3D Image Projection Artifact Suppression via Masked Interpolation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
When generating projection images from three-dimensional medical images, artifacts can occur due to the influence of pixel values from unintended display areas, particularly when search points have non-integer coordinates, leading to incorrect interpolation results.
Innovation Solution
An image processing method that separates intended and unintended display areas, where the pixel value of adjacent pixels in unintended areas is replaced or excluded from interpolation calculations, ensuring that pixel values from unintended areas do not contribute to the final projection image, using methods like MIP or MinIP processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If interpolation operation is performed using adjacent pixel values to calculate search point pixel values, then non-integer coordinate search points can be processed, but pixel values from unintended display areas contaminate the calculation results causing artifacts
Solution Approach 1:
The three-dimensional image space is segmented into intended display areas and unintended display areas using a mask. This segmentation allows the system to selectively include or exclude specific regions during interpolation operations, preventing contamination from unintended areas while maintaining the ability to process non-integer coordinate search points.
Solution Approach 2:
Different quality requirements are applied to different spatial locations. By associating each pixel with a mask value indicating whether it belongs to an intended or unintended display area, the system applies local quality control to the interpolation process, ensuring high accuracy in intended areas while excluding unintended areas from contributing to the calculation.
2Productivity
If all adjacent pixels are included in interpolation calculation, then calculation speed is maintained, but artifacts appear due to inclusion of unintended display area pixels
Solution Approach 1:
The mask defining intended and unintended display areas is prepared in advance, before the interpolation calculation begins. This preliminary action allows the system to quickly reference pre-computed mask values during interpolation, maintaining processing speed while ensuring that only pixels from intended display areas contribute to the calculation of search point values.
3Manufacturing precision
If MIP processing is performed on enhanced image excluding unintended areas, then display quality of intended structures is improved, but processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mask application process is merged with the existing interpolation and MIP processing pipelines. By integrating the mask checking step into the existing image processing flow, the system achieves improved display quality without requiring a completely separate processing system, thus limiting the increase in processing complexity.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
Figure 4
AI summary
When generating a projection image by setting a plurality of search points in an intended display area of a three-dimensional image along a plurality of visual lines, each connecting each pixel on a projection plane on which the three-dimensional image is projected and an arbitrary viewpoint, calculating a pixel value of each search point by an interpolation operation based on pixel values of adjacent pixels of each search point, and determining a pixel value of each pixel on the projection plane with respect to each visual line based on the calculated pixel value of each search point, if an adjacent pixel of a search point is a pixel in an unintended display area, the pixel value of the search point is calculated such that the pixel value of the pixel in the unintended display area does not contribute to the calculation, thereby preventing an artifact arising from the unintended display area.