Segmentation of kidney from ultrasound images based on texture and shape priors

This paper presents a novel texture and shape priors based method for kidney segmentation in ultrasound (US) images. Texture features are extracted by applying a bank of Gabor filters on test images through a two-sided convolution strategy. The texture model is constructed via estimating the parameters of a set of mixtures of half-planed Gaussians using the expectation-maximization method. Through this texture model, the texture similarities of areas around the segmenting curve are measured in the inside and outside regions, respectively. We also present an iterative segmentation framework to combine the texture measures into the parametric shape model proposed by Leventon and Faugeras. Segmentation is implemented by calculating the parameters of the shape model to minimize a novel energy function. The goal of this energy function is to partition the test image into two regions, the inside one with high texture similarity and low texture variance, and the outside one with high texture variance. The effectiveness of this method is demonstrated through experimental results on both natural images and US data compared with other image segmentation methods and manual segmentation.     

Interactive lesion segmentation with shape priors from offline and online learning

In medical image segmentation, tumors and other lesions demand the highest levels of accuracy but still call for the highest levels of manual delineation. One factor holding back automatic segmentation is the exemption of pathological regions from shape modelling techniques that rely on high-level shape information not offered by lesions. This paper introduces two new statistical shape models (SSMs) that combine radial shape parameterization with machine learning techniques from the field of nonlinear time series analysis. We then develop two dynamic contour models (DCMs) using the new SSMs as shape priors for tumor and lesion segmentation. From training data, the SSMs learn the lower level shape information of boundary fluctuations, which we prove to be nevertheless highly discriminant. One of the new DCMs also uses online learning to refine the shape prior for the lesion of interest based on user interactions. Classification experiments reveal superior sensitivity and specificity of the new shape priors over those previously used to constrain DCMs. User trials with the new interactive algorithms show that the shape priors are directly responsible for improvements in accuracy and reductions in user demand.     

基于清晰图像先验知识的盲复原算法

图像采集系统在获取图像时,受到各种干扰,使图像变模糊并含有噪声。为此,提出了一种基于清晰图像先验知识的图像盲复原算法。首先通过统计分析大量的清晰图像梯度域的概率分布特性,将图像划分为具有较多复杂纹理的区域和平坦区域,拟合概率分布函数,得到清晰图像的先验知识,并加入图像局部约束条件,即复原图像平坦区域与退化图像的平坦区域的概率分布变化较小,避免产生振铃现象。然后,建立图像噪声模型,将图像噪声划分为高斯噪声和均匀分布噪声,防止退化图像中的灰度过饱和像素点在复原过程中产生异常值。最后,利用最大后验概率模型,构造代价函数,将图像盲复原问题转变为求代价函数最小化问题,并用最大期望算法和快速迭代收缩算法求解代价函数,恢复出清晰图像。实验结果表明,该算法能有效恢复图像细节,锐化图像边缘,抑制噪声,避免产生振铃效应。     

基于SIFT 匹配的多视点立体图像零视差调整

针对目标跟踪过程中目标可能出现的快速变化和严重遮挡等问题,提出了一种基于新的子空间表示的目标跟踪算法。采用距离不变量对尺度不变特征变换(SIFT)特征点匹配对进行提纯。用提纯后的特征点匹配对,通过线性拟合得到仿射变化参数。在粒子滤波的理论框架下,采用快速的迭代算法,建立目标的主分量(PCA)子空间表示,结合计算得到的仿射变化参数,构造有效的目标观测模型完成跟踪。同时,采用在线学习的方法对SIFT特征点和PCA子空间进行定时更新。大量实验表明,提出的算法能快速有效地完成对姿态和形状剧烈变化的目标的精确跟踪。     

Reconstruction of time-varying 3-D left-ventricular shape from multiview X-ray cineangiocardiograms

This paper reports on the clinical application of a system for recovering the time-varying three-dimensional (3-D) left-ventricular (LV) shape from multiview X-ray cineangiocardiograms. Considering that X-ray cineangiocardiography is still commonly employed in clinical cardiology and computational costs for 3-D recovery and visualization are rapidly decreasing, it is meaningful to develop a clinically applicable system for 3-D LV shape recovery from X-ray cineangiocardiograms. The system is based on a previously reported closed-surface method of shape recovery from two-dimensional occluding contours with multiple views. To apply the method to "real" LV cineangiocardiograms, user-interactive systems were implemented for preprocessing, including detection of LV contours, calibration of the imaging geometry, and setting of the LV model coordinate system. The results for three real LV angiographic image sequences are presented, two with fixed multiple views (using supplementary angiography) and one with rotating views. 3-D reconstructions utilizing different numbers of views were compared and evaluated in terms of contours manually traced by an experienced radiologist. The performance of the preprocesses was also evaluated, and the effects of variations in user-specified parameters on the final 3-D reconstruction results were shown to be sufficiently small. These experimental results demonstrate the potential usefulness of combining multiple views for 3-D recovery from "real" LV cineangiocardiograms.     

