WO2019183712A1 - Methods of generating an encoded representation of an image and systems of operating thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A computer-implemented method and system are provided for generating an encoded representation for one or more images. The method involves operating a processor to, for at least one image portion of a plurality of image portions of the image, receive a set of projection data representing an image intensity of the image portion along a plurality of projection directions; and identify a subset of projection data from the set of projection data associated with one or more dominant features. The set of projection data includes a subset of projection data for each projection direction of the plurality of projection directions. The processor is operable to generate the encoded representation based at least on a data variation within the subset of projection data for the at least one image portion.

Description

Methods of Generating an Encoded Representation of an Image and Systems of Operating Thereof

[1] This application claims the benefit of United States Provisional Application No. 62/649,897, filed on March 29, 2018 and claims priority to Canadian Patent Application No. 2,999,648 filed on March 29, 2018. The complete disclosure of each of United States Provisional Application No. 62/649,897 and Canadian Patent Application No. 2,999,648 is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Field

[2] The described embodiments relate to systems and methods of generating an encoded representation of an image.

Background

[3] Digital images and videos are increasingly common forms of media. As more digital content is generated and becomes available, the usefulness of that digital content largely depends on its management.

[4] Some existing practices involve associating the digital content with searchable descriptors. Although some of these descriptors may be automatically generated, these descriptors are typically generated based on features and/or qualities identified from human observations and judgement. In addition to the amount of time required for a human to observe and generate descriptive descriptors for the digital content, the descriptors may not be universal or adaptable between different systems. Also, existing descriptors can be limited by the extent in which the digital content can be processed.

Summary

[5] The various embodiments described herein generally relate to methods (and associated systems configured to implement the methods) for generating an encoded representation for one or more images.

[6] An example method involves operating a processor to, for at least one image portion of a plurality of image portions of an image of the one or more images, receive a set of projection data representing an image intensity of the image portion along a plurality of projection directions; and identify a subset of projection data from the set of projection data associated with one or more dominant features. The set of projection data includes a subset of projection data for each projection direction of the plurality of projection directions. The method also involves operating the processor to generate the encoded representation based at least on a data variation within the subset of projection data for the at least one image portion.

[7] In some embodiments, generating the encoded representation based on the data variation within the subset of projection data can include determining a direction of change between each sequential projection data within the subset of projection data; and converting the direction of change to a binary representation.

[8] In some embodiments, the method can include converting the binary representation to an integer value.

[9] In some embodiments, determining the direction of change between each sequential projection data within the subset of projection data can include calculating a derivative for the subset of projection data.

[10] In some embodiments, converting the direction of change to the binary representation can include assigning an increase indicator to an increasing direction of change; and assigning a decrease indicator to a decreasing direction of change.

[11] In some embodiments, generating the encoded representation can include generating the encoded representation based on the data variations in the subsets of projection data associated with two or more image portions in the plurality of image portions.

[12] In some embodiments, the method can include representing the data variations in the subsets of projection data for the two or more image portions as two or more respective integer values; and determining an occurrence frequency for each respective integer value.

[13] In some embodiments, generating the encoded representation can include generating a histogram to represent the occurrence frequency for each respective integer value.

[14] In some embodiments, identifying the subset of projection data associated with the one or more dominant features can include determining a projection direction associated with the subset of projection data associated with the one or more dominant features and assigning that projection direction as a principal projection direction; and selecting one or more supplemental projection directions based on the principal projection direction. In addition, generating the encoded representation can be based on the data variations in the subsets of projection data associated with the principal projection direction and each selected supplemental projection direction.

[15] In some embodiments, the method can include for each subset of projection data, representing the data variation in the respective subset of projection data with an integer value; and determining an occurrence frequency of each respective integer value.

[16] In some embodiments, the method can include generating a histogram to represent the occurrence frequency of each respective integer value.

[17] In some embodiments, the method can include generating the encoded representation based on the data variations in the sets of projection data for two or more image portions in the plurality of image portions; and for each projection direction of the principal projection direction and the selected supplemental projection directions, determining the occurrence frequency of the respective integer values of the two or more image portions.

[18] In some embodiments, the method can include generating a histogram for each projection direction to represent the respective occurrence frequency.

[19] In some embodiments, selecting the one or more supplemental projection directions based on the principal projection direction can include assigning the one or more supplemental projection directions to be at substantially equal angular separation from an adjacent supplemental projection direction, and each supplemental projection direction adjacent to the principal projection direction can be at the substantially equal angular separation from the principal projection direction.

[20] In some embodiments, the one or more supplemental projection directions can include three supplemental projection directions separated by an angular separation of 45° from each other, and each supplemental projection adjacent to the principal projection direction can be separated by the angular separation of 45° from the principal projection direction.

[21] In some embodiments, the generating the encoded representation based on the data variations in the subset of projection data can include representing the data variations in the subsets of projection data for the two or more image portions as two or more respective integer values; and determining an occurrence frequency of the two or more respective integer values. [22] In some embodiments, the method can include generating a histogram to represent the occurrence frequency.

[23] In some embodiments, identifying the subset of projection data associated with the one or more dominant features can include determining, from the set of projection data, the subset of projection data having a greatest variance.

[24] In some embodiments, identifying the subset of projection data associated with the one or more dominant features can include determining, from the set of projection data, the subset of projection data having a greatest value.

[25] In some embodiments, the method can further include, for each image portion, determining whether a homogeneity level of the image portion exceeds a homogeneity threshold, the homogeneity level representing an intensity variation within the image data intensity of the image portion; and in response to determining the homogeneity level of that image portion exceeds the homogeneity threshold, excluding that image portion from the encoded representation, otherwise, indicating that image portion is usable for the encoded representation.

[26] In some embodiments, receiving the set of projection data representing the image intensity of the image portion along the plurality of projection directions can involve receiving the set of projection data from the plurality of directions including 0° to 180°.

[27] In some embodiments, the method can include dividing the image into the plurality of image portions, wherein a dimension of each image portion is characterized by a substantially similar number of pixels.

[28] In another broad aspect, a system for generating an encoded representation for one or more images is described. The system can include a communication component and a processor in communication with the communication component. The communication component can provide access to the one or more images via a network. The processor can be operable to, for at least one image portion of a plurality of image portions of an image of the one or more images, receive a set of projection data representing an image intensity of the image portion along a plurality of projection directions; and identify a subset of projection data from the set of projection data associated with one or more dominant features. The set of projection data can include a subset of projection data for each projection direction of the plurality of projection directions. The processor can be operable to generate the encoded representation based at least on a data variation within the subset of projection data for the at least one image portion.

[29] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to determine a direction of change between each sequential projection data within the subset of projection data; and convert the direction of change to a binary representation.

[30] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to convert the binary representation to an integer value.

[31] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to calculate a derivative for the subset of projection data.

[32] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to assign an increase indicator to an increasing direction of change; and assign a decrease indicator to a decreasing direction of change.

[33] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to generate the encoded representation based on the data variations in the subsets of projection data associated with two or more image portions in the plurality of image portions.

[34] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to represent the data variations in the subsets of projection data for the two or more image portions as two or more respective integer values; and determine an occurrence frequency for each respective integer value.

[35] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to generate a histogram to represent the occurrence frequency for each respective integer value.

[36] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to determine a projection direction associated with the subset of projection data associated with the one or more dominant features and assigning that projection direction as a principal projection direction; select one or more supplemental projection directions based on the principal projection direction; and generate the encoded representation based on the data variations in the subsets of projection data associated with the principal projection direction and each selected supplemental projection direction.

[37] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to for each subset of projection data, represent the data variation in the respective subset of projection data with an integer value; and determine an occurrence frequency of each respective integer value.

[38] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to generate a histogram to represent the occurrence frequency of each respective integer value. [39] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to generate the encoded representation based on the data variations in the sets of projection data for two or more image portions in the plurality of image portions; and for each projection direction of the principal projection direction and the selected supplemental projection directions, determine the occurrence frequency of the respective integer values of the two or more image portions.

[40] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to generate a histogram for each projection direction to represent the respective occurrence frequency.

[41] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to assign the one or more supplemental projection directions to be at substantially equal angular separation from an adjacent supplemental projection direction, and each supplemental projection direction adjacent to the principal projection direction can be at the substantially equal angular separation from the principal projection direction.

[42] In some embodiments, the one or more supplemental projection directions can include three supplemental projection directions separated by an angular separation of 45° from each other, and each supplemental projection adjacent to the principal projection direction can be separated by the angular separation of 45° from the principal projection direction.

[43] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to represent the data variations in the subsets of projection data for the two or more image portions as two or more respective integer values; and determine an occurrence frequency of the two or more respective integer values.

[44] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to generate a histogram to represent the occurrence frequency.

[45] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to determine, from the set of projection data, the subset of projection data having a greatest variance.

[46] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to determine, from the set of projection data, the subset of projection data having a greatest value.

