An Object-oriented Dataflow Software Development Tool For Medical Image Analysis

Developers of new algorithms typically require an interactive environment in which the image data can be passed through various operators, some of which may involve feedback, synchronization, merging and conditional control strategies. This paper describes how the dataflow methodology of a pictorial object-oriented software development tool called WIT has greatly simplified the prototyping and testing of our new image registration and segmentation methods. WIT allows the user to draw a dataflow graph by linking operators in a CAD-like manner. We describe the main features of WIT, and show dataflow graphs for two medical image analysis algorithms; the 3D registration of PET scans into a common coordinate space, and tissue segmentation in MRI images where we are looking at quantitation of tumour volumes.