Systems and methods for altering images

A method of altering pixel brightness values in a digital image, the method comprising:

• receiving, at one or more computing devices, a Breast Tomosynthesis Image including a plurality of 2-D digital images, each 2-D digital image having a plurality of pixels;
• for each 2-D digital image:
• identifying, at the one or more computing devices, a measured brightness value of each of the plurality of pixels of the 2-D digital image;
• determining, at the one or more computing devices, a location of the plurality of pixels corresponding to an artificial object in the 2-D digital image based on the measured brightness value of each of the plurality of pixels, wherein determining a location of the plurality of pixels corresponding to the artificial object in the 2-D digital image based on the brightness value of each of the plurality of pixels comprises:
• generating a binarized image by assigning each of the plurality pixels one of:
• a first value if the measured brightness value of each of the plurality of pixels is above a threshold value, and
• a second value if the measured brightness value of each of the plurality of pixels is below the threshold value,
• labeling the binarized image utilizing connected-component labeling, and
• identifying a largest object region as the location of the plurality of pixels corresponding to the artificial object by checking a total number of pixels for each label in the binarized image for a first label having a greatest number of pixels and assigning the first label as the largest object region, and
• adjusting, at the one or more computing devices, the measured brightness value of each of the pixels at the location of the plurality of pixels corresponding to the artificial object in the 2-D digital image to a predetermined brightness value to form a new 2-D digital image;
• and
• combining the new 2-D digital images to form a new Breast Tomosynthesis Image;
• wherein the predetermined brightness value is less than the measured brightness value.