[47] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to, for each image portion, determine whether a homogeneity level of the image portion exceeds a homogeneity threshold, the homogeneity level representing an intensity variation within the image data intensity of the image portion; and in response to determining the homogeneity level of that image portion exceeds the homogeneity threshold, exclude that image portion from the encoded representation, otherwise, indicate that image portion is usable for the encoded representation.

[48] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to receive the set of projection data from the plurality of directions including 0° to 180°.

[49] In some embodiments, the processor can be operable to divide the image into the plurality of image portions, wherein a dimension of each image portion is characterized by a substantially similar number of pixels.

[50] In some embodiments, the dimension of each image portion can be 10x10 pixels.

[51] In some embodiments, at least one image portion of the plurality of image portions can overlap with a neighbouring image portion.

[52] In some embodiments, the image can include a medical image.

[53] In some embodiments, the set of projection data can be generated from applying Radon transform to the image portion.

[54] In some embodiments, the communication component can receive the image from an imaging device via the network.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[55] Several embodiments will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an imaging system, in accordance with an example embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an example method for generating an encoded representation of an image;

FIG. 3A is a flowchart of another example method for generating an encoded representation of an image;

FIG. 3B is a flowchart of an example method for determining an encoded representation for an image portion;

FIG. 4A is an example image for processing by the systems described herein; FIG. 4B is an example image portion of the image of FIG. 4A;

FIG. 5A is a schematic illustrating an example Radon transform applied to an image portion;

FIG. 5B is a schematic illustrating a set of projection data for the image portion of FIG. 5A, in accordance with an example embodiment; FIG. 6A is an example sinogram for the image portion of FIG. 4B;

FIG. 6B is a graph of the total intensity values of the projection data at various projection directions for the image portion of FIG. 4B;

FIG. 7A is a graph of the amplitude values of the projection data along a principal projection direction for the image portion shown in FIG. 4B;

FIG. 7B is a graph of the amplitude values of the projection data along a first supplemental projection direction for the image portion shown in FIG. 4B;

FIG. 7C is a graph of the amplitude values of the projection data along a second supplemental projection direction for the image portion shown in FIG. 4B;

FIG. 7D is a graph of the amplitude values of the projection data along a third supplemental projection direction for the image portion shown in FIG. 4B;

FIG. 8A is a graph of a derivative of the amplitude values shown in FIG. 7A;

FIG. 8B is a graph of a derivative of the amplitude values shown in FIG. 7B;

FIG. 8C is a graph of a derivative of the amplitude values shown in FIG. 7C;

FIG. 8D is a graph of a derivative of the amplitude values shown in FIG. 7D;

FIG. 9A is a graph of a derivative of an example set of projection data associated with an image, in accordance with an example embodiment;

FIG. 9B is a schematic representation of an example encoded representation associated with FIG. 9A;

FIG. 9C is a schematic representation of another example encoded representation associated with FIG. 9A;

FIG. 10 is a histogram of integer values representing the image portion of FIG. 4B;

FIG. 1 1 A is another example image portion;

FIG. 1 1 B is an example sinogram for the image portion shown in FIG. 1 1 A;

FIG. 1 1 C is a graph of total intensity values and gradient values at various projection directions for the image portion of FIG. 1 1 A;

FIG. 12A shows another example image;

FIG. 12B is a histogram representative of the image of FIG. 12A;

FIG. 12C is a graphical illustration of the projection data taken along a principal projection direction of the image of FIG. 12A;

FIG. 12D is a histogram representative of the image of FIG. 12C;

FIG. 12E is a graphical illustration of the projection data taken along a supplemental projection direction of the image shown in FIG. 12A; FIG. 12F is a histogram representative the image of FIG. 12E;

FIG. 13A is an example patch from an example dataset;

FIG. 13B is another example patch from the same example dataset shown in FIG. 13A;

FIG. 13C is another example patch from the same example dataset shown in FIG. 13A;

FIG. 13D is another example patch from the same example dataset shown in FIG. 13A;

FIG. 13E is another example patch from the same example dataset shown in FIG. 13A; and

FIG. 13F is another example patch from the same example dataset shown in FIG. 13A.

[56] The drawings, described below, are provided for purposes of illustration, and not of limitation, of the aspects and features of various examples of embodiments described herein. For simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the drawings have not necessarily been drawn to scale. The dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, where considered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the drawings to indicate corresponding or analogous elements or steps.

Description of Example Embodiments

[57] The various embodiments described herein generally relate to methods (and associated systems configured to implement the methods) for generating an encoded representation of one or more images.

[58] Existing practices involve associating images with image descriptors that are searchable to assist with the management of the image data. Keyword or tag descriptor-based approaches require manual human annotation and judgement, which can be impractical in view of the large amount of image and video data that typically needs to be processed.

[59] Although some of these descriptors may be automatically generated, these descriptors are typically generated based on features and/or qualities identified from human observations and judgement. In addition to the amount of time required for a human to observe and generate descriptive descriptors for the digital content, the descriptors may not be universal or adaptable between different systems.

[60] In many image processing systems, the quality of the descriptors can be limited by the computer resources. Depending on the resolution of an image, existing image descriptors may be insufficient to accurately identify similar images. Existing image descriptors can be complex and involve computationally intensive calculations. The computational power may not readily be available and/or insufficient to handle the growing amount of digital content being generated. As well, the existing image descriptors can require large amount of storage capacity, which results in additional cost or may not be available at all.

[61] In the medical field, for example, medical images of patients are regularly captured for diagnostic and/or monitoring purposes. Medical images can be generated by many different imaging devices and undergo visual or numerical investigation for medical diagnoses and research. These medical images are typically archived and may be retrieved for a later purpose (e.g., research or educational, etc.). Timely and consistent representation of these images can likely assist with diagnosis. Similarly, many other sectors, such as architectural and engineering design, geoinformatics, museum and gallery collections, retail catalogs, material processing, military and defense applications, surveillance and forensics, can also benefit from efficient and consistent management of image data.

[62] The ability to efficiently and consistently classify images, and retrieve those images can be advantageous for these sectors. For example, in the medical field, as medical images are analyzed for a medical diagnosis, the medical images are often compared with archived images of diagnosed cases to assist with the diagnosis. Also, the present diagnosis can benefit from archived images, which may have been clinically evaluated and annotated for second opinions, research, or educational purposes. Existing image descriptors can facilitate the retrieval of archived images and the retrieval of similar images but the image descriptors may be inconsistent between medical facilities and equipment.

[63] Encoded representations of images generated in accordance with the methods and systems described herein can classify the images consistently and do not require high storage capacity. The encoded representations can then be used to identify analogous images for comparison. [64] The encoded representations generated from the methods and systems disclosed herein can be applied in content-based image retrieval (CBIR) methods.

[65] Reference is first made to FIG. 1 , which illustrates an example block diagram 100 of an image management system 1 10 in communication with an imaging device 120, a system storage component 140, and a computing device 150 via a network 130. Although only one imaging device 120 and one computing device 150 are shown in FIG. 1 , the image management system 1 10 can be in communication with include fewer or more imaging devices 120 and fewer or more computing devices 150. The image management system 1 10 can communicate with the devices 120, 150 over a wide geographic area via the network 130.

[66] The imaging device 120 can include any device capable of capturing image data and/or generating images, and/or storing image data.

[67] As shown in FIG. 1 , the image management system 1 10 includes a processor 1 12, a storage component 1 14, and a communication component 1 16. The image management system 1 10 may include one or more servers that may be distributed over a wide geographic area and connected via the network 130. In some embodiments, each of the processor 1 12, the storage component 1 14 and the communication component 1 16 may be combined into a fewer number of components or may be separated into further components.

[68] The processor 1 12 may be any suitable processors, controllers, digital signal processors, graphics processing units, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), and/or field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that can provide sufficient processing power depending on the configuration, purposes and requirements of the image management system 1 10. In some embodiments, the processor 1 12 can include more than one processor with each processor being configured to perform different dedicated tasks.

[69] The processor 1 12 may be configured to control the operation of the image management system 1 10. The processor 112 can include modules that initiate and manage the operations of the image management system 1 10. The processor 1 12 may also determine, based on received data, stored data and/or user preferences, how the image management system 1 10 may generally operate.

[70] The communication component 1 16 may be any interface that enables the image management system 1 10 to communicate with other devices and systems. In some embodiments, the communication component 1 16 can include at least one of a serial port, a parallel port or a USB port. The communication component 1 16 may also include at least one of an Internet, Local Area Network (LAN), Ethernet, Firewire, modem, fiber, or digital subscriber line connection. Various combinations of these elements may be incorporated within the communication component 1 16.

[71] For example, the communication component 116 may receive input from various input devices, such as a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen, a thumbwheel, a track-pad, a track-ball, a card-reader, voice recognition software and the like depending on the requirements and implementation of the image management system 1 10.

