Patents by Inventor Tom Bertens
Tom Bertens 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).
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Patent number: 10441237Abstract: A motion correction method includes two steps. The first step includes a global motion correction using the bilinear warping technique and a rough delineation of the lung fields. One of the native images (low energy image, high energy image) is deformed to match the other image. In a second step, local motion corrections are applied to the globally motion corrected image by computing a proximity value in small overlapping tiles. Only tiles with a sufficient high proximity value are taken into account. The maximum shift applied in this second step is limited to a few pixels to avoid strong deformations of the native images.Type: GrantFiled: December 15, 2015Date of Patent: October 15, 2019Assignee: AGFA NVInventor: Tom Bertens
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Patent number: 10068319Abstract: A method for processing a frame in a sequence of successively acquired frames in dynamic digital radiography includes the multi-scale representation of frames being subjected to temporal filtering by adding at least one correction image to a corresponding detail image(s) in the multi-scale representations of a frame of interest, the correction image being computed by combining clipped difference images obtained as the difference between the multi-scale representation of the frame of interest and the multi-scale representations of a selection of other frames in said sequence.Type: GrantFiled: September 15, 2014Date of Patent: September 4, 2018Assignee: AGFA HEALTHCARE NVInventor: Tom Bertens
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Publication number: 20170340305Abstract: A motion correction method includes two steps. The first step includes a global motion correction using the bilinear warping technique and a rough delineation of the lung fields. One of the native images (low energy image, high energy image) is deformed to match the other image. In a second step, local motion corrections are applied to the globally motion corrected image by computing a proximity value in small overlapping tiles. Only tiles with a sufficient high proximity value are taken into account. The maximum shift applied in this second step is limited to a few pixels to avoid strong deformations of the native images.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 15, 2015Publication date: November 30, 2017Applicant: Agfa HealthCare NVInventor: Tom BERTENS
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Patent number: 9721329Abstract: A multi-scale detail representation of an image is computed as a weighted sum of translation difference images. A denoising operator is applied to the translation difference images so that translation differences are modified as a function of an estimated local signal-to-noise ratio and at least one denoised center difference image at a specific scale is computed by combining denoised translation difference images at scale s or a finer scale. A denoised image is computed by applying a reconstruction algorithm to the denoised center difference images.Type: GrantFiled: November 12, 2014Date of Patent: August 1, 2017Assignee: AGFA HEALTHCARE NVInventor: Tom Bertens
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Publication number: 20160275655Abstract: A multi-scale detail representation of an image is computed as a weighted sum of translation difference images. A denoising operator is applied to the translation difference images so that translation differences are modified as a function of an estimated local signal-to-noise ratio and at least one denoised center difference image at a specific scale is computed by combining denoised translation difference images at scale s or a finer scale. A denoised image is computed by applying a reconstruction algorithm to the denoised center difference images.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 12, 2014Publication date: September 22, 2016Inventor: Tom BERTENS
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Patent number: 9443160Abstract: A method to extract irradiation field areas in an X-ray image represented by a digital signal representation comprising the steps of segmenting the image in multiple regions of pixels which have similar local image characteristics, fitting line segments to the boundaries of these regions whereby said line segments correspond with candidate irradiation field boundaries and constitute a segmentation map, classifying regions in said segmentation map into at least two classes, one class being irradiation field and the other class being collimated region on the basis of at least one of local, regional and global image characteristics.Type: GrantFiled: February 27, 2012Date of Patent: September 13, 2016Assignee: AGFA HEALTHCARE NVInventor: Tom Bertens
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Publication number: 20160232648Abstract: A method for processing a frame in a sequence of successively acquired frames in dynamic digital radiography includes the multi-scale representation of frames being subjected to temporal filtering by adding at least one correction image to a corresponding detail image(s) in the multi-scale representations of a frame of interest, the correction image being computed by combining clipped difference images obtained as the difference between the multi-scale representation of the frame of interest and the multi-scale representations of a selection of other frames in said sequence.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 15, 2014Publication date: August 11, 2016Inventor: Tom BERTENS
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Patent number: 9345443Abstract: A method of generating a bone and a soft tissue image of an object includes a dual energy radiography technique wherein weight parameters for calculating these images as a weighted sum of a low energy image PL and a high energy image PH are deduced from a ratio image Log(Pn)/Log(PL).Type: GrantFiled: September 4, 2012Date of Patent: May 24, 2016Assignee: Agfa HealthCare NVInventor: Tom Bertens
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Patent number: 9153016Abstract: In a method to enhance the contrast of spatially-localized phenomena in an image such as microcalcifications in a mammogram, a multi-scale decomposition is applied to a digital signal representation of the image thereby generating a number of detail images at different scales, the detail signals pertaining to the spatially-localized phenomena having a common polarity (either negative or positive) being modified at at least one scale.Type: GrantFiled: October 25, 2010Date of Patent: October 6, 2015Assignee: Agfa Healthcare NVInventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke, Gert Behiels
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Publication number: 20140219423Abstract: A method of generating a bone and a soft tissue image of an object includes a dual energy radiography technique wherein weight parameters for calculating these images as a weighted sum of a low energy image PL and a high energy image PH are deduced from a ratio image Log (Pn)/Log (PL).Type: ApplicationFiled: September 4, 2012Publication date: August 7, 2014Applicant: Agfa HealthCare NVInventor: Tom Bertens
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Publication number: 20130308851Abstract: A method to extract irradiation field areas in an X-ray image represented by a digital signal representation comprising the steps of segmenting the image in multiple regions of pixels which have similar local image characteristics, fitting line segments to the boundaries of these regions whereby said line segments correspond with candidate irradiation field boundaries and constitute a segmentation map, classifying regions in said segmentation map into at least two classes, one class being irradiation field and the other class being collimated region on the basis of at least one of local, regional and global image characteristics.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 27, 2012Publication date: November 21, 2013Applicant: AGFA HEALTHCARE NVInventor: Tom Bertens
