Automated method and system for determination of positional orientation of digital radiographic images

A system for automated determination of the positional orientation of radiographic images including a foreground, a background and an object of interest, comprising:

• means for acquiring image data from a radiographic image of the object of interest;
• means for segmenting the image to separate the object of interest from the foreground and the background of the image;
• means for determining a center of the digital image of the object of interest of the segmented digital image;
• means for adjusting the position of the center of the digital image of the object of interest to coincide with the center of the segmented digital image;
• means for decomposing the image into one or more strips;
• means for extracting one or more features of the strips by determining edge density, average density, intensity standard deviation and minimum average intensity of the image;
• and
• means for determining the orientation of the image.

An automated method for determining the positional orientation of radiographic images including a foreground, a background and an object of interest, comprising the steps of:

• acquiring a digital image of the object of interest;
• segmenting the image to separate the object of interest from the foreground and the background of the image;
• determining a center of the digital image of the object of interest of the segmented digital image;
• adjusting the position of the center of the digital image of the object of interest to coincide with the center of the segmented digital image;
• decomposing the image into one or more strips;
• extracting one or more features of the strips;
• and
• determining the orientation of the image, including the use of one or more heuristic rules which compare features extracted from the image based upon past orientation determinations.