Volumetric tongue reconstruction by fusing bidirectional MR images

In this paper we describe a 3D reconstruction method that fuses sagittal and coronal images. In our volumetric MRI study of the human tongue, multiple contiguous slices were acquired in the sagittal and the coronal planes. A bidirectional linear interpolation method was developed that estimated target voxel value using weighted neighbor pixels in the bounding slices. A wavelet fusion method was then employed to integrate prominent subband coefficients. Experiments have shown that fusion-based image reconstruction reduced artifacts, greatly improved reconstruction accuracy, and enhanced image details. Our method casts new light on MR imaging and image processing that demand high resolution in a short acquisition time.