A; Chiew, Mark; Miller, Karla L

2017-08-01

Subject motion is a major source of image degradation for functional MRI (fMRI), especially when using multishot sequences like three-dimensional (3D EPI). We present a hybrid radial-Cartesian 3D EPI trajectory enabling motion correction in k-space for functional MRI. The EPI "blades" of the 3D hybrid radial-Cartesian EPI sequence, called TURBINE, are rotated about the phase-encoding axis to fill out a cylinder in 3D k-space. Angular blades are acquired over time using a golden-angle rotation increment, allowing reconstruction at flexible temporal resolution. The self-navigating properties of the sequence are used to determine motion parameters from a high temporal-resolution navigator time series. The motion is corrected in k-space as part of the image reconstruction, and evaluated for experiments with both cued and natural motion. We demonstrate that the motion correction works robustly and that we can achieve substantial artifact reduction as well as improvement in temporal signal-to-noise ratio and fMRI activation in the presence of both severe and subtle motion. We show the potential for hybrid radial-Cartesian 3D EPI to substantially reduce artifacts for application in fMRI, especially for subject groups with significant head motion. The motion correction approach does not prolong the scan, and no extra hardware is required. Magn Reson Med 78:527-540, 2017. © 2016 The Authors Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2016 The Authors Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Performance analysis of visual tracking algorithms for motion-based user interfaces on mobile devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Winkler, Stefan; Rangaswamy, Karthik; Tedjokusumo, Jefry; Zhou, ZhiYing

2008-02-01

Determining the self-motion of a camera is useful for many applications. A number of visual motion-tracking algorithms have been developed till date, each with their own advantages and restrictions. Some of them have also made their foray into the mobile world, powering augmented reality-based applications on phones with inbuilt cameras. In this paper, we compare the performances of three feature or landmark-guided motion tracking algorithms, namely marker-based tracking with MXRToolkit, face tracking based on CamShift, and MonoSLAM. We analyze and compare the complexity, accuracy, sensitivity, robustness and restrictions of each of the above methods. Our performance tests are conducted over two stages: The first stage of testing uses video sequences created with simulated camera movements along the six degrees of freedom in order to compare accuracy in tracking, while the second stage analyzes the robustness of the algorithms by testing for manipulative factors like image scaling and frame-skipping.

The algorithm of motion blur image restoration based on PSF half-blind estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Da-Ke; Lin, Zhe

2011-08-01

A novel algorithm of motion blur image restoration based on PSF half-blind estimation with Hough transform was introduced on the basis of full analysis of the principle of TDICCD camera, with the problem that vertical uniform linear motion estimation used by IBD algorithm as the original value of PSF led to image restoration distortion. Firstly, the mathematical model of image degradation was established with the transcendental information of multi-frame images, and then two parameters (movement blur length and angle) that have crucial influence on PSF estimation was set accordingly. Finally, the ultimate restored image can be acquired through multiple iterative of the initial value of PSF estimation in Fourier domain, which the initial value was gained by the above method. Experimental results show that the proposal algorithm can not only effectively solve the image distortion problem caused by relative motion between TDICCD camera and movement objects, but also the details characteristics of original image are clearly restored.

4D numerical observer for lesion detection in respiratory-gated PET

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

Lorsakul, Auranuch; Li, Quanzheng; Ouyang, Jinsong

2014-10-15

Purpose: Respiratory-gated positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography protocols reduce lesion smearing and improve lesion detection through a synchronized acquisition of emission data. However, an objective assessment of image quality of the improvement gained from respiratory-gated PET is mainly limited to a three-dimensional (3D) approach. This work proposes a 4D numerical observer that incorporates both spatial and temporal informations for detection tasks in pulmonary oncology. Methods: The authors propose a 4D numerical observer constructed with a 3D channelized Hotelling observer for the spatial domain followed by a Hotelling observer for the temporal domain. Realistic {sup 18}F-fluorodeoxyglucose activity distributions were simulated usingmore » a 4D extended cardiac torso anthropomorphic phantom including 12 spherical lesions at different anatomical locations (lower, upper, anterior, and posterior) within the lungs. Simulated data based on Monte Carlo simulation were obtained using GEANT4 application for tomographic emission (GATE). Fifty noise realizations of six respiratory-gated PET frames were simulated by GATE using a model of the Siemens Biograph mMR scanner geometry. PET sinograms of the thorax background and pulmonary lesions that were simulated separately were merged to generate different conditions of the lesions to the background (e.g., lesion contrast and motion). A conventional ordered subset expectation maximization (OSEM) reconstruction (5 iterations and 6 subsets) was used to obtain: (1) gated, (2) nongated, and (3) motion-corrected image volumes (a total of 3200 subimage volumes: 2400 gated, 400 nongated, and 400 motion-corrected). Lesion-detection signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) were measured in different lesion-to-background contrast levels (3.5, 8.0, 9.0, and 20.0), lesion diameters (10.0, 13.0, and 16.0 mm), and respiratory motion displacements (17.6–31.3 mm). The proposed 4D numerical observer applied on multiple-gated images was compared to the conventional 3D approach applied on the nongated and motion-corrected images. Results: On average, the proposed 4D numerical observer improved the detection SNR by 48.6% (p < 0.005), whereas the 3D methods on motion-corrected images improved by 31.0% (p < 0.005) as compared to the nongated method. For all different conditions of the lesions, the relative SNR measurement (Gain = SNR{sub Observed}/SNR{sub Nongated}) of the 4D method was significantly higher than one from the motion-corrected 3D method by 13.8% (p < 0.02), where Gain{sub 4D} was 1.49 ± 0.21 and Gain{sub 3D} was 1.31 ± 0.15. For the lesion with the highest amplitude of motion, the 4D numerical observer yielded the highest observer-performance improvement (176%). For the lesion undergoing the smallest motion amplitude, the 4D method provided superior lesion detectability compared with the 3D method, which provided a detection SNR close to the nongated method. The investigation on a structure of the 4D numerical observer showed that a Laguerre–Gaussian channel matrix with a volumetric 3D function yielded higher lesion-detection performance than one with a 2D-stack-channelized function, whereas a different kind of channels that have the ability to mimic the human visual system, i.e., difference-of-Gaussian, showed similar performance in detecting uniform and spherical lesions. The investigation of the detection performance when increasing noise levels yielded decreasing detection SNR by 27.6% and 41.5% for the nongated and gated methods, respectively. The investigation of lesion contrast and diameter showed that the proposed 4D observer preserved the linearity property of an optimal-linear observer while the motion was present. Furthermore, the investigation of the iteration and subset numbers of the OSEM algorithm demonstrated that these parameters had impact on the lesion detectability and the selection of the optimal parameters could provide the maximum lesion-detection performance. The proposed 4D numerical observer outperformed the other observers for the lesion-detection task in various lesion conditions and motions. Conclusions: The 4D numerical observer shows substantial improvement in lesion detectability over the 3D observer method. The proposed 4D approach could potentially provide a more reliable objective assessment of the impact of respiratory-gated PET improvement for lesion-detection tasks. On the other hand, the 4D approach may be used as an upper bound to investigate the performance of the motion correction method. In future work, the authors will validate the proposed 4D approach on clinical data for detection tasks in pulmonary oncology.« less

Nonrandom Intrafraction Target Motions and General Strategy for Correction of Spine Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy

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

Ma Lijun, E-mail: lijunma@radonc.ucsf.ed; Sahgal, Arjun; Hossain, Sabbir

2009-11-15

Purpose: To characterize nonrandom intrafraction target motions for spine stereotactic body radiotherapy and to develop a method of correction via image guidance. The dependence of target motions, as well as the effectiveness of the correction strategy for lesions of different locations within the spine, was analyzed. Methods and Materials: Intrafraction target motions for 64 targets in 64 patients treated with a total of 233 fractions were analyzed. Based on the target location, the cases were divided into three groups, i.e., cervical (n = 20 patients), thoracic (n = 20 patients), or lumbar-sacrum (n = 24 patients) lesions. For each case,more » time-lag autocorrelation analysis was performed for each degree of freedom of motion that included both translations (x, y, and z shifts) and rotations (roll, yaw, and pitch). A general correction strategy based on periodic interventions was derived to determine the time interval required between two adjacent interventions, to overcome the patient-specific target motions. Results: Nonrandom target motions were detected for 100% of cases regardless of target locations. Cervical spine targets were found to possess the highest incidence of nonrandom target motion compared with thoracic and lumbar-sacral lesions (p < 0.001). The average time needed to maintain the target motion to within 1 mm of translation or 1 deg. of rotational deviation was 5.5 min, 5.9 min, and 7.1 min for cervical, thoracic, and lumbar-sacrum locations, respectively (at 95% confidence level). Conclusions: A high incidence of nonrandom intrafraction target motions was found for spine stereotactic body radiotherapy treatments. Periodic interventions at approximately every 5 minutes or less were needed to overcome such motions.« less

Nonrigid Image Registration in Digital Subtraction Angiography Using Multilevel B-Spline

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

We address the problem of motion artifact reduction in digital subtraction angiography (DSA) using image registration techniques. Most of registration algorithms proposed for application in DSA, have been designed for peripheral and cerebral angiography images in which we mainly deal with global rigid motions. These algorithms did not yield good results when applied to coronary angiography images because of complex nonrigid motions that exist in this type of angiography images. Multiresolution and iterative algorithms are proposed to cope with this problem, but these algorithms are associated with high computational cost which makes them not acceptable for real-time clinical applications. In this paper we propose a nonrigid image registration algorithm for coronary angiography images that is significantly faster than multiresolution and iterative blocking methods and outperforms competing algorithms evaluated on the same data sets. This algorithm is based on a sparse set of matched feature point pairs and the elastic registration is performed by means of multilevel B-spline image warping. Experimental results with several clinical data sets demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. PMID:23971026

Nonuniformity correction algorithm with efficient pixel offset estimation for infrared focal plane arrays.

