IMAGE-ANALYSIS BY OPTICAL-FLOW FOR COMPRE SSIVE BEHAVIOR OF HUMAN TISSUES

A new method for image analysis of MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) of compressive behavior of human tissues, mainly the vertebral disk, is studied. Optical flow is employed as the objective analysis tool, by w hich the dense velocity vector field can be computed from time sequenc e of 2D or 3D images. In this study, the distribution of velocity fiel d of tissue's displacement is computed by the optical flow algorithm f rom two dimensional SE (Spin Echo) MR images of the human vertebral di sk under compressive load. The computed result shows that though its q uantitative reliability is not examined yet, it satisfies the qualitat ive requirement, namely, the distribution of vector direction well cor responds to the previous studies.