The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 23, 2000
Filed:
Feb. 11, 1998
Sergey Simanovsky, Lynn, MA (US);
Ibrahim M Bechwati, Roslindale, MA (US);
Muzaffer Hiraoglu, Woburn, MA (US);
Carl R Crawford, Brookline, MA (US);
Analogic Corporation, Peabody, MA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for detecting objects in computed tomography (CT) data are disclosed. Erosion of the data can be performed by identifying a neighborhood of voxels surrounding a voxel of interest. If the number of voxels having densities below a predetermined threshold exceeds a predetermined number, then it is assumed that the voxel of interest is a surface voxel of an object and is removed from the object. A connectivity process is then applied to remaining voxels to combine them into objects. A dilation function can then be performed on the eroded object to replace surface voxels removed by erosion. This morphological connected components labeling (CCL) approach separates adjacent objects in the data such that they can be individually labeled and analyzed.