Tycowicz, Christoph von
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Task-adapted image reconstruction methods using end-to-end trainable neural networks (NNs) have been proposed to optimize reconstruction for subsequent processing tasks, such as segmentation. However, their training typically requires considerable hardware resources and thus, only relatively simple building blocks, e.g. U-Nets, are typically used, which, albeit powerful, do not integrate model-specific knowledge.
In this work, we extend an end-to-end trainable task-adapted image reconstruction method for a clinically realistic reconstruction and segmentation problem of bone and cartilage in 3D knee MRI by incorporating statistical shape models (SSMs). The SSMs model the prior information and help to regularize the segmentation maps as a final post-processing step.
We compare the proposed method to a state-of-the-art (SOTA) simultaneous multitask learning approach for image reconstruction and segmentation (MTL) and to a complex SSMs-informed segmentation pipeline (SIS).
Our experiments show that the combination of joint end-to-end training and SSMs to further regularize the segmentation maps obtained by MTL highly improves the results, especially in terms of mean and maximal surface errors.
In particular, we achieve the segmentation quality of SIS and, at the same time, a substantial model reduction that yields a five-fold decimation in model parameters and a computational speedup of an order of magnitude.
Remarkably, even for undersampling factors of up to R=8, the obtained segmentation maps are of comparable quality to those obtained by SIS from ground-truth images.
For decades, de Casteljau's algorithm has been used as a fundamental building block in curve and surface design and has found a wide range of applications in fields such as scientific computing, and discrete geometry to name but a few. With increasing interest in nonlinear data science, its constructive approach has been shown to provide a principled way to generalize parametric smooth curves to manifolds. These curves have found remarkable new applications in the analysis of parameter-dependent, geometric data. This article provides a survey of the recent theoretical developments in this exciting area as well as its applications in fields such as geometric morphometrics and longitudinal data analysis in medicine, archaeology, and meteorology.
We propose two graph neural network layers for graphs with features in a Riemannian manifold. First, based on a manifold-valued graph diffusion equation, we construct a diffusion layer that can be applied to an arbitrary number of nodes and graph connectivity patterns. Second, we model a tangent multilayer perceptron by transferring ideas from the vector neuron framework to our general setting. Both layers are equivariant with respect to node permutations and isometries of the feature manifold. These properties have been shown to lead to a beneficial inductive bias in many deep learning tasks. Numerical examples on synthetic data as well as on triangle meshes of the right hippocampus to classify Alzheimer's disease demonstrate the very good performance of our layers.
Predicting the future development of an anatomical shape from a single baseline observation is a challenging task. But it can be essential for clinical decision-making. Research has shown that it should be tackled in curved shape spaces, as (e.g., disease-related) shape changes frequently expose nonlinear characteristics. We thus propose a novel prediction method that encodes the whole shape in a Riemannian shape space. It then learns a simple prediction technique founded on hierarchical statistical modeling of longitudinal training data. When applied to predict the future development of the shape of the right hippocampus under Alzheimer's disease and to human body motion, it outperforms deep learning-supported variants as well as state-of-the-art.
The fact that the physical shapes of man-made objects are subject to overlapping influences—such as technological, economic, geographic, and stylistic progressions—holds great information potential. On the other hand, it is also a major analytical challenge to uncover these overlapping trends and to disentagle them in an unbiased way. This paper explores a novel mathematical approach to extract archaeological insights from ensembles of similar artifact shapes. We show that by considering all shape information in a find collection, it is possible to identify shape patterns that would be difficult to discern by considering the artifacts individually or by classifying shapes into predefined archaeological types and analyzing the associated distinguishing characteristics. Recently, series of high-resolution digital representations of artifacts have become available. Such data sets enable the application of extremely sensitive and flexible methods of shape analysis. We explore this potential on a set of 3D models of ancient Greek and Roman sundials, with the aim of providing alternatives to the traditional archaeological method of “trend extraction by ordination” (typology). In the proposed approach, each 3D shape is represented as a point in a shape space—a high-dimensional, curved, non-Euclidean space. Proper consideration of its mathematical properties reduces bias in data analysis and thus improves analytical power. By performing regression in shape space, we find that for Roman sundials, the bend of the shadow-receiving surface of the sundials changes with the latitude of the location. This suggests that, apart from the inscribed hour lines, also a sundial’s shape was adjusted to the place of installation. As an example of more advanced inference, we use the identified trend to infer the latitude at which a sundial, whose location of installation is unknown, was placed. We also derive a novel method for differentiated morphological trend assertion, building upon and extending the theory of geometric statistics and shape analysis. Specifically, we present a regression-based method for statistical normalization of shapes that serves as a means of disentangling parameter-dependent effects (trends) and unexplained variability. In addition, we show that this approach is robust to noise in the digital reconstructions of the artifact shapes.
