Systems and methods for medical image segmentation and analysis

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017124709-A1
Application number	US-201515311126-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 14, 2015
Priority date	May 14, 2014
Publication date	May 4, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present disclosure includes systems, methods, and computer-readable medium for monitoring and analyzing skin lesions. A sequence of images are be received, and color correction, contour detection, and feature detection are performed on the images. A progression factor is determined based on a comparison of the an area of the lesion between images. A system for monitoring a progression of a skin lesion is provided that includes a portable imaging device to aid in capturing images of the lesion, and a user device configured to analyze the images and determine a progression factor of the skin lesion.

First claim

1 . A system for measuring a body condition, the system comprising:
an imaging sensor that detects images of a body region; a data processor that performs color correction on a first image of the body region, the data processor further performing histogram equalization on a color channel, that performs contour detection on the first image to identify one or more contours of the body region, and that performs feature detection on the first image to identify one or more features of the body region; and a memory device that stores image data.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the image sensor is configured to detect a sequence of images wherein the images correspond to a skin lesion represented in the first image, and the sequence of images represent the skin lesion over a period of time.

3 . The system of claim 1 wherein the data processor performs color correction on the sequence of images including performing histogram equalization on a color channel; and
the data processor performs contour detection on the sequence of images to identify one or more contours of the skin lesion; and
the data processor performs feature detection on the sequence of images to identify one or more features of the skin lesion.

4 . (canceled)

5 . (canceled)

6 . The system of claim 1 wherein the system stores the resulting sequence of images to record changes from a therapeutic procedure such as phototherapy.

7 . The system of claim 2 wherein the data processor determines a progression factor based on a comparison of an area of the skin lesion in the first image and of the skin lesion in the sequence of images.

8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the progression factor is determined based on a comparison of the one or more contours of the skin lesion in the first image and the one or more contours of the skin lesion in the sequence of images or wherein the progression factor is determined based on a comparison of the one or more features of the skin lesion in the first image and the one or more features of the skin lesion in the sequence of images.

9 . (canceled)

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the color channel comprises a red color channel, a green color channel, and a blue color channel, and the histogram is performed on each of the color channels independently.

11 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the contour detection comprises performing a level set method using a region-based image segmentation scheme.

12 . The system of claim 4 , wherein performing the feature detection includes performing a scale invariant feature transform feature matching.

13 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system comprises a handheld mobile device to detect a sequence of images.

14 . The system of claim 7 , wherein a sequence of images are received at a first user device, and the progression factor is determined at the first user device or a second user device.

15 . The system of claim 1 wherein the system further comprises a wireless transmitter that sends a sequence of transformed images and the progression factor to a second user device; and
receives, at a first user device with a wireless receiver, diagnosis and/or treatment information from the second user device.

16 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the sequence of images is encrypted on a first user device, and the encrypted sequence of transformed images are sent to a second user device.

17 . The system of claim 15 , further comprising a display that displays the diagnosis and treatment information on the device.

18 . (canceled)

19 . The system of claim 1 , where in the system comprises a battery operated handheld mobile device having a processor-implemented module configured to analyze images of skin lesions and determine a progression factor of the skin lesion based on a change in the area of the skin lesions.

20 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a light source and a polarizer.

21 . (canceled)

22 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a light source having a plurality of emitters that emit light at different wavelengths and a detachable light source housing having a battery and a control circuit.

23 . (canceled)

24 . (canceled)

25 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the data processor applies a transformation to a plurality of images wherein the transformation comprises a homography transform and the data processor computes an energy minimization function with an iterative computational process.

26 . (canceled)

27 . (canceled)

28 . (canceled)

29 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the data processor compensates for intensity variation across each image.

30 . A computer-implemented method for analyzing a skin lesion in an image, the method comprising:
detecting a first image of the skin lesion; performing color correction on the first image including performing histogram equalization, with a data processor; performing contour detection on the first image to identify one or more contours of the skin lesion; and storing the resulting image with a memory device.

31 . The method of claim 30 further comprising receiving a sequence of images wherein the images correspond to the skin lesion represented in the first image, and the sequence of images represent the skin lesion over a period of time.

32 . The method of claim 30 , further comprising performing color correction on a sequence of images including performing histogram equalization on a color channel or further comprising performing contour detection on the sequence of images to identify one or more contours of the skin lesion or performing feature detection on the sequence of images to identify one or more features of the skin lesion.

33 . (canceled)

34 . (canceled)

35 . The method of claim 30 further comprising storing the resulting sequence of images in a memory device within a handheld camera device.

36 . The method of claim 30 further comprising determining a progression factor based on a comparison of an area of the skin lesion in the first image and of the skin lesion in the sequence of images wherein the progression factor is determined based on a comparison of the one or more features of the skin lesion in the first image and the one or more features of the skin lesion in the sequence of images.

37 . (canceled)

38 . The method of claim 36 , wherein the progression factor is determined based on a comparison of the one or more features of the skin lesion in the first image and the one or more features of the skin lesion in the sequence of images.

39 . The method of claim 30 , wherein the color channel comprises a red color channel, a green color channel, and a blue color channel, and the histogram is performed on each of the color channels independently.

40 . The method of claim 30 , wherein performing the contour detection comprises performing a level set method using a region-based image segmentation scheme.

41 . The method of claim 30 , further comprising performing feature detection includes performing a scale invariant feature transform feature matching process.

42 . A method for monitoring a progression of

Assignees

• Massachusetts Inst Technology

Inventors

• Rithe Rahul
• Chandrakasan Anantha P

Classifications

• G06V10/72

  Data preparation, e.g. statistical preprocessing of image or video features · CPC title

• H04N23/56

  provided with illuminating means · CPC title

• G06V10/56

  relating to colour · CPC title

• G06V10/757

  Matching configurations of points or features · CPC title

• G06T2207/10004

  Still image; Photographic image · CPC title