Knockout autoencoder for detecting anomalies in biomedical images

Abstract

A mechanism is provided in a data processing system comprising a processor and a memory, the memory comprising instructions that are executed by the processor to specifically configure the processor to implement a knockout autoencoder engine for detecting anomalies in biomedical images. The mechanism trains a neural network to be used as a knockout autoencoder that predicts an original based on an input image. The knockout autoencoder engine provides a biomedical image as the input image to the neural network. The neural network outputs a probability distribution for each pixel in the biomedical image. Each probability distribution represents a predicted probability distribution of expected pixel values for a given pixel in the biomedical image. An anomaly detection component executing within the knockout autoencoder engine determines a probability that each pixel has an expected value based on the probability distributions to form a plurality of expected pixel probabilities. The anomaly detection component detects an anomaly in the biomedical image based on the plurality of expected pixel probabilities. An anomaly marking component executing within the knockout autoencoder engine marks the detected anomaly in the biomedical image to form a marked biomedical image and outputs the marked biomedical image.