[72] The storage component 1 14 can include RAM, ROM, one or more hard drives, one or more flash drives or some other suitable data storage elements such as disk drives, etc. The storage component 1 14 is used to store an operating system and programs, for example. For instance, the operating system provides various basic operational processes for the processor. The programs include various user programs so that a user can interact with the processor to perform various functions such as, but not limited to, viewing and/or manipulating the image data as well as retrieving and/or transmitting image data as the case may be.

[73] In some embodiments, the storage component 1 14 can store the images, information related to encoded representations of the images, and information related to the imaging devices 120.

[74] The storage component 1 14 may include one or more databases (not shown) for storing image data and information relating to the image data, such as, for example, patient data with respect to the image data.

[75] Similar to the storage component 1 14, the system storage component 140 can store images and information related to images. Images and information related to images can be stored in the system storage component 140 for retrieval by the computing device 150 or the image management system 1 10.

[76] Images described herein can include any digital image with any number of pixels. The images can have any size and resolution. In some embodiments, the size and resolution of the image can be adjusted in one or more pre-processing stages. Example image pre-processing includes normalizing the pixel dimensions of an image and digital filtering for noise reduction.

[77] An example image is a medical image of a body part, or part of a body part. A medical image can be generated using any modality, including but not limited to microscopy, X-ray radiography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound, and/or computed tomography scans (CT scans). Microscopy can include, but is not limited to whole slide imaging (WSI), reflected light, brightfield, transmitted light, fluorescence, and photoluminescence.

[78] The image can be a black and white, grey-level, RGB color, or false color image. An image data structure typically includes an intensity value at each pixel location. To capture a wide dynamic range of intensity values, the data structure of the image uses a number of data bits to represent each pixel.

[79] Sub-images, or patches, can also be defined within images. The dimensions of a patch are smaller than the dimensions of the image itself.

[80] Information related to encoded representations of images that may be stored in the storage component 1 14 or the system storage component 140 may, for example, include but is not limited to the encoded representations of images, image portion dimensions and strides, projection data, projection directions, including principal and supplemental projection directions, histograms, and sinograms.

[81] Information related to image annotations that may be stored in the storage component 1 14 or the system storage component 140 may, for example, include but is not limited to text comments, audio recordings, markers, shapes, lines, free form mark-ups, and measurements.

[82] Information related to imaging devices that may be stored in the storage component 1 14 or the system storage component 140 may, for example, include but is not limited to a device identifier, a device location, a device operator, a modality, supported image resolutions, supported image file types, image size range, image margin ranges, and an image scale range.

[83] Information related to image subjects that may be stored in the storage component 1 14 or the system storage component 140 may, for example, include but is not limited to a patient identifier, a date of birth, gender, home address, primary physician, and medical team in the case of medical images.

[84] The computing device 150 may be any networked device operable to connect to the network 130. A networked device is a device capable of communicating with other devices through a network such as the network 130. A network device may couple to the network 130 through a wired or wireless connection.

[85] The computing device 150 may include at least a processor and memory, and may be an electronic tablet device, a personal computer, workstation, server, portable computer, mobile device, personal digital assistant, laptop, smart phone, WAP phone, an interactive television, video display terminals, gaming consoles, and portable electronic devices or any combination of these.

[86] In some embodiments, the computing device 150 may be a laptop, or a smartphone device equipped with a network adapter for connecting to the Internet. In some embodiments, the connection request initiated from the computing device 1 50 may be initiated from a web browser and directed at the browser-based communications application on the image management system 1 10.

[87] The network 130 may be any network capable of carrying data, including the Internet, Ethernet, plain old telephone service (POTS) line, public switch telephone network (PSTN), integrated services digital network (ISDN), digital subscriber line (DSL), coaxial cable, fiber optics, satellite, mobile, wireless (e.g. Wi-Fi, WiMAX), SS7 signaling network, fixed line, local area network, wide area network, and others, including any combination of these, capable of interfacing with, and enabling communication between, the image management system 1 10, the imaging device 120, the system storage component 140, and the computing device 150.

[88] When the encoded representations disclosed herein are generated, the associated images are encoded, or indexed. The encoded representation represents a content of the image. In this way, the indexed image can be searched according to the encoded representation. A database of indexed images, or of links to indexed images, can be used in the image management system 1 10 to compare and retrieve similar or related images.

[89] When encoding an image, the processor 1 12 can populate the storage component 1 14 or the system storage component 140 with the image. For example, the communication component 1 16 can receive the image from the imaging device 120. The processor 1 12 can then process the image according to the methods described herein. The processor 1 12 can generate an encoded representation for the image and store the encoded representation. In some embodiments, the encoded representation may be embedded as metadata in the image file.

[90] When searching for an image and retrieving the image, the processor 1 12 can generate an image query based on the encoded representation and trigger a search for the associated image in the storage component 1 14 or the system storage component 140. The image query generated by the processor 1 12 can search the storage component 1 14 or the system storage component 140 for similar encoded representations. The retrieved similar encoded representation can direct the processor 1 12 to the related images stored in the storage component 1 14 or in the system storage component 140. The processor 1 12 can retrieve the associated image with an image query search, for example.

[91] A degree of similarity between encoded representations can be determined by comparing the bit values between the encoded representations. In some embodiments, a degree of similarity between the encoded representations may be determined with a Hamming distance calculation.

[92] The image(s) associated with the similar stored encoded representation(s) is useful to the user running the image query search on the image management system 1 10. In the medical imaging context, a medical professional (radiologist, pathologist, diagnostician, researcher, etc.) may scan a patient and use the image to search for more information about the patient's illness.

[93] For example, the processor 1 12 can receive an image query that defines a size, shape, and location of a tumor. The processor 1 12 can then trigger a search for images that satisfy that image query. When the image management system 1 10 receives the search results, the communication component 1 16 can display the resulting images to the user for review. In some embodiments, the resulting images can be displayed at the computing device 150. The image management system 1 10 can provide further information in respect to each of the results for the user, such as the medical case information of each result. Accordingly, the user can see how previous patients with a similar tumor were diagnosed, treated and evaluated.

[94] In some embodiments, the image management system 1 10 can receive images directly from the imaging device 120. The image management system 1 10 may process query images, generate encoded representations, and retrieve similar images in real-time or nearly in real-time, as the query images are being received from the imaging device 120. By increasing the speed in which the query image can be reviewed and analyzed with respect to an archive of images in real-time, or near real-time, the disclosed image management system 1 10 can significantly improve patient care and responsiveness.

[95] In the context of the present disclosure, the terms“real-time” or“near real- time” is defined as image processing that is concurrent to, or within a small temporal window of, the query image acquisition or generation. The purpose of real-time or near real-time image processing is to deliver search and retrieval results from the image management system 1 10 to the user within seconds or minutes after a medical imaging scan of the patient. Accordingly, related medical case information may be delivered to the patient's doctor with minimal delay, for a timely diagnosis of the patient's illness.

[96] In some embodiments, images can be loaded into the image management system 1 10 from the system storage component 140 or computing device 150 that is remote from the image management system 1 10. For example, the image management system 1 10 may be used to process offsite data. Processing offsite data or non-time-sensitive data is suited to research applications where real-time processing (i.e. , concurrent to image acquisition or generation) is not necessary. A researcher tasked with processing hundreds or thousands of medical images would still benefit from the increased processing speed of the image management system 1 10 over conventional feature detection-based CBIR systems, even if the hundreds or thousands of medical images are not related to any patients awaiting diagnosis.

[97] Referring now to FIG. 2, an example method 200 for generating an encoded representation of an image is shown in a flowchart diagram. To assist with the description of the method 200, reference will be made simultaneously to FIGS. 4A to 10.

[98] At 202, for at least one image portion of a plurality of image portions of the image, the processor 1 12 receives a set of projection data representing an image intensity of the image portion along a plurality of projection directions.

[99] The processor 1 12 can divide an image, such as example image 400 in FIG. 4A, into image portions 402. Example image portions 402a to 402e are shown in FIG. 4A. Image portion 402a is shown in FIG. 4B. In some embodiments, an image portion 402 can overlap with a neighboring image portion. That is, an image portion can include the same pixels as another image portion of the image 400. For example, in FIG. 4A, image portions 402b and 402c overlap each other. A stride between overlapping image portions refers to the shift in position between overlapping image portions or non-overlapping pixels between overlapping image portions. Overlapping image portions can have a single pixel stride, or a two pixel stride, or any other appropriate stride value that is less than the dimensions of the image portion. [100] In some embodiments, the image portions do not overlap. That is, each portion includes different pixels of the image 400. Image portions 402d and 402e are example image portions that do not overlap.

[101] The image portions 402 shown in FIG. 4A are square in shape. It is possible for the image portions 402 to have different shapes. For example, an image portion can have a shape that is a rectangle, triangle, trapezoid, circle, oval, or any other appropriate closed planar figure. Each image portion 402 of an image 400 has substantially the same shape.

