Development and evaluation of a 3D model observer with nonlinear spatiotemporal contrast sensitivity

Ali R. N. Avanaki; Kathryn S. Espig; Andrew D. A. Maidment; Cedric Marchessoux; Predrag R. Bakic; Tom R. L. Kimpe

doi:10.1117/12.2043793

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11 March 2014 Development and evaluation of a 3D model observer with nonlinear spatiotemporal contrast sensitivity

Ali R. N. Avanaki, Kathryn S. Espig, Andrew D. A. Maidment, Cedric Marchessoux, Predrag R. Bakic, Tom R. L. Kimpe

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Proceedings Volume 9037, Medical Imaging 2014: Image Perception, Observer Performance, and Technology Assessment; 90370X (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2043793
Event: SPIE Medical Imaging, 2014, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

We investigate improvements to our 3D model observer with the goal of better matching human observer performance as a function of viewing distance, effective contrast, maximum luminance, and browsing speed. Two nonlinear methods of applying the human contrast sensitivity function (CSF) to a 3D model observer are proposed, namely the Probability Map (PM) and Monte Carlo (MC) methods. In the PM method, the visibility probability for each frequency component of the image stack, p, is calculated taking into account Barten’s spatiotemporal CSF, the component modulation, and the human psychometric function. The probability p is considered to be equal to the perceived amplitude of the frequency component and thus can be used by a traditional model observer (e.g., LG-msCHO) in the space-time domain. In the MC method, each component is randomly kept with probability p or discarded with 1-p. The amplitude of the retained components is normalized to unity. The methods were tested using DBT stacks of an anthropomorphic breast phantom processed in a comprehensive simulation pipeline. Our experiments indicate that both the PM and MC methods yield results that match human observer performance better than the linear filtering method as a function of viewing distance, effective contrast, maximum luminance, and browsing speed.

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Ali R. N. Avanaki, Kathryn S. Espig, Andrew D. A. Maidment, Cedric Marchessoux, Predrag R. Bakic, and Tom R. L. Kimpe "Development and evaluation of a 3D model observer with nonlinear spatiotemporal contrast sensitivity", Proc. SPIE 9037, Medical Imaging 2014: Image Perception, Observer Performance, and Technology Assessment, 90370X (11 March 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2043793

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