Patent Document ID: 5544219
Application ID: 08332743
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. Procedure for automatic position-finding of a point of interest in an object exhibiting high contrast in relation to the surrounding tissues using a stereotactic photographic device delivering pairs of stereotactic images, each one composed of pixels with different gray levels which constitute a histogram of said images, said device including a digital image-acquisition system associated with algorithms for processing of these images, said procedure comprising, for each image belonging to the pair of stereotactic images, a step involving analysis of the histogram of the image pixels and a step involving filtering based on morphological criteria, wherein said procedure includes the following additional steps for each image belonging to the pair of stereotactic images: 1) determination of a threshold corresponding to the difference between the high-contrast object and the surrounding tissues, said determination being based on the analysis of the image histogram; 2) comparison between said image and said previously determined threshold in order to obtain a binary image incorporating two gray levels; 3) filtering of the threshold-determined image in the preceding step, based on the morphological criteria of the object in which the point of interest is located in order to obtain a segmented projection of said object; 4) localization of the point of interest in a reference mark of the image.