Patent Application
20080049993
The invention is illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references indicate similar elements, and in which:
Referring first to
The digital image 10 may be acquired using one or more digital cameras of an automated hair transplantation system, such as the cameras described in the hair transplantation system of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/380,907, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. The image from just one of the cameras can be used to produce the digital image 10. Alternatively, the process for obtaining the digital image 10 may be acquired by a more involved process which aligns the camera(s) to improve the image used to classify a follicular unit of interest. In this process, a first camera and a second camera are used. The cameras are arranged and configured to obtain stereo images of a body surface at which they cameras are directed. The cameras are first positioned to be directed at the body surface in an area known to have hair. A first digital image is acquired from the first camera and a follicular unit (FU) of interest is selected from within the first digital image. A second digital image of about the same region of the body surface as the first camera (except from a slightly different angle as provided by stereo cameras) is acquired from the second camera and the same FU of interest is selected from within the second digital image. The FU of interest can be selected in the digital images by an operator of the system or automatically by the system using a selection algorithm. The transplantation system is now able to track the FU of interest within the first and second digital images from the first and second cameras. The tracking procedure can be used to adjust for movement of the body surface and movement of the cameras when they are aligned to acquire the digital image(s) used for classifying the FU. Next, the first and second cameras are moved and oriented to be aligned with the general orientation of the hair of the FU. As the cameras are moved, additional digital images may be acquired and processed by the system in order to track the FU of interest. By aligning the cameras with the hair of the FU, a better digital image for classifying the FU can be acquired. With the cameras in the desired alignment, the cameras acquire the digital images to be used in the next steps of the method of classifying a follicular unit.
After the digital image 10 is acquired, a region of interest 19 which could be the entire digital image 10 or a sub-area is selected. In the example described herein, the selected region of interest 19 is co-extensive with the digital image 10. However, the selected region of interest 19 can be any subset area of the digital image 10. The region of interest 19 may be selected by an operator or the selection may be automated by the system. This region of interest within the digital image is called the selected image.
Then, the selected image 19 is digitally filtered using a band-pass filter to remove components in the image which correspond to the skin 12.
Next, the resulting image after the band-pass filtering is segmented using well-known digital image processing techniques to produce a binary image of the selected image.
Then, a morphological open operation is performed on the binary image to remove artifacts from the image.
Accordingly, noise filtering is then performed on the image resulting from the morphological open operation. The noise filtering removes objects which do not meet criteria corresponding to a follicular unit 14. For example, the area, location or orientation of the image of the follicular unit may be whose area, location or orientation do not correspond to hair. Referring back to
Any or all of the systems and methods for classifying a follicular unit as described herein may be used in conjunction with the system and method of harvesting and transplanting hair as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/380,903 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/380,907.
The foregoing illustrated and described embodiments of the invention are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, and it should be understood that the invention generally, as well as the specific embodiments described herein, are not limited to the particular forms or methods disclosed, but to the contrary cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the scope of the appended claims. By way of non-limiting example, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention is not limited to the use of a robotic system including a robotic arm, and that other automated and semi-automated systems may be utilized. Moreover, the system and method of counting follicular units of the present invention can be a separate system used along with a separate automated transplantation system or even with a manual transplantation procedure.