CLUE: cluster-based retrieval of images by unsupervised learning.

In a typical content-based image retrieval (CBIR) system, target images (images in the database) are sorted by feature similarities with respect to the query. Similarities among target images are usually ignored. This paper introduces a new technique, cluster-based retrieval of images by unsupervised learning (CLUE), for improving user interaction with image retrieval systems by fully exploiting the similarity information. CLUE retrieves image clusters by applying a graph-theoretic clustering algorithm to a collection of images in the vicinity of the query. Clustering in CLUE is dynamic. In particular, clusters formed depend on which images are retrieved in response to the query. CLUE can be combined with any real-valued symmetric similarity measure (metric or nonmetric). Thus, it may be embedded in many current CBIR systems, including relevance feedback systems. The performance of an experimental image retrieval system using CLUE is evaluated on a database of around 60,000 images from COREL. Empirical results demonstrate improved performance compared with a CBIR system using the same image similarity measure. In addition, results on images returned by Google's Image Search reveal the potential of applying CLUE to real-world image data and integrating CLUE as a part of the interface for keyword-based image retrieval systems.     

Medical image segmentation using minimal path deformable models with implicit shape priors.

This paper presents a new method for segmentation of medical images by extracting organ contours, using minimal path deformable models incorporated with statistical shape priors. In our approach, boundaries of structures are considered as minimal paths, i.e., paths associated with the minimal energy, on weighted graphs. Starting from the theory of minimal path deformable models, an intelligent "worm" algorithm is proposed for segmentation, which is used to evaluate the paths and finally find the minimal path. Prior shape knowledge is incorporated into the segmentation process to achieve more robust segmentation. The shape priors are implicitly represented and the estimated shapes of the structures can be conveniently obtained. The worm evolves under the joint influence of the image features, its internal energy, and the shape priors. The contour of the structure is then extracted as the worm trail. The proposed segmentation framework overcomes the short-comings of existing deformable models and has been successfully applied to segmenting various medical images.     

Bayesian reconstruction of functional images using anatomical information as priors

Proposes a Bayesian method whereby maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimates of functional (PET and SPECT) images may be reconstructed with the aid of prior information derived from registered anatomical MR images of the same slice. The prior information consists of significant anatomical boundaries that are likely to correspond to discontinuities in an otherwise spatially smooth radionuclide distribution. The authors' algorithm, like others proposed recently, seeks smooth solutions with occasional discontinuities; the contribution here is the inclusion of a coupling term that influences the creation of discontinuities in the vicinity of the significant anatomical boundaries. Simulations on anatomically derived mathematical phantoms are presented. Although computationally intense in its current implication, the reconstructions are improved (ROI-RMS error) relative to filtered backprojection and EM-ML reconstructions. The simulations show that the inclusion of position-dependent anatomical prior Information leads to further improvement relative to Bayesian reconstructions without the anatomical prior. The algorithm exhibits a certain degree of robustness with respect to errors in the location of anatomical boundaries.     

CCD noise removal in digital images.

In this work, we propose a denoising scheme to restore images degraded by CCD noise. The CCD noise model, measured in the space of incident light values (light space), is a combination of signal-independent and signal-dependent noise terms. This model becomes more complex in image brightness space (normal camera output) due to the nonlinearity of the camera response function that transforms incoming data from light space to image space. We develop two adaptive restoration techniques, both accounting for this nonlinearity. One operates in light space, where the relationship between the incident light and light space values is linear, while the second method uses the transformed noise model to operate in image space. Both techniques apply multiple adaptive filters and merge their outputs to give the final restored image. Experimental results suggest that light space denoising is more efficient, since it enables the design of a simpler filter implementation. Results are given for real images with synthetic noise added, and for images with real noise.     

Ultrasound image segmentation with shape priors: application to automatic cattle rib-eye area estimation.

Automatic ultrasound (US) image segmentation is a difficult task due to the quantity of noise present in the images and the lack of information in several zones produced by the acquisition conditions. In this paper, we propose a method that combines shape priors and image information to achieve this task. In particular, we introduce knowledge about the rib-eye shape using a set of images manually segmented by experts. A method is proposed for the automatic segmentation of new samples in which a closed curve is fitted taking into account both the US image information and the geodesic distance between the evolving curve and the estimated mean rib-eye shape in a shape space. This method can be used to solve similar problems that arise when dealing with US images in other fields. The method was successfully tested over a database composed of 610 US images, for which we have the manual segmentations of two experts.     

