Method and apparatus for automatically locating a region of interest in a radiograph

摘要

A method and apparatus for automatically locating a desired region of interest (ROI) in an original digital image having a plurality of pixel intensity values, comprising:PP(a) obtaining digital image intensity data representative of an original digital image; P P(b) sampling the digital image intensity data of the original digital image so as to define a reduced digital image representative of the original digital image;PP(c) forming an image intensity histogram using the reduced digital image; PP(d) determining a threshold image intensity value from the histogram as being representative of a minimum image intensity value of a desired ROI; PP(e) creating a mask image from the reduced digital image, the mask image having image pixels at grid coordinate positions corresponding to similarly positioned pixels in the original digital image, by setting all image pixels in a mask image grid to one of at least a maximum and a minimum intensity value, depending upon a comparison of the threshold intensity value to the image intensity value of a correspondingly positioned pixel in the original digital image; andPP(f) processing the mask image so as to define at least one contiguous area of pixels in the mask image having a common intensity value, the at least one area comprising the desired ROI.