[102] In addition, a dimension of the image portions 402 can be varied with the applications of the image management system 1 10, according to user definitions and/or other factors associated with the encoding of the images. For example, the dimension of the image portion 402 can be defined according to a type of image analysis to be implemented and/or a type of image. For example, a dimension of the image portion 402 can be ten pixels by ten pixels (10x10) or any other appropriate dimensions. The dimension of an image portion 402 can be smaller than the dimension of patches within the image.

[103] The size of the image portion 402 can be selected based on a maximum integer to be used for the encoded representation. For example, if the maximum integer is 256, a binary representation, such as 710 and 720 shown in FIGS. 9B and 9C, require 8 bits. In some embodiments, additional bits may be included to represent other characteristics of the image portion 402. In some embodiments, each image portion 402 of an image 400 can be characterized by substantially similar dimensions.

[104] For each image portion 402, the processor 1 12 can generate a set of projection data. The processor 1 12 can generate projection data by applying a transform to the image portion 402. The projection data extracts data related to image features from the intensity values and the data structure of the image portion 402. The projection data can also include compressed image information contained within the intensity values and the data structure of the image portion. The nature of the extracted features and/or compressed information can vary with the transform used to generate the transform values. Example transforms include, but is not limited to, Fourier, wavelet, cosine, Haar, Gabor, and Radon transforms. Depending on the analysis to be applied to the image, a different transform may be appropriate. For example, the Gabor transform can generate a more detailed set of projection data than the Radon transform but the Gabor transform can be more computationally intensive.

[105] Referring now to FIG. 5A, shown therein is a schematic 500 illustrating application of a Radon transform as applied to an image portion. In the schematic 500, a data structure 508 representing the image portion is shown. The data structure 508 is a form of representing features of the image portion. In the example shown in FIG. 5A, the data structure 508 illustrates the intensity values at the respective pixel position in the image portion.

[106] The data structure 508 in this example has a dimension of three pixels by three pixels (3x3). The data structure 508 in this example is in the form of a grid and each cell corresponds to a respective pixel position in the image portion. In this example, each pixel position can be identified by a position coordinate (x, y), where x represents a row and y represents a column. For example, pixel position (1 , 2) 512 has an intensity value of 4 and pixel position (3, 2) 514 has an intensity value of 6. Other forms of representing the pixel position can be similarly used.

[107] Radon transform, R(p, Q), can generate projection data for an image, or image portion. The Radon transform includes capturing data in respect of the image using parallel projection lines that are applied at positions p and at an angle © with respect to a reference edge of the image. The captured data is then integrated. That is, the Radon transform operates to sum image data at pixel positions along each projection line.

[108] Referring still to FIG. 5A, as shown generally at 520, 522 and 524 are example sets of projection lines. The set of projection lines 520 (e.g., lines 1 , 2, 3) are applied to the image at an angle of 0° relative to a reference edge 510, the set of projection lines 522 (e.g., lines T, 2’, 3’) are applied to the image at an angle of 90° relative to the reference edge 510, and the set of projection lines 524 (e.g., lines 1”, 2”, 3”) are applied to the image at an angle of 45° relative to the reference edge 510. The processor 1 12 can generate the projection data 502 based on the image data collected along the set of projection lines 520, the projection data 504 based on the image data collected along the set of projection lines 522, and the projection data 506 based on the image data collected along the set of projection lines 524.

[109] The projection data 502, 504, and 506 can be generally referred to as a set of projection data 530. The set of projection data 530 includes a subset of projection data 502, 504 and 506 that is associated with a corresponding set of projection lines 520, 524 and 522. Each set of projection data 530 contains extracted and compressed image information. In this example, the Radon transform of each set of projection lines generated corresponding three values, with each value representing a sum of the intensity along a projection line at each respective position p and at the angle Q relative to the reference edge 510. The magnitude and position of each value in each Radon projection captures spatial information about the content of the raw digital image. As shown in FIG. 5A, the values returned from the Radon transform of the subsets of projection data 502, 504, and 506 range from 6 to 24.

[110] The set of projection data 530 is illustrated in FIG. 5B in an example configuration. As shown, the subset of projection data 502 is based on the data collected with the set of projection lines 520 applied at an angle of 0° relative to the reference edge 510, the set of projection data 506 is based on the data collected with the set of projection lines 524 applied at an angle of 45° relative to the reference edge 510, and the set of projection data 504 is based on the data collected with the set of projection lines 522 applied at an angle of 90° relative to the reference edge 510. Each subset of projection data 502, 506, 504 includes an intensity value for each projection line of the corresponding set of projection lines 520, 524, 522.

[111] A Radon transformation can be applied to an image or image portion by applying a set of projection lines along a direction with respect to a reference edge of the image. Example directions can include 0° to 180° with respect to the reference edge of the image.

[112] Referring now to FIG. 6A, which is an example sinogram 600 for the image portion 402 shown in FIG. 4B. The sinogram 600 illustrates the sets of projection data representing the image intensity at each pixel of the image portion 402 after applying a Radon transformation to the image portion 402. The sinogram 600 includes the sets of projection data generated by applying a set of 15 projection lines along projection directions from 0° to 180° with respect to a reference edge of the image portion 402. The sinogram 600 is an example graphical representation of the sets of projection data but is not required to be generated for the methods and systems disclosed herein. It should also be understood that if illustrating the sets of projection data is necessary, other forms of illustrating the sets of projection data can be used.

[113] Referring again to FIG. 2, at 204, for the at least one image portion of the image, the processor 1 12 identifies a subset of projection data 502, 504, 506 from the set of projection data 530 associated with one or more dominant features. Each set of projection data 530 includes a subset of projection data 502, 504, 506 for each projection direction.

[114] A dominant feature represents a distinguishing characteristic of the set of projection data 530. For example, the dominant feature can correspond to a maximum amplitude, that is, the greatest value, or the highest peak, in the set of projection data 530, a highest total intensity value along a specific projection direction, or a maximum gradient, or greatest variance, within the set of projection data 530.

[115] In the example shown in FIG. 5B, for example, a highest intensity value (e.g., maximum amplitude) at the projection direction 0° is“18” (see cell 552), a highest intensity value at the projection direction 45° is“15” (see cell 546), and a highest intensity value at the projection direction 90° is“24” (see cell 534). The processor 1 12 can then determine from the set of projection data 530 that the overall highest intensity value is“24” (see cell 534), which is present at the projection direction, 90°. The processor 1 12 can then assign the projection direction 90° as a principal projection direction. In another example embodiment, the processor 1 12 can then assign the principal projection direction to a projection angle (Q^*) with a highest total intensity value. For example, referring again to FIG. 5B, the total intensity value along the projection direction 0° is“45” (total of the intensity values at cells 532, 542, 552), a total intensity value at the projection direction 45° is“35” (total of the intensity values at cells 536, 546, 556), and a total intensity value at the projection direction 90° is“45” (total of the intensity values at cells 534, 544, and 554). The processor 1 12 can then determine from the set of projection data 530 that the highest total intensity value is“45”, which is associated with the projection directions, 0° and 90°. The processor 112 can then assign at least one of the projection directions 0° and 90° as the principal projection direction. In some embodiments, the processor can assign both projection directions 0° and 90° as the principal projection direction.

[116] When determining the dominant feature based on a highest total intensity value, the processor 1 12 can identify from the set of projection data 530 a projection angle (Q^*), or projection direction, associated with a highest total intensity value using Equation (1 ) below.

where R(p_t, q ) is the projection vector of size n\

p’ is a derivative of p given

b is the projection vector of size i, V i E {1, 2, n-1}.

[117] The processor 1 12 can then assign the projection angle ( Q ^*) at which the dominant feature is present as a principal projection direction.

[118] FIG. 6B is a graph 610 of a total intensity value at each projection direction shown in FIG. 6A. The processor 1 12 can determine that the highest total intensity value is at 45° (shown generally at 612). The processor 1 12 can select the projection direction at 45° as the principal projection direction 612. The graph 610 is an example representation of the total intensity values but is not required to be generated for the methods and systems disclosed herein. It should also be understood that if illustrating the total intensity values is necessary, other forms of illustrating the maximum amplitude values can be used.

[119] In some embodiments, the processor 1 12 can select multiple projection directions as the principal projection directions 612. For example, multiple projection directions can be associated with the same highest total intensity value, or multiple projection directions are associated with a total intensity value that exceeds a predefined dominant feature threshold.

[120] The processor 1 12 can then select the supplemental projection directions with respect to the principal projection direction 612. The supplemental projection directions can have a fixed relationship with the principal projection direction 612. The number of supplemental projections can affect the accuracy in which the encoded representation of the image portion 402 represents the image portion 402. For example, the processor 1 12 can select three supplemental projection directions to be selected with respect to the principal projection direction 612. The principal projection direction 612 can be represented by Q^* and the processor 1 12 can select the three supplemental projection directions to be at Q^* + 45°, Q^* + 90°, and Q^* + 135°, respectively. With the four projection directions (e.g., q^*, Q^* + 45°, Q^* + 90°, and Q^* + 135°), the processor 1 12 can generate the encoded representation of the image portion 402 based on sets of projection data from four different views of the image portion 402. By increasing the number of projection directions used, there will be an increase in the amount of projection data, which can increase the quality of the encoded representation but will also increase the computation resources required to generate the encoded representation and the storage resources necessary for storing the resulting encoded representation.

