pp. 3803-3814
S&M4153 Research paper of Special Issue https://doi.org/10.18494/SAM5723 Published: August 28, 2025 Sensor-based Explainable Deep Learning Framework for Osteoporosis Screening via Hip X-ray Interpretation [PDF] Shang-Wen Feng, Szu-Yin Lin, Yueh-Te Shen, Bo-Yu Chen, Yen-Chiu Chen, and Yi-Hung Chiang (Received May 1, 2025; Accepted August 14, 2025) Keywords: X-ray sensing, medical imaging sensors, osteoporosis, deep learning, explainable AI
Sensor-based X-ray imaging, made possible by high-sensitivity medical imaging sensors equipped with advanced detector materials, enables noninvasive and low-dose assessment of bone structures. Leveraging such sensor outputs, we applied deep learning and explainable AI methods to develop a sensor-driven module for osteoporosis detection. Three hundred fifty-nine hip X-ray images (hereafter referred to as sensor-based X-ray images) were collected to train and evaluate four convolutional neural networks. Among them, the unsegmented whole hip VGG16 model achieved the highest classification accuracy of 76%. Gradient-weighted class activation mapping (Grad-CAM), shapley additive explanations (SHAP), and local interpretable model-agnostic explanations (LIME) were applied to generate saliency heat maps, followed by pixel-level consensus analysis to enhance interpretability. Retraining using the consensus-cropped images increased accuracy to 79% with corresponding 2–3% improvements in sensitivity, specificity, and F1-score. A web-based survey with orthopedic surgeons showed that the visual explanations improved clinical trust in 70% of cases. These results demonstrate that advanced sensor-based X-ray imaging technologies, combined with explainable deep learning, can serve as a practical decision-support module within intelligent medical sensing platforms, especially where dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is unavailable.
Corresponding author: Szu-Yin Lin![]() ![]() This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Cite this article Shang-Wen Feng, Szu-Yin Lin, Yueh-Te Shen, Bo-Yu Chen, Yen-Chiu Chen, and Yi-Hung Chiang, Sensor-based Explainable Deep Learning Framework for Osteoporosis Screening via Hip X-ray Interpretation, Sens. Mater., Vol. 37, No. 8, 2025, p. 3803-3814. |