Methods and apparatus for texture based filter fusion for CBCT system and cone-beam image reconstruction

1. A method for digital radiographic 3-D volume image processing of a subject, the method executed at least in part on a computer, the method comprising:

obtaining a plurality of 2-D digital projection images, the plurality of 2-D digital projection images exposed over a range of scan angles;

filtering the plurality of 2-D digital projection images using a first combination of filters to generate a first set of filtered projection images;

filtering the plurality of 2-D digital projection images using a second combination of filters to generate a second set of filtered projection images, wherein the first combination of filters are different from the second combination of filters and wherein the plurality of 2-D digital projection images that are filtered by the first combination and the second combination of filters are the same 2-D digital projection images;

reconstructing a first 3-D volume image of the subject from the first set of filtered projection images and reconstructing a second 3-D volume image of the subject from the second set of filtered projection images;

segmenting the first 3-D volume image of the subject to generate a mask;

combining the first 3-D volume image of the subject and the second 3-D volume image of the subject based on the mask to generate a final 3-D volume image of the subject; and

displaying a cross sectional slice from the final 3-D volume image of the subject.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising electronically storing the final 3-D volume image of the subject, where the 3-D volume image has an increased contrast-to-noise ratio.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising correcting image data in the 3-D volume image for noise.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of filtering the plurality of 2-D digital projection images using the first combination of filters comprises a first bilateral filtering followed by wavelet filtering followed by a second bilateral filtering.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the step of filtering the plurality of 2-D digital projection images using the second combination of filters comprises bilateral filtering followed by wavelet filtering.

6. The method of claim 2 , further comprising storing the final 3-D volume image of the subject in a computer-accessible memory.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the 2-D digital projection images comprises obtaining image data from a cone-beam computerized tomography apparatus.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising correcting image data in the plurality of 2-D digital projection images using an Anscombe transform.

9. A method for cone-beam computed tomography 3-D volume image reconstruction of a subject, the method executed at least in part on a computer, the method comprising:

obtaining a plurality of 2-D digital projection images, the plurality of 2-D digital projection images exposed over a range of scan angles using cone-beam computed tomography;

filtering the plurality of 2-D digital projection images using a first combination of filters to generate a first set of filtered projection images;

filtering the plurality of 2-D digital projection images using a second combination of filters to generate a second set of filtered projection images, wherein the first combination of filters are different from the second combination of filters and wherein the plurality of 2-D digital projection images that are filtered by the first combination and the second combination of filters are the same 2-D digital projection images;

reconstructing a first 3-D volume image of the subject from the first set of filtered projection images and reconstructing a second 3-D volume image of the subject from the second set of filtered projection images;

segmenting the first 3-D volume image of the subject to generate a mask;

combining the first 3-D volume image of the subject and the second 3-D volume image of the subject based on the mask to generate a final 3-D volume image of the subject; and

storing a cross sectional slice from the final 3-D volume image of the subject.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising displaying the final 3-D volume image of the subject or transmitting the final 3-D volume image of the subject to an external location.

11. The method of claim 9 where the subject is a limb, an extremity, a weight bearing extremity or a portion of a dental arch.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the final 3-D volume image of the subject comprises an orthopedic medical image, a dental medical image, a pediatric medical image or an image generated by image data from a flat panel detector.

13. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

performing one or more of geometric correction, scatter correction, beam-hardening correction, and gain and offset correction on the plurality of 2-D digital projection images;

performing a logarithmic operation on the plurality of 2-D digital projection images to obtain line integral data; and

performing a row-wise ramp linear filtering to the line integral data.

14. The method of claim 9 , further comprising processing the plurality of 2-D digital projection images according to a variance-stabilizing transform to provide transformed image data and performing a row-wise ramp linear filtering to the plurality of 2-D digital projection images without regularization of a noise suppression window.

15. The method of claim 9 , further comprising performing one or more of geometric correction, scatter correction, beam-hardening correction, and gain and offset correction on the obtained plurality of 2-D digital projection images.

16. The method of claim 9 , further comprising using an anti-scatter grid in the cone-beam computed tomography.

17. A computer implemented method of processing digital radiographic images of a subject, the method comprising:

obtaining a plurality of 2-D digital projection images of the subject;

filtering the plurality of 2-D digital projection images of the subject using a first combination of filters to generate a first set of filtered projection images;

filtering the plurality of 2-D digital projection images of the subject using a second combination of filters to generate a second set of filtered projection images, wherein the first combination of filters are different from the second combination of filters and wherein the plurality of 2-D digital projection images that are filtered by the first combination and the second combination of filters are the same 2-D digital projection images;

reconstructing a first 3-D volume image of the subject using the first set of filtered projection images and reconstructing a second 3-D volume image of the subject using the second set of filtered projection images; and

combining the first 3-D volume image of the subject and the second 3-D volume image of the subject to generate a final 3-D volume image of the subject.

18. The computer implemented method of claim 17 , wherein the step of combining comprises weighting image data from the first 3-D volume image of the subject and summing the weighted image data from the first 3-D volume image of the subject with image data from the second 3-D volume image of the subject.

19. The computer implemented method of claim 18 , wherein the step of filtering the 2-D digital projection images using the first combination of filters comprises selecting filters for optimizing bone imaging in the first 3-D volume image of the subject.

20. The computer implemented method of claim 19 , wherein the step of filtering the 2-D digital projection images using the second combination of filters comprises selecting filters for optimizing soft tissue imaging in the second 3-D volume image of the subject.