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US 8,045,776 B2Granted
Geometry-dependent filtering in CT method and apparatus
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsForrest Frank Hopkins, Peter Michael Edic
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method is provided for processing an image. The method comprises identifying one or more contours or surfaces in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional image generated from a set of projection data. The set of projection data is differentially processed based on the identification of those data points that largely define one or more contours or surfaces. An enhanced image set is reconstructed from the set of processed projection data.
Claims29
A method for processing an image, comprising:
- identifying one or more surfaces in a three-dimensional image generated from a set of projection data via image processing circuitry of an imaging system;
- differentially processing the set of projection data based on the one or more surfaces via image processing circuitry of the imaging system, wherein differentially processing comprises dynamically filtering the set of projection data by applying an edge-enhancing filter to those data points in projection data that correspond to attenuation measurements along the ray paths that contribute to the definition of edge features in the reconstructed image set and applying a contrast-enhancing or standard filter to the other data points in the projection data;
- and
- reconstructing an enhanced image from the set of processed projection data via image processing circuitry of the imaging system.
1 more element
An image processing system, comprising:
- data acquisition circuitry configured to receive data from an imaging source;
- and
- image processing circuitry configured to identify one or more surfaces in a three-dimensional image generated from the data, to differentially process data based on the one or more surfaces, and to reconstruct an enhanced image from the data, wherein differentially processing comprises applying one or more different filters within a single projection, wherein, for each projection, those data points corresponding to ray paths that largely define all of the identified surfaces or a portion of the identified surfaces are filtered using an edge-enhancing filter while other data points in the same projection are filtered using a contrast-enhancing filter or standard filter.
An image processing system, comprising:
- data acquisition circuitry configured to receive projection data from an imaging source;
- and
- image processing circuitry configured to reconstruct a first image from the projection data, to identify features in the first image, and to dynamically filter the projection data based on the identified features, wherein dynamically filtering the projection data comprises applying an edge-enhancing filter to those data points in the projection data that correspond to attenuation measurements along the ray paths that contribute to the definition of edge features in the first image and applying a contrast-enhancing or standard filter to the other data points in the projection data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.