PubMed

Orżanowski, Tomasz

2016-01-01

This paper presents an infrared focal plane array (IRFPA) response nonuniformity correction (NUC) algorithm which is easy to implement by hardware. The proposed NUC algorithm is based on the linear correction scheme with the useful method of pixel offset correction coefficients update. The new approach to IRFPA response nonuniformity correction consists in the use of pixel response change determined at the actual operating conditions in relation to the reference ones by means of shutter to compensate a pixel offset temporal drift. Moreover, it permits to remove any optics shading effect in the output image as well. To show efficiency of the proposed NUC algorithm some test results for microbolometer IRFPA are presented.

Impact of respiratory-correlated CT sorting algorithms on the choice of margin definition for free-breathing lung radiotherapy treatments.

PubMed

Thengumpallil, Sheeba; Germond, Jean-François; Bourhis, Jean; Bochud, François; Moeckli, Raphaël

2016-06-01

To investigate the impact of Toshiba phase- and amplitude-sorting algorithms on the margin strategies for free-breathing lung radiotherapy treatments in the presence of breathing variations. 4D CT of a sphere inside a dynamic thorax phantom was acquired. The 4D CT was reconstructed according to the phase- and amplitude-sorting algorithms. The phantom was moved by reproducing amplitude, frequency, and a mix of amplitude and frequency variations. Artefact analysis was performed for Mid-Ventilation and ITV-based strategies on the images reconstructed by phase- and amplitude-sorting algorithms. The target volume deviation was assessed by comparing the target volume acquired during irregular motion to the volume acquired during regular motion. The amplitude-sorting algorithm shows reduced artefacts for only amplitude variations while the phase-sorting algorithm for only frequency variations. For amplitude and frequency variations, both algorithms perform similarly. Most of the artefacts are blurring and incomplete structures. We found larger artefacts and volume differences for the Mid-Ventilation with respect to the ITV strategy, resulting in a higher relative difference of the surface distortion value which ranges between maximum 14.6% and minimum 4.1%. The amplitude- is superior to the phase-sorting algorithm in the reduction of motion artefacts for amplitude variations while phase-sorting for frequency variations. A proper choice of 4D CT sorting algorithm is important in order to reduce motion artefacts, especially if Mid-Ventilation strategy is used. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Motion-seeded object-based attention for dynamic visual imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huber, David J.; Khosla, Deepak; Kim, Kyungnam

2017-05-01

This paper† describes a novel system that finds and segments "objects of interest" from dynamic imagery (video) that (1) processes each frame using an advanced motion algorithm that pulls out regions that exhibit anomalous motion, and (2) extracts the boundary of each object of interest using a biologically-inspired segmentation algorithm based on feature contours. The system uses a series of modular, parallel algorithms, which allows many complicated operations to be carried out by the system in a very short time, and can be used as a front-end to a larger system that includes object recognition and scene understanding modules. Using this method, we show 90% accuracy with fewer than 0.1 false positives per frame of video, which represents a significant improvement over detection using a baseline attention algorithm.

2nd Generation Airborne Precipitation Radar (APR-2)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Durden, S.; Tanelli, S.; Haddad, Z.; Im, E.

2012-01-01

Dual-frequency operation with Ku-band (13.4 GHz) and Ka-band (35.6 GHz). Geometry and frequencies chosen to simulate GPM radar. Measures reflectivity at co- and cross-polarizations, and Doppler. Range resolution is approx. 60 m. Horizontal resolution at surface is approx. 1 km. Reflectivity calibration is within 1.5 dB, based on 10 deg sigmaO at Ku-band and Mie scattering calculations in light rain at Ka-band. LDR measurements are OK to near -20 dB; LDR lower than this is likely contaminated by system cross-polarization isolation. Velocity is motion-corrected total Doppler, including particle fall speed. Aliasing can be seen in some places; can usually be dealiased with an algorithm. .

Low bandwidth eye tracker for scanning laser ophthalmoscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harvey, Zachary G.; Dubra, Alfredo; Cahill, Nathan D.; Lopez Alarcon, Sonia

2012-02-01

The incorporation of adaptive optics to scanning ophthalmoscopes (AOSOs) has allowed for in vivo, noninvasive imaging of the human rod and cone photoreceptor mosaics. Light safety restrictions and power limitations of the current low-coherence light sources available for imaging result in each individual raw image having a low signal to noise ratio (SNR). To date, the only approach used to increase the SNR has been to collect large number of raw images (N >50), to register them to remove the distortions due to involuntary eye motion, and then to average them. The large amplitude of involuntary eye motion with respect to the AOSO field of view (FOV) dictates that an even larger number of images need to be collected at each retinal location to ensure adequate SNR over the feature of interest. Compensating for eye motion during image acquisition to keep the feature of interest within the FOV could reduce the number of raw frames required per retinal feature, therefore significantly reduce the imaging time, storage requirements, post-processing times and, more importantly, subject's exposure to light. In this paper, we present a particular implementation of an AOSO, termed the adaptive optics scanning light ophthalmoscope (AOSLO) equipped with a simple eye tracking system capable of compensating for eye drift by estimating the eye motion from the raw frames and by using a tip-tilt mirror to compensate for it in a closed-loop. Multiple control strategies were evaluated to minimize the image distortion introduced by the tracker itself. Also, linear, quadratic and Kalman filter motion prediction algorithms were implemented and tested and tested using both simulated motion (sinusoidal motion with varying frequencies) and human subjects. The residual displacement of the retinal features was used to compare the performance of the different correction strategies and prediction methods.

A new algorithm for segmentation of cardiac quiescent phases and cardiac time intervals using seismocardiography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jafari Tadi, Mojtaba; Koivisto, Tero; Pänkäälä, Mikko; Paasio, Ari; Knuutila, Timo; Teräs, Mika; Hänninen, Pekka

2015-03-01

Systolic time intervals (STI) have significant diagnostic values for a clinical assessment of the left ventricle in adults. This study was conducted to explore the feasibility of using seismocardiography (SCG) to measure the systolic timings of the cardiac cycle accurately. An algorithm was developed for the automatic localization of the cardiac events (e.g. the opening and closing moments of the aortic and mitral valves). Synchronously acquired SCG and electrocardiography (ECG) enabled an accurate beat to beat estimation of the electromechanical systole (QS2), pre-ejection period (PEP) index and left ventricular ejection time (LVET) index. The performance of the algorithm was evaluated on a healthy test group with no evidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD). STI values were corrected based on Weissler's regression method in order to assess the correlation between the heart rate and STIs. One can see from the results that STIs correlate poorly with the heart rate (HR) on this test group. An algorithm was developed to visualize the quiescent phases of the cardiac cycle. A color map displaying the magnitude of SCG accelerations for multiple heartbeats visualizes the average cardiac motions and thereby helps to identify quiescent phases. High correlation between the heart rate and the duration of the cardiac quiescent phases was observed.

Precise Image-Based Motion Estimation for Autonomous Small Body Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Andrew E.; Matthies, Larry H.

1998-01-01

Space science and solar system exploration are driving NASA to develop an array of small body missions ranging in scope from near body flybys to complete sample return. This paper presents an algorithm for onboard motion estimation that will enable the precision guidance necessary for autonomous small body landing. Our techniques are based on automatic feature tracking between a pair of descent camera images followed by two frame motion estimation and scale recovery using laser altimetry data. The output of our algorithm is an estimate of rigid motion (attitude and position) and motion covariance between frames. This motion estimate can be passed directly to the spacecraft guidance and control system to enable rapid execution of safe and precise trajectories.

Adaptation of a Hyperspectral Atmospheric Correction Algorithm for Multi-spectral Ocean Color Data in Coastal Waters. Chapter 3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gao, Bo-Cai; Montes, Marcos J.; Davis, Curtiss O.

2003-01-01

This SIMBIOS contract supports several activities over its three-year time-span. These include certain computational aspects of atmospheric correction, including the modification of our hyperspectral atmospheric correction algorithm Tafkaa for various multi-spectral instruments, such as SeaWiFS, MODIS, and GLI. Additionally, since absorbing aerosols are becoming common in many coastal areas, we are making the model calculations to incorporate various absorbing aerosol models into tables used by our Tafkaa atmospheric correction algorithm. Finally, we have developed the algorithms to use MODIS data to characterize thin cirrus effects on aerosol retrieval.

Validation of an image registration and segmentation method to measure stent graft motion on ECG-gated CT using a physical dynamic stent graft model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koenrades, Maaike A.; Struijs, Ella M.; Klein, Almar; Kuipers, Henny; Geelkerken, Robert H.; Slump, Cornelis H.

2017-03-01

The application of endovascular aortic aneurysm repair has expanded over the last decade. However, the long-term performance of stent grafts, in particular durable fixation and sealing to the aortic wall, remains the main concern of this treatment. The sealing and fixation are challenged at every heartbeat due to downward and radial pulsatile forces. Yet knowledge on cardiac-induced dynamics of implanted stent grafts is sparse, as it is not measured in routine clinical follow-up. Such knowledge is particularly relevant to perform fatigue tests, to predict failure in the individual patient and to improve stent graft designs. Using a physical dynamic stent graft model in an anthropomorphic phantom, we have evaluated the performance of our previously proposed segmentation and registration algorithm to detect periodic motion of stent grafts on ECG-gated (3D+t) CT data. Abdominal aortic motion profiles were simulated in two series of Gaussian based patterns with different amplitudes and frequencies. Experiments were performed on a 64-slice CT scanner with a helical scan protocol and retrospective gating. Motion patterns as estimated by our algorithm were compared to motion patterns obtained from optical camera recordings of the physical stent graft model in motion. Absolute errors of the patterns' amplitude were smaller than 0.28 mm. Even the motion pattern with an amplitude of 0.23 mm was measured, although the amplitude of motion was overestimated by the algorithm with 43%. We conclude that the algorithm performs well for measurement of stent graft motion in the mm and sub-mm range. This ultimately is expected to aid in patient-specific risk assessment and improving stent graft designs.

