Automatic Viewport Releveling for Medical Image Contrast
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medical digital image display systems fail to provide sufficient relief for local features, leading to delayed image refresh and insufficient contrast, making it difficult for practitioners to discern features of interest, especially when displaying CT scans with high contrast sensitivity.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented process for automatic viewport re-leveling, which overlays a medical digital image with a floating viewport, reallocating a limited set of brightness values to a subset of pixels, enhancing the detail of local features within the viewport.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If image-wide processing is used to compute image features, then global image characteristics are improved, but local feature relief is insufficient and refresh delay increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the image processing into two segments: global image-wide processing for overall characteristics and local viewport-specific processing for region-of-interest features. This segmentation allows simultaneous optimization of both global accuracy and local detail without requiring complete reprocessing of the entire image, thereby reducing refresh delay while maintaining feature precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different processing qualities to different regions: standard global processing for the entire image and enhanced local processing specifically within the viewport. This local quality enhancement ensures that critical regions receive intensified feature extraction and contrast optimization, providing sufficient relief for local features without the computational overhead of processing the entire image at maximum quality.
2Area of stationary object
If a fixed grid arrangement is used to display multiple image slices, then overall image overview is maintained, but local feature detail and contrast are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements local quality enhancement by applying viewport-specific window/level adjustments and contrast optimization only to the region of interest within the viewport, while maintaining the fixed grid arrangement for overall display. This allows local feature detail to be enhanced without compromising the global layout and coverage of multiple image slices.
3Area of moving object
If zoom tool is used to display a smaller region, then focus on specific area is improved, but sufficient contrast for all contours is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent dynamically changes image processing parameters (window width, window level, contrast scaling) based on the viewport contents and selected tissue type. When the zoom tool is used, the system automatically adjusts these parameters to optimize contrast for the displayed region, ensuring that contour visibility is maintained even when displaying a smaller, focused area.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented process for automatic viewport re-leveling, in response to receiving a medical digital image, overlays the medical digital image with a floating viewport sized to represent a subset of the image to be viewed in a first instance. A limited set of brightness values is re-allocated to a set of pixels, within the subset of the image in the floating viewport that is less than a set of pixels in the medical digital image, in a second instance automatically. Responsive to the re-allocation, detail of local features within the subset of the image within the floating viewport in the second instance is accentuated.