US 11,941,803 B2
System and method for processing at least one polluting region of a digital image of an object exposed to X-rays
Mickael Tardy, Nantes (FR); and Bruno Scheffer, Nantes (FR)
Assigned to HERA-MI, Nantes (FR)
Appl. No. 17/253,179
Filed by HERA-MI, Nantes (FR)
PCT Filed Jun. 18, 2019, PCT No. PCT/FR2019/051487
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Dec. 17, 2020,
PCT Pub. No. WO2019/243731, PCT Pub. Date Dec. 26, 2019.
Claims priority of application No. 18 55390 (FR), filed on Jun. 19, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2021/0264594 A1, Aug. 26, 2021
Int. Cl. G06T 7/00 (2017.01); A61B 6/00 (2006.01); A61B 6/50 (2024.01); G06T 7/11 (2017.01); G06T 11/00 (2006.01)
CPC G06T 7/0012 (2013.01) [A61B 6/502 (2013.01); A61B 6/5217 (2013.01); G06T 7/11 (2017.01); G06T 11/001 (2013.01); G06T 2207/10116 (2013.01); G06T 2207/20021 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method, implemented using a computer system, for processing at least one part, called polluting region, of a digital image of an object, the image being produced from an X-ray apparatus by exposing the object to X-rays, said image being stored in a data memory and comprising:
points with each of which there is associated a numerical intensity value, called initial intensity I0, which corresponds to the number of photons that have struck a corresponding point of the object, and
at least one item of metadata,
wherein said at least one item of metadata comprises at least one of the following items of metadata:
one or more physical parameters of the object, such as the thickness of the object,
one or more parameters relating to the power or the energy of the X-rays with which the image was acquired, such as the voltage and electric current values used to produce the X-rays;
said method comprising:
identifying at least one group of points in the image corresponding to a polluting region on the basis of the initial intensity values I0 of the points in the image and of said at least one item of metadata;
generating a new image comprising a step of replacing the initial intensity values I0 of at least some of the points of said at least one polluting region with new intensity values
said method further comprising:
providing a set of groups of points, called texturing elements, stored in a data memory, each texturing element comprising a plurality of points and intensity values associated with the points, and
wherein the step of replacing the initial intensity values I0 of at least some of the points of said at least one polluting region with new intensity values comprises:
selecting a texturing element from among a plurality of texturing elements or generating a new texturing element from one or more selected texturing elements, and
replacing the initial intensity values I0 of at least some of the points of said at least one polluting region with the intensity values of at least some of the points of the selected texturing element or of the generated new texturing element.