[121] The number of projection directions selected by the processor 1 12 can vary with different factors, such as, but not limited to, the type of image, user specification, availability of resources and/or the type of available resources.

[122] In some embodiments, the principal projection direction 612 and the supplemental projection directions can be equidistant. For example, when the processor 1 12 operates to select five supplemental projection directions, the processor 112 can select the projection directions at Q^* + 30°, Q^* + 60°, Q^* + 90°, Q^* + 120°, and Q^* + 150°. The angular separation between adjacent projection directions can be substantially equal.

[123] FIGS. 7A to 7D are graphs showing the subsets of projection data associated with the respective projection direction. The subsets of projection data shown in FIGS. 7A to 7D relate to the image portion 402 and the graph 610. The horizontal axes of FIGS. 7A to 7D is the projection line number and the vertical axes of FIGS. 7A to 7D is the intensity value of the subsets of the projection data.

[124] FIG. 7A shows the subset of projection data 620a associated with the principal projection direction ( Q ^*) 612 as shown in FIG. 6B. FIG. 7B shows the subset of projection data 620b associated with a first supplemental projection direction ( Q ^* + 90°), FIG. 7C shows the subset of projection data 620c associated with a second supplemental projection direction ( Q ^* + 135°), and FIG. 7D shows the subset of projection data 620d associated with a third supplemental projection direction ( Q ^* + 180°). The graphs shown in FIGS. 7A to 7D are example representations but are not required to be generated for the methods and systems disclosed herein. It should also be understood that if illustrating the subsets of projection data 620a, 620b, 620c and 620d is necessary, other forms of illustrating the subsets of projection data 620a, 620b, 620c and 620d can be used.

[125] Continuing with FIG. 2, at 206, the processor 1 12 generates the encoded representation based at least on a data variation within the subset of projection data 620a, 620b, 620c, 620d for the image portion 402.

[126] To represent the data variation within the subset of projection data 620a, 620b, 620c, 620d of the principal projection direction 612 and the supplemental projection directions, a derivative of each subset of projection data 620a, 620b, 620c, 620d can be determined with respect to the projection line numbers. The derivative can be the difference in value of the projection data across the projection lines.

[127] For example, returning to FIG. 5B, for projection data 502, the variation from the amplitude value at projection line 1 (see cell 532) to the amplitude value at projection line 2 (see cell 542) is an increase of a value of three, and the variation from the amplitude value at projection line 2 (see cell 542) to the amplitude value at projection line 3 (see cell 552) is increase of a value of three. For projection data 506, the variation from the amplitude value at projection line T (see cell 536) to the amplitude value at projection line 2’ (see cell 546) is an increase of a value of three and the variation from the amplitude value at projection line 2’ (see cell 546) to the amplitude value at projection line 3’ (see cell 556) is a decrease of a value of seven. For projection data 504, the variation from the amplitude value at projection line 1” (see cell 534) to the amplitude value at projection line 2” (see cell 544) is a decrease of a value of nine and the variation from the amplitude value at projection line 2” (see cell 544) to the amplitude value at projection line 3” (see cell 554) is decrease of a value of nine. While not shown for the set of projection data 530, the derivative values (herein referred to as 630) of the subset of projection data 620 associated with one or more dominant features can be visually illustrated in a graph.

[128] FIGS. 8A to 8D are graphs showing the derivative values for the respective subsets of projection data 620a, 620b, 620c, 620d. The horizontal axes of FIGS. 8A to 8D is the projection line number and the vertical axes of FIGS. 8A to 8D is the derivative values of the sets of projection data 620a, 620b, 620c, 620d.

[129] FIG. 8A illustrates the derivative values 630a of the projection data 620a at the principal projection direction (Q^*), FIG. 8B illustrates the derivative values 630b of the projection data 620b at the first supplemental projection direction ( Q ^* + 90°), FIG. 8C illustrates the derivative values 630c at the second supplemental projection direction ( Q ^* + 135°), and FIG. 8D illustrates the derivative values 630d at a third supplemental projection direction ( Q ^* + 180°). The graphs shown in FIGS. 8A to 8D are example representations but are not required to be generated for the methods and systems disclosed herein. It should also be understood that if illustrating the derivative values 630a, 630b, 630c and 630d is necessary, other forms of illustrating the derivative values 630a, 630b, 630c and 630d can be used. [130] The derivative values 630 illustrated in FIGS. 8A to 8D can be encoded in binary form, in some embodiments. For example, the processor 1 12 can generate a binary vector for each set of derivative values 630a, 630b, 630c, 630d. In some embodiments, the processor 1 12 can determine a data variation within each set of derivative values 630a, 630b, 630c, 630d by comparing sequential derivative values.

[131] In some embodiments, the processor 1 12 can encode the sets of derivative values 630a, 630b, 630c, 630d in binary form by applying the below Equation (2). if p'(i + 1) > p'(0,

(2)

otherwise

where p is the projection vector of size n;

p’ is a derivative of p given

b is the binary encoding of size i, Vi e{l, 2, .... n-1}.

[132] According to Equation (2), the processor 1 12 can assign bit“1” when a subsequent derivative value increases and bit“0” when the subsequent derivative value decreases. Other representations of the data variation in the derivative values, even outside of binary representations, may be applied. In some embodiments, the processor 1 12 can instead assign bit“0” to represent an increase in a subsequent derivative value and a bit“1” to represent a decrease in the subsequent derivative value.

[133] To illustrate the binary encoding of the derivative values, FIG. 9A is a graph of an example set of derivative values 700. The horizontal axis represents the projection line numbers and the vertical axis represents the derivative intensity values. FIG. 9B shows an example schematic 710 representative of an encoded representation of the derviative values of FIG. 9A. The schematic 710 can be generated as a barcode or other optically readable pattern. FIG. 9C shows another example schematic 720 representative of the encoded representation of the derviative values of FIG. 9A.

[134] As can be seen in FIG. 9A, the difference from the derivative value at projection line 1 to the derivative value at projection line 2 is an increase. This increase is represented by the processor 1 12 in FIG. 9B with an empty cell 710a and in FIG. 9C with the bit Ί” 720a. The difference from the derivative value at projection line 2 to the derivative value at projection line 3 is a decrease. This decrease is represented by the processor 112 in FIG. 9B with a filled cell 710b and in FIG. 9C with the bit“0” 720b.

[135] The difference from the derivative value at projection line 3 to the derivative value at projection line 4 is an increase. This increase is represented by the processor 1 12 in FIG. 9B with an empty cell 710c and in FIG. 9C with the bit“1” 720c. Similarly, since the difference between the derivative value at projection line 4 and projection line 5 is an increase, the increase is represented by the processor 1 12 in FIG. 9B with an empty cell 71 Od and in FIG. 9C with the bit“1” 720d.

[136] The difference from the derivative value at projection line 5 to the derivative value at projection line 6 is a decrease, and the difference from the derivative value at projection line 6 to the derivative value at projection line 7 is also a decrease. These decreases are represented by the processor 1 12 in FIG. 9B with filled cells 71 Oe, 71 Of and in FIG. 9C with the bit“0” 720e, 720f.

[137] The difference from the derivative value at projection line 7 to the derivative value at projection line 8 is an increase, and the difference from the derivative value at projection line 8 to the derivative value at projection line 9 is also an increase. These increases are represented by the processor 1 12 in FIG. 9B with empty cells 71 Og, 71 Oh and in FIG. 9C with the bit“1” 720g, 720h.

[138] In some embodiments, the binary representations 710, 720 can be converted into integer values by the processor 1 12. The binary representations 710, 720 can represent the integer value 179.

[139] For example, the processor 1 12 can determine an occurrence frequency of the integer values converted from the binary representations 710, 720 and generate an encoded representation for the image portion 402 based on the occurrence frequency. The occurrence frequency of each integer value can, in some embodiments, be illustrated in a histogram. FIG. 10 shows an example occurrence frequency histogram 800. In some embodiments, the processor 1 12 can generate a histogram for the sets of projection data associated with the principal projection direction 612 and the supplemental projection directions for all image portions of an image. This histogram may be referred to as a merged histogram. In some embodiments, the processor 1 12 can generate a histogram that represents the set of projection data associated with the principal projection direction for all image portions and a histogram for each supplemental projection direction for all of the image portions. Each of these histograms can be referred to as a detached histogram.

[140] The processor 1 12 can encode the occurrence frequencies of the integer values. The processor 1 12 can encode the occurrence frequency based on method described with respect to Equation (2), for example.

[141] When the processor 1 12 generates encoded representations based on detached histograms, the processor 1 12 can place the detached histograms in end- to-end relation with one another. Thus, encoded representations based on detached histogram have more bits to carry information and encoded representations based on merged histograms are shorter and thus, have fewer bits to carry information.

