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Volume 10, Number 1 • January/February 2002 • Cover Story

NASA’s Medical Diagnostic Imaging Initiative: Promoting Partnerships in Tech Transfer and Commercialization

The New Frontier for R&D

The United States is a global leader in medical technology development. As the premier US federal agency on aerospace technology, NASA has launched the New Partnerships in Medical Diagnostic Imaging initiative to identify, develop and promote partnerships and commercialization of NASA technologies in the medical imaging industry. As part of the NASA-wide technology commercialization marketing initiative, the objective is to develop opportunities for NASA to partner with companies in areas of mutual interest, such as in image detectors, image processing and image data management. The purpose is to:

  • Gain insight into new projects and approaches to solve challenges in the medical industry;
  • Leverage resources through cooperative development of new technology; and
  • Initiate unique licensing and partnering opportunities with industry.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) leads the multi-center initiative. NASA and the medical imaging industry share a number of technology development objectives, including:

  • High-performance detector materials and systems for x-ray, gamma ray, infrared, ultrasound and other modalities;
  • Sophisticated image-processing tools for image classification, image segmentation, pattern recognition and image fusion; and
  • High-capacity storage, high-bandwidth communication and image visualization tools for image data management.

NASA’s program goals are to establish innovative technology development partnerships, to reduce company R&D investment through licensing, to improve global competition and to improve the quality of life through technological advances in order to maximize the benefit of taxpayer-funded technology.

Medical Diagnostic Imaging Workshop

NASA Goddard hosted the New Partnerships in Medical Diagnostic Imaging workshop on July 17 and 18, 2001, in Greenbelt, Maryland. The workshop was an opportunity for NASA to showcase technologies with applications in medical imaging and to introduce potential industry partners to new developments in imaging technologies. The event provided a forum for discussion on how to leverage resources and increase the involvement of industry in NASA’s technology development programs to form effective and productive partnerships.

Several NASA technologies that could be used to improve some of the current challenges facing the medical imaging industry today were highlighted at the workshop. For example, the showcase of technologies featured product improvements in the areas of solid-state x-ray and gamma-ray detectors, and image-processing tools. The workshop was a great success in that the attendance far exceeded expectation and included industry leaders and representatives from large and small innovative medical imaging companies. Several technology interests and significant leads resulted from the workshop. Efforts are currently under way to follow up on funding, commercialization and partnerships.

SPIE—Medical Imaging 2002

As NASA continues its journey in the exploration of joint development opportunities in medical imaging, the agency continues to seek out forums with prospective partners in the field by participating in nationally held events such as the Medical Imaging 2002 conference sponsored by SPIE—The International Society for Optical Engineering, which will be held in San Diego, California, February 23Ð28. The meeting will feature presentations on the most up-to-date research and development. For more details on the conference, go to the SPIE Web site at www.spie.org/conferences

In conjunction with SPIE’s Medical Imaging 2002 conference, NASA will present a workshop on current technologies in the areas of novel image detectors, image processing and image data management. NASA will have technical exhibits to demonstrate emerging technologies. NASA technologists will highlight ongoing technology developments in x-ray and gamma-ray imaging systems, 3-D visualization, sophisticated data mining tools and other areas. Some of NASA’s featured technologies will include:

Goddard Space Flight Center

1. Recursive Hierarchical Image Segmentation Many medical imaging applications require high-quality analysis of segmented imagery data. The quality of segmented data analysis is highly dependent on the quality of the underlying image segmentation. The high quality of the HSEG and RHSEG segmentations and the flexibility of the segmentation hierarchy output would significantly improve current analyses of segmented imagery data for many medical imaging applications.

2. Imaging Micro-Well Detectors for X-and Gamma-Ray Applications Gas proportional counter arrays based on the micro-well are an example of a new generation of detectors that exploit narrow anode-cathode gaps, rather than fine anodes, to create gas gain. These are pixelized and, therefore, inherently imaging detectors that can be made very large at reasonable costs. Because of their intrinsic gain and room-temperature operation, these detectors can be instrumented at a very low-power-per-unit area, making them valuable for a variety of space flight applications where large-area x-ray imaging or particle tracking is required. NASA Goddard has developed a fabrication technique using a masked UV laser that allows the user both to machine micro-wells in polymer substrates and to pattern metal electrodes. This technique has been used to fabricate detectors that image x-rays by simultaneously reading out orthogonal anode and cathode strips.

3. Thin Foil Multilayer X-Ray Mirror Assemblies for Hard X-Ray Imaging Thin foil-replicated x-ray optics have been used successfully in field x-ray astronomy for over a decade to provide arc minute-scale angular resolution images, but only recently has the energy band been pushed above 10 keV. The International Focusing Optics Collaboration for m-Crab Sensitivity (InFOCmS) hard x-ray telescope was completed recently and is awaiting launch on a balloon payload to observe astronomical sources in the 20-to 40-keV band. InFOCmS will be the first demonstration of a multilayer-based hard x-ray telescope used for astronomical imaging. The x-ray mirror assembly is a conical approximation Wolter I design, with 255 nested cones. Each foil in the assembly is coated with a depth graded Pt/C multilayer to provide acceptable reflectivity at high energies and viable grazing angles. The imaging performance and limitations of this type of mirror will be presented.

