The IEEE EMBS MSRIT Chapter of the IEEE EMBS Bangalore Chapter in association with M.S.Ramaiah Institute of Technology(MSRIT), Bangalore, organized a two day hands on workshop on “Application development on Medical Imaging using open source platform ITK & VTK” which was held on 17th and 18th of January, 2014 at the MSRIT campus. The workshop was open to academic staff and students of all engineering disciplines and the interested persons from the industry.
The main objective of the workshop was to disseminate the importance of open source software which enhances various image processing techniques suitable for medical applications mainly the processing of medical images for real-time applications. The event was conducted by Mr. S. Nandish of Manipal Centre for Information Science and by Mr. Faisal Ali, an alumni of MSRIT pursuing Masters in Medical Software. The trainers emphasized on the various needs of Medical Image Processing in the current scenario from the Radiologists’ point of view. They also explained the basics of the open source platforms ITK and VTK with suitable computer presentations to give an overview of the techniques they would discuss over the two days of the workshop.
On the first day, the audience was taught the importance of observational studies in medical software applications apart from the basic theoretical and practical knowledge of the concepts. The importance of images to be used in the Digital Image Communication in Medicine(DICOM) format was very well explained. An introductory as well as a theoretical session was held to explain concepts of Insight Toolkit(ITK). A hands on session on the configuration and building of ITK and VTK helped the participants to understand basic instructions involved in these open source cross-platforms. The use of CMake software was discussed in advance to help the participants to execute the image analysis techniques. After this, the participants were given a chance to experiment these techniques on certain example images extracted from CT and MRI machines.
Mr. Nandish explaining the concepts of ITK and VTK
On the last day of the workshop, the participants were taught the theoretical basics of Visual Toolkit(VTK) which is used to visualize the modified images. Hands on ITK algorithms on Filtering using median filters, on Segmentation using the feature extraction concept and on Rigid and Non-rigid Registrations were illustrated and the participants were given example images to experiment these learnt algorithms on various images of CT and MRI. Also discussed was the VTK algorithm on Volume Rendering of CT images which enabled the participants to compile various sliced images of an organ to achieve a 3-D viewing of that organ. Concepts of threshold, clip view and viewing of the organs as those made of bone, skin and muscles further enriched the audience with the vast challenging aspects of Medical Image Processing.
Mr. Faisal Ali assisting the students in executing the algorithms
The event was successful in providing the students, faculty and others associated with the Image Processing fields to further enhance their interests in the field of Image Processing and encouraged them to come out with simple algorithms that provide solutions to the complex challenges that are encountered everyday in this field