To: Dr. R. Charble
Cc: Prof. M.A. Mackey
Date: 10 Feb. 2001
Subject: Weekly status report

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Project: Measurement of pulmonary emphysema by spiral CT
Group:  J. Smith, T. Wonbert, S. Goople
Course: 51:085
Reporting period: Feb. 2 to Feb. 9, 2001

Achievements since last report:

  We have made good progress since our Feb. 1st report.  

  1) Jose Smith has acquired 16 spiral CT images of patients 
  with known emphysema.  These images will be used in the validation
  phase of our work.

  2) Tanya Wonbert has compiled an annotated bibliography of
  other image processing work related to emphysema.   We will send you
  a copy of this bibliography by campus mail.

  3) Sara Goople visited with Dr. John Edmund, from the University of 
  Iowa Hospital, and saw how emphysema is diagnosed using the pulmonary
  function test equipment.

Current status: 

  Jose is working to get manual tracings for the 16 CT data sets so we can test the
  computer algorithm.

  Tanya started a patent search to look for prior art in the area of 
  computer-based assessment of emphysema using CT images.

  Sara is coding the functions to read and write the spiral CT images,
  and will test them using the 16 data sets that Jose has.

  Tanya and Sara will finish the written specification for the pixel histogram
  function this week.

Problems and Roadblocks:

  The CT images are so large that we need at least 1 GB of computer RAM for 
  the analysis.  The CSS machines in Engineering do not have enough RAM.  We 
  are looking for other computers we can use for this project.

  The library we planned to use for the 3D graphics doesn't compile with the
  version of Visual Studio C++ we have on the Engineering computers.      
    
Activities:

  Tanya and Jose met with Dr. Charble on Feb. 4th from 5 to 6 PM.  Sara was away
  at a track meet.

  Sara visited Dr. Edmund on Feb. 5th from 2 to 3:30 PM.

  All three group members met Feb. 8th from 7 to 11 PM to draft the slides for our
  first class presentation.

  Sara met with the CTC writing consultants on Feb. 9th to get feedback on the draft
  of our midterm report.