mincblob

mincblob - calculate blobs from minc deformation grids mincblob <options> <in1>.mnc

DESCRIPTION

mincblob will calculate simple statistical metrics of a minc deformation grid file related to local volume change. The input deformation grid files are typically produced by minctracc.

There are currently 4 deformation grid metrics to choose from: trace, determinant, translation and magnitude. The first two relate to different estimates of local volume change the third is a measure of how consistent movement is in a direction but without a local change in volume. The last calcuates the magnitude of the local deformation vector. These metrics are all calculated with respect to a vectors immediate neighbours. No smoothing of the field is performed as part of this calculation so if a smooth results is desired input grid files should be first smoothed or blurred.

OPTIONS

Note that options can be specified in abbreviated form (as long as they are unique) and can be given anywhere on the command line.

General options

-clobber
Overwrite an existing file.

-noclobber
Don’t overwrite an existing file (default).

-verbose
Print out extra information (more than the default).

-trace Compute the areas within the deformation field that equate to volume increase or decrease (+ve or -ve dilation) Dilation is defined as the trace of the deformation field Thus it should range between -1..1 with -1 being compression and 1 being dilation. This measure while fast is essentially a sum of partial derivatives in all three directions.

-determinant
This computes the same metric as -trace but with greater accuracy as the local Jacobian matrix is first estimated. The first order determinant of the Jacobian is then returned.

-translation
Compute the areas within the deformation field that equate to translation Translation is defined as: trans = arccos( A.B / |A|.|B| ) * e^- (|A|-|B|) Thus it should range between 0..1 with 1 being “translation”.

-magnitude
Compute the magnitude of the local deformation vector.

Generic options for all commands:

-help
Print summary of command-line options and exit.

-version
Print the program’s version number and exit.

AUTHOR