Rouzbeh Maani

Noise robust rotation invariant features for texture classification

This paper presents a novel, simple, yet powerful and robust method for rotation invariant texture classification. Like the Local Binary Patterns (LBP), the proposed method considers at each pixel a neighboring function defined on a circle of radius R. We define local frequency components as the magnitude of the coefficients of the 1D Fourier transform of the neighboring function. By applying different bandpass filters on the 2D Fourier transform of the local frequency components, we define our Local Frequency Descriptors (LFD). The LFD features are added dynamically from low frequencies to high. The features defined in this paper are invariant to rotation. As well, they are robust to noise. The experimental results on the Outex, CUReT, and KTH-TIPS datasets show that the proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art texture analysis methods. The results also show that the proposed method is very robust to noise.

Rotation Invariant Local Frequency Descriptors for Texture Classification

This paper presents a novel rotation invariant method for texture classification based on local frequency components. The local frequency components are computed by applying 1-D Fourier transform on a neighboring function defined on a circle of radius R at each pixel. We observed that the low frequency components are the major constituents of the circular functions and can effectively represent textures. Three sets of features are extracted from the low frequency components, two based on the phase and one based on the magnitude. The proposed features are invariant to rotation and linear changes of illumination. Moreover, by using low frequency components, the proposed features are very robust to noise. While the proposed method uses a relatively small number of features, it outperforms state-of-the-art methods in three well-known datasets: Brodatz, Outex, and CUReT. In addition, the proposed method is very robust to noise and can remarkably improve the classification accuracy especially in the presence of high levels of noise.

Cerebral Degeneration in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Revealed by 3-Dimensional Texture Analysis

Introduction: Routine MR images do not consistently reveal pathological changes in the brain in ALS. Texture analysis, a method to quantitate voxel intensities and their patterns and interrelationships, can detect changes in images not apparent to the naked eye. Our objective was to evaluate cerebral degeneration in ALS using 3-dimensional texture analysis of MR images of the brain. Methods: In a case-control design, voxel-based texture analysis was performed on T1-weighted MR images of 20 healthy subjects and 19 patients with ALS. Four texture features, namely, autocorrelation, sum of squares variance, sum average, and sum variance were computed. Texture features were compared between the groups by statistical parametric mapping and correlated with clinical measures of disability and upper motor neuron dysfunction. Results: Texture features were different in ALS in motor regions including the precentral gyrus and corticospinal tracts. To a lesser extent, changes were also found in the thalamus, cingulate gyrus, and temporal lobe. Texture features in the precentral gyrus correlated with disease duration, and in the corticospinal tract they correlated with finger tapping speed. Conclusions: Changes in MR image textures are present in motor and non-motor regions in ALS and correlate with clinical features. Whole brain texture analysis has potential in providing biomarkers of cerebral degeneration in ALS.

Voxel-based texture analysis of the brain.

This paper presents a novel voxel-based method for texture analysis of brain images. Texture analysis is a powerful quantitative approach for analyzing voxel intensities and their interrelationships, but has been thus far limited to analyzing regions of interest. The proposed method provides a 3D statistical map comparing texture features on a voxel-by-voxel basis. The validity of the method was examined on artificially generated effects as well as on real MRI data in Alzheimers Disease (AD). The artificially generated effects included hyperintense and hypointense signals added to T1-weighted brain MRIs from 30 healthy subjects. The AD dataset included 30 patients with AD and 30 age/sex matched healthy control subjects. The proposed method detected artificial effects with high accuracy and revealed statistically significant differences between the AD and control groups. This paper extends the usage of texture analysis beyond the current region of interest analysis to voxel-by-voxel 3D statistical mapping and provides a hypothesis-free analysis tool to study cerebral pathology in neurological diseases.

Robust volumetric texture classification of magnetic resonance images of the brain using local frequency descriptor.

This paper presents a method for robust volumetric texture classification. It also proposes 2D and 3D gradient calculation methods designed to be robust to imaging effects and artifacts. Using the proposed 2D method, the gradient information is extracted on the XYZ orthogonal planes at each voxel and used to form a local coordinate system. The local coordinate system and the local 3D gradient computed by the proposed 3D gradient calculator are then used to define volumetric texture features. It is shown that the presented gradient calculation methods can be efficiently implemented by convolving with 2D and 3D kernels. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed gradient operators and the texture features are robust to imaging effects and artifacts, such as blurriness and noise in 2D and 3D images. The proposed method is compared with three state-of-the-art volumetric texture classification methods the 3D gray level cooccurance matrix, 3D local binary patterns, and second orientation pyramid on magnetic resonance imaging data of the brain. The experimental results show the superiority of the proposed method in accuracy, robustness, and speed.

