Catalyst Project: Computer algorithms and simulations for CT image reconstruction and segmentation utilizing optimal sampling lattices and efficient domains

Catalyst项目为历史上的黑人学院和大学提供支持，以建立教师的研究能力，加强科学、技术、工程和数学本科教育和研究。预计该奖项将进一步提高教师的研究能力，提高学院的研究和教学水平，并让本科生参与研究经验。Vorhees学院的这个项目旨在开发使用最佳采样格的计算机断层扫描（CT）图像重建和分割方法，并为本科生提供一个机会，通过计算机建模的研究经验来增强他们的教育。该研究人员与南卡罗来纳大学的教职员工建立了强有力的合作关系。计算机断层扫描是创建身体内部图像的重要工具。图像重建是从扫描数据中计算出内部图像，图像分割可以帮助定位图像中的内部物体或其边界。通常的CT计算是在笛卡尔晶格上完成的，其像素是正方形或立方体。然而，最优的采样格，如二维六边形和三维面心立方和体心立方格，比传统的笛卡尔格提供更有效的采样和更好的邻接关系。在这个项目中，对于二维情况，将使用六边形晶格和正六边形区域上的滤波反投影方法从扫描数据中重建图像。然后对重构后的图像进行图切等图像分割。由于CT机可以旋转从不同方向进行扫描，因此可以假设要扫描的2D对象是圆形的。由于圆形区域可以比正方形区域更紧密地嵌入正六边形，因此可能涉及较少的点阵点，并且可以有效地索引点阵点以进行图像分割。从而减少了图像分割的计算时间，提高了图像分割的质量。计算机仿真将从图像分割质量和计算效率两方面对新算法进行评估。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Catalyst Projects provide support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities to work towards establishing research capacity of faculty to strengthen science, technology, engineering and mathematics undergraduate education and research. It is expected that the award will further the faculty member's research capability, improve research and teaching at the institution, and involve undergraduate students in research experiences. This project at Vorhees College seeks to develop computed tomography (CT) image reconstruction and segmentation methods using optimal sampling lattices and provides an opportunity for undergraduate students to enhance their education through research experiences in computer modeling. The researcher has established a strong collaboration with faculty at the University of South Carolina. Computed tomography is an important tool to create the internal image of a physical body. Image reconstruction is to compute the internal image from the scanned data and image segmentation may help to locate the internal objects or their boundaries in the image. The usual CT computations are done on a Cartesian lattice whose pixels are squares or cubes. However optimal sampling lattices, such as 2D hexagonal and 3D face centered cubic and body centered cubic lattices, provide more efficient sampling and better adjacency relation than the traditional Cartesian lattices. In this project, for the 2D case, images will be reconstructed from scanned data using the filtered back-projection method over a hexagonal lattice and in a regular hexagonal region. Then image segmentation methods such as graph-cuts on the reconstructed images are applied. Because a CT machine rotates to perform scans from different directions, a 2D object to be scanned may be assumed to be circular. Since the circular region can be embedded into a regular hexagon more tightly than into a square, fewer number of lattice points may be involved and the lattice points can be efficiently indexed for image segmentation. Hence the computational time for image segmentation may be reduced and the quality may be improved. Computer simulations will be done to evaluate the new algorithms in terms of image segmentation quality and computational efficiency.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.