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:
Oct. 15, 2002
Filed:
Dec. 29, 1998
Shérif Makram-Ebeid, Dampierre, FR;
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Eindhoven, NL;
Abstract
The invention relates to an image processing method for preserving the edges of objects reproduced in an intensity image and for reducing the noise, including the steps of acquisition of the intensity image in the form of a multidimensional matrix of points (2-D, 3-D), determination of the intensity gradient at each point, defined by its direction ((&thgr; ) and its modulus (∥{right arrow over (G)} ∥), and the passage at each point of a recursive spatial filter having an anisotropic kernel and providing a degree of smoothing which is greater in the direction perpendicular to the direction of the gradient than in the direction of the intensity gradient. The kernel is spherical on the scanning lines which are not normal to the intensity gradient and it is shaped as a flattened sphere whose major dimension extends in the direction of lines normal to the intensity gradient in a scanned point. The invention also relates to a medical X-ray imagine apparatus for carrying out this method.