Constrained motion model of mobile robots and its applications.

PubMed

Zhang, Fei; Xi, Yugeng; Lin, Zongli; Chen, Weidong

2009-06-01

Target detecting and dynamic coverage are fundamental tasks in mobile robotics and represent two important features of mobile robots: mobility and perceptivity. This paper establishes the constrained motion model and sensor model of a mobile robot to represent these two features and defines the k -step reachable region to describe the states that the robot may reach. We show that the calculation of the k-step reachable region can be reduced from that of 2(k) reachable regions with the fixed motion styles to k + 1 such regions and provide an algorithm for its calculation. Based on the constrained motion model and the k -step reachable region, the problems associated with target detecting and dynamic coverage are formulated and solved. For target detecting, the k-step detectable region is used to describe the area that the robot may detect, and an algorithm for detecting a target and planning the optimal path is proposed. For dynamic coverage, the k-step detected region is used to represent the area that the robot has detected during its motion, and the dynamic-coverage strategy and algorithm are proposed. Simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of the coverage algorithm in both convex and concave environments.

Filtering method of star control points for geometric correction of remote sensing image based on RANSAC algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tan, Xiangli; Yang, Jungang; Deng, Xinpu

2018-04-01

In the process of geometric correction of remote sensing image, occasionally, a large number of redundant control points may result in low correction accuracy. In order to solve this problem, a control points filtering algorithm based on RANdom SAmple Consensus (RANSAC) was proposed. The basic idea of the RANSAC algorithm is that using the smallest data set possible to estimate the model parameters and then enlarge this set with consistent data points. In this paper, unlike traditional methods of geometric correction using Ground Control Points (GCPs), the simulation experiments are carried out to correct remote sensing images, which using visible stars as control points. In addition, the accuracy of geometric correction without Star Control Points (SCPs) optimization is also shown. The experimental results show that the SCPs's filtering method based on RANSAC algorithm has a great improvement on the accuracy of remote sensing image correction.

Improved motion correction in PROPELLER by using grouped blades as reference.

PubMed

Liu, Zhe; Zhang, Zhe; Ying, Kui; Yuan, Chun; Guo, Hua

2014-03-01

To develop a robust reference generation method for improving PROPELLER (Periodically Rotated Overlapping ParallEL Lines with Enhanced Reconstruction) reconstruction. A new reference generation method, grouped-blade reference (GBR), is proposed for calculating rotation angle and translation shift in PROPELLER. Instead of using a single-blade reference (SBR) or combined-blade reference (CBR), our method classifies blades by their relative correlations and groups similar blades together as the reference to prevent inconsistent data from interfering the correction process. Numerical simulations and in vivo experiments were used to evaluate the performance of GBR for PROPELLER, which was further compared with SBR and CBR in terms of error level and computation cost. Both simulation and in vivo experiments demonstrate that GBR-based PROPELLER provides better correction for random motion or bipolar motion comparing with SBR or CBR. It not only produces images with lower error level but also needs less iteration steps to converge. A grouped-blade for reference selection was investigated for PROPELLER MRI. It helps to improve the accuracy and robustness of motion correction for various motion patterns. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Non-Uniformity Correction Using Nonlinear Characteristic Performance Curves for Calibration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lovejoy, McKenna Roberts

Infrared imaging is an expansive field with many applications. Advances in infrared technology have lead to a greater demand from both commercial and military sectors. However, a known problem with infrared imaging is its non-uniformity. This non-uniformity stems from the fact that each pixel in an infrared focal plane array has its own photoresponse. Many factors such as exposure time, temperature, and amplifier choice affect how the pixels respond to incoming illumination and thus impact image uniformity. To improve performance non-uniformity correction (NUC) techniques are applied. Standard calibration based techniques commonly use a linear model to approximate the nonlinear response. This often leaves unacceptable levels of residual non-uniformity. Calibration techniques often have to be repeated during use to continually correct the image. In this dissertation alternates to linear NUC algorithms are investigated. The goal of this dissertation is to determine and compare nonlinear non-uniformity correction algorithms. Ideally the results will provide better NUC performance resulting in less residual non-uniformity as well as reduce the need for recalibration. This dissertation will consider new approaches to nonlinear NUC such as higher order polynomials and exponentials. More specifically, a new gain equalization algorithm has been developed. The various nonlinear non-uniformity correction algorithms will be compared with common linear non-uniformity correction algorithms. Performance will be compared based on RMS errors, residual non-uniformity, and the impact quantization has on correction. Performance will be improved by identifying and replacing bad pixels prior to correction. Two bad pixel identification and replacement techniques will be investigated and compared. Performance will be presented in the form of simulation results as well as before and after images taken with short wave infrared cameras. The initial results show, using a third order polynomial with 16-bit precision, significant improvement over the one and two-point correction algorithms. All algorithm have been implemented in software with satisfactory results and the third order gain equalization non-uniformity correction algorithm has been implemented in hardware.

Application of a net-based baseline correction scheme to strong-motion records of the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tu, Rui; Wang, Rongjiang; Zhang, Yong; Walter, Thomas R.

2014-06-01

The description of static displacements associated with earthquakes is traditionally achieved using GPS, EDM or InSAR data. In addition, displacement histories can be derived from strong-motion records, allowing an improvement of geodetic networks at a high sampling rate and a better physical understanding of earthquake processes. Strong-motion records require a correction procedure appropriate for baseline shifts that may be caused by rotational motion, tilting and other instrumental effects. Common methods use an empirical bilinear correction on the velocity seismograms integrated from the strong-motion records. In this study, we overcome the weaknesses of an empirically based bilinear baseline correction scheme by using a net-based criterion to select the timing parameters. This idea is based on the physical principle that low-frequency seismic waveforms at neighbouring stations are coherent if the interstation distance is much smaller than the distance to the seismic source. For a dense strong-motion network, it is plausible to select the timing parameters so that the correlation coefficient between the velocity seismograms of two neighbouring stations is maximized after the baseline correction. We applied this new concept to the KiK-Net and K-Net strong-motion data available for the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku earthquake. We compared the derived coseismic static displacement with high-quality GPS data, and with the results obtained using empirical methods. The results show that the proposed net-based approach is feasible and more robust than the individual empirical approaches. The outliers caused by unknown problems in the measurement system can be easily detected and quantified.

Uniformly Processed Strong Motion Database for Himalaya and Northeast Region of India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gupta, I. D.

2018-03-01

This paper presents the first uniformly processed comprehensive database on strong motion acceleration records for the extensive regions of western Himalaya, northeast India, and the alluvial plains juxtaposing the Himalaya. This includes 146 three components of old analog records corrected for the instrument response and baseline distortions and 471 three components of recent digital records corrected for baseline errors. The paper first provides a background of the evolution of strong motion data in India and the seismotectonics of the areas of recording, then describes the details of the recording stations and the contributing earthquakes, which is finally followed by the methodology used to obtain baseline corrected data in a uniform and consistent manner. Two different schemes in common use for baseline correction are based on the application of the Ormsby filter without zero pads (Trifunac 1971) and that on the Butterworth filter with zero pads at the start as well as at the end (Converse and Brady 1992). To integrate the advantages of both the schemes, Ormsby filter with zero pads at the start only is used in the present study. A large number of typical example results are presented to illustrate that the methodology adopted is able to provide realistic velocity and displacement records with much smaller number of zero pads. The present strong motion database of corrected acceleration records will be useful for analyzing the ground motion characteristics of engineering importance, developing prediction equations for various strong motion parameters, and calibrating the seismological source model approach for ground motion simulation for seismically active and risk prone areas of India.

Restoration of motion blurred image with Lucy-Richardson algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jing; Liu, Zhao Hui; Zhou, Liang

2015-10-01

Images will be blurred by relative motion between the camera and the object of interest. In this paper, we analyzed the process of motion-blurred image, and demonstrated a restoration method based on Lucy-Richardson algorithm. The blur extent and angle can be estimated by Radon transform algorithm and auto-correlation function, respectively, and then the point spread function (PSF) of the motion-blurred image can be obtained. Thus with the help of the obtained PSF, the Lucy-Richardson restoration algorithm is used for experimental analysis on the motion-blurred images that have different blur extents, spatial resolutions and signal-to-noise ratios (SNR's). Further, its effectiveness is also evaluated by structural similarity (SSIM). Further studies show that, at first, for the image with a spatial frequency of 0.2 per pixel, the modulation transfer function (MTF) of the restored images can maintains above 0.7 when the blur extent is no bigger than 13 pixels. That means the method compensates low frequency information of the image, while attenuates high frequency information. At second, we fund that the method is more effective on condition that the product of the blur extent and spatial frequency is smaller than 3.75. Finally, the Lucy-Richardson algorithm is found insensitive to the Gaussian noise (of which the variance is not bigger than 0.1) by calculating the MTF of the restored image.

Extrapolation-Based References Improve Motion and Eddy-Current Correction of High B-Value DWI Data: Application in Parkinson's Disease Dementia.

