A method of using noise as a test pattern for determining image enhancement filters.
Many digitally based medical imaging systems include both reconstruction algorithms and additional image filters designed to enhance certain image features. However, the manufacturers usually consider these algorithms and filters to be proprietory information. The purpose of this note is to describe a simple procedure for determining the spatial frequency response of these proprietary enhancement filters. The technique uses image noise as a test pattern. The procedure consists of acquiring a small number of noise-only data sets (say 10) of a uniform phantom and reconstructing the images using the different filters with repeated use of the noise data sets. A straightforward analysis then yields the enhancement filter frequency responses.
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