STEREO X-RAY TUBE BASED SUPPRESSION OF OUTSIDE BODY HIGH CONTRAST OBJECTS

摘要

A double focal spot X-ray tube (104) is used to acquire a set of two images PIα, PIβ for a given gantry position from slightly different view positions. The stereo or binocular disparity (BD) of imaged structures is used to estimate the object depth in view direction, which in turn is used to discriminate between objects inside IO and outside EO the body. Respective structures are virtually removed from the images PIα, PIβ.

主权项

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:
an input interface unit for receiving at least two projection images of a patient taken at different projection angles by an X-ray scanner, each of the images including a footprint of a target object, an image depth resolver configured to use the two target object footprints to determine whether the target object was external to the subject when the images were taken, based on a binocular disparity between the target object footprints; an image manipulator configured to, when the target object is determined by the resolver to be external, virtually replace or remove pixel information in the respective target object footprints to so produce an output enhanced image which, when viewed, no longer shows the target object footprints, and an output interface unit configured to output the output enhanced image.