INTERNET-BASED SYSTEM AND A METHOD FOR AUTOMATED ANALYSIS OF TACTILE IMAGING DATA AND DETECTION OF LESIONS

An Internet-based system is described including a number of patient terminals equipped with tactile imaging probes to allow conducting of breast examinations and collecting the 2-D digital data from the pressure arrays of the tactile imaging probes. The digital data is processed at the patient side including a step of detecting moving objects and discarding the rest of the data from further analysis. The data is then formatted into a standard form and transmitted over the Internet to the host system where it is accepted by one of several available servers. The host system includes a breast examination database and a knowledge database and is designed to further process, classify, and archive breast examination data. It also provides access to processed data from a number of physician terminals equipped with data visualization and diagnosis means. The physician terminal is adapted to present the breast examination data as a 3-D model and facilitates the comparison of the data with previous breast examination data as well as assists physicians in feature recognition and final diagnosis.