Patent ID: 9619888
Date: 2017-04-11
CPC Classifications: G06K,G06T

Claim:
1. A method for defining a region of interest in a radiation image of a breast by determining a breast boundary and delineating the region of interest on a basis of the determined breast boundary, the method comprising the steps of: determining a skin line estimate in the radiation image and subjecting the skin line estimate to a shape analysis procedure including an evaluation of a measure of convexity relative to a given tolerance value so as to determine convex points; and forming the breast boundary as a longest segment of the convex points supplemented with extension points determined by evaluating the measure of convexity with a lower tolerance value than the given tolerance value; wherein a top point of the region of interest is determined by considering a highest point of the determined breast boundary and moving the highest point upwards in the radiation image as long as there are foreground pixels above an upper edge of the radiation image including the breast; and a bottom point of the region of interest is determined by considering a lowest point of the determined breast boundary and moving the lowest point downwards in the radiation image as long as there are foreground pixels below a lower edge of the radiation image including the breast.