PubMed

Nilsson, Markus; Szczepankiewicz, Filip; van Westen, Danielle; Hansson, Oskar

2015-01-01

Conventional motion and eddy-current correction, where each diffusion-weighted volume is registered to a non diffusion-weighted reference, suffers from poor accuracy for high b-value data. An alternative approach is to extrapolate reference volumes from low b-value data. We aim to compare the performance of conventional and extrapolation-based correction of diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) data, and to demonstrate the impact of the correction approach on group comparison studies. DKI was performed in patients with Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD), and healthy age-matched controls, using b-values of up to 2750 s/mm2. The accuracy of conventional and extrapolation-based correction methods was investigated. Parameters from DTI and DKI were compared between patients and controls in the cingulum and the anterior thalamic projection tract. Conventional correction resulted in systematic registration errors for high b-value data. The extrapolation-based methods did not exhibit such errors, yielding more accurate tractography and up to 50% lower standard deviation in DKI metrics. Statistically significant differences were found between patients and controls when using the extrapolation-based motion correction that were not detected when using the conventional method. We recommend that conventional motion and eddy-current correction should be abandoned for high b-value data in favour of more accurate methods using extrapolation-based references.

Motion-Corrected 3D Sonic Anemometer for Tethersondes and Other Moving Platforms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bognar, John

2012-01-01

To date, it has not been possible to apply 3D sonic anemometers on tethersondes or similar atmospheric research platforms due to the motion of the supporting platform. A tethersonde module including both a 3D sonic anemometer and associated motion correction sensors has been developed, enabling motion-corrected 3D winds to be measured from a moving platform such as a tethersonde. Blimps and other similar lifting systems are used to support tethersondes meteorological devices that fly on the tether of a blimp or similar platform. To date, tethersondes have been limited to making basic meteorological measurements (pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind speed and direction). The motion of the tethersonde has precluded the addition of 3D sonic anemometers, which can be used for high-speed flux measurements, thereby limiting what has been achieved to date with tethersondes. The tethersonde modules fly on a tether that can be constantly moving and swaying. This would introduce enormous error into the output of an uncorrected 3D sonic anemometer. The motion correction that is required must be implemented in a low-weight, low-cost manner to be suitable for this application. Until now, flux measurements using 3D sonic anemometers could only be made if the 3D sonic anemometer was located on a rigid, fixed platform such as a tower. This limited the areas in which they could be set up and used. The purpose of the innovation was to enable precise 3D wind and flux measurements to be made using tether - sondes. In brief, a 3D accelerometer and a 3D gyroscope were added to a tethersonde module along with a 3D sonic anemometer. This combination allowed for the necessary package motions to be measured, which were then mathematically combined with the measured winds to yield motion-corrected 3D winds. At the time of this reporting, no tethersonde has been able to make any wind measurement other than a basic wind speed and direction measurement. The addition of a 3D sonic anemometer is unique, as is the addition of the motion-correction sensors.

Intrafraction Prostate Translations and Rotations During Hypofractionated Robotic Radiation Surgery: Dosimetric Impact of Correction Strategies and Margins

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

Water, Steven van de, E-mail: s.vandewater@erasmusmc.nl; Valli, Lorella; Alma Mater Studiorum, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Bologna University, Bologna

Purpose: To investigate the dosimetric impact of intrafraction prostate motion and the effect of robot correction strategies for hypofractionated CyberKnife treatments with a simultaneously integrated boost. Methods and Materials: A total of 548 real-time prostate motion tracks from 17 patients were available for dosimetric simulations of CyberKnife treatments, in which various correction strategies were included. Fixed time intervals between imaging/correction (15, 60, 180, and 360 seconds) were simulated, as well as adaptive timing (ie, the time interval reduced from 60 to 15 seconds in case prostate motion exceeded 3 mm or 2° in consecutive images). The simulated extent of robot corrections was alsomore » varied: no corrections, translational corrections only, and translational corrections combined with rotational corrections up to 5°, 10°, and perfect rotational correction. The correction strategies were evaluated for treatment plans with a 0-mm or 3-mm margin around the clinical target volume (CTV). We recorded CTV coverage (V{sub 100%}) and dose-volume parameters of the peripheral zone (boost), rectum, bladder, and urethra. Results: Planned dose parameters were increasingly preserved with larger extents of robot corrections. A time interval between corrections of 60 to 180 seconds provided optimal preservation of CTV coverage. To achieve 98% CTV coverage in 98% of the treatments, translational and rotational corrections up to 10° were required for the 0-mm margin plans, whereas translational and rotational corrections up to 5° were required for the 3-mm margin plans. Rectum and bladder were spared considerably better in the 0-mm margin plans. Adaptive timing did not improve delivered dose. Conclusions: Intrafraction prostate motion substantially affected the delivered dose but was compensated for effectively by robot corrections using a time interval of 60 to 180 seconds. A 0-mm margin required larger extents of additional rotational corrections than a 3-mm margin but resulted in lower doses to rectum and bladder.« less

A Robust Method for Ego-Motion Estimation in Urban Environment Using Stereo Camera.

PubMed

Ci, Wenyan; Huang, Yingping

2016-10-17

Visual odometry estimates the ego-motion of an agent (e.g., vehicle and robot) using image information and is a key component for autonomous vehicles and robotics. This paper proposes a robust and precise method for estimating the 6-DoF ego-motion, using a stereo rig with optical flow analysis. An objective function fitted with a set of feature points is created by establishing the mathematical relationship between optical flow, depth and camera ego-motion parameters through the camera's 3-dimensional motion and planar imaging model. Accordingly, the six motion parameters are computed by minimizing the objective function, using the iterative Levenberg-Marquard method. One of key points for visual odometry is that the feature points selected for the computation should contain inliers as much as possible. In this work, the feature points and their optical flows are initially detected by using the Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) algorithm. A circle matching is followed to remove the outliers caused by the mismatching of the KLT algorithm. A space position constraint is imposed to filter out the moving points from the point set detected by the KLT algorithm. The Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm is employed to further refine the feature point set, i.e., to eliminate the effects of outliers. The remaining points are tracked to estimate the ego-motion parameters in the subsequent frames. The approach presented here is tested on real traffic videos and the results prove the robustness and precision of the method.

A Robust Method for Ego-Motion Estimation in Urban Environment Using Stereo Camera

PubMed Central

Ci, Wenyan; Huang, Yingping

2016-01-01

Visual odometry estimates the ego-motion of an agent (e.g., vehicle and robot) using image information and is a key component for autonomous vehicles and robotics. This paper proposes a robust and precise method for estimating the 6-DoF ego-motion, using a stereo rig with optical flow analysis. An objective function fitted with a set of feature points is created by establishing the mathematical relationship between optical flow, depth and camera ego-motion parameters through the camera’s 3-dimensional motion and planar imaging model. Accordingly, the six motion parameters are computed by minimizing the objective function, using the iterative Levenberg–Marquard method. One of key points for visual odometry is that the feature points selected for the computation should contain inliers as much as possible. In this work, the feature points and their optical flows are initially detected by using the Kanade–Lucas–Tomasi (KLT) algorithm. A circle matching is followed to remove the outliers caused by the mismatching of the KLT algorithm. A space position constraint is imposed to filter out the moving points from the point set detected by the KLT algorithm. The Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm is employed to further refine the feature point set, i.e., to eliminate the effects of outliers. The remaining points are tracked to estimate the ego-motion parameters in the subsequent frames. The approach presented here is tested on real traffic videos and the results prove the robustness and precision of the method. PMID:27763508

Pose and motion recovery from feature correspondences and a digital terrain map.

PubMed

Lerner, Ronen; Rivlin, Ehud; Rotstein, Héctor P

2006-09-01

A novel algorithm for pose and motion estimation using corresponding features and a Digital Terrain Map is proposed. Using a Digital Terrain (or Digital Elevation) Map (DTM/DEM) as a global reference enables the elimination of the ambiguity present in vision-based algorithms for motion recovery. As a consequence, the absolute position and orientation of a camera can be recovered with respect to the external reference frame. In order to do this, the DTM is used to formulate a constraint between corresponding features in two consecutive frames. Explicit reconstruction of the 3D world is not required. When considering a number of feature points, the resulting constraints can be solved using nonlinear optimization in terms of position, orientation, and motion. Such a procedure requires an initial guess of these parameters, which can be obtained from dead-reckoning or any other source. The feasibility of the algorithm is established through extensive experimentation. Performance is compared with a state-of-the-art alternative algorithm, which intermediately reconstructs the 3D structure and then registers it to the DTM. A clear advantage for the novel algorithm is demonstrated in variety of scenarios.

The Results of a Simulator Study to Determine the Effects on Pilot Performance of Two Different Motion Cueing Algorithms and Various Delays, Compensated and Uncompensated

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Guo, Li-Wen; Cardullo, Frank M.; Telban, Robert J.; Houck, Jacob A.; Kelly, Lon C.

2003-01-01

A study was conducted employing the Visual Motion Simulator (VMS) at the NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia. This study compared two motion cueing algorithms, the NASA adaptive algorithm and a new optimal control based algorithm. Also, the study included the effects of transport delays and the compensation thereof. The delay compensation algorithm employed is one developed by Richard McFarland at NASA Ames Research Center. This paper reports on the analyses of the results of analyzing the experimental data collected from preliminary simulation tests. This series of tests was conducted to evaluate the protocols and the methodology of data analysis in preparation for more comprehensive tests which will be conducted during the spring of 2003. Therefore only three pilots were used. Nevertheless some useful results were obtained. The experimental conditions involved three maneuvers; a straight-in approach with a rotating wind vector, an offset approach with turbulence and gust, and a takeoff with and without an engine failure shortly after liftoff. For each of the maneuvers the two motion conditions were combined with four delay conditions (0, 50, 100 & 200ms), with and without compensation.

