ADVANCED AUTOMATIC DIGITAL RADIOGRAPHIC HOT LIGHT METHOD AND APPARATUS

1 . A method for automatically modifying the rendering of an image based on an analysis of pixel values within a selected region of interest comprising:

providing a digital input image of digital pixel values and tone scale look-up table (LUT);

creating a default rendered image by applying the tone scale lookup table to the input image;

displaying the default rendered image;

selecting a region of interest from the input image;

computing the histogram of the pixel values within the region of interest;

creating a bright light image by remapping the pixel values within the region of interest based on an analysis of the histogram and the tone scale table, wherein the tone scale lookup table has been adjusted by one or more of increasing or decreasing the overall contrast and of reversing the polarity; and

overlaying the bright light image on the default rendered image.

2 . A method for automatically modifying the rendering of an image based on an analysis of pixel values within a selected region of interest comprising:

providing a digital input image of digital pixel values and tone scale look-up table (LUT);

creating a default rendered image by applying the tone scale lookup table to the input image;

displaying the default rendered image on a color display;

selecting a region of interest from the input image;

computing the histogram of the pixel values within the region of interest;

creating a bright light image by remapping the pixel values within the region of interest based on an analysis of the histogram and the tone scale table; wherein the tone scale lookup table is transformed into a pseudo-color palette; and

overlaying the bright light image on the default rendered image.

3 . A method for automatically modifying the rendering of an image based on an analysis of pixel values within a selected region of interest comprising:

providing a digital input image of digital pixel values and tone scale look-up table (LUT);

creating a default rendered image by applying the tone scale lookup table to the input image;

displaying the default rendered image;

selecting a region of interest from the input image;

computing the histogram of the pixel values within the region of interest;

processing the region of interest by means of trend removal;

creating a bright light image by remapping the pixel values within the region of interest based on an analysis of the histogram and the tone scale table; and

overlaying the bright light image on the default rendered image.

4 . The method of claim 3 wherein the trend removal processing includes removing a fitted polynomial surface from the region of interest.

5 . The method of claim 3 wherein the fitted polynomial surface is a plane surface.

6 . The method of claim 3 wherein the fitted polynomial surface is a quadratic surface.

7 . A method for automatically modifying the rendering of an image based on an analysis of pixel values within a selected region of interest comprising:

providing a digital input image of digital pixel values and tone scale look-up table (LUT);

creating a default rendered image by applying the tone scale lookup table to the input image;

displaying the default rendered image;

selecting a region of interest from the input image;

computing the histogram of the pixel values within the region of interest;

processing the region of interest with spatial frequency processing;

creating a bright light image by remapping the pixel values within the region of interest based on an analysis of the histogram and the tone scale table; and

overlaying the bright light image on the default rendered image.

8 . The method of claim 7 wherein the spatial frequency processing includes unsharp masking processing.

9 . The method of claim 7 wherein the spatial frequency processing includes multiresolution morphological filtering.

10 . The method of claim 7 wherein the spatial frequency processing includes multiresolution filtering.

11 . A method for automatically modifying the rendering of an image based on an analysis of pixel values within a selected region of interest comprising:

providing a digital input image of digital pixel values and tone scale look-up table (LUT);

creating a default rendered image by applying the tone scale lookup table to the input image;

displaying the default rendered image;

selecting a region of interest from the input image;

computing the histogram of the pixel values within the region of interest;

creating a bright light image by remapping the pixel values within the region of interest based on an analysis of the histogram and the tone scale table;

magnifying the bright light image; and

overlaying the magnified bright light image on the default rendered image such that the center of the original bright light image becomes the center of the overlay image.

12 . A method for automatically modifying the rendering of an image based on an analysis of pixel values within a selected region of interest comprising:

providing a digital input image of digital pixel values and tone scale look-up table (LUT);

creating a default rendered image by applying the tone scale lookup table to the input image;

displaying the default rendered image;

selecting a region of interest from the input image;

computing the histogram of the pixel values within the region of interest;

creating a bright light image by remapping the pixel values within the region of interest based on an analysis of the histogram and the tone scale table;

overlaying the bright light image on the default rendered image; and

storing the bright light image with the original image.

13 . The method of claim 12 wherein the storing includes storing the bright light image as a bitmapped file.

14 . The method of claim 12 wherein the storing includes storing the placement parameters of the bright light image.

15 . The method of claim 12 wherein the storing includes storing a database entry that links the original image to the bright light image.

16 . A method for automatically modifying the rendering of an image based on an analysis of pixel values within a selected region of interest comprising:

providing a digital input image of digital pixel values and tone scale look-up table (LUT);

creating a default rendered image by applying the tone scale lookup table to the input image;

displaying the default rendered image;

selecting a region of interest from the input image;

computing the histogram of the pixel values within the region of interest;

creating a bright light image by remapping the pixel values within the region of interest based on an analysis of the histogram and the tone scale table; and

overlaying the bright light image on the default rendered image so that the overlay image displays in true size.