US 12,204,681 B1
Apparatus for and method of de-identification of medical images
Abhijith Chunduru, Bengaluru (IN); Dibakar Saha, Jalpaiguri (IN); Krishna Chaitanya Kaluva, Andhra Pradesh (IN); and Suthirth Vaidya, Kerala (IN)
Assigned to nference, Inc., Cambridge, MA (US)
Filed by nference, Inc., Cambridge, MA (US)
Filed on Jul. 9, 2024, as Appl. No. 18/767,449.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/516,694, filed on Jul. 31, 2023.
Int. Cl. G06F 21/62 (2013.01); G06V 20/62 (2022.01)
CPC G06F 21/6254 (2013.01) [G06V 20/62 (2022.01)] 24 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus for de-identification of medical images, the apparatus comprising:
at least a processor; and
a memory communicatively connected to the at least a processor, the memory containing instructions configuring the at least a processor to:
receive a series of images, the series of images comprising metadata and a plurality of image slices;
select a sampling strategy as a function of the metadata, wherein the sampling strategy identifies a subset of image slices of the plurality of image slices to sample;
apply a text classifier to the subset of image slices identified by the sampling strategy, wherein the text classifier is configured to identify a presence of textual information on the subset of image slices;
determine at least one relationship between the subset of images slices comprising:
providing an output as a function of the presence of the textual information, the metadata, and a position of each image slice of the subset of image slices in the series of image slices, wherein the output indicates whether to mask all image slices of the plurality of image slices; and
mask one or more image slices of the plurality of image slices as a function of the textual information and at least the output.