Interactive Vascular Path Editing for Ambiguous Image Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vascular segmentation methods struggle with low contrast and complex environments, leading to ambiguous results, and require significant human intervention, which is time-consuming and costly.
Innovation Solution
A semi-automatic method that combines manual and automatic techniques for vascular segmentation, using cost functions to rank and present vascular path options, allowing users to select the most likely paths and edit them interactively, reducing human effort while maintaining result quality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If fully automatic vascular segmentation is used, then productivity is improved, but measurement precision deteriorates due to low contrast and complex environments
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary cost function that bridges automatic segmentation and manual selection. The cost function processes image data and generates ranked vascular path options, serving as a mediator that translates complex image features into selectable path candidates. This allows automatic processing to maintain high productivity while providing precise, human-validated results through the cost function's mathematical framework.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the vascular path determination into distinct components: automatic vascular portion identification, cost function evaluation, and user selection from ranked options. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently - automatic detection for speed, cost function for precision, and user input for final accuracy verification.
2Measurement precision
If manual vascular segmentation is used, then measurement precision is improved, but loss of time increases due to significant human intervention
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial automation by performing automatic vascular portion identification and cost function calculation, then stopping to allow user selection from ranked options. This partial action approach maintains high precision through user validation while reducing time loss compared to fully manual methods, as the computationally intensive preliminary work is already completed automatically.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary automatic segmentation and ranks multiple vascular path options using the cost function before presenting them to the user. This preliminary action reduces the user's workload to selecting from pre-processed, ranked options rather than creating paths from scratch, significantly reducing time loss while maintaining precision.
3Manufacturing precision
If semi-automatic method with cost function is used, then manufacturing precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses parameter changes in the cost function to control the balance between automation and manual input. By adjusting cost function parameters (weights for different image features, threshold values), the system can optimize segmentation accuracy without fundamentally changing the system architecture. This allows precision improvement through parameter tuning rather than adding complex components.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for manually assisted definition of vascular features are described. In some embodiments, a method provides for editing of vascular paths by enabling a user to drag an erroneously segmented region of a selected vascular path into alignment with a more correctly segmented position that is depicted as a blood vessel in a vascular image. The method may use an energy function, defined as a function of position along the segmentation of the selected blood vessel, to determine how a vascular path is to be moved based on dragging motions provided by the user. In some instances, non-zero regions of the energy function are set based on the position of the selected region.