Course description

Course lay-out

1. Physical principles of the most important image- and signal-forming techniques

• Röntgen, CT, MRI
• Gamma camera, SPECT
• Ultrasonic image-forming
• Electron microscopy and CSLM
• CCD cameras
• Transducers
• Observe and measure: errors, precision
• Errors in reconstructed medical images

2. Basic principles of image and signal sampling

• Signal and image model
• Sampling of images and signals
• Resolution in time and location

3. The most important image and signal processing techniques

• Description of signals and images in respect to time/location and domain frequency
• Point operations on images
• Linear operations on images in respect to time/location and domain frequency
• Algebraic operations on images
• Geometrical image processing
• Morphologic operations

4. Segmenting images

• Detection of points, lines and edges
• Thresholding
• Region-oriented operations

5. Principles of pattern recognition at interpretation of images

• Patterns, features and pattern classes
• Methods of decision analysis
• Structural methods
• Image interpretation with logics, semantic networks and expert systems

6. Principles of visualisation of images

• Observing of 3D images
• 3D interpretation on the basis of 2D images
• Mapping and rendering of 3D images

7. Compression of images

• Image descriptors: edge and regional descriptors
• Compression with and without loss
• Static and spatial compression
• Performance

8. The most important clinical and scientific application of images

• Clinical applications
• Scientific applications

 

Educational goals

At the end of this course the student has knowledge of and insight into:

• interpretation and information processing of images and signals and the application of it in medicine. The course will focus on the application of images in the clinic and in medical scientific research
• physical principles of the most important image- and signal-forming techniques
• basic principles of image and signal sampling
• the most important image and signal processing techniques
• segmenting images
• principles of pattern recognition at interpretation of images
• principles of visualisation of images
• compression of images
• the most important clinical and scientific application of images

 

Involved departments

• Anatomy & Embryology
• Bio-Informatics
• Cell Biology & Histology
• Clinical Informatics
• Medical Physics
• Nuclear Medicine
• Radiology
• Radiotherapy

 

Evaluation

Evaluation of the course and assignments

This course had a duration of 8 weeks and covers the topic image processing. Several departments discussed the importance of image processing for their department and which techniques they used. At the end of this course I had a clear overview of image processing techniques. A major benefit of the training exercises was that I was actively studying the matter. This is more effective than when you can only study the lectures given that particular day. The bonus given when completed all exercises was an extra motivation. The exercises were closely related to the lectures and matter that had to be studied for the exam. Furthermore the practicals were also very useful. The practicals helped me to understand the image processing techniques and I understand the differences of the several techniques and when to use a specific technique. The organisation of the course was very good. The organisation prevented that problems could occur. Some topics were quite difficult, but I could handle it. Furthermore we had to study quite a lot material and may be the number of deadlines could be decreased. In summary: it was a very nice course and very well organised.