Face morphology: Can it tell us something about body weight and fat?

This paper proposes a method for an automatic extraction of geometric features, related to weight parameters, from 3D facial data acquired with low-cost depth scanners. The novelty of the method relies both on the processing of the 3D facial data and on the definition of the geometric features which are conceptually simple, robust against noise and pose estimation errors, computationally efficient, invariant with respect to rotation, translation, and scale changes. Experimental results show that these measurements are highly correlated with weight, BMI, and neck circumference, and well correlated with waist and hip circumference, which are markers of central obesity. Therefore the proposed method strongly supports the development of interactive, non obtrusive systems able to provide a support for the detection of weight-related problems.

Computer-assisted segmentation of videocapsule images using alpha-divergence-based active contour in the framework of intestinal pathologies detection.

Visualization of the entire length of the gastrointestinal tract through natural orifices is a challenge for endoscopists. Videoendoscopy is currently the "gold standard" technique for diagnosis of different pathologies of the intestinal tract. Wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) has been developed in the 1990s as an alternative to videoendoscopy to allow direct examination of the gastrointestinal tract without any need for sedation. Nevertheless, the systematic postexamination by the specialist of the 50,000 (for the small bowel) to 150,000 images (for the colon) of a complete acquisition using WCE remains time-consuming and challenging due to the poor quality of WCE images. In this paper, a semiautomatic segmentation for analysis of WCE images is proposed. Based on active contour segmentation, the proposed method introduces alpha-divergences, a flexible statistical similarity measure that gives a real flexibility to different types of gastrointestinal pathologies. Results of segmentation using the proposed approach are shown on different types of real-case examinations, from (multi)polyp(s) segmentation, to radiation enteritis delineation.

Automatic tracking of implanted fiducial markers in cone beam CT projection images.

PURPOSE: This paper describes a novel method for simultaneous intrafraction tracking of multiple fiducial markers. Although the proposed method is generic and can be adopted for a number of applications including fluoroscopy based patient position monitoring and gated radiotherapy, the tracking results presented in this paper are specific to tracking fiducial markers in a sequence of cone beam CT projection images. METHODS: The proposed method is accurate and robust thanks to utilizing the mean shift and random sampling principles, respectively. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated with qualitative and quantitative methods, using data from two pancreatic and one prostate cancer patients and a moving phantom. The ground truth, for quantitative evaluation, was calculated based on manual tracking preformed by three observers. RESULTS: The average dispersion of marker position error calculated from the tracking results for pancreas data (six markers tracked over 640 frames, 3840 marker identifications) was 0.25 mm (at iscoenter), compared with an average dispersion for the manual ground truth estimated at 0.22 mm. For prostate data (three markers tracked over 366 frames, 1098 marker identifications), the average error was 0.34 mm. The estimated tracking error in the pancreas data was < 1 mm (2 pixels) in 97.6% of cases where nearby image clutter was detected and in 100.0% of cases with no nearby image clutter. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed method has accuracy comparable to that of manual tracking and, in combination with the proposed batch postprocessing, superior robustness. Marker tracking in cone beam CT (CBCT) projections is useful for a variety of purposes, such as providing data for assessment of intrafraction motion, target tracking during rotational treatment delivery, motion correction of CBCT, and phase sorting for 4D CBCT.

Reduction of motion artefacts in on-board cone beam CT by warping of projection images.

OBJECTIVE: We describe the development and testing of a motion correction method for flat panel imager-based cone beam CT (CBCT) based on warping of projection images. METHODS: Markers within or on the surface of the patient were tracked and their mean three-dimensional (3D) position calculated. The two-dimensional (2D) cone beam projection images were then warped before reconstruction to place each marker at the projection from its mean 3D position. The motion correction method was tested using simulated cone beam projection images of a deforming virtual phantom, real CBCT images of a moving breast phantom and clinical CBCT images of a patient with breast cancer and another with pancreatic cancer undergoing radiotherapy. RESULTS: In phantom studies, the method was shown to greatly reduce motion artefacts in the locality of the radiotherapy target and allowed the true surface shape to be accurately recovered. The breast phantom motion-compensated surface was within 1 mm of the true surface shape for 90% of surface points and greater than 2 mm from the true surface at only 2% of points. Clinical CBCT images showed improved image quality in the locality of the radiotherapy target after motion correction. CONCLUSION: The proposed method is effective in reducing motion artefacts in CBCT images.