A Parallel Method to Improve Medical Image Transmission

The staggering number of images acquired by modern modalities requires new approaches for medical data transmission. There have been several attempts to improve data transmission time between medical imaging systems. These attempts were mostly based on compression. Although the compression methods can help in many cases, they are sometimes ineffectual in high-speed networks. This paper introduces parallelism to provide an effective method of medical data transmission over both local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN). It is based on the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) protocol and uses parallel TCP connections in storage services within the protocol. Using the proposed interface in our method, current medical imaging applications can take advantage of parallelism without any modification. Experimental results show a speedup of about 1.3 to 1.5 for CT images and relatively high speedup of about 2.2 to 3.5 times for magnetic resonance (MR) images over LAN. The transmission time is improved drastically over WAN. The speedup is about 16.1 for CT images and about 5.6 to 11.5 for MR images.

A practical fast method for medical imaging transmission based on the DICOM protocol

The standard format for medical imaging storage and transmission is Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM). Nowadays, and specifically with large amounts of medical images acquired by modern modalities, the need for fast data transmission between DICOM application entities is evident. In some applications, particularly those aiming to provide real-time services, this demand is critical. This paper introduces a method which provides a fast and simple way of image transmission by utilizing the DICOM protocol. The current implementations of DICOM protocol usually care more about connecting DICOM application entities. In the process of connecting two DICOM application entities, the format of the transmission (Transfer Syntax) is agreed upon. In this crucial step, the two entities choose an encoding that is supported by both and if one entity does not support compression the other one cannot use that option. In the proposed method, we use a pair of interfaces to deal with this issue and provide a fast method for medical data transmission between any two DICOM application entities. These interfaces use both compression and multi-threading techniques to transfer the images. The interfaces can be used without any change to the current DICOM application entities. In fact, the interfaces listen to the incoming messages from the DICOM application entities, intercept the messages, and carry out the data transmission. The experimental results show about 22% speed-up in Local Area Networks (LANs) and about 13-14 times speed-up in Wide Area Networks (WANs).

A remote real-time PACS-based platform for medical imaging telemedicine

This paper describes a remote real-time PACS-based telemedicine platform for clinical and diagnostic services delivered at different care settings where the physicians, specialists and scientists may attend. In fact, the platform aims to provide a PACS-based telemedicine framework for different medical image services such as segmentation, registration and specifically high-quality 3D visualization. The proposed approach offers services which are not only widely accessible and real-time, but are also secure and cost-effective. In addition, the proposed platform has the ability to bring in a realtime, ubiquitous, collaborative, interactive meeting environment supporting 3D visualization for consultations, which has not been well addressed with the current PACS-based applications. Using this ability, physicians and specialists can consult with each other at separate places and it is especially helpful for settings, where there is no specialist or the number of specialists is not enough to handle all the available cases. Furthermore, the proposed platform can be used as a rich resource for clinical research studies as well as for academic purposes.

Texture Analysis to Detect Cerebral Degeneration in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

BACKGROUND Evidence of cerebral degeneration is not apparent on routine brain MRI in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Texture analysis can detect change in images based on the statistical properties of voxel intensities. Our objective was to test the utility of texture analysis in detecting cerebral degeneration in ALS. A secondary objective was to determine whether the performance of texture analysis is dependent on image resolution. METHODS High-resolution (0.5×0.5 mm2 in-plane) coronal T2-weighted MRI of the brain were acquired from 12 patients with ALS and 19 healthy controls on a 4.7 Tesla MRI system. Image data sets at lower resolutions were created by down-sampling to 1×1, 2×2, 3×3, and 4×4 mm2. Texture features were extracted from a slice encompassing the corticospinal tract at the different resolutions and tested for their discriminatory power and correlations with clinical measures. Subjects were also classified by visual assessment by expert reviewers. RESULTS Texture features were different between ALS patients and healthy controls at 1×1, 2×2, and 3×3 mm2 resolutions. Texture features correlated with measures of upper motor neuron function and disability. Optimal classification performance was achieved when best-performing texture features were combined with visual assessment at 2×2 mm2 resolution (0.851 area under the curve, 83% sensitivity, 79% specificity). CONCLUSIONS Texture analysis can detect subtle abnormalities in MRI of ALS patients. The clinical yield of the method is dependent on image resolution. Texture analysis holds promise as a potential source of neuroimaging biomarkers in ALS.

Robust Edge Aware Descriptor for Image Matching

This paper presents a method called Robust Edge Aware Descriptor (READ) to compute local gradient information. The proposed method measures the similarity of the underlying structure to an edge using the 1D Fourier transform on a set of points located on a circle around a pixel. It is shown that the magnitude and the phase of READ can well represent the magnitude and orientation of the local gradients and present robustness to imaging effects and artifacts. In addition, the proposed method can be efficiently implemented by kernels. Next, we define a robust region descriptor for image matching using the READ gradient operator. The presented descriptor uses a novel approach to define support regions by rotation and anisotropical scaling of the original regions. The experimental results on the Oxford dataset and on additional datasets with more challenging imaging effects such as motion blur and non-uniform illumination changes show the superiority and robustness of the proposed descriptor to the state-of-the-art descriptors.