X-ray apparatus and control method for the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10143432-B2
Application number	US-201615017892-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 8, 2016
Priority date	May 27, 2015
Publication date	Dec 4, 2018
Grant date	Dec 4, 2018

Abstract

An X-ray apparatus includes an image separator configured to separate an X-ray image of an object into material images representing materials in the object; a parameter determiner configured to determine a width of a material of interest (MOI) based on the material images, and determine an enhancement parameter configured to enhance contrast of the MOI according to the width of the MOI; and an image enhancer configured to separate the X-ray image into detailed images respectively including spatial frequencies of different frequency bands, enhance each of the detailed images according to the enhancement parameter, and synthesize the enhanced detailed images to generate an enhanced image.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An X-ray apparatus comprising:
an image separator configured to separate an X-ray image of an object into material images representing materials in the object;
a parameter determiner configured to determine a width of a material of interest (MOI) based on the material images, and determine an enhancement parameter configured to enhance contrast of the MOI according to the width of the MOI; and
an image enhancer configured to separate the X-ray image into detailed images respectively including spatial frequencies of different frequency bands, enhance each of the detailed images according to the enhancement parameter, and synthesize the enhanced detailed images to generate an enhanced image.

2. The X-ray apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the parameter determiner is configured to determine the enhancement parameter for each of the detailed images and further enhance a detailed image having a spatial frequency of a band corresponding to the width of the MOI, among the detailed images, based on the enhancement parameter of the detailed image having the spatial frequency of the band corresponding to the width of the MOI.

3. The X-ray apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the image enhancer is configured to determine an enhancement function using the enhancement parameter, and enhance each of the detailed images according to the determined enhancement function.

4. The X-ray apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the parameter determiner is configured to determine the enhancement parameter as including at least one of an initial slope, coordinates of an inflection point, a convergence value, and a rate of convergence of the enhancement function.

5. The X-ray apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the parameter determiner is configured to increase the initial slope of the enhancement function applied to a detailed image of a high frequency among the detailed images, as the width of the MOI is decreased.

6. The X-ray apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the parameter determiner is configured to decrease an x-coordinate of the inflection point of the enhancement function applied to a detailed image of a high frequency among the detailed images, as the width of the MOI is decreased.

7. The X-ray apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the parameter determiner is configured to increase at least one of a y-coordinate of the inflection point, the convergence value, and the rate of convergence of the enhancement function applied to a detailed image of a high frequency among the detailed images, as the width of the MOI is decreased.

8. The X-ray apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the parameter determiner is configured to determine the enhancement parameter of a detailed image having a preset frequency band among the detailed images so that the enhanced image has a preset target brightness.

9. The X-ray apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the parameter determiner is configured to increase a convergence value of an enhancement function applied to a detailed image having the preset frequency band among the detailed images, as the preset target brightness is increased.

10. The X-ray apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the parameter determiner is configured to decrease an x-coordinate of an inflection point of an enhancement function applied to a detailed image having the preset frequency band among the detailed images, as the preset target brightness is increased.

11. The X-ray apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising an image synthesizer configured to synthesize X-ray images corresponding to different energy bands and provide the synthesized X-ray images to the image enhancer, wherein the X-ray image of the object includes the X-ray images corresponding to the different energy bands.

12. The X-ray apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the parameter determiner is configured to determine the width of the MOI based on a number of pixels counted in a predetermined direction from an area in which the MOI is displayed in the material images.

13. A control method for an X-ray apparatus, the control method comprising:
separating an X-ray image of an object into material images representing materials in the object;
determining a width of a material of interest (MOI) based on the material images;
determining an enhancement parameter for enhancing contrast of the MOI according to the width of the MOI;
separating the X-ray image into detailed images respectively having spatial frequencies of different frequency bands;
enhancing each of the detailed images according to the enhancement parameter; and
synthesizing the enhanced detail images to generate an enhanced image.

14. The control method of claim 13 , wherein the determining of the enhancement parameter comprises determining the enhancement parameter for each of the plurality of detailed images and further enhancing one of the detailed images having a spatial frequency of a band corresponding to the width of the MOI, among the detailed images, based on the enhancement parameter of the one detailed image.

15. The control method of claim 13 , wherein the enhancing of the detailed images comprises:
determining an enhancement function representing enhanced contrast with respect to a change in contrast of the detailed images using the enhancement parameter; and
enhancing each of the detailed images according to the determined enhancement function.

16. The control method of claim 13 , wherein the determining of the enhancement parameter comprises determining the enhancement parameter as including at least one of an initial slope, coordinates of an inflection point, a convergence value, and a rate of convergence of the enhancement function.

17. The control method of claim 16 , wherein the determining of the enhancement parameter comprises increasing the initial slope of the enhancement function applied to a detailed image of a high frequency among the detailed images, as the width of the MOI is decreased.

18. The control method of claim 16 , wherein the determining of the enhancement parameter comprises decreasing an x-coordinate of the inflection point of the enhancement function applied to a detailed image of a high frequency among the detailed images, as the width of the MOI is decreased.

19. The control method of claim 16 , wherein the determining of the enhancement parameter comprises increasing at least one of a y-coordinate of the inflection point, a convergence value, and a rate of convergence of the enhancement function applied to a detailed image of a high frequency among the detailed images, as the width of the MOI is decreased.

20. The control method of claim 13 , wherein the determining of the enhancement parameter comprises determining the enhancement parameter of a detailed image having a preset frequency band among the detailed images so that the enhanced image has a preset target brightness.

21. The control method of claim 13 , further comprising synthesizing X-ray images corresponding to different energy bands into a synthesized X-ray image, wherein the X-ray image of the object has the X-ray images corresponding to the different energy bands,
wherein the separating of the X-ray image into the detailed images comprises separating the synthesized X-ray image into the detailed images having spatial frequencies of the different frequency bands.

22. The control method of claim 13 , wherein the determining of the width of the MOI comprises determining the width of the MOI based on a number of pixels counted in a predetermined direction from an area in which the MOI is displayed in the

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• JEONG Kye Yong
• Sung Young Hun
• Kang Dong-Goo
• Choi Ji Young

Classifications

• G06T2207/10116

  X-ray image · CPC title

• G06T2207/20221

  Image fusion; Image merging · CPC title

• G06T2207/30004

  Biomedical image processing · CPC title

• G06T5/009

  Physics · mapped topic

• A61B6/502

  for diagnosis of breast, i.e. mammography · CPC title