Patents by Inventor Saara Marjatta Sofia Totterman

Saara Marjatta Sofia Totterman has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7406211
    Abstract: In CT (computed tomography) images, streak artifacts caused by the presence of metal implants and inhomogeneous estimation of tissue density are reduced or eliminated. The algorithm has two basic steps: 1) illumination correction and 2) adaptive 3D filtering. The algorithm starts by estimating the direction of the streak and the degree of inhomogeneous densities by gray scale morphology dilatation. Then, it proceeds to estimate the correct densities based on the estimations and to reduce the streak by an adaptive 3D filtering whose parameters depend on the streak direction and the local image contrast.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 29, 2008
    Assignee: VirtualScopics LLC
    Inventors: José Tamez Peña, Saara Marjatta Sofia Totterman, Kevin J. Parker
  • Patent number: 6998841
    Abstract: MRI scans typically have higher resolution within a slice than between slices. To improve the resolution, two MRI scans are taken in different, preferably orthogonal, directions. The scans are registered by maximizing a correlation between their gradients and then fused to form a high-resolution image. Multiple receiving coils can be used. When the images are multispectral, the number of spectral bands is reduced by transformation of the spectral bands in order of image contrast and using the transformed spectral bands with the highest contrast.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2006
    Assignee: Virtualscopics, LLC
    Inventors: José Tamez-Peña, Saara Marjatta Sofia Totterman, Kevin J. Parker
  • Patent number: 6984981
    Abstract: MRI scans typically have higher resolution within a slice than between slices. To improve the resolution, two MRI scans are taken in different, preferably orthogonal, directions. The scans are registered by maximizing a correlation between their gradients and then fused to form a high-resolution image. Multiple receiving coils can be used. When the images are multispectral, the number of spectral bands is reduced by transformation of the spectral bands in order of image contrast and using the transformed spectral bands with the highest contrast.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2006
    Assignee: Virtualscopics, LLC
    Inventors: José Tamez-Peña, Saara Marjatta Sofia Totterman, Kevin J. Parker
  • Patent number: 6836557
    Abstract: In a human or animal organ or other region of interest, specific objects, such as liver metastases and brain lesions, serve as indicators, or biomarkers, of disease. In a three-dimensional image of the organ, the biomarkers are identified and quantified both before and after a stimulus is applied, and their reaction to the stimulus is observed. Statistical segmentation techniques are used to identify the biomarker in a first image and to carry the identification over to the remaining images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2004
    Assignee: VirtualS{tilde over (c)}opics, LLC
    Inventors: José Tamez-Peña, Saara Marjatta Sofia Totterman, Edward Ashton
  • Patent number: 6801646
    Abstract: In CT (computed tomography) images, streak artifacts caused by the presence of metal implants and inhomogeneous estimation of tissue density are reduced or eliminated. The algorithm has two basic steps: 1) illumination correction and 2) adaptive 3D filtering. The algorithm starts by estimating the direction of the streak and the degree of inhomogeneous densities by gray scale morphology dilation. Then, it proceeds to estimate the correct densities based on the estimations and to reduce the streak by an adaptive 3D filtering whose parameters depend on the streak direction and the local image contrast.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2004
    Assignee: VirtualScopics, LLC
    Inventors: José Tamez Peña, Saara Marjatta Sofia Totterman, Kevin J. Parker
  • Publication number: 20040147830
    Abstract: In a human or animal organ or other region of interest, specific objects, such as liver metastases and brain lesions, serve as indicators, or biomarkers, of disease. In a three-dimensional image of the organ, the biomarkers are identified and quantified. Multiple three-dimensional images can be taken over time, in which the biomarkers can be tracked over time. Statistical segmentation techniques are used to identify the biomarker in a first image and to carry the identification over to the remaining images. Regions of normal and abnormal parameters within the 3D biomarker structure are identified. The information is used to highlight or visualize abnormal regions on the original 2D tomographic images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 29, 2003
    Publication date: July 29, 2004
    Applicant: VirtualScopics
    Inventors: Kevin J. Parker, Jose Tamez-Pena, Saara Marjatta Sofia Totterman, Edward Ashton
  • Publication number: 20040066955
    Abstract: In a human or animal organ or other region of interest, specific objects, such as liver metastases and brain lesions, serve as indicators, or biomarkers, of disease. In a three-dimensional image of the organ, the biomarkers are identified and quantified both before and after a stimulus is applied, and their reaction to the stimulus is observed. Statistical segmentation techniques are used to identify the biomarker in a first image and to carry the identification over to the remaining images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 2, 2002
    Publication date: April 8, 2004
    Applicant: VIRTUALSCOPICS, LLC
    Inventors: Jose Tamez-Pena, Saara Marjatta Sofia Totterman, Edward Ashton
  • Patent number: 6583623
