System for analyzing medical images having a particular color and intensity look-up table

Claim 1

An apparatus for analyzing a mammogram to identify carcinoma-induced stress in tissue comprising: a camera for creating a scanned video image from said mammogram; a video signal digitizing means for creating a digitized image from said scanned video image comprising an array of pixels, each pixel defining a gray scale level for a point on said mammogram representing a tissue density recorded on said mammogram; a computer including a video memory for storing said array of pixels, said computer being programmed to: divide the array of pixels into discrete separate groups of pixels forming contiguous ranges of gray scales, each group including pixels having a gray scale value within a range unique to said group; assigning a single pixel value to each pixel of each group said single pixel value selected so that adjacent groups comprise non-contiguous groups of a single pixel value; addressing a look-up with each assigned pixel value, to produce a plurality of pixel colors having a saturation and intensity level defined by each assigned pixel value whereby each color includes a range of intensity levels, said intensity level increasing from a black level to a maximum level for increasing assigned pixel values whereby further increases in an assigned pixel value produces another color which increases in intensity level for increasing assigned pixel values; and a display for displaying an image comprising said pixel colors, wherein pixels lying within each of said groups have the same display value, said image having discrete boundaries defined by non-contiguous pixel values representing a tissue density gradient produced by carcinoma-induced stress.

Claim 2

An apparatus for analyzing a mammogram to identify carcinoma-induced stress in tissue comprising: a camera for creating a scanned video image from said mammogram; a video signal digitizing means for creating a digitized image from said scanned video image comprising an array of pixels, each pixel defining a gray scale level for a point on said mammogram representing a tissue density recorded on said mammogram; a computer including a video memory for storing said array of pixels, said computer being programmed to: divide the array of pixels into discrete separate groups of pixels forming contiguous ranges of gray scales, each group including pixels having a gray scale value within a range unique to said group; assigning a single pixel value to each pixel of each group said single pixel value selected so that adjacent groups comprise non-contiguous groups of a single pixel value; addressing a look-up with each assigned pixel value, to produce a plurality of pixel colors having a saturation and intensity level defined by each assigned pixel value whereby each color includes a range of intensity levels, said intensity level increasing from a black level to a maximum level for increasing assigned pixel values whereby further increases in an assigned pixel value produces another color which increases in intensity level for increasing assigned pixel values; and a display for displaying an image comprising said pixel colors, wherein pixels lying within each of said groups have the same display value, said image having discrete boundaries defined by non-contiguous pixel values representing a tissue density gradient produced by carcinoma-induced stress.

Claim 5

A method for detecting stress induced in human tissue during the early stages of a malignant condition comprising: forming a digital image of said tissue comprising a frame of pixels having a gray scale value representing a tissue density; translating each pixel gray scale into one of a limited number of discrete gray scale values, so that pixels having a gray scale value which lies within a small gray scale interval have the same gray scale values, and adjacent intervals have non-contiguous gray scale values; and, displaying each of said discrete gray scale values at each pixel location, as a distinct color from a look-up table which translates each translated pixel gray scale value into one of a plurality of distinct colors, each color including a range of intensity values, said look up table defining an intensity level for each display color based on a translated pixel gray scale value, said intensity level increasing from a minimum intensity level to a maximum intensity level with increasing translated pixel gray scale values until a boundary is reached with another color, whereby areas of substantially constant tissue density are represented as contours having the same display value, and tissue areas of high stress produce several adjacent bands of different displayed values of a distinctive shape.

Claim 6

A method for detecting stress induced in human tissue during the early stages of a malignant condition comprising: forming a digital image of said tissue comprising a frame of pixels having a gray scale value representing a tissue density; translating each pixel gray scale into one of a limited number of discrete gray scale values, so that pixels having a gray scale value which lies within a small gray scale interval have the same gray scale values, and adjacent intervals have non-contiguous gray scale values; and, displaying each of said discrete gray scale values at each pixel location, as a distinct color from a look-up table which translates each translated pixel gray scale value into one of a plurality of distinct colors, each color including a range of intensity values, said look up table defining an intensity level for each display color based on a translated pixel gray scale value, said intensity level increasing from a minimum intensity level to a maximum intensity level with increasing translated pixel gray scale values until a boundary is reached with another color, whereby areas of substantially constant tissue density are represented as contours having the same display value, and tissue areas of high stress produce several adjacent bands of different displayed values of a distinctive shape.