VSG Image Processing & Analysis

The VSG IPA Toolbox is a new image processing and analysis toolbox developed by CIPA which provides high level access to a wide range of image processing algorithms. This software is free, MATLAB compatible, and does not require the MATLAB image processing toolbox. It offers more than 250 functions for 2D and 3D image manipulation, processing and analysis. The toolbox can be applied to image segmentation, feature detection, classification in 2D and 3D image space. Therefore, the toolbox functions can also be implemented in the field of bio-medical image analysis in both 2D and 3D image data (CT/MRI DICOM data). The toolbox provides an environment that can be used by novice and experienced engineers and scientists to work in the field of 2D and 3D medical image processing.

To use the various functions available in the toolbox, the user simply has to call the vsg_toolbox executable program from MatLab. The functions can operate on all MatLab data-types. The 2D functions can operate on binary, greyscale and colour images as well as on 3D images in a slice by slice manner. True 3D functions are designed to operate on DICOM images. An extensive list of the functions, their arguements and return values as well as how to call each is given both in the MatLab code file and also the API documentation.

The main components of the VSG IPA Toolbox are histogram analysis, neighbourhood based filtering, edge detection, edge feature analysis, image analysis (thinning, blob analysis, labelling, corner detection), clustering (K-means, unsupervised clustering), image transforms (Hough, Medial Axis, DCT, Co-occurrence, Fourier, distance transform), colour space conversion functions (RGB, HSI, XYZ, LAB), 2D/3D Morphology (several morphological functions including opening, closing, erosion, dilation, watershed), 3D volume (3D Operators: edge detection, thinning, labelling, intensity projections) and utilities (i.e. rotation, pixel manipulation, region of interest). A full list of the available function categories is available in the API.