Method and apparatus for displaying medical image

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10380718-B2
Application number	US-201615155758-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 16, 2016
Priority date	May 27, 2015
Publication date	Aug 13, 2019
Grant date	Aug 13, 2019

Abstract

A method of displaying a medical image includes: obtaining a first image and a second image that are images of an object captured by using an X-ray; generating a synthesis image by overlapping a first overlapped region of the first image and a second overlapped region of the second image; obtaining information about synthesis accuracy representing a degree to which overlapped portions of the object represented by the first overlapped region and the second overlapped region coincide with each other; and displaying the information about the synthesis accuracy and the synthesis image together.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of displaying a medical image, the method comprising:
obtaining a first image of a first region of an object;
obtaining a second image of a second region, different from the first region, of the object, wherein the first and second images are images captured by using an X-ray, and the first region has an overlap with the second region;
generating a synthesis image by overlapping a first image region of the first image and a second image region of the second image;
obtaining first information about synthesis accuracy, the synthesis accuracy representing a degree to which the first image region and the second image region coincide with each other in representing a portion of the object within the overlap of the first region with the second region;
comparing the synthesis accuracy with a threshold value;
and
when the synthesis accuracy is lower than the threshold value, displaying a screen including the synthesis image and an icon, which is displayed on a region corresponding to an overlapping region of the synthesis image in which the first image region of the first image is overlapped with the second image region of the second image, for executing a mode manually generating a synthesis image.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the generating generates the synthesis image such that the first and second images overlap by an overlap width in the synthesis image, and
the obtaining of the first information about the synthesis accuracy comprises obtaining the first information about the synthesis accuracy by comparing the overlap width with a reference value.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein
the first image comprises a first ruler image indicating distances from a reference point to portions of the object displayed in the first image,
the second image comprises a second ruler image indicating distances from the reference point to portions of the object displayed in the second image, and
the obtaining of the first information about the synthesis accuracy further comprises determining the reference value by:
obtaining a first distance value, displayed by the first ruler image, indicating a distance between the reference point and a location on a side of the first image corresponding to one boundary of a region of the synthesis image in which the first image overlaps the second image, based on the first ruler image,
obtaining a second distance value, displayed by the second ruler image, indicating a distance between the reference point and a location on a side of the second image corresponding to another boundary of the region of the synthesis image, based on the second ruler image; and
determining a difference between the first distance value and the second distance value as the reference value.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining of the first information about the synthesis accuracy further comprises:
determining a similarity between the first image region and the second image region as the first information about the synthesis accuracy by comparing the first image region with the second image region.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating of the synthesis image further comprises:
displaying the first image comprising a first ruler image indicating distances from a reference point to portions of the object displayed in the first image;
displaying the second image comprising a second ruler image indicating distances from the reference point to portions of the object displayed in the second image;
comparing at least a portion of the first image with at least a portion of the second image based on the first ruler image and the second ruler image;
determining the first image region and the second image region based on a similarity between at least the portion of the first image with at least the portion of the second image; and
generating the synthesis image by overlapping the determined first image region of the first image and the determined second image region of the second image.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
displaying the first information about the synthesis accuracy and the synthesis image together,
wherein the displaying of the first information comprises displaying a marker, comprising at least one of a color, a pattern, a figure, a contrast, and a numerical value corresponding to the synthesis accuracy, on a region of the synthesis image in which the first image overlaps the second image.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
displaying the first information about the synthesis accuracy and the synthesis image together,
wherein the displaying of the first information comprises:
displaying the first information about the synthesis accuracy according to a method selected based on a user input.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the generating generates the synthesis image so that the first and second images overlap by an overlap width in the synthesis image, and
the method further comprises displaying the overlap width.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the generating of the synthesis image comprises generating the synthesis image by overlapping a plurality of images comprising the first image and the second image, and
the method further comprises:
receiving a first user input of selecting a display mode for observing a plurality of overlapped image regions in which the plurality of images overlap in order to generate the synthesis image; and
magnifying the synthesis image based on a first overlapped image region from among the plurality of overlapped image regions.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
receiving a second user input for moving between the plurality of overlapped image regions;
selecting a second overlapped image region from among the plurality of overlapped image regions based on the second user input; and
magnifying the synthesis image based on the second overlapped image region.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
moving a location of the first image from among the first image and the second image configuring the synthesis image based on a user input;
regenerating a synthesis image by overlapping the first image and the second image based on a location to which the first image has moved;
obtaining third information about synthesis accuracy with respect to the regenerated synthesis image; and
displaying the obtained third information about synthesis accuracy with respect to the regenerated synthesis image on the regenerated synthesis image.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program that, when executed by at least one hardware processor, causes the one hardware processor to perform the method of claim 1 .

13. An apparatus for displaying a medical image, the apparatus comprising:
a processor configured to:
obtain a first image of a first region of an object,
obtain a second image of a second region, different from the first region, of the object, wherein the first and second images are images captured by using an X-ray, and the first region has an overlap with the second region,
generate a synthesis image by overlapping a first image region of the first region and a second image region of the second region,
obtain first information about synthesis accuracy, the synthesis accuracy representing a degree to which the first image region and the second image region coincide with each other in representing a portion of the object within the overlap of the first region with the second region;
compare the synthesis accuracy with a threshold value;
and

a display configured to display a screen,
wherein, when the synthesis accur

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Moon Hee-Yeon
• Kim Sung-Nam
• Lee Byeong-Won

Classifications

• G06T3/20

  Linear translation of whole images or parts thereof, e.g. panning · CPC title

• G06T7/32

  using correlation-based methods · CPC title

• A61B6/5241 Primary

  combining overlapping images of the same imaging modality, e.g. by stitching · CPC title

• G06T2207/10124

  Digitally reconstructed radiograph [DRR] · CPC title

• G06T3/4038 Primary

  Image mosaicing, e.g. composing plane images from plane sub-images · CPC title