Method and apparatus for aiding in the diagnosis of otitis media by classifying tympanic membrane images

1. A method of aiding a diagnosis of otitis media in a patient, comprising:

obtaining image data in a processor apparatus of a computing device, the image data being associated with at least one electronic image of a tympanic membrane of the patient;

calculating a plurality of image features, each image feature being calculated based on at least a portion of the image data, wherein the plurality of image features includes: (i) a concavity feature which indicates a degree of concavity of a region located centrally in the tympanic membrane, (ii) a translucency feature which indicates a degree of translucency of the tympanic membrane, (iii) an amber level feature which indicates a degree of amber color present in the tympanic membrane, (iv) a grayscale variance feature which indicates a degree of variance of intensities across a grayscale version of the at least one electronic image, (v) a bubble presence feature which indicates a degree to which bubbles are present in the tympanic membrane, and (vi) a light feature which indicates a degree of non-uniformity of illumination in the at least one electronic image;

classifying the at least one electronic image into one of a plurality of predetermined clinical diagnostic categories for otitis media using the plurality of image features and a predetermined decision process; and

outputting an indication of the one of the plurality of predetermined clinical diagnostic categories.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein calculating the concavity feature comprises identifying a central region in a grayscale version of the at least one electronic image, defining a bright region in the central region and a dark region in the central region and comparing the bright region to the dark region.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein calculating the translucency feature comprises measuring a grayness of the tympanic membrane using a color-assignment technique.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein calculating the amber level feature comprises employing a color-assignment technique.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein calculating the grayscale variance feature comprises measuring a variance of pixel intensities in the grayscale version of the at least one electronic image.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein calculating the bubble presence feature comprises obtaining red and green channels of the at least one electronic image, performing edge detection thereon to create a binary image X b in between edges, and defining as the bubble presence feature the mean of X b .

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein calculating the light feature comprises calculating a ratio of brightly-lit to the darkly-lit regions of the at least one electronic image.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the obtaining image data comprises receiving unprocessed image data and preprocessing the unprocessed image data to produce the image data.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the preprocessing employs an automated segmentation process to locate the tympanic membrane in the at least one electronic image.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the classifying includes a first level based on the concavity feature, translucency feature and the light feature to classify the at least one electronic image into one of two superclasses: AOM/OME and NOE/OME, and a second level to classify the at least one electronic image into one of AOM, OME and NOE based on a weighted combination of the amber level feature, bubble presence feature, the translucency feature and grayscale variance feature.

11. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising capturing the at least one electronic image.

12. A system for aiding a diagnosis of otitis media in a patient, comprising:

an output device; and

a computing device having a processor apparatus structured and configured to

obtain image data, the image data being associated with at least one electronic image of a tympanic membrane of the patient;

calculate a plurality of image features, each image feature being calculated based on at least a portion of the image data, wherein the plurality of image features includes: (i) a concavity feature which indicates a degree of concavity of a region located centrally in the tympanic membrane, (ii) a translucency feature which indicates a degree of translucency of the tympanic membrane, (iii) an amber level feature which indicates a degree of amber color present in the tympanic membrane, (iv) a grayscale variance feature which indicates a degree of variance of intensities across a grayscale version of the at least one electronic image, (v) a bubble presence feature which indicates a degree to which bubbles are present in the tympanic membrane, and (vi) a light feature which indicates a degree of non-uniformity of illumination in the at least one electronic image;

classify the at least one electronic image into one of a plurality of predetermined clinical diagnostic categories for otitis media using the plurality of image features and a predetermined decision process; and

cause the output device to output an indication of the one of the plurality of predetermined clinical diagnostic categories.

13. The system according to claim 12 , wherein the output device is a display.

14. The system according to claim 12 , further comprising an image capture device structured to capture the at least one electronic image.

15. The system according to claim 12 , wherein the computing device is structured and configured to calculate the concavity feature by identifying a central region in a grayscale version of the at least one electronic image, defining a bright region in the central region and a dark region in the central region and comparing the bright region to the dark region.

16. The system according to claim 12 , wherein the computing device is structured and configured to calculate the translucency feature by measuring a grayness of the tympanic membrane using a color-assignment technique.

17. The system according to claim 12 , wherein the computing device is structured and configured to calculate the amber level feature by employing a color-assignment technique.

18. The system according to claim 12 , wherein the computing device is structured and configured to calculate the grayscale variance feature by measuring a variance of pixel intensities in the grayscale version of the at least one electronic image.

19. The system according to claim 12 , wherein the computing device is structured and configured to calculate the bubble presence feature by obtaining red and green channels of the at least one electronic image, performing edge detection thereon to create a binary image X b in between edges, and defining as the bubble presence feature the mean of X b .

20. The system according to claim 12 , wherein the computing device is structured and configured to calculate the light feature by calculating a ratio of brightly-lit to the darkly-lit regions of the at least one electronic image.

21. The system according to claim 12 , wherein the computing device is structured and configured to classify the at least one electronic image using a first level based on the concavity feature, translucency feature and the light feature to classify the at least one electronic image into one of two superclasses: AOM/OME and NOE/OME, and a second level based on a weighted combination of the amber level feature, bubble presence feature, the translucency feature and grayscale variance feature to classify the at least one electronic image into one of AOM, OME and NOE.

22. A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code being adapted to be executed to implement a method for aiding a diagnosis of otitis media in a patient as recited in claim 1 .