• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.593-598
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• 2016

In order to reduce the amount of noise component in X-ray imaging system, various reduction techniques were frequently used in the field of diagnostic imaging. Although the previous techniques -such as median, Wiener filters and Anscombe noise reduction technique - were able to reduce the noise, the edge information was still damaged. In order to cope with this problem, total variation (TV) noise reduction technique has been developed and researched. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the image quality using normalized noise power spectrum (NNPS) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) through simulations and experiments with respect to the above-mentioned noise reduction techniques. As a result, not only lowest NNPS value but also highest CNR values were acquired using a TV noise reduction technique. In conclusion, the results demonstrated that TV noise reduction technique is proved as the most practical method to ensure accurate denoising in X-ray imaging system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.719-722
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• 2019

Gamma-ray images generally suffer from a lot of noise because of low photon detection in the gamma camera system. The purpose of this study is to improve the image quality in gamma-ray images using a gamma camera system with a fast nonlocal means (FNLM) noise reduction algorithm with an acceleration function. The designed FNLM algorithm is based on local region considerations, including the Euclidean distance in the gamma-ray image and use of the encoded information. To evaluate the noise characteristics, the normalized noise power spectrum (NNPS), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and coefficient of variation (COV) were used. According to the NNPS result, the lowest values can be obtained using the FNLM noise reduction algorithm. In addition, when the conventional methods and the FNLM noise reduction algorithm were compared, the average CNR and COV using the proposed algorithm were approximately 2.23 and 7.95 times better than those of the noisy image, respectively. In particular, the image-processing time of the FNLM noise reduction algorithm can achieve the fastest time compared with conventional noise reduction methods. The results of the image qualities related to noise characteristics demonstrated the superiority of the proposed FNLM noise reduction algorithm in a gamma camera system.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.140-146
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• 2016

The ultrasound imaging in medical diagnosis has become a popular modality because of its safe, noninvasive, portable, relatively inexpensive, and provides a real-time image formation. However, usefulness of ultrasound imaging is at times limited due to the presence of signal-dependent noise like as speckle. Therefore, noise reduction is very important, as various types of noise generated limits the effectiveness of medical image diagnosis. This paper introduces a speckle noise reduce algorithm using total variation denoising (TVD) in Laplacian pyramid. With this method, speckle is removed by TVD of bandpass ultrasound images in Laplacian pyramid domain. For TVD in each pyramid layer, a ${\lambda}$ is selected by trial-and-error method. The visual comparison of despeckled 'in vivo' ultrasound images from pancreas shows that the proposed method could effectively preserve edges and detailed structures while thoroughly suppressing speckle. For a Simulated B-mode image, contrast-to-noise-ratio (CNR) and signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) were obtained like 4.65 dB and 14.11 dB, respectively. The results show that the proposed method can conduct better than some of the existing methods in terms of the CNR and the SNR.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.29-38
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• 2012

The noise generated in the process of obtaining the medical image acts as the element obstructing the image interpretation and diagnosis. To restore the true image from the image polluted from the noise, the total variation optimization algorithm was proposed by the R.O. F (L.Rudin, S Osher, E. Fatemi). This method removes the noise by fitting the balance of the regularity and fidelity. However, the blurring phenomenon of the border area generated in the process of performing the iterative operation cannot be avoided. In this paper, we propose the adaptive total variation method by mapping the control parameter to the proposed transfer function for minimizing boundary error. The proposed transfer function is determined by the noise variance and the local property of the image. The proposed method was applied to 464 tooth images. To evaluate proposed method performance, PSNR which is a indicator of signal and noise's signal power ratio was used. The experimental results show that the proposed method has better performance than other methods.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.1413-1421
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• 1997

A new control method to alleviate the impulsive noise at the exit of high-speed railway tunnel was applied to the compression wave at the entrance of the tunnel. This method uses the interaction phenomenon of unsteady expansion wave and unsteady compression wave. Unsteady expansion wave was assumed to be made instantaneously by the simple theory of shock tube. Total Variation Diminishing method was employed to solve the axisymmetric unsteady compressible flow field with a specified compression wave. Numerical results show that the maximum pressure gradient of the propagating compression wave decreases with increase of the wave length of the unsteady expansion wave. It is found that the impulsive noise reduction can be obtained when the unsteady expansion wave with a large wave length is emitted just before the train enters the tunnel. The present results give the possibility to reduce the impulsive noise at the exit of tunnel.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.707-712
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• 2018

