Patent ID: 8761540

Claim:
A method of estimating noise in signals, comprising the steps of: a) detecting signals by a medical imaging device including a CT scanner, a MRI scanner, an Ultrasound scanner and a PET scanner to generate measured data; b) reconstructing an image based upon the measured data to generate image data; c) approximating a predetermined set of at least one of the measured data and the image data to true signals by a predetermined rule to generate approximated signals d) determining a difference between each of the approximated signals and an corresponding one of the measured data and the image data; e) determining a pseudo standard deviation value based upon the difference for each of the approximated signals; f) repeating said step c) through e) for at least the corresponding one of the predetermined set of the measured data and the image data; and g) selecting at least one representative noise level based upon the pseudo standard deviation values.