An Approach To The Verilog-Based System For Medical Image Enhancement
An Approach To The Verilog-Based System For Medical Image Enhancement
An Approach To The Verilog-Based System For Medical Image Enhancement
Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iaşi, Romania, November 19-21, 2015
Abstract—This paper presents a direct implementation and technology is digital due to the use of smart sensors,
improvement of the real-time configurable system for image computer technology, advanced medical equipment, portable
enhancement using Verilog Hardware Description Language medical devices connected in an Internet of Things (IoT)
and reconfigurable architecture (field programmable gate network [4]. In most medical applications, images are
array). New series of filters are developed at the hardware level
acquired directly from the patient and often these images are
for image processing (edges detection, sharpen operation,
enhance contrast operation and brightness-adjustment), in order distorted by noise or other defects which may occur during
to improve the quality of images and to assist in diagnosis the acquisition [4]. The image enhancement techniques and noise
medical specialists. For verification and simulation of the suppression are useful, especially in imaging pre-processing
Verilog-based system for image enhancement was used ISIM level. The image acquisition techniques used in the medical
Simulator, a component of the ISE Design Suite program, from field are: ultrasound (ultrasound and ultrasound tomography -
Xilinx. Using Hardware Description Languages for image the physical principle of reflection at tissues interfaces), X-
processing is a quite new approach extending the field of digital rays (radiology, X tomography - the principle of radiation
design on reconfigurable circuits to digital image processing absorption or attenuation depending on the tissues density),
using VLSI technologies. Describing the image enhancement
chemical factors (specific tracers, radioactive
techniques using Verilog HDL enables rapid prototyping of
these complex algorithms offering the direct possibility of FPGA pharmaceuticals) that are mounted to the investigated tissue
implementation. and emit ionizing radiation (scintigraphy, Single Photon
Emission Computed Tomography - SPECT) electromagnetic
Keywords—medical image enhancement, Verilog hardware field (MRI CT – the principle of nuclear magnetic resonance
description language, real-time configurable system, field of protons in a magnetic field) [4]. These technologies can be
programmable gate array. used to assess the current condition of the patient’s organ or
tissue and can monitor the patient over time for diagnosis and
treatment evaluation [5].
I. INTRODUCTION Medical equipment perform processing of acquired images
Digital image processing (DIP) is used in various fields of through filtering or removing background noise or artefacts,
modern society and especially in medical imaging and, correction of inhomogeneity, distortion of images, numerical
recently, occupies a fundamental role in assisted diagnosis of evaluation of features, visualization of areas of interest etc.
diseases, developing as a multidisciplinary field [1]. DIP is a Image processing software and hardware applications can
very broad field based on rigorous mathematical theory [2] provide temporal and spatial analysis and help to
and implementations of DIP on different computing machines automatically identify and analyze images in order to detect
are resources consuming [3], especially if we consider the patterns or characteristics indicative of tumors. The image
real-time processing of the information extracted from processing and analysis can be used in medical applications
images. to determine, for example, “the diameter, volume and
Nowadays, the image processing is an emerging biomedical vasculature of a tumor or organ, flow parameters of blood or
tool contributing to the improvement of healthcare sector. other fluids and microscopic changes” [4].
Recent image processing tools can perform image analysis, Image processing is “one of the best suited applications for
image enhancement, noise reduction, image segmentation, FPGAs, due to the parallel architectures, the logic density and
geometric transformations, and image restoration. the generous memory capacity” [6]. “The FPGAs are capable
Biomedical imaging focuses on the capture and display of to boost the performance of all the fast imaging algorithms:
the medical images for diagnostic, rehabilitation and image construction, enhancement and restoration, image
treatment purposes. The development of more efficient analysis and pattern recognition, image and data compression,
equipment for medical imaging is closely linked to the color space conversion, etc”. Implementing these applications
research results of the processing and analysis of medical on reconfigurable hardware offers much greater speed than a
images, or more generally multidimensional signals with software implementation [7]. Hardware implementation has
applications in medical imaging [4]. Modern imaging become an attractive alternative for image processing,
a)
b)
Figure 3 (a) General architecture of the real-time configurable system; (b) Simulation results for brightness-adjustment
using ISIM Simulator
a) b)
c) d)
Figure 4 (a) ÷ (d) Results of image processing using the Verilog-based system with image enhancement filters: edges detection;
sharpen operation; enhance contrast operation and brightness-adjustment