Abstract:
Originally conceived for use in terrestrial remote sensing applications, NASA's Hierarchical Segmentation (HSEG) software has found its way into a new medical imaging system, allowing for enhanced detection and management of medical conditions and diseases. During a NASA Medical Imaging Workshop, Bartron Medical Imaging, LLC, realized that HSEG was the missing piece needed to complete development of the intended new product, since the NASA software could process 16-bit medical image data to reveal information not normally seen by the human eye, let alone other image-interpreting procedures or algorithms. Goddard Space Flight Center issued Bartron a nonexclusive license for the technology. Bartron's Med-SegT unit incorporating NASA's HSEG technology provides improved diagnoses for a wide range of medical images, including computed tomography scans, positron emission tomography scans, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound, digitized X-ray, digitized mammography, dental X-ray, soft tissue analysis, and moving object analysis. Using Med-Seg, physicians and health care practitioners can take any unmanipulated medical image and segment it to "see" features in the images that were not previously visible to the naked eye.