Cancer management using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging is rapidly expanding its role in clinical practice. The high sensitivity of PET to locate cancer can be confounded by the minimal anatomical information it provides. Additional anatomical information would greatly benefit diagnosis, staging, therapy planning and treatment monitoring. Computed tomography (CT) provides detailed anatomical information but is less sensitive towards cancer localization than PET. Combining PET and CT images would enable accurate localization of the functional information with respect to detailed patient anatomy. We have developed a software platform to facilitate efficient visualization of PET/CT image studies. We used a deformable registration algorithm using mutual information and a B-spline model of the deformation. Several useful visualization modes were implemented with an efficient and robust method for switching between modes and handling large datasets. Processing of several studies can be queued and the results browsed. The software has been validated with clinical data.
Traditionally, telemedicine systems have been designed to improve access to care by allowing physicians to consult a specialist about a case without sending the patient to another location, which may be difficult or time-consuming to reach. The cost of the equipment and network bandwidth needed for this consultation has restricted telemedicine use to contact between physicians instead of between patients and physicians. Recently, however, the wide availability of Internet connectivity and client and server software for e- mail, world wide web, and conferencing has made low-cost telemedicine applications feasible. In this work, we present a web-based system for asynchronous multimedia messaging between shoulder replacement surgery patients at home and their surgeons. A web browser plug-in was developed to simplify the process of capturing video and transferring it to a web site. The video capture plug-in can be used as a template to construct a plug-in that captures and transfers any type of data to a web server. For example, readings from home biosensor instruments (e.g., blood glucose meters and spirometers) that can be connected to a computing platform can be transferred to a home telemedicine web site. Both patients and doctors can access this web site to monitor progress longitudinally. The system has been tested with 3 subjects for the past 7 weeks, and we plan to continue testing in the foreseeable future.
We present an integrated research environment (RAVEN) that we have developed for the purpose of developing and testing object tracking algorithms. As a Windows application, RAVEN provides a user interface for loading and viewing video sequences and interacting with the segmentation and object tracking algorithms, which are included at run time as plug- ins. The plug-ins interact with RAVEN via a programming interface, enabling algorithm developers to concentrate on their ideas rather than on the user interface. Over the past two years. RAVEN has greatly enhanced the productivity of our researchers, enabling them to create a variety of new algorithms and extended RAVEN's capabilities via plug-ins. Examples include several object tracking algorithms, a live- wire segmentation algorithm, a methodology for the evaluation of segmentation quality, and even a mediaprocessor implementation of an object tracker. After implementing an algorithm, RAVEN makes it easy to present the results since it provides several mask display modes and output options for both image and video. We have found that RAVEN facilitates the entire research process, from prototyping an algorithm to visualization of the results to a mediaprocessor implementation.
KEYWORDS: Video, Video compression, Ultrasonography, Video coding, Visualization, Computer programming, Doppler effect, Picture Archiving and Communication System, Image compression, Composites
MPEG-4 is a new standard for compressing and presenting many types of multimedia content, such as video, audio, and synthetic 2D and 3D graphics. New features include support for user interaction and flexible display of multiple video bitstreams. The basis of these new capabilities is object- based video coding, in which a video image is represented as a set of regions of interest, or video objects, that are coded independently. At the decoder, users decode, compose and manipulate video objects from one or more bitstreams in a single display. In this work, we examine the feasibility of using MPEG-4 for coding ultrasound sequences. In preliminary results, the compression performance of MPEG-4 was comparable to H.264 and a bit savings of at least 15 percent was possible when coding static objects as sprites. The flexible compositing capability of MPEG-4 was demonstrated by dividing an ultrasound machine's display into video objects and encoding each video object as a separate bitstream. Video objects form different bitstreams were decoded and composited on a single display using an MPEG-4 decoder to demonstrate side-by-side comparisons of ultrasound scans. Until now, these compositing capabilities were only available using proprietary PACS display systems. Using MPEG-4 to deliver ultrasound allows any MPEG-4- compliant decoder to perform these functions.
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