Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Vol 20, Issue 4 187-192, Copyright © 1991 by British Institute of Radiology
Automatic analysis of radiographic images: I. Theoretical considerations
D. K. Benn
Department of Community Medicine, University College London.
Making accurate measurements from radiographic images is time consuming and
expensive. Simple and inexpensive diagnostic/monitoring systems will
require a high degree of automation if they are to be used by radiographers
or nurses in routine clinical practice without special training. Completely
automatic image analysis systems are rare in radiology, although a number
of experimental automated (initial human interaction) systems do exist. No
fully automatic system exists for analysing dental bitewing radiographs.
The role of multiple layer image models and multiple sources of information
are discussed in relation to dental images. The potential role of
interdental spaces is suggested as necessary key image regions to be
identified for the model building process. A theoretical image model data
structure is proposed which is experimentally tested in the following
paper.
