Patent ID: 6307957
Filing Date: 2001-10-23
Classification: A61B,G06K,G06T

Abstract:
A method of characterizing the condition of a region of interest of biological tissue, wherein the absorption and scattering of light in different spectral bands by the region of interest is a function of the condition of the tissue, the method comprising:illuminating a portion of the tissue including the region of interest by light in at least one spectral band;conveying an image of the region of interest through an optical system to an image receiver;imaging a portion of the tissue including the region of interest at the at least one spectral band with the light re-emitted by the portion of the tissue to generate at least one digital image comprising signals whose values are a function of the condition of the region of interest of the tissue; andproviding the digital images to a processor, wherein the processor:segments the digital images by generating a segmentation mask defining the boundary of the region of interest from a digital image in any one of the at least one spectral bands;estimates at least one rotationally and translationally invariant statistical measure of coefficient distributions of the multiscale wavelet maxima representations of the digital image;characterizes the condition of the tissue based on the estimated values; andoutputs the characterization of the condition of the tissue.