We propose a generic spatiotemporal framework to analyze manifold-valued measurements, which allows for employing an intrinsic and computationally efficient Riemannian hierarchical model. Particularly, utilizing regression, we represent discrete trajectories in a Riemannian manifold by composite Bézier splines, propose a natural metric induced by the Sasaki metric to compare the trajectories, and estimate average trajectories as group-wise trends. We evaluate our framework in comparison to state-of-the-art methods within qualitative and quantitative experiments on hurricane tracks. Notably, our results demonstrate the superiority of spline-based approaches for an intensity classification of the tracks.
In this work, we address the challenge of developing statistical shape models that account for the non-Euclidean nature inherent to (anatomical) shape variation and at the same time offer fast, numerically robust processing and as much invariance as possible regarding translation and rotation, i.e. Euclidean motion.
With the aim of doing that we formulate a continuous and physically motivated notion of shape space based on deformation gradients. We follow two different tracks endowing this differential representation with a Riemannian structure to establish a statistical shape model. (1) We derive a model based on differential coordinates as elements in GL(3)+. To this end, we adapt the notion of bi-invariant means employing an affine connection structure on GL(3)+. Furthermore, we perform second-order statistics based on a family of Riemannian metrics providing the most possible invariance, viz. GL(3)+-left-invariance and O(3)-right-invariance. (2) We endow the differential coordinates with a non-Euclidean structure, that stems from a product Lie group of stretches and rotations. This structure admits a bi-invariant metric and thus allows for a consistent analysis via manifold-valued Riemannian statistics. This work further presents a novel shape representation based on discrete fundamental forms that is naturally invariant under Euclidean motion, namely the fundamental coordinates. We endow this representation with a Lie group structure that admits bi-invariant metrics and therefore allows for consistent analysis using manifold-valued statistics based on the Riemannian framework. Furthermore, we derive a simple, efficient, robust, yet accurate (i.e. without resorting to model approximations) solver for the inverse problem that allows for interactive applications. Beyond statistical shape modeling the proposed framework is amenable for surface processing such as quasi-isometric flattening. Additionally, the last part of the thesis aims on shape-based, continuous disease stratification to provide means that objectify disease assessment over the current clinical practice of ordinal grading systems. Therefore, we derive the geodesic B-score, a generalization of the of the Euclidean B-score, in order to assess knee osteoarthritis. In this context we present a Newton-type fixed point iteration for projection onto geodesics in shape space. On the application side, we show that the derived geodesic B-score features, in comparison to its Euclidean counterpart, an improved predictive performance on assessing the risk of total knee replacement surgery.
A Soft-Correspondence Approach to Shape-based Disease Grading with Graph Convolutional Networks
(2022)
Shape analysis provides principled means for understanding anatomical structures from medical images. The underlying notions of shape spaces, however, come with strict assumptions prohibiting the analysis of incomplete and/or topologically varying shapes. This work aims to alleviate these limitations by adapting the concept of soft correspondences. In particular, we present a graph-based learning approach for morphometric classification of disease states that is based on a generalized notion of shape correspondences in terms of functional maps. We demonstrate the performance of the derived classifier on the open-access ADNI database for differentiating normal controls and subjects with Alzheimer’s disease. Notably, our experiment shows that our approach can improve over state-of-the-art from geometric deep learning.
This paper presents the outcomes of a contest organized to evaluate methods for the online recognition of heterogeneous gestures from sequences of 3D hand poses. The task is the detection of gestures belonging to a dictionary of 16 classes characterized by different pose and motion features. The dataset features continuous sequences of hand tracking data where the gestures are interleaved with non-significant motions. The data have been captured using the Hololens 2 finger tracking system in a realistic use-case of mixed reality interaction. The evaluation is based not only on the detection performances but also on the latency and the false positives, making it possible to understand the feasibility of practical interaction tools based on the algorithms proposed. The outcomes of the contest's evaluation demonstrate the necessity of further research to reduce recognition errors, while the computational cost of the algorithms proposed is sufficiently low.