Abstract: Bronchoscopists use fluoroscopy to guide flexible bronchoscopy to the lesion to be biopsied without any kind of incision. Being fluoroscopy an imaging technique based on X-rays, the risk of developmental problems and cancer is increased in those subjects exposed to its application, so minimizing radiation is crucial. Alternative guiding systems such as electromagnetic navigation require specific equipment, increase the cost of the clinical procedure and still require fluoroscopy. In this paper we propose an image based guiding system based on the extraction of airway centres from intra-operative videos. Such anatomical landmarks are matched to the airway centreline extracted from a pre-planned CT to indicate the best path to the nodule. We present a
feasibility study of our navigation system using simulated bronchoscopic videos and a multi-expert validation of landmarks extraction in 3 intra-operative ultrathin explorations.

Abstract: Bronchoscopy allows to examine the patient airways for detection of lesions and sampling of tissues without surgery. A main drawback in lung cancer diagnosis is the diculty to check whether the exploration is following the correct path to the nodule that has to be biopsied. The most extended guidance uses uoroscopy which implies repeated radiation of clinical sta and patients. Alternatives such as virtual bronchoscopy or electromagnetic navigation are very expensive and not completely robust to blood, mocus or deformations as to be extensively used. We propose a method that extracts and tracks stable lumen regions at dierent levels of the bronchial tree. The tracked regions are stored in a tree that encodes the anatomical structure of the scene which can be useful to retrieve the path to the lesion that the clinician should follow to do the biopsy. We present a multi-expert validation of our anatomical landmark extraction in 3 intra-operative ultrathin explorations.

Abstract: Software as a Service (SaaS) is a cloud computing model in which a provider hosts applications in a server that customers use via internet. Since SaaS does not require to install applications on customers' own computers, it allows the use by multiple users of highly specialized software without extra expenses for hardware acquisition or licensing. A SaaS tailored for clinical needs not only would alleviate licensing costs, but also would facilitate easy access to new methods for diagnosis assistance. This paper presents a SaaS client-server architecture for Diagnosis as a Service (DaaS). The server is based on docker technology in order to allow execution of softwares implemented in different languages with the highest portability and scalability. The client is a content management system allowing the design of websites with multimedia content and interactive visualization of results allowing user editing. We explain a usage case that uses our DaaS as crowdsourcing platform in a multicentric pilot study carried out to evaluate the clinical benefits of a software for assessment of central airway obstruction.

Abstract: This work presents a content-based image retrieval system of general purpose that deals with cluttered scenes containing a given query object. The system is flexible enough to handle with a single image of an object despite its rotation, translation and scale variations. The image content is divided in parts that are described with a combination of features based on geometrical and color properties. The idea behind the feature combination is to benefit from a fuzzy similarity computation that provides robustness and tolerance to the retrieval process. The features can be independently computed and the image parts can be easily indexed by using a table structure on every feature value. Finally a process inspired in the alignment strategies is used to check the coherence of the object parts found in a scene. Our work presents a system of easy implementation that uses an open set of features and can suit a wide variety of applications.

Abstract: This paper presents a first approach to build colour and structural descriptors for information retrieval on a people database. Queries are formulated in terms of their appearance that allows to seek people wearing specific clothes of a given colour name or texture. Descriptors are automatically computed by following three essential steps. A colour naming labelling from pixel properties. A region seg- mentation step based on colour properties of pixels combined with edge information. And a high level step that models the region arrangements in order to build clothes structure. Results are tested on large set of images from real scenes taken at the entrance desk of a building.