Image processing analyzes ultrasound images

Feb. 7, 2002
FEBRUARY 7--Icon Technologies (Victoria Park, Western Australia) has developed an automated imaging system that improves the speed, precision, and objectivity of the analysis of videotapes containing ultrasound images that have captured changes in blood-vessel diameter.

FEBRUARY 7--Icon Technologies (Victoria Park, Western Australia) has developed an automated imaging system that improves the speed, precision, and objectivity of the analysis of videotapes containing ultrasound images that have captured changes in blood-vessel diameter. To digitize the original images, the videotape is replayed through a SR-S388E time-code video recorder from JVC (Wayne, NJ) under RS-232 serial control. Using LabVIEW software from National Instruments (Austin, TX), a driver library for the video recorder implements the most common control commands. Images are then acquired from tape to a 450-MHz Dual-Pentium III PC via a National Instruments PCI-1407 monochrome acquisition card at rates of up to 17 frames/s.

According to Mark Trotman, managing director of Icon Technologies, the entire analysis of the EKG R-wave and the blood-vessel diameter is accomplished via a sequence of three image-processing tools from the IMAQ Vision Toolkit. Measurement of the blood-vessel diameters is objective and reproducible with a precision of 6.7%.

For more on this, seeVision Systems Design, February 2002.

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