The overall objective of this research is to explore ways to extract information from imagery, and subsequently analyze, characterize, understand, and visualize the extracted information. The images of interest include two-dimensional (2D) views, three-dimensional (3D) volumetric data sets, and temporally evolving 2D and 3D image sequences, focusing on medical imagery. Computer vision and image processing methods underlie this research, drawing from a number of approaches, including knowledge-, model-, and physically-based paradigms, as well as morphological and connectionist techniques. The types of problems and issues associated with this research include:

• How can specific information of interest be properly extracted from these multidimensional, complex, and noisy data sets?
• What approaches, based on the human visual system, can be effectively invoked in a computational framework?
• What are appropriate mechanisms for organizing, representing, and analyzing the extracted information?
• What are useful and efficient computational models of visual reasoning?
• What are useful models for inferring structural from functional image information?
• What are useful algorithms for segmenting volumetric data sets with information that is noisy, incomplete, and possibly misleading?
• What are robust methods for matching and labeling information that is derived from image sequences?
• How can robust, coherent algorithms be constructed which fuse model-based, knowledge-based, and low-level signal processing methods?

• Algorithms for segmenting noisy, incomplete volumetric data sets derived from cardiovascular perfusion imaging (DISHA).
• Methods for characterizing, labeling and matching vascular structures in angiographic image sequences.
• Automated segmentation of volumetric, magnetic resonance brain imagery employing mathematical morphology (MorphoShell).
• Connectionist approaches for processing, understanding, and predicting images

Publications:

• "Model-Based Labeling of Arterial Structure Using Temporal Disambiguation,"
  N. Ezquerra, S. Capell, L. Klein, and P. Duijves. submitted to IEEE Trans. on Medical Imaging.

• "Knowledge-Guided Segmentation of 3D Cardiac Imagery,"
  N. Ezquerra and R. Mullick. In Press.

• "Analyzing and Predicting Images Through a Neural Network Approach,"
  L. de Braal, N. Ezquerra, E. Schwartz, C.D. Cooke, and E. Garcia. Proceedings of the Visualization in Biomedical Computing 1996 (VBC 96) Conference, Hamburg Germany, September 22-25 1996.

• "Automatic 3-dimensional segmentation of mr brain tissue using filters by reconstruction,"
  Joaquin Madrid and Norberto Ezquerra. In Petros Maragos, Ronald Schafer, and Akmal Butt, editors, Mathematical Morphology and its Applications to Image and Signal Processing, pages 417-424. ISMM, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, MASS, May 1996.

• "An Approach to 3D Pose Determination,"
  N. Ezquerra and R. Mullick. ACM Transactions on Graphics, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 99-120, April 1996.

• "Automatic Determination of the Orientation of the Heart from 3D SPECT Imaging,"
  R. Mullick and N. Ezquerra. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Vol. 14, No. 1, March 1995.

• "Three-Dimensional Representation of Coronary Arteries: A Preliminary Clinical Evaluation,"
  L. Klein, J. Peifer, M. Ghazzal, N. Ezquerra, C. Cooke and E. Garcia. Circulation, Vol. 84, No. 4, II-721, 1995.

• "The Automated Segmentation of Coronary Vessels in Angiographic Image Sequences,"
  J. F. O'Brien and N. F. Ezquerra. IEEE Proc.: Visualization in Biomedical Computing, October 1994.

• "Automated Segmentation of Coronary Vessels in Angiographic Image Sequences Using Temporal, Spatial, and Structural Constraints,"
  J. O'Brien and N. Ezquerra. Visualization in Biomedical Computing (VBC T94) Conference, SPIE Vol. 2359, No. 25, pp. 25-37, October 1994.

• "Evaluation of Automatic Technique to Reorient the LV Myocardium in Cardiac SPECT,"
  R. Mullick, N. Ezquerra, C. Cooke, et al. Soc. Nuclear Medicine 41st. Meeting, Orlando, June 1994.

• "Clinical Evaluation of Automated Technique to Reorient Left-Ventricular Myocardium in Cardiac SPECT,"
  with R. Mullick, D. Cooke, and E. Garcia. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, Vol. 35, No. 5, 1994.

• "Automatic Segmentation of 3D Cardiac SPECT Data,"
  R. Mullick and N. F. Ezquerra. Proc. of the 12th IEEE Southern Biomedical Engineering Conference, pp. 40-42, New Orleans, LA, April 1993.

• "Topological Considerations on Grey Level Skeletonization,"
  with J. Madrid and R. Mersereau. Proc. Conf. on Visual Comm. and Image Processing, SPIE V. 1818, p. 392-401, Boston, MA, 1993.

• "Connectionist Methods in Medicine,"
  N. Ezquerra, invited presentation at the International Congress on Knowledge Engineering, Seville, Spain, October 1992.

• "Spatiotemporal Detection of Arterial Structures Using Active Contours,"
  E. Hyche, N. Ezquerra, and R. Mullick. Proc. 2nd. Int. Conf. on Visualization in Biomedical Computing (VBC T92), SPIE 1808, R. Robb, ed., pp. 56-62, Chapel Hill, NC, October 1992.

• "3D Visualization of Pose Determination: Application to SPECT Imaging,"
  R. Mullick and N. F. Ezquerra. Proc. of the Second Conference on Visualization in Biomedical Computing , Chapel Hill, NC, SPIE vol. 1808, pp. 445-452, October 1992.

• "A Neural Networks Approach to Medical Image Interpretation,"
  A. Pazos, N. Ezquerra, F. Martin, and V. Maojo. Proc. World Congress on Medical Informatics (MEDINFO `92), Geneva, Switzerland, September 1992.

• "Three-Dimensional Coronary Angiography,"
  L. Klein, E. Garcia, C. Cooke, R. Folks and J. Peifer. Am. J. Cardiac Imaging Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 187-194, 1992.

• "Coronary Vasculature Visualization from Limited Angiographic Views,"
  J. W. Peifer, R. Mullick, N. F. Ezquerra, M. E. Hyche, E. V. Garcia, L. Klein, and C. D. Cooke. IEEE Proc. of the First Conference on Visualization in Biomedical Computing, Atlanta, GA, pp. 195-200, May 1990.

• "Automatic Program for Determination of the Long Axis of the Left Ventricular Myocardium for Thallium-201 Tomographic Reconstruction,"
  C. Cooke, R. Folks, N. Ezquerra, and E. Garcia. Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Vol. 30, #5, p. 806, May 1989.

• "3-Dimensional Reconstruction of Arterial Structure from Biplane Angiography,"
  C. D. Cooke, L. Jofre, L. Klein, J. W. Peifer, N. F. Ezquerra, W. S. Briggs, M. S. West, and E. V. Garcia. IEEE Technicon '87 Conference Proceedings, Miami, Florida, October 28-30, 1987.