Assessing the use of an infrared spectrum hyperpixel array imager to measure temperature during additive and subtractive manufacturing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whitenton, Eric; Heigel, Jarred; Lane, Brandon; Moylan, Shawn

2016-05-01

Accurate non-contact temperature measurement is important to optimize manufacturing processes. This applies to both additive (3D printing) and subtractive (material removal by machining) manufacturing. Performing accurate single wavelength thermography suffers numerous challenges. A potential alternative is hyperpixel array hyperspectral imaging. Focusing on metals, this paper discusses issues involved such as unknown or changing emissivity, inaccurate greybody assumptions, motion blur, and size of source effects. The algorithm which converts measured thermal spectra to emissivity and temperature uses a customized multistep non-linear equation solver to determine the best-fit emission curve. Emissivity dependence on wavelength may be assumed uniform or have a relationship typical for metals. The custom software displays residuals for intensity, temperature, and emissivity to gauge the correctness of the greybody assumption. Initial results are shown from a laser powder-bed fusion additive process, as well as a machining process. In addition, the effects of motion blur are analyzed, which occurs in both additive and subtractive manufacturing processes. In a laser powder-bed fusion additive process, the scanning laser causes the melt pool to move rapidly, causing a motion blur-like effect. In machining, measuring temperature of the rapidly moving chip is a desirable goal to develop and validate simulations of the cutting process. A moving slit target is imaged to characterize how the measured temperature values are affected by motion of a measured target.

Autocalibrating motion-corrected wave-encoding for highly accelerated free-breathing abdominal MRI.

PubMed

Chen, Feiyu; Zhang, Tao; Cheng, Joseph Y; Shi, Xinwei; Pauly, John M; Vasanawala, Shreyas S

2017-11-01

To develop a motion-robust wave-encoding technique for highly accelerated free-breathing abdominal MRI. A comprehensive 3D wave-encoding-based method was developed to enable fast free-breathing abdominal imaging: (a) auto-calibration for wave-encoding was designed to avoid extra scan for coil sensitivity measurement; (b) intrinsic butterfly navigators were used to track respiratory motion; (c) variable-density sampling was included to enable compressed sensing; (d) golden-angle radial-Cartesian hybrid view-ordering was incorporated to improve motion robustness; and (e) localized rigid motion correction was combined with parallel imaging compressed sensing reconstruction to reconstruct the highly accelerated wave-encoded datasets. The proposed method was tested on six subjects and image quality was compared with standard accelerated Cartesian acquisition both with and without respiratory triggering. Inverse gradient entropy and normalized gradient squared metrics were calculated, testing whether image quality was improved using paired t-tests. For respiratory-triggered scans, wave-encoding significantly reduced residual aliasing and blurring compared with standard Cartesian acquisition (metrics suggesting P < 0.05). For non-respiratory-triggered scans, the proposed method yielded significantly better motion correction compared with standard motion-corrected Cartesian acquisition (metrics suggesting P < 0.01). The proposed methods can reduce motion artifacts and improve overall image quality of highly accelerated free-breathing abdominal MRI. Magn Reson Med 78:1757-1766, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Correction of motion artifacts in endoscopic optical coherence tomography and autofluorescence images based on azimuthal en face image registration.

PubMed

Abouei, Elham; Lee, Anthony M D; Pahlevaninezhad, Hamid; Hohert, Geoffrey; Cua, Michelle; Lane, Pierre; Lam, Stephen; MacAulay, Calum

2018-01-01

We present a method for the correction of motion artifacts present in two- and three-dimensional in vivo endoscopic images produced by rotary-pullback catheters. This method can correct for cardiac/breathing-based motion artifacts and catheter-based motion artifacts such as nonuniform rotational distortion (NURD). This method assumes that en face tissue imaging contains slowly varying structures that are roughly parallel to the pullback axis. The method reduces motion artifacts using a dynamic time warping solution through a cost matrix that measures similarities between adjacent frames in en face images. We optimize and demonstrate the suitability of this method using a real and simulated NURD phantom and in vivo endoscopic pulmonary optical coherence tomography and autofluorescence images. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations of the method show an enhancement of the image quality. (2018) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

High-accuracy optical extensometer based on coordinate transform in two-dimensional digital image correlation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lv, Zeqian; Xu, Xiaohai; Yan, Tianhao; Cai, Yulong; Su, Yong; Zhang, Qingchuan

2018-01-01

In the measurement of plate specimens, traditional two-dimensional (2D) digital image correlation (DIC) is challenged by two aspects: (1) the slant optical axis (misalignment of the optical camera axis and the object surface) and (2) out-of-plane motions (including translations and rotations) of the specimens. There are measurement errors in the results measured by 2D DIC, especially when the out-of-plane motions are big enough. To solve this problem, a novel compensation method has been proposed to correct the unsatisfactory results. The proposed compensation method consists of three main parts: 1) a pre-calibration step is used to determine the intrinsic parameters and lens distortions; 2) a compensation panel (a rigid panel with several markers located at known positions) is mounted to the specimen to track the specimen's motion so that the relative coordinate transformation between the compensation panel and the 2D DIC setup can be calculated using the coordinate transform algorithm; 3) three-dimensional world coordinates of measuring points on the specimen can be reconstructed via the coordinate transform algorithm and used to calculate deformations. Simulations have been carried out to validate the proposed compensation method. Results come out that when the extensometer length is 400 pixels, the strain accuracy reaches 10 με no matter out-of-plane translations (less than 1/200 of the object distance) nor out-of-plane rotations (rotation angle less than 5°) occur. The proposed compensation method leads to good results even when the out-of-plane translation reaches several percents of the object distance or the out-of-plane rotation angle reaches tens of degrees. The proposed compensation method has been applied in tensile experiments to obtain high-accuracy results as well.

Camera pose estimation to improve accuracy and reliability of joint angles assessed with attitude and heading reference systems.

PubMed

Lebel, Karina; Hamel, Mathieu; Duval, Christian; Nguyen, Hung; Boissy, Patrick

2018-01-01

Joint kinematics can be assessed using orientation estimates from Attitude and Heading Reference Systems (AHRS). However, magnetically-perturbed environments affect the accuracy of the estimated orientations. This study investigates, both in controlled and human mobility conditions, a trial calibration technic based on a 2D photograph with a pose estimation algorithm to correct initial difference in AHRS Inertial reference frames and improve joint angle accuracy. In controlled conditions, two AHRS were solidly affixed onto a wooden stick and a series of static and dynamic trials were performed in varying environments. Mean accuracy of relative orientation between the two AHRS was improved from 24.4° to 2.9° using the proposed correction method. In human conditions, AHRS were placed on the shank and the foot of a participant who performed repeated trials of straight walking and walking while turning, varying the level of magnetic perturbation in the starting environment and the walking speed. Mean joint orientation accuracy went from 6.7° to 2.8° using the correction algorithm. The impact of starting environment was also greatly reduced, up to a point where one could consider it as non-significant from a clinical point of view (maximum mean difference went from 8° to 0.6°). The results obtained demonstrate that the proposed method improves significantly the mean accuracy of AHRS joint orientation estimations in magnetically-perturbed environments and can be implemented in post processing of AHRS data collected during biomechanical evaluation of motion. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Motion Artefacts in MRI: a Complex Problem with Many Partial Solutions

PubMed Central

Zaitsev, Maxim; Maclaren, Julian.; Herbst, Michael

2015-01-01

Subject motion during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been problematic since its introduction as a clinical imaging modality. While sensitivity to particle motion or blood flow can be used to provide useful image contrast, bulk motion presents a considerable problem in the majority of clinical applications. It is one of the most frequent sources of artefacts. Over 30 years of research have produced numerous methods to mitigate or correct for motion artefacts, but no single method can be applied in all imaging situations. Instead, a ‘toolbox’ of methods exists, where each tool is suitable for some tasks, but not for others. This article reviews the origins of motion artefacts and presents current mitigation and correction methods. In some imaging situations, the currently available motion correction tools are highly effective; in other cases, appropriate tools still need to be developed. It seems likely that this multifaceted approach will be what eventually solves the motion sensitivity problem in MRI, rather than a single solution that is effective in all situations. This review places a strong emphasis on explaining the physics behind the occurrence of such artefacts, with the aim of aiding artefact detection and mitigation in particular clinical situations. PMID:25630632

Motion artifacts in MRI: A complex problem with many partial solutions.

PubMed

Zaitsev, Maxim; Maclaren, Julian; Herbst, Michael

2015-10-01

Subject motion during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been problematic since its introduction as a clinical imaging modality. While sensitivity to particle motion or blood flow can be used to provide useful image contrast, bulk motion presents a considerable problem in the majority of clinical applications. It is one of the most frequent sources of artifacts. Over 30 years of research have produced numerous methods to mitigate or correct for motion artifacts, but no single method can be applied in all imaging situations. Instead, a "toolbox" of methods exists, where each tool is suitable for some tasks, but not for others. This article reviews the origins of motion artifacts and presents current mitigation and correction methods. In some imaging situations, the currently available motion correction tools are highly effective; in other cases, appropriate tools still need to be developed. It seems likely that this multifaceted approach will be what eventually solves the motion sensitivity problem in MRI, rather than a single solution that is effective in all situations. This review places a strong emphasis on explaining the physics behind the occurrence of such artifacts, with the aim of aiding artifact detection and mitigation in particular clinical situations. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Solution for the nonuniformity correction of infrared focal plane arrays.

PubMed

Zhou, Huixin; Liu, Shangqian; Lai, Rui; Wang, Dabao; Cheng, Yubao

2005-05-20

Based on the S-curve model of the detector response of infrared focal plan arrays (IRFPAs), an improved two-point correction algorithm is presented. The algorithm first transforms the nonlinear image data into linear data and then uses the normal two-point algorithm to correct the linear data. The algorithm can effectively overcome the influence of nonlinearity of the detector's response, and it enlarges the correction precision and the dynamic range of the response. A real-time imaging-signal-processing system for IRFPAs that is based on a digital signal processor and field-programmable gate arrays is also presented. The nonuniformity correction capability of the presented solution is validated by experimental imaging procedures of a 128 x 128 pixel IRFPA camera prototype.

