Abnormal masses in mammograms: Detection using scale-orientation signatures

Abstract

We describe a method for labelling image structure based on scaleorientation signatures. These signatures provide a rich and stable description of local structure and can be used as a basis for robust pixel classification. We use a multi-scale directional recursive median filtering technique to obtain local scaleorientation signatures. Our results show that the new method of representation is robust to the presence of both random and structural noise. We demonstrate application to synthetic images containing lines and blob-like features and to mammograms containing abnormal masses. Quantitative results are presented, using both linear and non-linear classification methods.