Wavelet denoising of multicomponent images using gaussian scale mixture models and a noise-free image as priors.

In this paper, a Bayesian wavelet-based denoising procedure for multicomponent images is proposed. A denoising procedure is constructed that (1) fully accounts for the multicomponent image covariances, (2) makes use of Gaussian scale mixtures as prior models that approximate the marginal distributions of the wavelet coefficients well, and (3) makes use of a noise-free image as extra prior information. It is shown that such prior information is available with specific multicomponent image data of, e.g., remote sensing and biomedical imaging. Experiments are conducted in these two domains, in both simulated and real noisy conditions.     

Speckle noise reduction of medical ultrasound images in complex wavelet domain using mixture priors

Speckle noise is an inherent nature of ultrasound images, which may have negative effect on image interpretation and diagnostic tasks. In this paper, we propose several multiscale nonlinear thresholding methods for ultrasound speckle suppression. The wavelet coefficients of the logarithm of image are modeled as the sum of a noise-free component plus an independent noise. Assuming that the noise-free component has some local mixture distribution (MD), and the noise is either Gaussian or Rayleigh, we derive the minimum mean squared error (MMSE) and the averaged maximum ${a quad posteriori}$ (AMAP) estimators for noise reduction. We use Gaussian and Laplacian MD for each noise-free wavelet coefficient to characterize their heavy-tailed property. Since we estimate the parameters of the MD using the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm and local neighbors, the proposed MD incorporates some information about the intrascale dependency of the wavelet coefficients. To evaluate our spatially adaptive despeckling methods, we use both real medical ultrasound and synthetically introduced speckle images for speckle suppression. The simulation results show that our method outperforms several recently and the state-of-the-art techniques qualitatively and quantitatively.      

基于傅里叶变换去隔行图像的动态3维面形测量

为了解决动态面形测量中隔行扫描CCD相机记录动态物体表面变形条纹图像存在缺陷的问题,提出了傅里叶变换去隔行算法,即把隔行扫描CCD获取动态物体的错位模糊帧图像分成两个单场图像,分别对每一单场图像进行傅里叶变换去隔行处理,再利用条纹分析法重建对应时刻的3维面形。理论分析得出单场傅里叶变换去隔行图像与对应的准确满帧图像相同的结论。结果表明,该方法可以很好地恢复条纹和重建物体,且简单实用,可用于基于空间相位检测、相位测量轮廓术、傅里叶变换轮廓术等条纹分析方法的动态物体3维测量中。     

A coupled statistical model for face shape recovery from brightness images.

We focus on the problem of developing a coupled statistical model that can be used to recover facial shape from brightness images of faces. We study three alternative representations for facial shape. These are the surface height function, the surface gradient, and a Fourier basis representation. We jointly capture variations in intensity and the surface shape representations using a coupled statistical model. The model is constructed by performing principal components analysis on sets of parameters describing the contents of the intensity images and the facial shape representations. By fitting the coupled model to intensity data, facial shape is implicitly recovered from the shape parameters. Experiments show that the coupled model is able to generate accurate shape from out-of-training-sample intensity images.     

Shape reconstruction of perfectly conducting objects by multiview experimental data

This paper deals with the experimental validation of an algorithm, based on the Kirchhoff approximation, for the shape reconstruction of conducting objects from scattered field data. Measured data are collected in a controlled environment under a reflection mode with a finite observation domain and multiview/multistatic/multifrequency configuration. The results show the effectiveness of the approach which takes into account the view diversity by a simple strategy and a threshold procedure.     

Distribution shape of two-dimensional DCT coefficients of natural images

The univariate distribution of DCT coefficients of natural images is investigated. The probability density function (PDF) of the coefficients is modelled with the generalised Gaussian function (GGF) which includes the Gaussian and the Laplacian PDF as special cases. The shape parameter of the GGF is estimated according to the maximum likelihood principle. chi /sup 2/ tests of fit showed that GGFs model the distribution of DCT coefficients more accurately than Laplacian PDFs.<>     

Adaptive removal of azimuth ambiguities in SAR images

We introduce an innovative algorithm that is capable of suppression of strong azimuth ambiguities in single-look complex (SLC) synthetic aperture radar images, to be used both for detected products and for interferometric surveys. The algorithm exploits a band-pass filter to select that portion of the azimuth spectrum that is less influenced by aliasing, the one that corresponds to the s in the replicated azimuth antenna pattern. The selectivity of this filter adapts locally depending on the estimated ambiguity intensity: the filter is more selective in the presence of strong ambiguities and becomes all-pass in absence of ambiguities. The design of such filter frames in the Wiener approach with two different normalization options, depending on the use of the SLC image, either for getting multilook averaged detected products or for interferometric applications. Preliminary results achieved by processing ENVISAT Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar sensor data are provided.