Baseline correction combined partial least squares algorithm and its application in on-line Fourier transform infrared quantitative analysis.

PubMed

Peng, Jiangtao; Peng, Silong; Xie, Qiong; Wei, Jiping

2011-04-01

In order to eliminate the lower order polynomial interferences, a new quantitative calibration algorithm "Baseline Correction Combined Partial Least Squares (BCC-PLS)", which combines baseline correction and conventional PLS, is proposed. By embedding baseline correction constraints into PLS weights selection, the proposed calibration algorithm overcomes the uncertainty in baseline correction and can meet the requirement of on-line attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) quantitative analysis. The effectiveness of the algorithm is evaluated by the analysis of glucose and marzipan ATR-FTIR spectra. BCC-PLS algorithm shows improved prediction performance over PLS. The root mean square error of cross-validation (RMSECV) on marzipan spectra for the prediction of the moisture is found to be 0.53%, w/w (range 7-19%). The sugar content is predicted with a RMSECV of 2.04%, w/w (range 33-68%). Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Simulations of Dissipative Circular Restricted Three-body Problems Using the Velocity-scaling Correction Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Shoucheng; Huang, Guoqing; Wu, Xin

2018-02-01

In this paper, we survey the effect of dissipative forces including radiation pressure, Poynting–Robertson drag, and solar wind drag on the motion of dust grains with negligible mass, which are subjected to the gravities of the Sun and Jupiter moving in circular orbits. The effect of the dissipative parameter on the locations of five Lagrangian equilibrium points is estimated analytically. The instability of the triangular equilibrium point L4 caused by the drag forces is also shown analytically. In this case, the Jacobi constant varies with time, whereas its integral invariant relation still provides a probability for the applicability of the conventional fourth-order Runge–Kutta algorithm combined with the velocity scaling manifold correction scheme. Consequently, the velocity-only correction method significantly suppresses the effects of artificial dissipation and a rapid increase in trajectory errors caused by the uncorrected one. The stability time of an orbit, regardless of whether it is chaotic or not in the conservative problem, is apparently longer in the corrected case than in the uncorrected case when the dissipative forces are included. Although the artificial dissipation is ruled out, the drag dissipation leads to an escape of grains. Numerical evidence also demonstrates that more orbits near the triangular equilibrium point L4 escape as the integration time increases.

Event-by-Event Continuous Respiratory Motion Correction for Dynamic PET Imaging.

PubMed

Yu, Yunhan; Chan, Chung; Ma, Tianyu; Liu, Yaqiang; Gallezot, Jean-Dominique; Naganawa, Mika; Kelada, Olivia J; Germino, Mary; Sinusas, Albert J; Carson, Richard E; Liu, Chi

2016-07-01

Existing respiratory motion-correction methods are applied only to static PET imaging. We have previously developed an event-by-event respiratory motion-correction method with correlations between internal organ motion and external respiratory signals (INTEX). This method is uniquely appropriate for dynamic imaging because it corrects motion for each time point. In this study, we applied INTEX to human dynamic PET studies with various tracers and investigated the impact on kinetic parameter estimation. The use of 3 tracers-a myocardial perfusion tracer, (82)Rb (n = 7); a pancreatic β-cell tracer, (18)F-FP(+)DTBZ (n = 4); and a tumor hypoxia tracer, (18)F-fluoromisonidazole ((18)F-FMISO) (n = 1)-was investigated in a study of 12 human subjects. Both rest and stress studies were performed for (82)Rb. The Anzai belt system was used to record respiratory motion. Three-dimensional internal organ motion in high temporal resolution was calculated by INTEX to guide event-by-event respiratory motion correction of target organs in each dynamic frame. Time-activity curves of regions of interest drawn based on end-expiration PET images were obtained. For (82)Rb studies, K1 was obtained with a 1-tissue model using a left-ventricle input function. Rest-stress myocardial blood flow (MBF) and coronary flow reserve (CFR) were determined. For (18)F-FP(+)DTBZ studies, the total volume of distribution was estimated with arterial input functions using the multilinear analysis 1 method. For the (18)F-FMISO study, the net uptake rate Ki was obtained with a 2-tissue irreversible model using a left-ventricle input function. All parameters were compared with the values derived without motion correction. With INTEX, K1 and MBF increased by 10% ± 12% and 15% ± 19%, respectively, for (82)Rb stress studies. CFR increased by 19% ± 21%. For studies with motion amplitudes greater than 8 mm (n = 3), K1, MBF, and CFR increased by 20% ± 12%, 30% ± 20%, and 34% ± 23%, respectively. For (82)Rb rest studies, INTEX had minimal effect on parameter estimation. The total volume of distribution of (18)F-FP(+)DTBZ and Ki of (18)F-FMISO increased by 17% ± 6% and 20%, respectively. Respiratory motion can have a substantial impact on dynamic PET in the thorax and abdomen. The INTEX method using continuous external motion data substantially changed parameters in kinetic modeling. More accurate estimation is expected with INTEX. © 2016 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Inc.

Exact Fan-Beam Reconstruction With Arbitrary Object Translations and Truncated Projections

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoskovec, Jan; Clackdoyle, Rolf; Desbat, Laurent; Rit, Simon

2016-06-01

This article proposes a new method for reconstructing two-dimensional (2D) computed tomography (CT) images from truncated and motion contaminated sinograms. The type of motion considered here is a sequence of rigid translations which are assumed to be known. The algorithm first identifies the sufficiency of angular coverage in each 2D point of the CT image to calculate the Hilbert transform from the local “virtual” trajectory which accounts for the motion and the truncation. By taking advantage of data redundancy in the full circular scan, our method expands the reconstructible region beyond the one obtained with chord-based methods. The proposed direct reconstruction algorithm is based on the Differentiated Back-Projection with Hilbert filtering (DBP-H). The motion is taken into account during backprojection which is the first step of our direct reconstruction, before taking the derivatives and inverting the finite Hilbert transform. The algorithm has been tested in a proof-of-concept study on Shepp-Logan phantom simulations with several motion cases and detector sizes.

An error-based micro-sensor capture system for real-time motion estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Lin; Ye, Shiwei; Wang, Zhibo; Huang, Zhipei; Wu, Jiankang; Kong, Yongmei; Zhang, Li

2017-10-01

A wearable micro-sensor motion capture system with 16 IMUs and an error-compensatory complementary filter algorithm for real-time motion estimation has been developed to acquire accurate 3D orientation and displacement in real life activities. In the proposed filter algorithm, the gyroscope bias error, orientation error and magnetic disturbance error are estimated and compensated, significantly reducing the orientation estimation error due to sensor noise and drift. Displacement estimation, especially for activities such as jumping, has been the challenge in micro-sensor motion capture. An adaptive gait phase detection algorithm has been developed to accommodate accurate displacement estimation in different types of activities. The performance of this system is benchmarked with respect to the results of VICON optical capture system. The experimental results have demonstrated effectiveness of the system in daily activities tracking, with estimation error 0.16 ± 0.06 m for normal walking and 0.13 ± 0.11 m for jumping motions. Research supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61431017, 81272166).

Bounded Kalman filter method for motion-robust, non-contact heart rate estimation

PubMed Central

Prakash, Sakthi Kumar Arul; Tucker, Conrad S.

2018-01-01

The authors of this work present a real-time measurement of heart rate across different lighting conditions and motion categories. This is an advancement over existing remote Photo Plethysmography (rPPG) methods that require a static, controlled environment for heart rate detection, making them impractical for real-world scenarios wherein a patient may be in motion, or remotely connected to a healthcare provider through telehealth technologies. The algorithm aims to minimize motion artifacts such as blurring and noise due to head movements (uniform, random) by employing i) a blur identification and denoising algorithm for each frame and ii) a bounded Kalman filter technique for motion estimation and feature tracking. A case study is presented that demonstrates the feasibility of the algorithm in non-contact estimation of the pulse rate of subjects performing everyday head and body movements. The method in this paper outperforms state of the art rPPG methods in heart rate detection, as revealed by the benchmarked results. PMID:29552419

An accurate algorithm to calculate the Hurst exponent of self-similar processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernández-Martínez, M.; Sánchez-Granero, M. A.; Trinidad Segovia, J. E.; Román-Sánchez, I. M.

2014-06-01

In this paper, we introduce a new approach which generalizes the GM2 algorithm (introduced in Sánchez-Granero et al. (2008) [52]) as well as fractal dimension algorithms (FD1, FD2 and FD3) (first appeared in Sánchez-Granero et al. (2012) [51]), providing an accurate algorithm to calculate the Hurst exponent of self-similar processes. We prove that this algorithm performs properly in the case of short time series when fractional Brownian motions and Lévy stable motions are considered. We conclude the paper with a dynamic study of the Hurst exponent evolution in the S&P500 index stocks.

Motion compensation for cone-beam CT using Fourier consistency conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berger, M.; Xia, Y.; Aichinger, W.; Mentl, K.; Unberath, M.; Aichert, A.; Riess, C.; Hornegger, J.; Fahrig, R.; Maier, A.