[142] Reference will now be made to FIGS. 1 1A to 11 C. As described with reference to at least FIGS. 5A to 8D, the processor 1 12 can generate an encoded representation of the image portion 402 based on the amplitude values of the image intensity. In some embodiments, as will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 1A to 1 1 C, the processor 1 12 can generate an encoded representation of the image portion 402 based on the gradient values.

[143] FIG. 1 1A shows an example image portion 902. The processor 1 12 generated a set of projection data 904 for the image portion 902 using the methods described herein. FIG. 1 1 B is a sinogram illustrating the set of projection data 904 for the image portion 902 of FIG. 1 1 A. The sinogram represents the image intensity information of image portion 902 obtained from Radon transformations involving 1 1 projection lines applied at projection directions from 0° to 180°.

[144] FIG. 1 1 C is a graph illustrating the maximum amplitude 910 at each projection direction in the set of projection data 904. The processor 112 can determine that the projection direction associated with the dominant feature (e.g., maximum amplitude) is approximately 45°. The processor 1 12 can assign this projection direction as the principal projection direction 912.

[145] FIG. 1 1 C also shows a graph illustrating the maximum gradient 914 at each projection direction in the set of projection data 904. In some embodiments, the processor 1 12 can determine the principal projection direction 912 based on a dominant feature related to a maximum gradient with the set of projection data 904. For example, the processor 1 12 can determine the maximum gradient using Equation (3) below. argmax

q (

i 3)

js the gradient across parallel lines p^ .

[146] As can be seen in FIG. 1 1 C, the processor 1 12 can determine that the projection direction associated with the maximum gradient is approximately 45° and can assign this projection direction as the principal projection direction 912. In this illustrated example, the maximum gradient and the maximum amplitude correspond to the same projection direction but in other examples, it is possible that the maximum gradient and the maximum amplitude can be associated with different projection directions. The selection of the principal projection direction 912 can vary with various factors, such as, but not limited to, the image type, the amount of computational resources available and the type of resources available. For example, the computational resources required for determining the maximum gradient can be more demanding than the computational resources required for determining the maximum amplitude. As a result, the amount of time required by the image management system 1 10 to generate the encoded representation using the maximum gradient can be longer than with the maximum amplitude.

[147] In some embodiments, the processor 1 12 can determine the principal projection direction 912 based on a dominant feature related to a greatest variance within the set of projection data 904. For example, returning to FIG. 5B, for projection data 502, the greatest variance along the projection direction 0° occurs between projection line 1 (see cell 532) and projection line 3 (see cell 552), which is an increase of an intensity value of six, and the greatest variance along the projection direction 45° occurs between projection line 2’ (see cell 546) and projection line 3’ (see cell 556), which is a decrease of an intensity value of seven, and the greatest variance along the projection direction 90° occurs between projection line 1” (see cell 534) and projection line 3” (see cell 554), which is a decrease of an intensity value of 18. The processor 1 12 can then determine from the set of projection data 530 that the greatest variance is along the projection direction 90°. The processor 1 12 can then assign the projection direction 90° as the principal projection direction. In some embodiments, the processor 1 12 may determine the greatest variance only based on the variance between adjacent intensity values. [148] Referring now to FIG. 3A, which is a flowchart diagram 300 of another example method for generating an encoded representation of the image 400. The image 400 can be received from the imaging device 120, the computing device 150, or the system storage component 140.

[149] At 302, the processor 1 12 can divide the image 400 into a plurality of image portions 402. In some embodiments, 302 can involve determining dimensions for the image portions 402 and if the image 400 includes more than one image portion 402, a stride between image portions 402.

[150] At 304, the processor 1 12 can select an image portion 402 to process.

[151] At 306, the processor 1 12 can determine a homogeneity level of the image portion 402. The homogeneity level indicates how similar the image data is within the image portion 402. As described herein, the principal projection direction is associated with one or more dominant features and so, the processor 1 12 operates to select the projection direction that is associated with distinguishing characteristics. When the image portion 402, as a whole, is generally consistent in intensity, the resulting encoded representation generated by the processor 1 12 may not be representative of the overall image. Accordingly, the image management system 1 10 disclosed herein may exclude image portions 402 associated with a certain homogeneity level.

[152] In some embodiments, the image portion 402 can be pre-processed to determine whether it contains information relevant for generating an encoded representation. Equation (4) below can be used to determine a homogeneity level of the intensity variation within an image portion.

where m is the median;

Wi_j is the image portion; and

n_bits is the number of bits used to encode the image.

[153] At 308, the processor 1 12 compares the homogeneity level determined at 306 with a homogeneity threshold. The homogeneity threshold represents a maximum amount of homogeneity in the intensity of an image portion 402 for that image portion 402 to be included in the encoded representation. An example range of the homogeneity threshold can be 80% to 95%, for example. Other ranges of the homogeneity threshold can be applied depending on the application of the image management system 1 10. When the processor 1 12 determines that the homogeneity level for the image portion 402 exceeds the homogeneity threshold, the processor 1 12 will exclude that image portion 402 from the encoded representation.

[154] If at 308 the processor 1 12 determines that the homogeneity level exceeds the homogeneity threshold, the processor 1 12 proceeds to 312. At 312, the processor 1 12 excludes the image portion 402 from the encoded representation. By excluding image portions associated with a high homogeneity level, the resulting encoded representation can more clearly represent the dominant features within the image. As well, fewer image portions 402 require processing by the processor 1 12 and therefore, the overall time needed to generate the encoded representation can be reduced.

[155] After 312, the processor 1 12 proceeds to 314. At 314, the processor can determine if there are remaining image portions 402 of the image 400 that require processing. If there are remaining image portions to process, the processor 1 12 can identify a subsequent image portion 402. In some embodiments, identifying the next image portion can be based on the stride between image portions.

[156] If at 308 the processor 1 12 determines the homogeneity level does not exceed the homogeneity threshold, the processor 1 12 can include the image portion 402 in the encoded representation of the image 400 and the processor 1 12 can proceed to 310.

[157] At 310, the processor 1 12 can generate an encoded representation of the image portion 402 based on the methods described herein.

[158] After 310, the processor 1 12 can proceed to 314. If the processor 1 12 determines at 314 that there are no remaining image portions 402 to process, the processor 1 12 can proceed to 316.

[159] At 316, the processor 1 12 can determine an occurrence frequency for each respective integer value for all image portions 402 of the image 400. The resulting histogram illustrating the occurrence frequencies for the integer values for all image portions 402 of the image 400 can form the encoded representation for the image 400.

[160] In some embodiments, the processor 1 12 may further normalize the histogram generated at 316 (see optional 318). Normalizing the histogram can ensure that multiple encoded representations of the different image conform to a specified standard so that these encoded representations generated with the methods and systems described herein can act as references to each other. For example, the processor 1 12 can normalize the histogram by standardizing the axes according to maximum and minimum values for each axis.

[161] Referring now to FIG. 3B, which is a flowchart 320 of another example method for generating an encoded representation of the image portion 402. The processor 1 12 can select the image portion 402.

[162] At 322, similar to 202 of FIG. 2, the processor 112 can receive a set of projection data representing the image intensity of the image portion 402 along the plurality of projection directions. The projection data can relate to image features extracted from the intensity values and the data structure of the image portion 402. The processor 1 12 can apply a transform to the image portion 402 to obtain the set of projection data. For example, the processor 1 12 can apply a Radon transform, such as 530 of FIG. 5B, 600 of FIG. 6A, and 904 of FIG. 1 1 B.

[163] At 324, the processor 1 12 can determine a projection direction associated with one or more dominant features. As described above, a dominant feature represents a distinguishing characteristic of the set of projection data. For example, the dominant feature can correspond to, but is not limited to, a maximum amplitude in the set of projection data or a maximum gradient within the set of projection data. The processor 1 12 can determine the projection direction corresponding to the maximum amplitude, such as 610 of FIG. 6B and 910 of FIG. 1 1 C, or corresponding to the maximum gradient, such as 914 of FIG. 1 1 C. The processor 1 12 can then assign the projection direction associated with the dominant feature as the principal projection direction.

[164] At 326, the processor 1 12 can select one or more supplemental projection directions based on the principal projection direction. As described above, the processor 1 12 can select supplemental projection directions having a fixed relationship with the principal projection direction. In some embodiments, the processor 1 12 can select supplemental projection directions such that the principal projection direction and the one or more supplemental projection directions are equidistant.

[165] At 328, the processor 1 12 can identify a subset of projection data associated with the principal projection direction and the one or more supplemental projection directions. Example subsets of projection data 620 associated with the principal projection direction and the supplemental projection directions are shown in FIGS. 7 A to 7D.

[166] At 330, the processor 1 12 can calculate derivatives for the projection data associated with the principal projection direction and the one or more supplemental projection directions. That is, the processor 1 12 can calculate derivatives for the subsets of projection data associated with the dominant feature. Example derivatives 630 and 700 of the projection data associated with the dominant feature are shown in FIGS. 8A to 8D and 9A, respectively.

