Patent · US Active

Image processing system and methods for aligning skin features for early skin cancer detection systems

US8194952B2 · kind B2 · utility

13Cited by
6References
36Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 4, 2008
Grant dateJun 5, 2012
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 27, 2030

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG16H30/40
  • WIPO fieldMedical technology
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

Embodiments of an image processing system and methods for aligning features suitable for use in early skin-cancer detection systems are described herein. Corresponding skin features between a reference image and a later-captured image are precisely aligned. Curvatures are used to align body outlines of corresponding images using body-background masks. An initial-displacement flowfield map, generated from the aligned body outlines, may be applied to a filtered version of the later-captured image to generate a pre-warped image. The pre-warped image and a filtered version of the reference image are divided into a plurality of overlapping chips and a correlation is performed between corresponding chips. A transformation map may be generated based on the chip correlations. This chipping process may be iterated for successively smaller chip sizes to generate a final transform map which may be applied to the later-captured image to generate a registered image having its skin features aligned with the reference image.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.