Method of and system for classifying objects using local distributions of multi-energy computed tomography images

US7801348B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Analogic Corporation · US

Inventors

• Zhengrong Ying · Wakefield, US
• Ram Naidu · Newton, US
• Sergey Simanovsky · Brookline, US
• Matthew Hirsch · Stoneham, US
• Carl R. Crawford · Brookline, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 18, 2005
• Grant date: Sep 21, 2010
• Expiry date: May 4, 2028

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01V5/226
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A method of and a system for identifying objects using local distribution features from multi-energy CT images are provided. The multi-energy CT images include a CT image, which approximates density measurements of scanned objects, and a Z image, which approximates effective atomic number measurements of scanned objects. The local distribution features are first and second order statistics of the local distributions of the density and atomic number measurements of different portions of a segmented object. The local distributions are the magnitude images of the first order derivative of the CT image and the Z image. Each segmented object is also divided into different portions to provide geometrical information for discrimination. The method comprises preprocessing the CT and Z images, segmenting images into objects, computing local distributions of the CT and Z images, computing local distribution histograms, computing local distribution features from the said local distribution histograms, classifying objects based on the local distribution features.