2017-09-01

In cone-beam CT, involuntary patient motion and inaccurate or irreproducible scanner motion substantially degrades image quality. To avoid artifacts this motion needs to be estimated and compensated during image reconstruction. In previous work we showed that Fourier consistency conditions (FCC) can be used in fan-beam CT to estimate motion in the sinogram domain. This work extends the FCC to 3\\text{D} cone-beam CT. We derive an efficient cost function to compensate for 3\\text{D} motion using 2\\text{D} detector translations. The extended FCC method have been tested with five translational motion patterns, using a challenging numerical phantom. We evaluated the root-mean-square-error and the structural-similarity-index between motion corrected and motion-free reconstructions. Additionally, we computed the mean-absolute-difference (MAD) between the estimated and the ground-truth motion. The practical applicability of the method is demonstrated by application to respiratory motion estimation in rotational angiography, but also to motion correction for weight-bearing imaging of knees. Where the latter makes use of a specifically modified FCC version which is robust to axial truncation. The results show a great reduction of motion artifacts. Accurate estimation results were achieved with a maximum MAD value of 708 μm and 1184 μm for motion along the vertical and horizontal detector direction, respectively. The image quality of reconstructions obtained with the proposed method is close to that of motion corrected reconstructions based on the ground-truth motion. Simulations using noise-free and noisy data demonstrate that FCC are robust to noise. Even high-frequency motion was accurately estimated leading to a considerable reduction of streaking artifacts. The method is purely image-based and therefore independent of any auxiliary data.

Live Speech Driven Head-and-Eye Motion Generators.

PubMed

Le, Binh H; Ma, Xiaohan; Deng, Zhigang

2012-11-01

This paper describes a fully automated framework to generate realistic head motion, eye gaze, and eyelid motion simultaneously based on live (or recorded) speech input. Its central idea is to learn separate yet interrelated statistical models for each component (head motion, gaze, or eyelid motion) from a prerecorded facial motion data set: 1) Gaussian Mixture Models and gradient descent optimization algorithm are employed to generate head motion from speech features; 2) Nonlinear Dynamic Canonical Correlation Analysis model is used to synthesize eye gaze from head motion and speech features, and 3) nonnegative linear regression is used to model voluntary eye lid motion and log-normal distribution is used to describe involuntary eye blinks. Several user studies are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed speech-driven head and eye motion generator using the well-established paired comparison methodology. Our evaluation results clearly show that this approach can significantly outperform the state-of-the-art head and eye motion generation algorithms. In addition, a novel mocap+video hybrid data acquisition technique is introduced to record high-fidelity head movement, eye gaze, and eyelid motion simultaneously.

Turbulence Measurements from Compliant Moorings. Part II: Motion Correction

DOE PAGES

Kilcher, Levi F.; Thomson, Jim; Harding, Samuel; ...

2017-06-20

Acoustic Doppler velocimeters (ADVs) are a valuable tool for making high-precision measurements of turbulence, and moorings are a convenient and ubiquitous platform for making many kinds of measurements in the ocean. However, because of concerns that mooring motion can contaminate turbulence measurements and that acoustic Doppler profilers make middepth velocity measurements relatively easy, ADVs are not frequently deployed from moorings. This work demonstrates that inertial motion measurements can be used to reduce motion contamination from moored ADV velocity measurements. Three distinct mooring platforms were deployed in a tidal channel with inertial-motion-sensor-equipped ADVs. In each case, motion correction based on themore » inertial measurements reduces mooring motion contamination of velocity measurements. The spectra from these measurements are consistent with other measurements in tidal channels and have an f –5/3 slope at high frequencies - consistent with Kolmogorov's theory of isotropic turbulence. Motion correction also improves estimates of cross spectra and Reynolds stresses. A comparison of turbulence dissipation with flow speed and turbulence production indicates a bottom boundary layer production-dissipation balance during ebb and flood that is consistent with the strong tidal forcing at the site. Finally, these results indicate that inertial-motion-sensor-equipped ADVs are a valuable new tool for making high-precision turbulence measurements from moorings.« less

Variable anelastic attenuation and site effect in estimating source parameters of various major earthquakes including M w 7.8 Nepal and M w 7.5 Hindu kush earthquake by using far-field strong-motion data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, Naresh; Kumar, Parveen; Chauhan, Vishal; Hazarika, Devajit

2017-10-01

Strong-motion records of recent Gorkha Nepal earthquake ( M w 7.8), its strong aftershocks and seismic events of Hindu kush region have been analysed for estimation of source parameters. The M w 7.8 Gorkha Nepal earthquake of 25 April 2015 and its six aftershocks of magnitude range 5.3-7.3 are recorded at Multi-Parametric Geophysical Observatory, Ghuttu, Garhwal Himalaya (India) >600 km west from the epicentre of main shock of Gorkha earthquake. The acceleration data of eight earthquakes occurred in the Hindu kush region also recorded at this observatory which is located >1000 km east from the epicentre of M w 7.5 Hindu kush earthquake on 26 October 2015. The shear wave spectra of acceleration record are corrected for the possible effects of anelastic attenuation at both source and recording site as well as for site amplification. The strong-motion data of six local earthquakes are used to estimate the site amplification and the shear wave quality factor ( Q β) at recording site. The frequency-dependent Q β( f) = 124 f 0.98 is computed at Ghuttu station by using inversion technique. The corrected spectrum is compared with theoretical spectrum obtained from Brune's circular model for the horizontal components using grid search algorithm. Computed seismic moment, stress drop and source radius of the earthquakes used in this work range 8.20 × 1016-5.72 × 1020 Nm, 7.1-50.6 bars and 3.55-36.70 km, respectively. The results match with the available values obtained by other agencies.

Automatic 3D registration of dynamic stress and rest (82)Rb and flurpiridaz F 18 myocardial perfusion PET data for patient motion detection and correction.

PubMed

Woo, Jonghye; Tamarappoo, Balaji; Dey, Damini; Nakazato, Ryo; Le Meunier, Ludovic; Ramesh, Amit; Lazewatsky, Joel; Germano, Guido; Berman, Daniel S; Slomka, Piotr J

2011-11-01

The authors aimed to develop an image-based registration scheme to detect and correct patient motion in stress and rest cardiac positron emission tomography (PET)/CT images. The patient motion correction was of primary interest and the effects of patient motion with the use of flurpiridaz F 18 and (82)Rb were demonstrated. The authors evaluated stress/rest PET myocardial perfusion imaging datasets in 30 patients (60 datasets in total, 21 male and 9 female) using a new perfusion agent (flurpiridaz F 18) (n = 16) and (82)Rb (n = 14), acquired on a Siemens Biograph-64 scanner in list mode. Stress and rest images were reconstructed into 4 ((82)Rb) or 10 (flurpiridaz F 18) dynamic frames (60 s each) using standard reconstruction (2D attenuation weighted ordered subsets expectation maximization). Patient motion correction was achieved by an image-based registration scheme optimizing a cost function using modified normalized cross-correlation that combined global and local features. For comparison, visual scoring of motion was performed on the scale of 0 to 2 (no motion, moderate motion, and large motion) by two experienced observers. The proposed registration technique had a 93% success rate in removing left ventricular motion, as visually assessed. The maximum detected motion extent for stress and rest were 5.2 mm and 4.9 mm for flurpiridaz F 18 perfusion and 3.0 mm and 4.3 mm for (82)Rb perfusion studies, respectively. Motion extent (maximum frame-to-frame displacement) obtained for stress and rest were (2.2 ± 1.1, 1.4 ± 0.7, 1.9 ± 1.3) mm and (2.0 ± 1.1, 1.2 ±0 .9, 1.9 ± 0.9) mm for flurpiridaz F 18 perfusion studies and (1.9 ± 0.7, 0.7 ± 0.6, 1.3 ± 0.6) mm and (2.0 ± 0.9, 0.6 ± 0.4, 1.2 ± 1.2) mm for (82)Rb perfusion studies, respectively. A visually detectable patient motion threshold was established to be ≥2.2 mm, corresponding to visual user scores of 1 and 2. After motion correction, the average increases in contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) from all frames for larger than the motion threshold were 16.2% in stress flurpiridaz F 18 and 12.2% in rest flurpiridaz F 18 studies. The average increases in CNR were 4.6% in stress (82)Rb studies and 4.3% in rest (82)Rb studies. Fully automatic motion correction of dynamic PET frames can be performed accurately, potentially allowing improved image quantification of cardiac PET data.

Correction of Doppler Rada Data for Aircraft Motion Using Surface Measurements and Recursive Least-Squares Estimation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Durden, S.; Haddad, Z.

1998-01-01

Observations of Doppler velocity of hydrometeors form airborne Doppler weather radars normally contains a component due to the aircraft motion. Accurate hydrometeor velocity measurements thus require correction by subtracting this velocity from the observed velocity.

Novel SPECT Technologies and Approaches in Cardiac Imaging

PubMed Central

Slomka, Piotr; Hung, Guang-Uei; Germano, Guido; Berman, Daniel S.

2017-01-01

Recent novel approaches in myocardial perfusion single photon emission CT (SPECT) have been facilitated by new dedicated high-efficiency hardware with solid-state detectors and optimized collimators. New protocols include very low-dose (1 mSv) stress-only, two-position imaging to mitigate attenuation artifacts, and simultaneous dual-isotope imaging. Attenuation correction can be performed by specialized low-dose systems or by previously obtained CT coronary calcium scans. Hybrid protocols using CT angiography have been proposed. Image quality improvements have been demonstrated by novel reconstructions and motion correction. Fast SPECT acquisition facilitates dynamic flow and early function measurements. Image processing algorithms have become automated with virtually unsupervised extraction of quantitative imaging variables. This automation facilitates integration with clinical variables derived by machine learning to predict patient outcome or diagnosis. In this review, we describe new imaging protocols made possible by the new hardware developments. We also discuss several novel software approaches for the quantification and interpretation of myocardial perfusion SPECT scans. PMID:29034066

Driven Langevin systems: fluctuation theorems and faithful dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sivak, David; Chodera, John; Crooks, Gavin

2014-03-01

Stochastic differential equations of motion (e.g., Langevin dynamics) provide a popular framework for simulating molecular systems. Any computational algorithm must discretize these equations, yet the resulting finite time step integration schemes suffer from several practical shortcomings. We show how any finite time step Langevin integrator can be thought of as a driven, nonequilibrium physical process. Amended by an appropriate work-like quantity (the shadow work), nonequilibrium fluctuation theorems can characterize or correct for the errors introduced by the use of finite time steps. We also quantify, for the first time, the magnitude of deviations between the sampled stationary distribution and the desired equilibrium distribution for equilibrium Langevin simulations of solvated systems of varying size. We further show that the incorporation of a novel time step rescaling in the deterministic updates of position and velocity can correct a number of dynamical defects in these integrators. Finally, we identify a particular splitting that has essentially universally appropriate properties for the simulation of Langevin dynamics for molecular systems in equilibrium, nonequilibrium, and path sampling contexts.