[167] At 332, the processor 1 12 can determine a direction of change in the derivative values and convert the direction of change to a binary representation. The processor 1 12 can use Equation (2) to encode the direction of change in binary form. For example, the processor 1 12 can assign a bit“1” when a subsequent derivative value increases and a bit“0” when a subsequent derivative value decreases.

[168] An example binary representation 720 is shown in FIG. 9C. As described above, since the data variation from the derivative value at projection line 1 to the derivative value at projection line 2, the data variation from the derivative value at projection line 3 to the derivative value at projection line 4, the data variation from the derivative value at projection line 4 to the derivative value at projection line 5, the data variation from the derivative value at projection line 7 to the derivative value at projection line 8, and the data variation from the derivative value at projection line 8 to the derivative value at projection line 9 are increases, the processor 1 12 assigns a bit“1” to cells 720a, 720c, 720d, 720g, and 720h. Since the data variation from the derivative value at projection line 2 to the derivative value at projection line 3, the data variation from the derivative value at projection line 5 to the derivative value at projection line 6, and the data variation from the derivative value at projection line 6 to the derivative value at projection line 7 are decreases, the processor 1 12 assigns a bit“0” to cells 720b, 720e, and 720f.

[169] At 334, the processor 1 12 can convert the binary representation to an integer value. As described above, the binary representations 710, 720 can represent the integer value 179.

[170] At 336, the processor 1 12 can determine an occurrence frequency for each respective integer value for the principal projection direction and the one or more supplemental projection directions. In some embodiments, a merged histogram can illustrate the occurrence frequencies for the integer values for the principal projection direction and the one or more supplemental projection directions. In some embodiments, detached histograms can illustrate the occurrence frequencies for the integer values for the principal projection direction and each of the one or more supplemental projection directions separately.

[171] Referring now to FIG. 12A, shown therein is an example image 1002. FIGS. 12B to 12F show projection data and histograms of image 1002, according to the described methods and systems. FIG. 12B is a merged histogram 1004 of the occurrence frequency of each integer value for all of the principal projection direction and the supplemental projection directions of the described methods for the image 1002. FIG. 12C illustrates the subset of projection data 1012 of the image 1002 at the principal projection direction. FIG. 12D is a detached histogram 1014 of the occurrence frequency of each integer value for the principal projection direction. FIG. 12E illustrates the subset of projection data 1022 of the image 1002 at a supplemental projection direction, in particular, Q^* + 90°. FIG. 12F is a detached histogram 1024 of the occurrence frequency of each integer value for that supplemental projection direction (Q^* + 90°).

[172] The performance of the described methods and systems were tested using different texture patterns of a publicly available dataset, KIMIA (Knowledge Inference in Medical Image Analysis) Path24 (http://kimia.uwaterloo.ca), along with existing image descriptors for comparison. FIGS. 13A to 13F show example patches 1030a, 1030b, 1030c, 1030d, 1030e, and 1030f (herein collectively referred to as 1030) extracted from scan images of the KIMIA Path24 dataset. The patches, including patches 1030, were approximately 1000 x 1000 pixels in size, which corresponds to 0.5 millimeters (mm) x 0.5 mm. Encoded representations in accordance with embodiments described herein were generated for 1325 patches extracted from the KIMIA Path24 dataset.

[173] First, the encoded representations were used for image retrieval. The dissimilarity between two histograms were measured and the results are summarized in Table 1 below.

TABLE 1

[174] In Table 1 , the described methods and systems, are referred to as“ELP” or “Encoded Local Projections”. For example, ELP(io,_<j) uses 10 pixels x 10 pixels image portions and encoded representations formed by detached histograms and ELP(io,m) uses 10 pixels x 10 pixels image portions and encoded representations formed by merged histograms. For ELP, the direct similarity was measured using Chi-squared (j²) distances; for Pre-trained Deep Network (VGG16-FC7_COs), the direct similarity was measured using cosine distances, and for Local Binary Patterns (LBP^U(24,2),LI) and Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOGLI), the direct similarity was measured using city block ( i).

[175] As can be seen in Table 1 , ELP performed slightly better than the Pre-trained Deep Network and significantly better than the Local Binary Patterns and the Histogram of Oriented Gradients.

[176] Second, the encoded representations were used for image classification using Support Vector Machines algorithm. The results, along with publicly available benchmarks for Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Local Binary Patterns (LBP(24,3)), and Bag of Visual Words (BoVW), are summarized in Table 2 below.

TABLE 2

[177] As can be seen in Table 2, ELP identified scans with greater accuracy than Pre-trained Deep Networks), Local Binary Patterns (LBP^SVM(24,2)), and the publicly available benchmarks.

[178] It will be appreciated that numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the example embodiments described herein. However, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments described herein may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures and components have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the embodiments described herein. Furthermore, this description and the drawings are not to be considered as limiting the scope of the embodiments described herein in any way, but rather as merely describing the implementation of the various embodiments described herein.

[179] It should be noted that terms of degree such as "substantially", "about" and "approximately" when used herein mean a reasonable amount of deviation of the modified term such that the end result is not significantly changed. These terms of degree should be construed as including a deviation of the modified term if this deviation would not negate the meaning of the term it modifies.

[180] In addition, as used herein, the wording“and/or” is intended to represent an inclusive-or. That is,“X and/or Y” is intended to mean X or Y or both, for example. As a further example, “X, Y, and/or Z” is intended to mean X or Y or Z or any combination thereof.

[181] It should be noted that the term “coupled” used herein indicates that two elements can be directly coupled to one another or coupled to one another through one or more intermediate elements.

[182] The embodiments of the systems and methods described herein may be implemented in hardware or software, or a combination of both. These embodiments may be implemented in computer programs executing on programmable computers, each computer including at least one processor, a data storage system (including volatile memory or non-volatile memory or other data storage elements or a combination thereof), and at least one communication interface. For example and without limitation, the programmable computers (referred to below as computing devices) may be a server, network appliance, embedded device, computer expansion module, a personal computer, laptop, personal data assistant, cellular telephone, smart-phone device, tablet computer, a wireless device or any other computing device capable of being configured to carry out the methods described herein.

[183] In some embodiments, the communication interface may be a network communication interface. In embodiments in which elements are combined, the communication interface may be a software communication interface, such as those for inter-process communication (IPC). In still other embodiments, there may be a combination of communication interfaces implemented as hardware, software, and combination thereof.

[184] Program code may be applied to input data to perform the functions described herein and to generate output information. The output information is applied to one or more output devices, in known fashion.

[185] Each program may be implemented in a high level procedural or object oriented programming and/or scripting language, or both, to communicate with a computer system. However, the programs may be implemented in assembly or machine language, if desired. In any case, the language may be a compiled or interpreted language. Each such computer program may be stored on a storage media or a device (e.g. ROM, magnetic disk, optical disc) readable by a general or special purpose programmable computer, for configuring and operating the computer when the storage media or device is read by the computer to perform the procedures described herein. Embodiments of the system may also be considered to be implemented as a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, configured with a computer program, where the storage medium so configured causes a computer to operate in a specific and predefined manner to perform the functions described herein.

[186] Furthermore, the system, processes and methods of the described embodiments are capable of being distributed in a computer program product comprising a computer readable medium that bears computer usable instructions for one or more processors. The medium may be provided in various forms, including one or more diskettes, compact disks, tapes, chips, wireline transmissions, satellite transmissions, internet transmission or downloadings, magnetic and electronic storage media, digital and analog signals, and the like. The computer useable instructions may also be in various forms, including compiled and non-compiled code.

[187] Various embodiments have been described herein by way of example only.

Various modification and variations may be made to these example embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, which is limited only by the appended claims. Also, in the various user interfaces illustrated in the drawings, it will be understood that the illustrated user interface text and controls are provided as examples only and are not meant to be limiting. Other suitable user interface elements may be possible.

Claims

We claim:

1 . A computer-implemented method for generating an encoded representation for one or more images, the method comprising operating a processor to:

for at least one image portion of a plurality of image portions of an image of the one or more images:

receive a set of projection data representing an image intensity of the image portion along a plurality of projection directions; and

identify a subset of projection data from the set of projection data associated with one or more dominant features, wherein the set of projection data comprises a subset of projection data for each projection direction of the plurality of projection directions; and

generate the encoded representation based at least on a data variation within the subset of projection data for the at least one image portion.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the encoded representation based on the data variation within the subset of projection data comprises:

determining a direction of change between each sequential projection data within the subset of projection data; and

converting the direction of change to a binary representation.

3. The method of claim 2 comprises converting the binary representation to an integer value.

4. The method of any one of claims 2 to 3 wherein determining the direction of change between each sequential projection data within the subset of projection data comprises:

calculating a derivative for the subset of projection data.

