Open Source Solutions for Image Data Analysis

Imaging analysis exists for clinical applications in many other organs, but there has not been as much funding to develop post-processing for those applications, which consequently tend to lag behind neuroimaging applications. But that doesn’t mean that neuronal image data analysis technologies cannot be improved. For example, most technologies have focused on group comparison in like healthy brains. “A lot of tools can do an incredible job in finalizing this type of data. However, as soon as you go into brain pathologies, the technology available is significantly less robust,” says Kikinis.

Advances in bioimaging devices, which are producing larger volumes of data of ever greater complexity, mean “we’re drowning in data”, he says. Images generated by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), CT scans and positron emission tomography (PET), are typically 3-D or 4-D, where the fourth dimension is time, contrast uptake, or some chemical parameter.