ANATOMICAL IMAGE ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES

BIOSTEREOMETRICS IS THE SPATIAL OR SPATIAL-TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF BIOLOGICAL FORM OR FUNCTION BASED ON PRINCIPLES OF ANALYTIC GEOMETRY. THIS TECHNIQUE DEFINES THE SURFACE OFAN OBJECT BY A FINITE SET OF THREE DIMENSIONAL COORDINATES GENERATED FROM THE ANALYSIS OF PAIRS OF TWO DIMENSIONAL IMAGES. COORDINATES CAN BE MANIPULATED AS DESIRED TO DETERMINE BODY SURFACE AREA, VOLUMES OF SPECIFIC PARTS OR THE WHOLE, LENGTHS, BREADTHS, ETC. THE COMPARISON OF DATA OVER TIME ALSO ALLOWS FOR TWO SETS OF TIME SPECIFIC CHANGES TO BE MONITORED: MOTION ANALYSIS FOR VERY SHORT TIME PERIODSAND GROWTH/DEGRADATION FOR LONGER PERIODS. THIS PROJECT WILL DEVELOP AN AUTOMATED COMPUTERIZED IMAGE ANALYSIS SYSTEMWHICH WILL REDUCE THE COSTS AND IMPROVE UTILITY OVER EXISTING MANUAL SYSTEMS. A DATA COLLECTION SYSTEM WILL USE COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE HARDWARE AND INCLUDE: A MS-DOS BASED COMPUTER, RISC PROCESSOR OPTIMIZED FOR FORTH OPERATION, FOUR CCD/MOS VIDEO CAMERAS, 4 CHANNEL FRAME GRABBER, VIDEO DISPLAY, DATA STORAGE DEVICE(S), AND DEDICATED DATA PROCESSING ENHANCEMENTS. SOFTWARE ROUTINES WILL BE DEVELOPED TO MEET SPECIFIC NEEDS. AUTOMATED BIOSTEREOMETRIC IMAGING CAN BE APPLIED TO A WIDE VARIETY OF PRACTICAL USES.