Methods and apparatuses for analyzing imaging data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11715211-B2
Application number	US-202016880272-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 21, 2020
Priority date	May 22, 2019
Publication date	Aug 1, 2023
Grant date	Aug 1, 2023

Abstract

Aspects of the technology described herein relate to automatically calculating and displaying a prediction of a collective opinion of a group of individuals regarding imaging data and/or an output based on the imaging data. In some embodiments, the prediction may be a prediction of the collective opinion of a group of individuals regarding the usability of imaging data, regarding a segmentation of an image, or regarding a measurement performed based on the imaging data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
processing circuitry communicatively coupled to an ultrasound imaging device and configured to:
receive ultrasound imaging data from the ultrasound imaging device;
automatically calculate a prediction of a collective opinion of a group of individuals regarding: (a) the ultrasound imaging data; and/or (b) an output based on the ultrasound imaging data, by electronically processing the ultrasound imaging data and/or the output based on the ultrasound imaging data using a statistical model, wherein the processing circuitry is configured, when automatically calculating the prediction of the collective opinion of the group of individuals regarding: (a) the ultrasound imaging data; and/or (b) the output based on the ultrasound imaging data, to calculate a prediction of a fraction of the group of individuals who would classify the ultrasound imaging data as clinically usable; and
display, simultaneously via a graphical user interface (GUI), the ultrasound imaging data with a visual indicator indicative of the prediction, wherein:
the processing circuitry is configured to automatically calculate the prediction and display the visual indicator indicative of the prediction in real-time as the ultrasound imaging data is collected; and
the processing circuitry is configured, when displaying the visual indicator indicative of the prediction, to display:
a frame having a first end and a second end; and
a marker within the frame;
such that a distance from the first end of the frame to the marker divided by the distance from the first end of the frame to the second end of the frame is approximately equal to the fraction.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured, when automatically calculating the prediction of the collective opinion of the group of individuals regarding: (a) the ultrasound imaging data; and/or (b) the output based on the ultrasound imaging data, to calculate a prediction of a collective opinion of a group of individuals regarding usability of ultrasound imaging data.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured, when displaying the visual indicator indicative of the prediction, to display the fraction.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured, when automatically calculating the prediction of the collective opinion of the group of individuals regarding: (a) the ultrasound imaging data; and/or (b) the output based on the ultrasound imaging data, to calculate a prediction of a collective opinion of a group of individuals regarding a segmentation of the ultrasound imaging data.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured, when automatically calculating the prediction of the collective opinion of the group of individuals regarding: (a) the ultrasound imaging data; and/or (b) the output based on the ultrasound imaging data, to calculate a prediction of a fraction of the group of individuals who would agree that a segmentation automatically performed based on one or more images was performed correctly.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured, when displaying the visual indicator indicative of the prediction, to display the fraction.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured, when displaying the visual indicator indicative of the prediction, to display:
a frame having a first end and a second end; and
a marker within the frame;
such that a distance from the first end of the frame to the marker divided by the distance from the first end to the second of the marker is approximately equal to the fraction.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured, when automatically calculating the prediction of the collective opinion of the group of individuals regarding: (a) the ultrasound imaging data; and/or (b) the output based on the ultrasound imaging data, to calculate a prediction of the fraction of a group of individuals who would believe that a given pixel in an image is within a segmented region.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured, when automatically calculating the prediction of the collective opinion of the group of individuals regarding: (a) the ultrasound imaging data; and/or (b) the output based on the ultrasound imaging data, to generate a segmentation mask where a value of a property of each pixel in the segmentation mask is proportional to a prediction of a fraction of the group of individuals who would believe that a corresponding pixel in an image is inside a segmented region.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured, when displaying the visual indicator indicative of the prediction, to display the segmentation mask.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to overlay the segmentation mask on the image.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured, when automatically calculating the prediction of the collective opinion of the group of individuals regarding: (a) the ultrasound imaging data; and/or (b) the output based on the ultrasound imaging data, to calculate a prediction of a collective opinion of a group of individuals regarding a measurement performed based on the ultrasound imaging data.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured, when automatically calculating the prediction of the collective opinion of the group of individuals regarding: (a) the ultrasound imaging data; and/or (b) the output based on the ultrasound imaging data, to calculate a prediction of a distribution of measurement values that would be manually calculated based on the ultrasound imaging data by the group of individuals.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured, when displaying the visual indicator indicative of the prediction, to graphically display the distribution.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured, when automatically calculating the prediction of the collective opinion of the group of individuals regarding: (a) the ultrasound imaging data; and/or (b) the output based on the ultrasound imaging data, to predict an approximation of a distribution of measurement values of the ultrasound imaging data that would result from a manual calculation process.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the approximation comprises a mean, a standard deviation, a confidence interval, and/or a percentile.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured, when displaying the visual indicator indicative of the prediction, to display the approximation.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is contained within a portable device.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the portable device is a smartphone or a tablet.

Assignees

• Bfly Operations Inc

Inventors

• Lovchinsky Igor
• Silberman Nathan

Classifications

• G06T7/143 Primary

  involving probabilistic approaches, e.g. Markov random field [MRF] modelling · CPC title

• G06T7/0012

  Biomedical image inspection · CPC title

• G06T7/11 Primary

  Region-based segmentation · CPC title

• G06T2207/10132

  Ultrasound image · CPC title

• G06T2207/30204

  Marker · CPC title