SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT FOR MEDICAL IMAGE SEGMENTATION

本研究的目标是开发一个开放的、可扩展的软件 用于医学图像分割的环境。这种环境将 至少以三种方式为公众和科学利益作出贡献： (1)改进和高效的医学图像分割 应用，(2)高效创建新的图像分割 算法；(3)改进的医学图像分割评价 算法。 图像分割在医学成像中有许多应用；然而， 它在目前的临床实践中的使用远远达不到其潜力。 商业上可用的工具要么是为非常特定的目标设计的 应用程序，或者是具有 对图像分割的支持很少。建议的环境将是 致力于医学图像分割，并将具有可扩展性和 开放式体系结构。可扩展的体系结构将允许轻松 针对特定应用程序的定制，还将允许用户添加 他们自己的算法。开放的体系结构将使软件 独立于平台，并将允许与现有的 应用程序，如数据库、分析包或可视化 工具。该环境还将为评估 医学图像分割算法。设计这样一个软件 环境，我们将使用最新的创新来设计这样一个软件 环境，我们将使用软件技术的最新创新，如 作为面向对象的设计和分布式对象。 建议的商业应用： 我们为该软件环境设想了两类用户--(1)医疗 成像研究人员或医学成像解决方案提供商，以及(2) 临床医生或临床研究人员。第一类用途将能够 来完全定制应用程序。第二类用户将 将该软件用于特定应用程序。我们的积木方法 环境的设计将允许快速定制 不同的应用程序和不同类型的用户。

The goal of this research is to develop an open and extensible software environment for medical image segmentation. This environment will contribute to the public and scientific interest in at least three ways: (1) improved and efficient segmentation of medical images for various applications, (2) efficient creation of new image segmentation algorithms, and (3) improved evaluation for medical image segmentation algorithms. Image segmentation has many applications in medical imaging; however, it's use in current clinical practice falls far short of its potential. Commercially available tools are either designed for very specific applications, or are general-purpose image processing packages with little support for image segmentation. The proposed environment will be devoted to medical image segmentation and will have an extensible and open architecture. The extensible architecture will allow easy customization for specific applications and will also allow users to add their own algorithms. The open architecture will make the software platform-independent and will allow easy integration with existing applications, such as databases, analysis packages, or visualization tools. This environment will also provide tools for evaluation of medical image segmentation algorithms. To design such a software environment, we will use the latest innovations in design such a software environment, we will use latest innovations in software technology, such as object-oriented design and distributed objects. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: We envision two types of users for this software environment--(1) medical imaging researchers or medical imaging solution providers, and (2) clinicians or clinical researchers. The first type of uses will be able to customize the application completely. The second type of users will use the software for specific applications. Our building-block approach to the design of the environment will allow rapid customization for different applications and for the different types of users.