5. The method of any one of claims 2 to 4 wherein converting the direction of change to the binary representation comprises:

assigning an increase indicator to an increasing direction of change; and assigning a decrease indicator to a decreasing direction of change.

6. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein generating the encoded representation comprises:

generating the encoded representation based on the data variations in the subsets of projection data associated with two or more image portions in the plurality of image portions.

7. The method of claim 6 comprises:

representing the data variations in the subsets of projection data for the two or more image portions as two or more respective integer values; and

determining an occurrence frequency for each respective integer value.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein generating the encoded representation comprises: generating a histogram to represent the occurrence frequency for each respective integer value.

9. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein:

identifying the subset of projection data associated with the one or more dominant features comprises:

determining a projection direction associated with the subset of projection data associated with the one or more dominant features and assigning that projection direction as a principal projection direction; and

selecting one or more supplemental projection directions based on the principal projection direction; and

generating the encoded representation based on the data variations in the subsets of projection data associated with the principal projection direction and each selected supplemental projection direction.

10. The method of claim 9 comprises:

for each subset of projection data, representing the data variation in the respective subset of projection data with an integer value; and

determining an occurrence frequency of each respective integer value.

1 1. The method of claim 10 comprises: generating a histogram to represent the occurrence frequency of each respective integer value.

12. The method of claim 10 comprises:

generating the encoded representation based on the data variations in the sets of projection data for two or more image portions in the plurality of image portions; and

for each projection direction of the principal projection direction and the selected supplemental projection directions, determining the occurrence frequency of the respective integer values of the two or more image portions.

13. The method of claim 12 comprises:

generating a histogram for each projection direction to represent the respective occurrence frequency.

14. The method of any one of claims 9 to 13, wherein selecting the one or more supplemental projection directions based on the principal projection direction comprises:

assigning the one or more supplemental projection directions to be at substantially equal angular separation from an adjacent supplemental projection direction, and each supplemental projection direction adjacent to the principal projection direction to be at the substantially equal angular separation from the principal projection direction.

15. The method of any one of claims 9 to 14, wherein the one or more supplemental projection directions comprises three supplemental projection directions separated by an angular separation of 45° from each other, and each supplemental projection adjacent to the principal projection direction is separated by the angular separation of 45° from the principal projection direction.

16. The method of any one of claims 9 to 15, wherein generating the encoded representation based on the data variations in the subset of projection data comprises: representing the data variations in the subsets of projection data for the two or more image portions as two or more respective integer values; and

determining an occurrence frequency of the two or more respective integer values.

17. The method of claim 16 comprises:

generating a histogram to represent the occurrence frequency.

18. The method of any one of claims 1 to 17, wherein identifying the subset of projection data associated with the one or more dominant features comprises:

determining, from the set of projection data, the subset of projection data having a greatest variance.

19. The method of any one of claims 1 to 17, wherein identifying the subset of projection data associated with the one or more dominant features comprises:

determining, from the set of projection data, the subset of projection data having a greatest value.

20. The method of any one of claims 1 to 19 further comprises, for each image portion,

determining whether a homogeneity level of the image portion exceeds a homogeneity threshold, the homogeneity level representing an intensity variation within the image data intensity of the image portion; and

in response to determining the homogeneity level of that image portion exceeds the homogeneity threshold, excluding that image portion from the encoded representation, otherwise, indicating that image portion is usable for the encoded representation.

21. The method of any one of claims 1 to 20, wherein receiving the set of projection data representing the image intensity of the image portion along the plurality of projection directions comprises:

receiving the set of projection data from the plurality of directions comprising

0° to 180°.

22. The method of any one of claims 1 to 21 comprises:

dividing the image into the plurality of image portions, wherein a dimension of each image portion is characterized by a substantially similar number of pixels.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the dimension of each image portion comprises 10x10 pixels.

24. The method of any one of claims 22 to 23, wherein at least one image portion of the plurality of image portions overlaps with a neighbouring image portion.

25. The method of any one of claims 1 to 24, wherein the image comprises a medical image.

26. The method of any one of claims 1 to 25, wherein the set of projection data is generated from applying Radon transform to the image portion.

27. A system for generating an encoded representation for one or more images, the system comprising:

a communication component to provide access to the one or more images via a network; and

a processor in communication with the communication component, the processor being operable to:

for at least one image portion of a plurality of image portions of an image of the one or more images:

receive a set of projection data representing an image intensity of the image portion along a plurality of projection directions; and

identify a subset of projection data from the set of projection data associated with one or more dominant features, wherein the set of projection data comprises a subset of projection data for each projection direction of the plurality of projection directions; and

generate the encoded representation based at least on a data variation within the subset of projection data for the at least one image portion.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein the processor is operable to:

determine a direction of change between each sequential projection data within the subset of projection data; and

convert the direction of change to a binary representation.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the processor is operable to convert the binary representation to an integer value.

30. The system of any one of claims 28 to 29 wherein the processor is operable to: calculate a derivative for the subset of projection data.

31. The system of any one of claims 28 to 30 wherein the processor is operable to: assign an increase indicator to an increasing direction of change; and assign a decrease indicator to a decreasing direction of change.

32. The system of any one of claims 27 to 31 , wherein the processor is operable to: generate the encoded representation based on the data variations in the subsets of projection data associated with two or more image portions in the plurality of image portions.

33. The system of claim 32 wherein the processor is operable to:

represent the data variations in the subsets of projection data for the two or more image portions as two or more respective integer values; and

determine an occurrence frequency for each respective integer value.

34. The system of claim 33 wherein the processor is operable to:

generate a histogram to represent the occurrence frequency for each respective integer value.

35. The system of any one of claims 27 to 34, wherein the processor is operable to: determine a projection direction associated with the subset of projection data associated with the one or more dominant features and assigning that projection direction as a principal projection direction; select one or more supplemental projection directions based on the principal projection direction; and

generate the encoded representation based on the data variations in the subsets of projection data associated with the principal projection direction and each selected supplemental projection direction.

36. The system of claim 35 wherein the processor is operable to:

for each subset of projection data, represent the data variation in the respective subset of projection data with an integer value; and

determine an occurrence frequency of each respective integer value.

37. The system of claim 36 wherein the processor is operable to:

generate a histogram to represent the occurrence frequency of each respective integer value.

38. The system of claim 36 wherein the processor is operable to:

generate the encoded representation based on the data variations in the sets of projection data for two or more image portions in the plurality of image portions; and

for each projection direction of the principal projection direction and the selected supplemental projection directions, determine the occurrence frequency of the respective integer values of the two or more image portions.

39. The system of claim 37 wherein the processor is operable to:

generate a histogram for each projection direction to represent the respective occurrence frequency.

40. The system of any one of claims 35 to 39, wherein the processor is operable to: assign the one or more supplemental projection directions to be at substantially equal angular separation from an adjacent supplemental projection direction, and each supplemental projection direction adjacent to the principal projection direction to be at the substantially equal angular separation from the principal projection direction.

41. The system of any one of claims 35 to 40, wherein the one or more supplemental projection directions comprises three supplemental projection directions separated by an angular separation of 45° from each other, and each supplemental projection adjacent to the principal projection direction is separated by the angular separation of 45° from the principal projection direction.

42. The system of any one of claims 35 to 41 , wherein the processor is operable to: represent the data variations in the subsets of projection data for the two or more image portions as two or more respective integer values; and

determine an occurrence frequency of the two or more respective integer values.

43. The system of claim 42 wherein the processor is operable to:

generate a histogram to represent the occurrence frequency.

44. The system of any one of claims 27 to 43, wherein the processor is operable to: determine, from the set of projection data, the subset of projection data having a greatest variance.

45. The system of any one of claims 27 to 43, wherein the processor is operable to: determine, from the set of projection data, the subset of projection data having a greatest value.

46. The system of any one of claims 27 to 45 wherein the processor is operable to, for each image portion,

determine whether a homogeneity level of the image portion exceeds a homogeneity threshold, the homogeneity level representing an intensity variation within the image data intensity of the image portion; and

in response to determining the homogeneity level of that image portion exceeds the homogeneity threshold, exclude that image portion from the encoded representation, otherwise, indicate that image portion is usable for the encoded representation.

47. The system of any one of claims 27 to 46, wherein the processor is operable to: receive the set of projection data from the plurality of directions comprising 0° to 180°.

48. The system of any one of claims 27 to 47 wherein the processor is operable to: divide the image into the plurality of image portions, wherein a dimension of each image portion is characterized by a substantially similar number of pixels.

49. The system of claim 48, wherein the dimension of each image portion comprises 10x10 pixels.

50. The system of any one of claims 22 to 49, wherein at least one image portion of the plurality of image portions overlaps with a neighbouring image portion.

51. The system of any one of claims 27 to 50, wherein the image comprises a medical image.

52. The system of any one of claims 27 to 51 , wherein the set of projection data is generated from applying Radon transform to the image portion.

53. The system of any one of claims 27 to 52 wherein the communication component receives the image from an imaging device via the network.