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).

  • Patent number: 10441237
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2019
    Assignee: AGFA NV
    Inventor: Tom Bertens
  • Patent number: 10068319
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2018
    Assignee: AGFA HEALTHCARE NV
    Inventor: Tom Bertens
  • Publication number: 20170340305
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2015
    Publication date: November 30, 2017
    Applicant: Agfa HealthCare NV
    Inventor: Tom BERTENS
  • Patent number: 9721329
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2017
    Assignee: AGFA HEALTHCARE NV
    Inventor: Tom Bertens
  • Publication number: 20160275655
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: November 12, 2014
    Publication date: September 22, 2016
    Inventor: Tom BERTENS
  • Patent number: 9443160
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2016
    Assignee: AGFA HEALTHCARE NV
    Inventor: Tom Bertens
  • Publication number: 20160232648
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: September 15, 2014
    Publication date: August 11, 2016
    Inventor: Tom BERTENS
  • Patent number: 9345443
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2016
    Assignee: Agfa HealthCare NV
    Inventor: Tom Bertens
  • Patent number: 9153016
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2015
    Assignee: Agfa Healthcare NV
    Inventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke, Gert Behiels
  • Publication number: 20140219423
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: September 4, 2012
    Publication date: August 7, 2014
    Applicant: Agfa HealthCare NV
    Inventor: Tom Bertens
  • Publication number: 20130308851
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2012
    Publication date: November 21, 2013
    Applicant: AGFA HEALTHCARE NV
    Inventor: Tom Bertens
  • Patent number: 8526753
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2013
    Assignee: Agfa HealthCare NV
    Inventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke
  • Patent number: 8487958
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2013
    Assignee: Agfa HealthCare N.V.
    Inventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke
  • Patent number: 8442340
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2013
    Assignee: Agfa HealthCare NV
    Inventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke
  • Patent number: 8428330
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2013
    Assignee: Agfa HealthCare NV
    Inventor: Tom Bertens
  • Patent number: 8428383
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2013
    Assignee: Agfa HealthCare NV
    Inventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke
  • Patent number: 8290292
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2012
    Assignee: Agfa HealthCare N.V.
    Inventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke
  • Patent number: 8081832
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2011
    Assignee: Agfa HealthCare N.V.
    Inventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke
  • Patent number: 8050513
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2011
    Assignee: Agfa HealthCare N.V.
    Inventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke
  • Publication number: 20110123089
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: October 25, 2010
    Publication date: May 26, 2011
    Applicant: AGFA HEALTHCARE NV
    Inventors: Tom Bertens, Pieter Vuylsteke, Gert Behiels