Radiation Image Material Region Enhancement via Transfer Function
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing radiation imaging techniques struggle to selectively enhance or attenuate specific regions in radiation images based on material characteristics, particularly when the material characteristic images represent different physical quantities than the original radiation images, leading to inconsistencies and artifacts.
Innovation Solution
An information processing apparatus that generates material characteristic images, such as effective atomic number images, and performs frequency resolution and gain adjustment on both radiation and material characteristic images to enhance or attenuate specific regions in the radiation images, allowing for precise enhancement or attenuation of specific materials within the image.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If frequency processing is performed by adding high-frequency components of extracted images to original images, then selective enhancement of specific tissue regions is achieved, but the method cannot be applied when the extracted image and original image represent different physical quantities
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a transfer function as an intermediary that maps pixel values from the material characteristic image (one physical quantity) to the radiation image (another physical quantity). This transfer function serves as a mediator that enables the frequency processing method to work across different physical quantities by establishing a correspondence relationship between them, thus resolving the limitation where the method could not be applied when images represented different physical quantities.
2Reliability
If material characteristic images representing different physical quantities are directly processed, then inconsistencies and artifacts occur, but converting to the same physical quantity reduces flexibility
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameter representation by introducing a transfer function that dynamically maps pixel values between different physical quantities. Instead of converting images to the same physical quantity (which would reduce flexibility), the transfer function adjusts the parameter mapping relationship, allowing consistent and artifact-free processing while maintaining the ability to work with different physical quantities and their inherent flexibilities.
3Measurement precision
If selective enhancement is performed on material characteristic images, then specific regions can be emphasized, but the enhancement cannot be accurately transferred to the corresponding radiation image
Solution Approach 1:
The transfer function acts as an intermediary that preserves spatial correspondence information while enabling accurate enhancement transfer. It maps the enhanced pixel values from the material characteristic image to the corresponding locations in the radiation image, ensuring that the spatial relationship and positional accuracy are maintained throughout the enhancement process.
Data Source
AI summary
An information processing apparatus comprises: an obtainment unit configured to obtain a radiation image of a subject; a generation unit configured to generate, based on a plurality of radiation images obtained by radiation of mutually different spectra, a material characteristic image in which a region for each material can be extracted from the interior of the subject; and an image processing unit configured to perform processing of enhancing or attenuating, based on a position of a specific region in the material characteristic image, the specific region in the radiation image.