Alignment of X-ray bone images

Abstract

Switching to digital technology from analog brought many changes, especially in storage of digital X-ray images. In cases of multiple fractures or need for imaging of a large area it is necessary to make more than one X-ray image for the observed part of body. This is often the case with spine, legs and arms. Radiologists use dedicated workstations to view X-ray results and need to manually switch between different images to be able to complete the examination of longer bone segments. Dedicated software gives some possibility of automatic or semiautomatic image stitching which allows combining of multiple images into one. In this paper we propose a method for automatic detection of bone position in X-ray images of arms and legs and their automatic alignment with one of image's borders.