    Abstract: In magnetic resonance imaging, a pulse sequence is used to obtain both water-only and fat-only signals within a single acquisition time. Pulses and readout gradients are applied to take a proton-density-weighted image of the water, a proton-density-weighted image of the fat, and a T2-weighted image of the water. Between the first water readout gradient and the fat readout gradient, a spoiling gradient is applied to spoil the first water echo. Between the fat readout gradient and the second water readout gradient, a refocusing gradient is applied to refocus the second water echo. The proton-density-weighted images of water and fat are combined to form water-plus-fat images free of in-plane and through-plane chemical-shift artifacts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2001
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2003
    Assignee: University of Rochester
    Inventors: Wingchi Edmund Kwok, Jianhui Zhong, Saara Marjatta Sofia Totterman
  • Publication number: 20030088177
    Abstract: In a human or animal brain or other nerve tissue, specific objects or conditions, such as brain lesions and plaques, serve as indicators, or biomarkers, of neurological disease. In a three-dimensional image of the region of interest, the biomarkers are identified and quantified. Multiple three-dimensional images can be taken over time, in which the biomarkers can be tracked over time. Statistical segmentation techniques are used to identify the biomarker in a first image and to carry the identification over to the remaining images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 4, 2002
    Publication date: May 8, 2003
    Applicant: VirtualScopics, LLC
    Inventors: Saara Marjatta Sofia Totterman, Jose Tamez-Pena, Edward Ashton, Kevin J. Parker
  • Publication number: 20030072479
    Abstract: In a solid tumor or other cancerous tissue in a human or animal patient, specific objects or conditions serve as indicators, or biomarkers, of cancer and its progress. In a three-dimensional image of the region of interest, the biomarkers are identified and quantified. Multiple three-dimensional images can be taken over time, in which the biomarkers can be tracked over time. Statistical segmentation techniques are used to identify the biomarker in a first image and to carry the identification over to the remaining images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2002
    Publication date: April 17, 2003
    Applicant: VirtualScopics
    Inventors: Saara Marjatta Sofia Totterman, Jose Tamez-Pena, Edward Ashton, Kevin J. Parker
  • Publication number: 20030035773
    Abstract: In a human or animal joint, specific objects serve as indicators, or biomarkers, of joint disease. In a three-dimensional image of the joint, the biomarkers are identified and quantified. Multiple three-dimensional images can be taken over time, in which the biomarkers can be tracked over time. Statistical segmentation techniques are used to identify the biomarker in a first image and to carry the identification over to the remaining images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 26, 2002
    Publication date: February 20, 2003
    Applicant: VirtualScopics LLC
    Inventors: Saara Marjatta Sofia Totterman, Jose Tamez-Pena, Edward Ashton, Kevin J. Parker
  • Publication number: 20030036083
    Abstract: In a human or animal organ or other region of interest, specific objects, such as liver metastases and brain lesions, serve as indicators, or biomarkers, of disease. In a three-dimensional image of the organ, the biomarkers are identified and quantified. Multiple three-dimensional images can be taken over time, in which the biomarkers can be tracked over time. Statistical segmentation techniques are used to identify the biomarker in a first image and to carry the identification over to the remaining images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 8, 2002
    Publication date: February 20, 2003
    Inventors: Jose Tamez-Pena, Saara Marjatta Sofia Totterman, Edward Ashton, Kevin J. Parker
  • Patent number: 6373249
    Abstract: A magnetic imaging device, such as an MR scanner, is used to provide a modified three-dimensional gradient echo sequence having a spatial-spectral excitation in which phase-encoding lines are interleaved for the excitation of water and of fat. The phase-encoding lines are spaced by an interval equal to half of the repetition time. The resulting data are sorted for the reconstruction of water-only and fat-only images, which are realigned and combined to form water-fat combined images free of chemical shift artifacts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2002
    Assignee: University of Rochester
    Inventors: Wingchi E. Kwok, Jianhui Zhong, Saara Marjatta Sofia Totterman
  • Patent number: 6169817
    Abstract: From raw image data obtained through magnetic resonance imaging or the like, an object is reconstructed and visualized in four dimensions (both space and time) by first dividing the first image in the sequence of images into regions through statistical estimation of the mean value and variance of the image data and joining of picture elements (voxels) that are sufficiently similar and then extrapolating the regions to the remainder of the images by using known motion characteristics of components of the image (e.g., spring constants of muscles and tendons) to estimate the rigid and deformational motion of each region from image to image. The object and its regions can be rendered and interacted with in a four-dimensional virtual reality environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2001
    Assignee: University of Rochester
    Inventors: Kevin J. Parker, Saara Marjatta Sofia Totterman, Jose Tamez Pe{tilde over (n)}a