Computer code created by PhD student Jihun Kim will soon be included in Elastix’s software distributions.
Elastix is an international open source software toolbox for the rigid and nonrigid registration of images. Researchers from countries around the world use the platform’s algorithms to solve medical image registration problems by allowing the user to explore various registration methods.
Jihun Kim worked alongside Professor of Mechanical Engineering Kazuhiro Saitou and Professor James Balter and Dr. Matha Matuszak from the Medical School’s Radiation Oncology Department to develop the code with funding from the National Institute of Health. Elastix’s adoption of their findings will improve the platform’s deformable image registration algorithm. The code offers a new penalty term that guards against the unrealistic deformation of rigid bodies, like bones, during the deformable registration.
In 2013, Medical Physics published the group’s research paper, “Distance-Preserving Rigidity Penalty on Deformable Image Registration of Multiple Skeletal Components in the Neck.” After the publication, developers of Elastix contacted the authors, expressing interest in using their findings to improve the platform.
