patent granted

Another user (called 'theadder') from another share site posted the following today, and I thought it might be of interest on this site (I'm not sure of its significance, but would be curious to hear from others if they know) :-

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From the USPTO today.

http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser...724+AND+ACN/au)

United States Patent 7,248,724
Gutenev July 24, 2007

Method for monitoring wounds


Abstract
A method of quantifying the extent of erythema around a wound of a patient is disclosed. An image (200) is captured that includes the wound, the erythema and surrounding skin. A border of the wound is identified (step 232) and a distance transform is performed (step 234) on an area of the image between the wound border and a boundary of the image to determine bands of pixels (226, 228, 230), wherein the pixels within each band are equidistant from the wound border. A representative value such as average brightness is calculated for each band (step 238), and a threshold level is defined relative to the representative value of the surrounding skin (step 240). The extent of the erythema is then calculated.


Inventors: Gutenev; Alexander (North Narrabeen, AU)
Assignee: Polartechnics Limited (Sydney, NSW, AU)