The number of CT examinations is increasing, and radiation exposure is also increasing. repeated tests can affect the lens and thyroid. In hospitals, there is a tendency to lack interest in major long-term radiation exposure compared to the interest in increasing image information and image quality with head CT. In this study, we analyzed the improvement of image quality by proposed method to the noisy CT images. The proposed denoising method total variance optimization only for the impulsive noise candidate pixels. Experimental results show that edge information is well preserved and impulse noise can be effectively removed. and worked very well for the images according to tube voltage and rotation time. applied to the clinical setting, it can be used as the lowest exposure condition without worrying about the image quality and it will be helpful for the CT application.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.252-260
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• 2012

The reduction of radiation dose from x-ray is a main concern in computed tomography (CT) imaging due to the side-effect of the dose on human body. Recently, the various methods for dose reduction have been studied in CT and one of the method is a iterative reconstruction based on total variation (TV) minimization at few-views data. In this paper, we evaluated the image quality between total variation (TV) minimization algorithm and Feldkam-Davis-kress (FDK) algorithm in micro computed tomography (CT). To evaluate the effect of TV minimization algorithm, we produced a cylindrical phantom including contrast media, water, air inserts. We can acquire maximum 400 projection views per rotation of the x-ray tube and detector. 20, 50, 90, 180 projection data were chosen for evaluating the level of image restoration by TV minimization. The phantom and mouse image reconstructed with FDK algorithm at 400 projection data used as a reference image for comparing with TV minimization and FDK algorithm at few-views. Contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), Universal quality index (UQI) were used as a image evaluation metric. When projection data are not insufficient, our results show that the image quality of reconstructed with TV minimization is similar to reconstructed image with FDK at 400 view. In the cylindrical phantom study, the CNR of TV image was 5.86, FDK image was 5.65 and FDK-reference was 5.98 at 90-views. The CNR of TV image 0.21 higher than FDK image CNR at 90-views. UQI of TV image was 0.99 and FDK image was 0.81 at 90-views. where, the number of projection is 90, the UQI of TV image 0.18 higher than FDK image at 90-views. In the mouse study UQI of TV image was 0.91, FDK was 0.83 at 90-views. the UQI of TV image 0.08 higher than FDK image at 90-views. In cylindrical phantom image and mouse image study, TV minimization algorithm shows the best performance in artifact reduction and preserving edges at few view data. Therefore, TV minimization can potentially be expected to reduce patient dose in clinics.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.37A no.11
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• pp.961-971
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• 2012

This article is concerned with effective numerical techniques for partial differential equation (PDE)-based image restoration. Numerical realizations of most PDE-based denoising models show a common drawback: loss of fine structures. In order to overcome the drawback, the article introduces a new time-stepping procedure, called the method of nonflat time evolution (MONTE), in which the timestep size is determined based on local image characteristics such as the curvature or the diffusion magnitude. The MONTE provides PDE-based restoration models with an effective mechanism for the equalization of the net diffusion over a wide range of image frequency components. It can be easily applied to diverse evolutionary PDE-based restoration models and their spatial and temporal discretizations. It has been numerically verified that the MONTE results in a significant reduction in numerical dissipation and preserves fine structures such as edges and textures satisfactorily, while it removes the noise with an improved efficiency. Various numerical results are shown to confirm the claim.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.679-684
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• 2023

Venous puncture is widely used to obtain blood samples for pathological examination. Because the invasive venipuncture method using a needle is repeatedly performed, the pain suffered by the patient increases, so our research team pre-developed a miniaturized near-infrared (NIR) imaging system in advance. To improve the image quality of the acquired NIR images, this study aims to model the non-local means (NLM) algorithm, which is well known to be efficient in noise reduction, and analyze its applicability in the system. The developed NIR imaging system is based on the principle that infrared rays pass through dichroic and long-pass filters and are detected by a CMOS sensor module. The proposed NLM algorithm is modeled based on the principle of replacing the pixel from which noise is to be removed with a value that reflects the distances between surrounding pixels. After acquiring an NIR image with a central wavelength of 850 nm, the NLM algorithm was applied to segment the final vein area through histogram equalization. As a result, the coefficient of variation of the NIR image of the vein using the NLM algorithm was 0.247 on average, which was an excellent result compared to conventional filtering methods. In addition, the dice similarity coefficient value of the NLM algorithm was improved by 62.91 and 9.40%, respectively, compared to the median filter and total variation methods. In conclusion, we demonstrated that the NLM algorithm can acquire accurate segmentation of veins acquired with a NIR imaging system.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.15-24
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• 2021

