Image Processing

Nvidia unveiled a new federated learning edge computing reference application for radiology to help hospitals crunch medical data for better disease detection while protecting patient privacy. Called Clara Federal Learning, the system relies on Nvidia EGX, a computing platform which was announced earlier in 2019. It uses the Jetson Nano low wattage computer which can provide up to one-half trillion operations per second of processing for tasks like image recognition. EGX allows low-latency artificial intelligence at the edge to act on data, in this case images from MRIs, CT scans and more. Nvidia made its announcement of Clara on Sunday at the Radiological Society of North America conference in Chicago.

President and CEO: Yoshihito Yamada) has developed a unique defect extraction AI technology that recognizes defects by reproducing "human sensibility" and "expert experience" in order to automate the appearance inspection at the manufacturing site. By providing stable detection of defects that up to now have been difficult to detect with machines, it enables further automation of appearance inspections that currently rely on human vision. This AI functionality will be added to the existing OMRON image processing system "FH Series" and will be released in the spring of 2020. In recent years, the shortage of skilled technicians and rising labor costs have become more critical, and in the manufacturing industry there is a tremendous reliance on human experience and human senses. Therefore automation of the transporting, assembly, and inspection processes that depend on people has become an urgent task for businesses.

To delineate image data curation needs and describe a locally designed graphical user interface (GUI) to aid radiologists in image annotation for artificial intelligence (AI) applications in medical imaging. GUI components support image analysis toolboxes, picture archiving and communication system integration, third-party applications, processing of scripting languages, and integration of deep learning libraries. For clinical AI applications, GUI components included two-dimensional segmentation and classification; three-dimensional segmentation and quantification; and three-dimensional segmentation, quantification, and classification. To assess radiologist engagement and performance efficiency associated with GUI-related capabilities, image annotation rate (studies per day) and speed (minutes per case) were evaluated in two clinical scenarios of varying complexity: hip fracture detection and coronary atherosclerotic plaque demarcation and stenosis grading. For hip fracture, 1050 radiographs were annotated over 7 days (150 studies per day; median speed: 10 seconds per study [interquartile range, 3–21 seconds per study]).

If the input image is 64 by 64 pixels, then we would have three 64 by 64 matrices corresponding to the red, green and blue pixel intensity values for our image. For a 64 by 64 image – the total dimension of this vector will be 64*64*3 12288. In the next post, we will learn about Optimizing the Cost Function in Logistic Regression. Your email address will not be published.

Fujifilm Medical Systems U.S.A. is showcasing REiLI, the company's global medical imaging and informatics artificial intelligence (AI) technology initiative at the 2019 Radiological Society of North America's (RSNA) annual meeting. "At RSNA 2019, we look forward to sharing the AI insights and advances we've made by working closely with clinical and research partners for several years," said Takuya Shimomura, chief technology officer and executive director, Fujifilm. "Ultimately, the long-term goal of our AI initiative is to help providers make better decisions that improve patient lives." Under the REiLI brand, Fujifilm is developing AI technologies that strongly support diagnostic imaging workflow, leveraging the combination of its deep learning innovations and distinct image processing heritage. Applications currently in development include, but are not limited to: Region Recognition, an AI technology that helps to accurately recognize and consistently extract organ regions, regardless of deviations in shape, presence or absence of disease, and imaging conditions; Computer Aided Detection, an AI technology to reduce the time of image interpretation and support radiologists' clinical decision making; Workflow Support, using AI technology to realize optimal study prioritization, alert communications of AI findings, and report population automation.

Placentas can provide critical information about the health of the mother and baby, but only 20 percent of placentas are assessed by pathology exams after delivery in the U.S. The cost, time and expertise required to analyze them are prohibitive. Now, a team of researchers has developed a novel solution that could produce accurate, automated and near-immediate placental diagnostic reports through computerized photographic image analysis. Their research could allow all placentas to be examined, reduce the number of normal placentas sent for full pathological examination and create a less resource-intensive path to analysis for research -- all of which may positively benefit health outcomes for mothers and babies. "The placenta drives everything to do with the pregnancy for the mom and baby, but we're missing placental data on 95 percent of births globally," said Alison Gernand, assistant professor of nutritional sciences in Penn State's College of Health and Human Development. "Creating a more efficient process that requires fewer resources will allow us to gather more comprehensive data to examine how placentas are linked to maternal and fetal health outcomes, and it will help us to examine placentas without special equipment and in minutes rather than days."

The impact of AI on human lives can be felt the most in the healthcare industry. AI-powered computer vision technology can help bring affordable healthcare to millions of people. Computer vision practices are already in place for sorting and finding images in blogs and retail websites. It also has applications in medicine. Medical diagnosis depends on medical images such as CAT scans, MRI images, X-rays, sonograms, and other images.

If you've ever wanted to see Einstein play charades, Rodin's "The Thinker" wink at you, or an ancient Chinese Emperor cast in a Chaplin movie -- then the AI-powered video transformation tech you're looking for is "face reenactment," which can digitally deliver all such fantastic scenarios. Unlike face swapping, which transfers a face from one source to another, face reenactment captures the movements of a driver face and expresses them through the identity of a target face. Starting with a dynamic driver face, researchers can manipulate any target face -- from today's celebrities to historical figures, including any age, ethnicity or gender -- to perform any humanly possible face-based task. Previous approaches at synthesizing a reenacted face used generative adversarial networks (GAN), which have demonstrated tremendous ability is a wide range of image generation tasks. GAN-based models however require at least a few minutes of training data for each target.

MIT researchers have devised a method that accelerates the process for creating and customizing templates used in medical-image analysis, to guide disease diagnosis. One use of medical image analysis is to crunch datasets of patients' medical images and capture structural relationships that may indicate the progression of diseases. In many cases, analysis requires use of a common image template, called an "atlas," that's an average representation of a given patient population. Atlases serve as a reference for comparison, for example to identify clinically significant changes in brain structures over time. Building a template is a time-consuming, laborious process, often taking days or weeks to generate, especially when using 3D brain scans.

Placentas can provide critical information about the health of the mother and baby, but only 20 percent of placentas are assessed by pathology exams after delivery in the U.S. The cost, time and expertise required to analyze them are prohibitive. Now, a team of researchers has developed a novel solution that could produce accurate, automated and near-immediate placental diagnostic reports through computerized photographic image analysis. Their research could allow all placentas to be examined, reduce the number of normal placentas sent for full pathological examination and create a less resource-intensive path to analysis for research--all of which may positively benefit health outcomes for mothers and babies. "The placenta drives everything to do with the pregnancy for the mom and baby, but we're missing placental data on 95 percent of births globally," said Alison Gernand, assistant professor of nutritional sciences in Penn State's College of Health and Human Development. "Creating a more efficient process that requires fewer resources will allow us to gather more comprehensive data to examine how placentas are linked to maternal and fetal health outcomes, and it will help us to examine placentas without special equipment and in minutes rather than days."