• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.1-8
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• 2007

In this paper, research on joint optimization of the image spatial registration and the exposure compensation is conducted. The exposure compensation is performed in a frame work of the intensity compensation based on the polynomial approximation of the relationship between images. This compensation is jointly combined with the registration problem employing the Gauss-Newton nonlinear optimization method. In this paper, to perform for a simple and stable optimization, the block-coordinate method is combined with the Gauss-Newton optimization and extensively compared with the traditional approaches. Furthermore, regression analysis is considered in the compensation part for a better stable performance. By combining the block-coordinate method with the Gauss-Newton optimization, we can obtain a compatible performance reducing the computational complexity and stabilizing the performance. In the numerical result for a particular image, we obtain a satisfactory result for 10 repeats of the iteration, which implies a 50% reduction of the computational complexity. The error is also further reduced by 1.5dB compared to the ordinary method.

• Journal of KIISE
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• v.43 no.8
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• pp.869-877
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• 2016

In this paper, we propose an automated segmentation method of femoral cartilage in knee MR images using multi-atlas-based locally-weighted voting. The proposed method involves two steps. First, to utilize the shape information to show that the femoral cartilage is attached to a femur, the femur is segmented via volume and object-based locally-weighted voting and narrow-band region growing. Second, the object-based affine transformation of the femur is applied to the registration of femoral cartilage, and the femoral cartilage is segmented via multi-atlas shape-based locally-weighted voting. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, we compared the segmentation results of majority voting method, intensity-based locally-weighted voting method, and the proposed method with manual segmentation results defined by expert. In our experimental results, the newly proposed method avoids a leakage into the neighboring regions having similar intensity of femoral cartilage, and shows improved segmentation accuracy.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.172-178
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aimed to develop a deep learning architecture combining two task models to generate synthetic computed tomography (sCT) images from low-tesla magnetic resonance (MR) images to improve metallic marker visibility. Methods: Twenty-three patients with cervical cancer treated with intracavitary radiotherapy (ICR) were retrospectively enrolled, and images were acquired using both a computed tomography (CT) scanner and a low-tesla MR machine. The CT images were aligned to the corresponding MR images using a deformable registration, and the metallic dummy source markers were delineated using threshold-based segmentation followed by manual modification. The deformed CT (dCT), MR, and segmentation mask pairs were used for training and testing. The sCT generation model has a cascaded three-dimensional (3D) U-Net-based architecture that converts MR images to CT images and segments the metallic marker. The performance of the model was evaluated with intensity-based comparison metrics. Results: The proposed model with segmentation loss outperformed the 3D U-Net in terms of errors between the sCT and dCT. The structural similarity score difference was not significant. Conclusions: Our study shows the two-task-based deep learning models for generating the sCT images using low-tesla MR images for 3D ICR. This approach will be useful to the MR-only workflow in high-dose-rate brachytherapy.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2006

In Korea, a resident registration card has various personal information such as a present address, a resident registration number, a face picture and a fingerprint. A plastic-type resident card currently used is easy to forge or alter and tricks of forgery grow to be high-degree as time goes on. So, whether a resident card is forged or not is difficult to judge by only an examination with the naked eye. This paper proposed an automatic recognition method of a resident card which recognizes a resident registration number by using a refined ART2-based RBF network newly proposed and authenticates a face picture by a template image matching method. The proposed method, first, extracts areas including a resident registration number and the date of issue from a resident card image by applying Sobel masking, median filtering and horizontal smearing operations to the image in turn. To improve the extraction of individual codes from extracted areas, the original image is binarized by using a high-frequency passing filter and CDM masking is applied to the binaried image fur making image information of individual codes better. Lastly, individual codes, which are targets of recognition, are extracted by applying 4-directional contour tracking algorithm to extracted areas in the binarized image. And this paper proposed a refined ART2-based RBF network to recognize individual codes, which applies ART2 as the loaming structure of the middle layer and dynamicaly adjusts a teaming rate in the teaming of the middle and the output layers by using a fuzzy control method to improve the performance of teaming. Also, for the precise judgement of forgey of a resident card, the proposed method supports a face authentication by using a face template database and a template image matching method. For performance evaluation of the proposed method, this paper maked metamorphoses of an original image of resident card such as a forgey of face picture, an addition of noise, variations of contrast variations of intensity and image blurring, and applied these images with original images to experiments. The results of experiment showed that the proposed method is excellent in the recognition of individual codes and the face authentication fur the automatic recognition of a resident card.

• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.78-87
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• 2012

In this paper, we address the tracking problem caused by camera motion and rolling shutter effects associated with CMOS sensors in consumer handheld cameras, such as mobile cameras, digital cameras, and digital camcorders. A modified particle filtering method is proposed for simultaneously tracking objects and compensating for the effects of camera motion. The proposed method uses an elastic registration algorithm (ER) that considers the global affine motion as well as the brightness and contrast between images, assuming that camera motion results in an affine transform of the image between two successive frames. By assuming that the camera motion is modeled globally by an affine transform, only the global affine model instead of the local model was considered. Only the brightness parameter was used in intensity variation. The contrast parameters used in the original ER algorithm were ignored because the change in illumination is small enough between temporally adjacent frames. The proposed particle filtering consists of the following four steps: (i) prediction step, (ii) compensating prediction state error based on camera motion estimation, (iii) update step and (iv) re-sampling step. A larger number of particles are needed when camera motion generates a prediction state error of an object at the prediction step. The proposed method robustly tracks the object of interest by compensating for the prediction state error using the affine motion model estimated from ER. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the conventional particle filter, and can track moving objects robustly in consumer handheld imaging devices.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.167-175
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the variation of the dose which is delivered to the patients with glottis cancer under IMRT (intensity modulated radiation therapy) by using the 3D registration with CBCT (cone beam CT) images and the DIR (deformable image registration) techniques. The CBCT images which were obtained at a one-week interval were reconstructed by using B-spline algorithm in DIR system, and doses were recalculated based on the newly obtained CBCT images. The dose distributions to the tumor and the critical organs were compared with reference. For the change of volume depending on weight at 3 to 5 weeks, there was increased of 1.38~2.04 kg on average. For the body surface depending on weight, there was decreased of 2.1 mm. The dose with transmitted to the carotid since three weeks was increased compared be more than 8.76% planned, and the thyroid gland was decreased to 26.4%. For the physical evaluation factors of the tumor, PITV, TCI, rDHI, mDHI, and CN were decreased to 4.32%, 5.78%, 44.54%, 12.32%, and 7.11%, respectively. Moreover, $D_{max}$, $D_{mean}$, $V_{67.50}$, and $D_{95}$ for PTV were increased or decreased to 2.99%, 1.52%, 5.78%, and 11.94%, respectively. Although there was no change of volume depending on weight, the change of body types occurred, and IMRT with the narrow composure margin sensitively responded to such a changing. For the glottis IMRT, the patient's weight changes should be observed and recorded to evaluate the actual dose distribution by using the DIR techniques, and more the adaptive treatment planning during the treatment course is needed to deliver the accurate dose to the patients.

• Journal of KIISE
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• v.42 no.10
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• pp.1222-1230
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• 2015

Segmentation of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in knee MRI remains a challenging task due to its inhomogeneous signal intensity and low contrast with surrounding soft tissues. In this paper, we propose a multi-atlas-based segmentation of the ACL in knee MRI with locally-aligned probabilistic atlas (PA) in an iterative graph cuts framework. First, a novel PA generation method is proposed with global and local multi-atlas alignment by means of rigid registration. Second, with the generated PA, segmentation of the ACL is performed by maximum-aposteriori (MAP) estimation and then by graph cuts. Third, refinement of ACL segmentation is performed by improving shape prior through mask-based PA generation and iterative graph cuts. Experiments were performed with a Dice similarity coefficients of 75.0%, an average surface distance of 1.7 pixels, and a root mean squared distance of 2.7 pixels, which increased accuracy by 12.8%, 22.7%, and 22.9%, respectively, from the graph cuts with patient-specific shape constraints.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.854-861
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• 2019