Purpose SPECT/CT was noted for its excellent correction method and qualitative functions based on fusion images in the early stages of dissemination, and interest in and utilization of quantitative functions has been increasing with the recent introduction of companion diagnostic therapy(Theranostics). Unlike PET/CT, various conditions like the type of collimator and detector rotation are a challenging factor for image acquisition and reconstruction methods at absolute quantification of SPECT/CT. Therefore, in this study, We want to find out the effect on the radioactivity concentration estimate by the increase or decrease of the total acquisition time according to the number of projections and the acquisition time per projection among SPECT/CT imaging conditions. Materials and Methods After filling the 9,293 ml cylindrical phantom with sterile water and diluting 99mTc 91.76 MBq, the standard image was taken with a total acquisition time of 600 sec (10 sec/frame × 120 frames, matrix size 128 × 128) and also volume sensitivity and the calibration factor was verified. Based on the standard image, the comparative images were obtained by increasing or decreasing the total acquisition time. namely 60 (-90%), 150 (-75%), 300 (-50%), 450 (-25%), 900 (+50%), and 1200 (+100%) sec. For each image detail, the acquisition time(sec/frame) per projection was set to 1.0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 15.0 and 20.0 sec (fixed number of projections: 120 frame) and the number of projection images was set to 12, 30, 60, 90, 180 and 240 frames(fixed time per projection:10 sec). Based on the coefficients measured through the volume of interest in each acquired image, the percentage of variation about the contrast to noise ratio (CNR) was determined as a qualitative assessment, and the quantitative assessment was conducted through the percentage of variation of the radioactivity concentration estimate. At this time, the relationship between the radioactivity concentration estimate (cps/ml) and the actual radioactivity concentration (Bq/ml) was compared and analyzed using the recovery coefficient (RC_Recovery Coefficients) as an indicator. Results The results [CNR, radioactivity Concentration, RC] by the change in the number of projections for each increase or decrease rate (-90%, -75%, -50%, -25%, +50%, +100%) of total acquisition time are as follows. [-89.5%, +3.90%, 1.04] at -90%, [-77.9%, +2.71%, 1.03] at -75%, [-55.6%, +1.85%, 1.02] at -50%, [-33.6%, +1.37%, 1.01] at -25%, [-33.7%, +0.71%, 1.01] at +50%, [+93.2%, +0.32%, 1.00] at +100%. and also The results [CNR, radioactivity Concentration, RC] by the acquisition time change for each increase or decrease rate (-90%, -75%, -50%, -25%, +50%, +100%) of total acquisition time are as follows. [-89.3%, -3.55%, 0.96] at - 90%, [-73.4%, -0.17%, 1.00] at -75%, [-49.6%, -0.34%, 1.00] at -50%, [-24.9%, 0.03%, 1.00] at -25%, [+49.3%, -0.04%, 1.00] at +50%, [+99.0%, +0.11%, 1.00] at +100%. Conclusion In SPECT/CT, the total coefficient obtained according to the increase or decrease of the total acquisition time and the resulting image quality (CNR) showed a pattern that changed proportionally. On the other hand, quantitative evaluations through absolute quantification showed a change of less than 5% (-3.55 to +3.90%) under all experimental conditions, maintaining quantitative accuracy (RC 0.96 to 1.04). Considering the reduction of the total acquisition time rather than the increasing of the image acquiring time, The reduction in total acquisition time is applicable to quantitative analysis without significant loss and is judged to be clinically effective. This study shows that when increasing or decreasing of total acquisition time, changes in acquisition time per projection have fewer fluctuations that occur in qualitative and quantitative condition changes than the change in the number of projections under the same scanning time conditions.