Advances in PET/MR instrumentation and image reconstruction.

PubMed

Cabello, Jorge; Ziegler, Sibylle I

2018-01-01

The combination of positron emission tomography (PET) and MRI has attracted the attention of researchers in the past approximately 20 years in small-animal imaging and more recently in clinical research. The combination of PET/MRI allows researchers to explore clinical and research questions in a wide number of fields, some of which are briefly mentioned here. An important number of groups have developed different concepts to tackle the problems that PET instrumentation poses to the exposition of electromagnetic fields. We have described most of these research developments in preclinical and clinical experiments, including the few commercial scanners available. From the software perspective, an important number of algorithms have been developed to address the attenuation correction issue and to exploit the possibility that MRI provides for motion correction and quantitative image reconstruction, especially parametric modelling of radiopharmaceutical kinetics. In this work, we give an overview of some exemplar applications of simultaneous PET/MRI, together with technological hardware and software developments.

A tyre slip-based integrated chassis control of front/rear traction distribution and four-wheel independent brake from moderate driving to limit handling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Joa, Eunhyek; Park, Kwanwoo; Koh, Youngil; Yi, Kyongsu; Kim, Kilsoo

2018-04-01

This paper presents a tyre slip-based integrated chassis control of front/rear traction distribution and four-wheel braking for enhanced performance from moderate driving to limit handling. The proposed algorithm adopted hierarchical structure: supervisor - desired motion tracking controller - optimisation-based control allocation. In the supervisor, by considering transient cornering characteristics, desired vehicle motion is calculated. In the desired motion tracking controller, in order to track desired vehicle motion, virtual control input is determined in the manner of sliding mode control. In the control allocation, virtual control input is allocated to minimise cost function. The cost function consists of two major parts. First part is a slip-based tyre friction utilisation quantification, which does not need a tyre force estimation. Second part is an allocation guideline, which guides optimally allocated inputs to predefined solution. The proposed algorithm has been investigated via simulation from moderate driving to limit handling scenario. Compared to Base and direct yaw moment control system, the proposed algorithm can effectively reduce tyre dissipation energy in the moderate driving situation. Moreover, the proposed algorithm enhances limit handling performance compared to Base and direct yaw moment control system. In addition to comparison with Base and direct yaw moment control, comparison the proposed algorithm with the control algorithm based on the known tyre force information has been conducted. The results show that the performance of the proposed algorithm is similar with that of the control algorithm with the known tyre force information.

Thoracic respiratory motion estimation from MRI using a statistical model and a 2-D image navigator.

PubMed

King, A P; Buerger, C; Tsoumpas, C; Marsden, P K; Schaeffter, T

2012-01-01

Respiratory motion models have potential application for estimating and correcting the effects of motion in a wide range of applications, for example in PET-MR imaging. Given that motion cycles caused by breathing are only approximately repeatable, an important quality of such models is their ability to capture and estimate the intra- and inter-cycle variability of the motion. In this paper we propose and describe a technique for free-form nonrigid respiratory motion correction in the thorax. Our model is based on a principal component analysis of the motion states encountered during different breathing patterns, and is formed from motion estimates made from dynamic 3-D MRI data. We apply our model using a data-driven technique based on a 2-D MRI image navigator. Unlike most previously reported work in the literature, our approach is able to capture both intra- and inter-cycle motion variability. In addition, the 2-D image navigator can be used to estimate how applicable the current motion model is, and hence report when more imaging data is required to update the model. We also use the motion model to decide on the best positioning for the image navigator. We validate our approach using MRI data acquired from 10 volunteers and demonstrate improvements of up to 40.5% over other reported motion modelling approaches, which corresponds to 61% of the overall respiratory motion present. Finally we demonstrate one potential application of our technique: MRI-based motion correction of real-time PET data for simultaneous PET-MRI acquisition. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Image-derived input function in PET brain studies: blood-based methods are resistant to motion artifacts.

PubMed

Zanotti-Fregonara, Paolo; Liow, Jeih-San; Comtat, Claude; Zoghbi, Sami S; Zhang, Yi; Pike, Victor W; Fujita, Masahiro; Innis, Robert B

2012-09-01

Image-derived input function (IDIF) from carotid arteries is an elegant alternative to full arterial blood sampling for brain PET studies. However, a recent study using blood-free IDIFs found that this method is particularly vulnerable to patient motion. The present study used both simulated and clinical [11C](R)-rolipram data to assess the robustness of a blood-based IDIF method (a method that is ultimately normalized with blood samples) with regard to motion artifacts. The impact of motion on the accuracy of IDIF was first assessed with an analytical simulation of a high-resolution research tomograph using a numerical phantom of the human brain, equipped with internal carotids. Different degrees of translational (from 1 to 20 mm) and rotational (from 1 to 15°) motions were tested. The impact of motion was then tested on the high-resolution research tomograph dynamic scans of three healthy volunteers, reconstructed with and without an online motion correction system. IDIFs and Logan-distribution volume (VT) values derived from simulated and clinical scans with motion were compared with those obtained from the scans with motion correction. In the phantom scans, the difference in the area under the curve (AUC) for the carotid time-activity curves was up to 19% for rotations and up to 66% for translations compared with the motionless simulation. However, for the final IDIFs, which were fitted to blood samples, the AUC difference was 11% for rotations and 8% for translations. Logan-VT errors were always less than 10%, except for the maximum translation of 20 mm, in which the error was 18%. Errors in the clinical scans without motion correction appeared to be minor, with differences in AUC and Logan-VT always less than 10% compared with scans with motion correction. When a blood-based IDIF method is used for neurological PET studies, the motion of the patient affects IDIF estimation and kinetic modeling only minimally.

ULTRA: Underwater Localization for Transit and Reconnaissance Autonomy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huntsberger, Terrance L.

2013-01-01

This software addresses the issue of underwater localization of unmanned vehicles and the inherent drift in their onboard sensors. The software gives a 2 to 3 factor of improvement over the state-of-the-art underwater localization algorithms. The software determines the localization (position, heading) of an AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle) in environments where there is no GPS signal. It accomplishes this using only the commanded position, onboard gyros/accelerometers, and the bathymetry of the bottom provided by an onboard sonar system. The software does not rely on an onboard bathymetry dataset, but instead incrementally determines the position of the AUV while mapping the bottom. In order to enable long-distance underwater navigation by AUVs, a localization method called ULTRA uses registration of the bathymetry data products produced by the onboard forward-looking sonar system for hazard avoidance during a transit to derive the motion and pose of the AUV in order to correct the DR (dead reckoning) estimates. The registration algorithm uses iterative point matching (IPM) combined with surface interpolation of the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm. This method was used previously at JPL for onboard unmanned ground vehicle localization, and has been optimized for efficient computational and memory use.

LCD motion blur reduction: a signal processing approach.

PubMed

Har-Noy, Shay; Nguyen, Truong Q

2008-02-01

Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) have shown great promise in the consumer market for their use as both computer and television displays. Despite their many advantages, the inherent sample-and-hold nature of LCD image formation results in a phenomenon known as motion blur. In this work, we develop a method for motion blur reduction using the Richardson-Lucy deconvolution algorithm in concert with motion vector information from the scene. We further refine our approach by introducing a perceptual significance metric that allows us to weight the amount of processing performed on different regions in the image. In addition, we analyze the role of motion vector errors in the quality of our resulting image. Perceptual tests indicate that our algorithm reduces the amount of perceivable motion blur in LCDs.

Digital algorithm for dispersion correction in optical coherence tomography for homogeneous and stratified media.

PubMed

Marks, Daniel L; Oldenburg, Amy L; Reynolds, J Joshua; Boppart, Stephen A

2003-01-10

The resolution of optical coherence tomography (OCT) often suffers from blurring caused by material dispersion. We present a numerical algorithm for computationally correcting the effect of material dispersion on OCT reflectance data for homogeneous and stratified media. This is experimentally demonstrated by correcting the image of a polydimethyl siloxane microfludic structure and of glass slides. The algorithm can be implemented using the fast Fourier transform. With broad spectral bandwidths and highly dispersive media or thick objects, dispersion correction becomes increasingly important.

Digital Algorithm for Dispersion Correction in Optical Coherence Tomography for Homogeneous and Stratified Media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marks, Daniel L.; Oldenburg, Amy L.; Reynolds, J. Joshua; Boppart, Stephen A.

2003-01-01

The resolution of optical coherence tomography (OCT) often suffers from blurring caused by material dispersion. We present a numerical algorithm for computationally correcting the effect of material dispersion on OCT reflectance data for homogeneous and stratified media. This is experimentally demonstrated by correcting the image of a polydimethyl siloxane microfludic structure and of glass slides. The algorithm can be implemented using the fast Fourier transform. With broad spectral bandwidths and highly dispersive media or thick objects, dispersion correction becomes increasingly important.