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Patent number: 8526753Abstract: A method of generating a multiscale contrast enhanced image is described wherein the shape of edge transitions is preserved. Detail images are subjected to a conversion, the conversion function of at least one scale being adjusted for each detail pixel value according to the ratio between the combination of the enhanced center differences and the combination of the unenhanced center differences. Several adaptive enhancement measures are described.Type: GrantFiled: July 31, 2008Date of Patent: September 3, 2013Assignee: Agfa HealthCare NVInventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke
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Patent number: 8487958Abstract: At least one of two enhancement methods for changing contrast and/or density are applied to an image. According to a first enhancement method the window width/level settings of the image are modified and according to a second enhancement method density and contrast of the image are modified by modifying a multi-scale representation of the image whereby modification is derived from at least two gradient functions determined at different scales, a gradient function at a specific scale specifying the dependency of contrast amplification at said scale as a function of density. The amount of modification obtained by applying either of said first and second enhancement methods is determined by the amount of movement of at least one indicium.Type: GrantFiled: November 25, 2009Date of Patent: July 16, 2013Assignee: Agfa HealthCare N.V.Inventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke
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Patent number: 8442340Abstract: At least one approximation image is created of the image at one or multiple scales. Translation difference images are created by pixel-wise subtracting the values of an approximation image at scale s and the values of a translated version of the approximation image. A non-linear modification is applied to the values of the translation difference image (s) and at least one enhanced center difference image at a specific scale is computed by combining the modified translation difference images at that scale or a smaller scale with weights Wi,j. An enhanced image is computed by applying a reconstruction algorithm to the enhanced center difference images. The non-linear modification of the values of the translation difference images is steered by the values of an orientation map which comprises for each pixel a local direction of interest.Type: GrantFiled: October 2, 2008Date of Patent: May 14, 2013Assignee: Agfa HealthCare NVInventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke
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Patent number: 8428330Abstract: A region of interest in the image is determined and for each pixel in each location (x,y) in that region of interest a value hint(x,y) is computed representing the amount of dense tissue below said pixel as h int ? ( x , y ) = 2 ? fat ? ( E ) - ? int ? ( E ) ? ( Log ? ( p ? ( x , y ) ) - Log ? ( p fat ) ) wherein p(x,y) represents the pixel value of a pixel at location (x,y) in said digital mammographic image, pfat is a reference fat pixel value, ?fat,?int are the linear attenuation coefficients of fat tissue and dense tissue and E is the mono-energetic energy value of the x-ray source at image recording, whereby E and pfat are derived from said digital mammographic image representation.Type: GrantFiled: August 31, 2009Date of Patent: April 23, 2013Assignee: Agfa HealthCare NVInventor: Tom Bertens
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Patent number: 8428383Abstract: A digital image signal is decomposed into a multi-scale representation comprising detail images and approximation images. Translation difference images are computed by subtracting an approximation image at scale s and a translated version of that approximation image. The values of the translation difference images are non-linearly modified. An amplification image is computed at least one scale as the ratio of a first image being computed by combining the modified translation difference images at the same or smaller scale and a second image created by combining unenhanced translation difference images at the same or smaller scale. Next, an enhanced multi-scale detail representation is computed by modifying at least one scale the detail image according to the amplification image at that scale. An enhanced image representation is computed by applying a reconstruction algorithm to the enhanced multi-scale detail representation.Type: GrantFiled: December 10, 2008Date of Patent: April 23, 2013Assignee: Agfa HealthCare NVInventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke
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Patent number: 8290292Abstract: At least one approximation image is created of the image at one or multiple scales. Translation difference images are created by pixel-wise subtracting the values of an approximation image at scale s and the values of a translated version of the approximation image. A non-linear modification is applied to the values of the translation difference image (s) and at least one enhanced center difference image at a specific scale is computed by combining the modified translation difference images at that scale or a smaller scale with weights wi,,j. An enhanced image is computed by applying a reconstruction algorithm to the enhanced center difference images. The non-linear modification of the values of the translation difference images is steered by (a) characteristic (s) computed out of the approximation image (s) at least one scale.Type: GrantFiled: June 10, 2008Date of Patent: October 16, 2012Assignee: Agfa HealthCare N.V.Inventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke
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Patent number: 8081832Abstract: A method of generating a multiscale contrast enhanced image is described wherein the shape of edge transitions is preserved. Detail images are subjected to a conversion, the conversion function of at least one scale being adjusted for each detail pixel value according to the ratio between the combination of the enhanced center differences and the combination of the unenhanced center differences.Type: GrantFiled: November 1, 2007Date of Patent: December 20, 2011Assignee: Agfa HealthCare N.V.Inventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke
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Patent number: 8050513Abstract: A method of generating a multiscale contrast enhanced image preserving the shape of the edge transitions is described. Enhanced detail pixel values are computed by combining enhanced center difference images at least one scale.Type: GrantFiled: November 1, 2007Date of Patent: November 1, 2011Assignee: Agfa HealthCare N.V.Inventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke
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Publication number: 20110123089Abstract: In a method to enhance the contrast of spatially-localized phenomena in an image such as microcalcifications in a mammogram, a multi-scale decomposition is applied to a digital signal representation of the image thereby generating a number of detail images at different scales, the detail signals pertaining to the spatially-localized phenomena having a common polarity (either negative or positive) being modified at at least one scale.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 25, 2010Publication date: May 26, 2011Applicant: AGFA HEALTHCARE NVInventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke, Gert Behiels