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US 9,867,586 B2Granted
Stereo X-ray tube based suppression of outside body high contrast objects
AssigneeKoninklijke Philips N.V.
InventorsCristian Lorenz, Michael Grass, Dirk Schäfer, Bernhard Johannes Brendel
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Abstract
A double focal spot X-ray tube is used to acquire a set of two images PIα, PIβ for a given gantry position from slightly different view positions. The stereo or binocular disparity (BD) of imaged structures is used to estimate the object depth in view direction, which in turn is used to discriminate between objects inside IO and outside EO the body. Respective structures are virtually removed from the images PIα, PIβ.
Claims18
An image processing apparatus comprising:
- an input interface unit for receiving at least two projection images of a patient taken at different projection angles by an X-ray scanner, each of the images including a footprint of a target object;
- an image depth resolver configured to use the two target object footprints to determine whether the target object was external to the subject when the images were taken, based on a binocular disparity between the target object footprints;
- an image manipulator configured to, when the target object is determined by the resolver to be external, virtually replace at least a portion of pixel information in the respective target object footprints by different image information based on image information that is not replaced to produce an output enhanced image which, when viewed, no longer shows at least a portion of the target object footprints, and
- an output interface unit configured to output the output enhanced image.
1 more element
A method of image processing, comprising acts of:
- receiving at least two projection images of a patient taken at different projection angles by an X-ray scanner, each of the images including a footprint of a target object;
- based on a binocular disparity between the two image footprints, determining whether the target object was external to the subject when the images were taken;
- when the target object is determined to be external, virtually replacing at least a portion of pixel information in the respective target object footprints by different image information based on image information that is not replaced to produce an output enhanced image which, when viewed, no longer shows at least a portion of the target object footprints;
- and
- outputting the output enhanced image.
2 more elements
An image processing apparatus comprising:
- an input interface unit for receiving at least two projection images of a patient taken at different projection angles by an X-ray scanner, each of the images including a footprint of a target object;
- an image depth resolver configured to use the two target object footprints to determine whether the target object was external to the subject when the images were taken, based on a binocular disparity between the target object footprints;
- an image manipulator configured to, when the target object is determined by the resolver to be external, virtually replace pixel information in the respective target object footprints by image information interpolated from at least part of the image information forming a remainder of the at least one image to produce an output enhanced image which, when viewed, no longer shows the target object footprints;
- and
- an output interface unit configured to output the output enhanced image.
2 more elements
An image processing apparatus comprising:
- an input interface unit for receiving at least two projection images of a patient taken at different projection angles by an X-ray scanner, each of the images including a footprint of a target object;
- an image depth resolver configured to use the two target object footprints to determine whether the target object was external to the subject when the images were taken, based on a binocular disparity between the target object footprints;
- an object footprint detector configured to detect the footprint in at least one of the two images, wherein the image depth resolver is arranged to receive input on the footprint by the object footprint detector and wherein the object footprint detector is configured to bypass/leapfrog the image depth resolver if, based on one or more selection criteria, the object is a priori determined to be external;
- an image manipulator configured to, when the target object is determined by the resolver to be external, virtually replace or remove pixel information in the respective target object footprints to produce an output enhanced image which, when viewed, no longer shows the target object footprints;
- and
- an output interface unit configured to output the output enhanced image.
3 more elements
A method of image processing, comprising acts of:
- receiving at least two projection images of a patient taken at different projection angles by an X-ray scanner, each of the images including a footprint of a target object;
- based on a binocular disparity between the two image footprints, determining whether the target object was external to the subject when the images were taken;
- when the target object is determined to be external, virtually replacing or removing pixel information in the respective target object footprints to so produce an output enhanced image which, when viewed, no longer shows the target object footprints;
- detecting the footprints in at least one of the two images;
- establishing whether the detected object footprint matches one or more selection criteria, and if yes, by-passing the determining act based on the binocular disparity and then executing the act of replacing or removing the pixel information in the respective target object footprints;
- and
- outputting the output enhanced image.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.