NASA Goddard also has been working on a dedicated medical imaging device that should yield the same divergent beam to which radiologists are accustomed while removing undesirable x-ray wavelengths. A prototype of the thin-film multi-layer x-ray narrow-band filter/monochromator has been designed to produce fan-shaped beams of x-rays at 33 keV. A set of closely spaced thin-foil substrates coated with laterally graded Pt/C multilayers provides energy selectivity when illuminated by a (diverging) broadband x-ray beam incident on the foils at near-grazing angles from 0.2° to 0.3°. The individual thin foil mirrors are mounted into top and bottom precision alignment structures formed by deep reaction, ion etching and 1-mm-thick silicon wafers.

Ames Research Center

1. NASA Virtual GloveboX (VGX): Advanced Astronaut Training and Simulation System for Life Science Experiments Aboard the International Space Station The International Space Station will soon provide an orbiting research facility for addressing fundamental questions on the long-term effects of microgravity on living systems. Many of these life science experiments will require the use of the Space Station Glovebox Facility—a contained reach-in environment where astronauts will handle animals and other organisms, perform experimental assays and collect biological samples. To aid in this endeavor, virtual environment technologies are being developed at NASA Ames Research Center to assist astronauts in training and performing complex experiments in the Space Station Glovebox. This ÒVirtual GloveboXÓ (VGX) is designed to integrate ultra-high-resolution imaging technology and force-feedback devices with high-fidelity graphics and real-time computer simulation engines to provide a realistic immersive environment. In the future, this system may be used on Earth by astronauts to conduct experiments in a simulated real-time microgravity environment. In addition, the VGX software and simulation environment may be taken aboard the Space Station, allowing astronauts to rehearse established procedures or practice novel protocols prior to performing actual experiments or tasks.

Marshall Space Flight Center

1. Rotational-Translational Fourier Imaging System and High-Precision Grids for Neutron, Hard X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Fourier Imaging Systems NASA scientists have discovered a method for providing Fourier Imaging with as few as one or two grid pairs while capturing the entire available spectrum. The result is an imager that costs less to produce and offers high-quality imaging. In the past, multiple grid pairs have been needed to create a Fourier telescope. It had been theorized that one or two grid pair telescopes were feasible, but this MSFC invention, the Rotational-Translational Fourier Imaging System, has overcome the multiple grid pair hurdle, creating an imaging system that uses only two grid pairs. The first grid pair offers multiple real components of the Fourier-based image. The second grid pair provides multiple imaginary components of the Fourier-based image.

With the reduction in grid pairs, the cost of producing the multiple grid pairs has been lowered. In fact, depending upon the application, the two grid pair production costs can be one tenth of the price of a comparable 24-grid pair imager. While one would expect the quality of the invention’s spectrum analysis to decline with the reduction in grid pairs, the opposite is actually the case. In fact, the Rotational-Translational Fourier Imaging System provides the ability to capture images across the entire available spectrum.

Although the technology was developed for telescopes, its strength is full-spectrum imaging of atomic particles and electromagnetic radiation.

2. VISAR Video Image Stabilization and Registration VISAR is a video image process. Supported by high-speed electronics, it could allow for real-time image stabilization in custom applications. A video-processing algorithm is used to co-align video image fields by removing the effects of translation, magnification and rotation. Because VISAR allows the user to combine several video images together, noise can be averaged out among frames. VISAR can correct image jitter to about 1/10th of a pixel. Potential applications include microscopes tracking cell or crystal activity, and medical and scientific imaging.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

1. Eye Tracker Technology The Experimental Science Group at JPL recently reduced both the weight and volume of an eye tracking system by six times. This miniaturization has enabled portability and improved energy efficiency by a factor of four. Healthcare-driven advanced eye tracking technology development goals at JPL include:

A) Improving the localization of brain area in relation to eye function by a factor of 10 through gaze-point tracking technical enhancements for patients undergoing functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI0);

B) Expanding the eye tracking system to permit independent two-eye gaze-point tracking for diagnostic applications; and

C) Converting the eye tracking system to an all-digital implementation to allow further miniaturization of the equipment.

Advanced gaze-point tracking systems utilize an imaging device (CCD camera), a dynamic scene source (computer monitor, projection screen, etc.), an infrared illuminator and video processing circuits. In the simplest case, the subject views a scene on the display while the face is illuminated by an IRED. The camera acquires an image of the eye area of the face, and video-processing software detects the coroneal reflex (first-surface reflection on the illuminator) and derives the centroid of the reflection of the illumination from the retina. By determining the angle between these points, the gaze-point vector is obtained. As the gaze scans various points in the scene displayed, this gaze point is tracked. The information derived from this process includes dwell time at individual locations within a scene and the rate at which the subject scans the picture or moves their gaze from point to point. These data can then be used to determine the degree of interest that various aspects of the scene have for a specific viewer. Reduced performance can be detected as a function of physical and mental fatigue. Q

For more information on NASA’s New Partnerships in Medical Diagnostic Imaging initiative, please visit our Web site at www.nasamedicalimaging.com

 
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