Method and system for non-invasive determination of human body fat
Provided is a non-invasive system and method of determining human body fat based on image processing. The method includes receiving at least one ultrasound scan image of at least a portion of a skin layer as disposed above one or more additional tissue layers, the skin layer defining a horizontal axis and the image provided by a plurality of pixels. The method continues by horizontally blurring the pixels of the image and thresholding the pixels of the image to provide a binary image having a plurality of elements of different sizes. The method continues with morphing the structural elements of the binary image to remove small elements and connect large elements. With this resulting image, the method distinguishes a body fat layer from the remaining elements and determines the body fat layer thickness. An associated system is also disclosed.
1. An ultrasound body composition system, comprising:
a handheld ultrasound probe; and
a non-transitory storage medium storing instructions executable by a processing unit communicably coupled to the handheld ultrasound probe to:
receive an ultrasound scan image of skin disposed above additional tissue;
process the ultrasound scan image to distinguish body fat from the additional tissue, the processing of the ultrasound scan image comprising at least:
thresholding the pixels of the ultrasound scan image to produce a binary image; and
distinguishing the body fat from remaining elements; and
determine a body fat thickness from the processed ultrasound scan image based on the distinguished body fat.
2. The ultrasound body composition system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further executable by the processing unit to determine a body fat percentage based on the body fat thickness.
3. The ultrasound body composition system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further executable by the processing unit to determine a muscle tissue thickness from the processed ultrasound scan image.
4. The ultrasound body composition system of claim 1 , wherein the processing of the ultrasound scan image further comprises at least one of:
introducing noise into pixels of the ultrasound scan image; or
morphing structural elements of the binary image.
5. The ultrasound body composition system of claim 1 , wherein the non-transitory storage medium stores additional instructions executable by the processing unit to:
compare the processed ultrasound scan image to a previous processed ultrasound scan image; and
determine a change in the additional tissue based at least one the comparison.
6. The ultrasound body composition system of claim 1 , wherein handheld ultrasound probe is wirelessly connected to the processing unit.
7. The ultrasound body composition system of claim 1 , wherein the ultrasound body composition system is portable.
8. A computer program product, embodied in a non-transitory storage medium, comprising:
a first set of instructions stored in the non-transitory storage medium and executable by a processing unit to receive ultrasound scan images from an ultrasound probe of skin disposed above additional tissue corresponding to multiple sites on a body;
a second set of instructions stored in the non-transitory storage medium and executable by the processing unit to process the ultrasound scan images to distinguish body fat from the additional tissue, the processing of the ultrasound scan image comprising at least:
thresholding the pixels of the ultrasound scan images to produce binary images having elements of different sizes; and
distinguishing the body fat from remaining elements; and
a third set of instructions stored in the non-transitory storage medium and executable by the processing unit to determine a body fat percentage from the processed ultrasound scan images based on the distinguished body fat.
9. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the multiple sites correspond to locations used in skin fold equations.
10. The computer program product of claim 8 , further comprising a fourth set of instructions stored in the non-transitory storage medium and executable by the processing unit to prompt to place the ultrasound probe at the multiple sites on the body.
11. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein the receiving of the ultrasound scan images is performed after the prompting.
12. The computer program product of claim 8 , further comprising a fourth set of instructions stored in the non-transitory storage medium and executable by the processing unit to determine a muscle size from the processed ultrasound scan images.
13. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the processing of the ultrasound scan images further comprising at least one of:
blurring pixels of the ultrasound scan images; or
morphing structural elements of the binary images to remove small elements and connect large elements.
14. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the multiple sites on the body include at least a chest, abdomen, and thigh.
15. An ultrasound body composition device, comprising:
an ultrasound transducer;
a processing unit communicably connected to the ultrasound transducer; and
a non-transitory storage medium storing instructions executable by the processing unit to:
receive an ultrasound scan image of skin disposed above additional tissue;
blur pixels of the ultrasound scan image;
threshold the pixels of the ultrasound scan image to produce binary images having elements of different sizes;
morphing structural elements of the binary image to connect elements; and
distinguish the body fat from remaining elements.
16. The ultrasound body composition device of claim 15 , wherein the processing unit presents the ultrasound scan image or a processed version of the ultrasound scan image on a display.
17. The ultrasound body composition device of claim 15 , wherein the processing unit presents information determined based at least on the distinguished body fat on a display.
18. The ultrasound body composition device of claim 17 , wherein the information is further based on processing at least one previous ultrasound scan image.
19. The ultrasound body composition device of claim 17 , wherein the information includes a body fat percentage.
20. The ultrasound body composition device of claim 15 , wherein the processing unit determines a change in the body fat over time.