Objective: To evaluate quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) parameters for differentiation of cysts from and solid masses in the anterior mediastinum. Materials and Methods: The development dataset included 18 patients from two institutions with pathologically-proven cysts (n = 6) and solid masses (n = 12) in the anterior mediastinum. We measured the maximum diameter, normalized T1 and T2 signal intensity (nT1 and nT2), normalized apparent diffusion coefficient (nADC), and relative enhancement ratio (RER) of each lesion. RERs were obtained by non-rigid registration and subtraction of precontrast and postcontrast T1-weighted images. Differentiation criteria between cysts and solid masses were identified based on receiver operating characteristics analysis. For validation, two separate datasets were utilized: 15 patients with 8 cysts and 7 solid masses from another institution (validation dataset 1); and 11 patients with clinically diagnosed cysts stable for more than two years (validation dataset 2). Sensitivity and specificity were calculated from the validation datasets. Results: nT2, nADC, and RER significantly differed between cysts and solid masses (p = 0.032, 0.013, and < 0.001, respectively). The following criteria differentiated cysts from solid masses: RER < 26.1%; nADC > 0.63; nT2 > 0.39. In validation dataset 1, the sensitivity of the RER, nADC, and nT2 criteria was 87.5%, 100%, and 75.0%, and the specificity was 100%, 40.0%, and 57.4%, respectively. In validation dataset 2, the sensitivity of the RER, nADC, and nT2 criteria was 90.9%, 90.9%, and 72.7%, respectively. Conclusion: Quantitative MRI criteria using nT2, nADC, and particularly RER can assist differentiation of cysts from solid masses in the anterior mediastinum.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.60-71
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• 2009

Purpose: We assessed the absorbed dose to the tumor ($Dose_{tumor}$) by using pretreatment FDG-PET and whole-body (WB) planar images in repeated radioimmunotherapy (RIT) with $^{131}I$ rituximab for NHL. Materials and Methods: Patients with NHL (n=4) were administered a therapeutic dose of $^{131}I$ rituximab. Serial WB planar images alter RIT were acquired and overlaid to the coronal maximum intensity projection (MIP) PET image before RIT. On registered MIP PET and WB planar images, 2D-ROls were drawn on the region of tumor (n=7) and left medial thigh as background, and $Dose_{tumor}$ was calculated. The correlation between $Dose_{tumor}$ and the CT-based tumor volume change alter RIT was analyzed. The differences of $Dose_{tumor}$ and the tumor volume change according to the number of RIT were also assessed. Results: The values of absorbed dose were $397.7{\pm}646.2cGy$ ($53.0{\sim}2853.0cGy$). The values of CT-based tumor volume were $11.3{\pm}9.1\;cc$ ($2.9{\sim}34.2cc$), and the % changes of tumor volume before and alter RIT were $-29.8{\pm}44.3%$ ($-100.0%{\sim}+42.5%$), respectively. $Dose_{tumor}$ and the tumor volume change did not show the linear relationship (p>0.05). $Dose_{tumor}$ and the tumor volume change did not correlate with the number of repeated administration (p>0.05). Conclusion: We could determine the position and contour of viable tumor by MIP PET image. And, registration of PET and gamma camera images was possible to estimate the quantitative values of absorbed dose to tumor.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.139-142
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to develop a system of clinical application of reconstructed dose that includes dose reconstruction, reconstructed dose registration between fractions of treatment, and dose-volume-histogram generation and to demonstrate the system on a deformable prostate phantom. To achieve this purpose, a deformable prostate phantom was embedded into a 20 cm-deep and 40 cm-wide water phantom. The phantom was CT scanned and the anatomical models of prostate, seminal vesicles, and rectum were contoured. A coplanar 4-field intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) plan was used for this study. Organ deformation was simulated by inserting a "transrectal" balloon containing 20 ml of water. A new CT scan was obtained and the deformed structures were contoured. Dose responses in phantoms and electronic portal imaging device (EPID) were calculated by using the XVMC Monte Carlo code. The IMRT plan was delivered to the two phantoms and integrated EPID images were respectively acquired. Dose reconstruction was performed on these images using the calculated responses. The deformed phantom was registered to the original phantom using an in-house developed software based on the Demons algorithm. The transfer matrix for each voxel was obtained and used to correlate the two sets of the reconstructed dose to generate a cumulative reconstructed dose on the original phantom. Forwardly calculated planning dose in the original phantom was compared to the cumulative reconstructed dose from EPID in the original phantom. The prescribed 200 cGy isodose lines showed little difference with respect to the "prostate" and "seminal vesicles", but appreciable difference (3%) was observed at the dose level greater than 210 cGy. In the rectum, the reconstructed dose showed lower volume coverage by a few percent than the plan dose in the dose range of 150 to 200 cGy. Through this study, the system of clinical application of reconstructed dose was successfully developed and demonstrated. The organ deformation simulated in this study resulted in small but observable dose changes in the target and critical structure.