Image processing apparatus, medical image apparatus and image fusion method for the medical image

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016174945-A1
Application number	US-201514933164-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 5, 2015
Priority date	Dec 23, 2014
Publication date	Jun 23, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The medical imaging apparatus includes a storage unit configured to store a patient adaptive object model in which a statistical object model related to transformation of an object caused by a periodic movement is applied to characteristics of the object of a target patient; an image obtainer configured to acquire a first image of the target patient; and an image fuser configured to transform a second image of the target patient based on differences between a shape of the object extracted from the patient adaptive object model and a shape of the object displayed on the first image.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A medical imaging apparatus comprising:
a storage unit configured to store a patient adaptive object model in which a statistical object model related to transformation of an object caused by a periodic movement is applied to characteristics of the object of a target patient; an image obtainer configured to acquire a first image of the target patient; and an image fuser configured to transform a second image of the target patient based on differences between a shape of the object extracted from the patient adaptive object model and a shape of the object displayed on the first image.

2 . The medical imaging apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the image fuser is configured to estimate a boundary condition to correct the differences.

3 . The medical imaging apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the image fuser is configured to transform the patient adaptive object model by applying the boundary condition to a physical model to which properties of the object of the target patient are applied.

4 . The medical imaging apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the image fuser is configured to generate the physical model based on the second image and a degree of elasticity of the object of the target patient.

5 . The medical imaging apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the image fuser is configured to generate transformation parameters of the patient adaptive object model, and transform the second image by applying the transformation parameters of the patient adaptive object model.

6 . The medical imaging apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the image fuser is configured to perform image registration between the transformed second image and the first image, to match the second image and the first image with one another, and
the medical imaging apparatus further comprises a display configured to display the matched first and second images.

7 . The medical imaging apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the periodic movement is a respiration divided into phases which are consecutive in time and include a present phase, and
the image fuser is configured to extract the shape of the object corresponding to the present respiratory phase of the target patient from the patient adaptive object model, and transform the second image based on the differences in the extracted shape and the shape of the object in the first image.

8 . The medical imaging apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the image fuser is configured to acquire a parameter of a movement probability distribution, which includes information about a position to which each point of the object of the target patient is moved in a certain movement phase, and generate the patient adaptive object model by applying the acquired parameter to a movement probability distribution of the statistical object model.

9 . The medical imaging apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the storage unit is configured to store three-dimensional (3D) volume data including the second image.

10 . The medical imaging apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the image fuser is configured to transform the 3D volume data by applying the transformation parameters of the patient adaptive object model, and extract the second image corresponding to the first image of the target patient from the transformed 3D volume data.

11 . The medical imaging apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the image fuser is configured to extract the second image corresponding to the first image of the target patient from the 3D volume data, and transform the extracted second image by applying the transformation parameters of the patient adaptive object model.

12 . The medical imaging apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the image fuser is configured to acquire the first image of the target patient in real time.

13 . The medical imaging apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first image is an ultrasound image, and
the second image is one of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) image, a computed tomography (CT) image, and an optical coherence tomography (OCT) image.

14 . An image processing apparatus configured to fuse images having modalities different from each other, image processing apparatus comprising:
a storage unit configured to store a patient adaptive object model which is a transformed statistical object model related to transformation of an object caused by a periodic movement adapted to characteristics of the object of a target patient; and an image fuser configured to transform a second image of the target patient based on differences between a shape of the object extracted from the patient adaptive object model and a shape of the object displayed on a first image of the target patient.

15 . The image processing apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the image fuser is configured to transform the patient adaptive object model by applying a boundary condition, to correct the differences, to a physical model to which properties of the object of the target patient are applied.

16 . The image processing apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the image fuser is configured to generate the physical model based on the second image and a degree of elasticity of the object of the target patient.

17 . The image processing apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the image fuser is configured to generate transformation parameters of the patient adaptive object model, transform the second image by applying the transformation parameters of the patient adaptive object model, and perform image registration between the transformed second image and the first image.

18 . The medical imaging apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the periodic movement is a respiration divided into phases which are consecutive in time and include a present respiratory phase, and
the image fuser is configured to extract the shape of the object corresponding to the present respiratory phase of the target patient from the patient adaptive object model, and transform the second image based on the differences between the extracted shape and the shape of the object displayed on the first image.

19 . An image fusion method to fuse a first image and a second image, which has a modality different from the first image, the image fusion method comprising:
storing a patient adaptive object model which is a transformed statistical object model related to transformation of an object caused by a periodic movement adapted to characteristics of the object of a target patient; and transforming the second image of the target patient based on differences between a shape of an object extracted from the patient adaptive object model and a shape of an object displayed on the first image.

20 . The image fusion method of claim 19 , wherein the transforming the second image comprises:
transforming the patient adaptive object model by applying a boundary condition, to correct the differences, to a physical model to which properties of the object of the target patient are applied.

21 . The image fusion method of claim 20 , wherein the transforming the second image comprises:
generating the physical model based on the second image and a degree of elasticity of the object of the target patient.

22 . The image fusion method of claim 20 , wherein the transforming the second image comprises:
generating transformation parameters of the adaptive object model; and transforming the second image by applying the transformation parameters of the adaptive object model.

23 . The image fusion method of claim 19 , further comprising:
performing image registration between

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Oh Young Taek
• Chang Jung Woo
• Jeong Ja Yeon
• Bang Won-Chul

Classifications

• G06T12/30

  Image post-processing, e.g. metal artefact correction · CPC title

• A61B6/032

  Transmission computed tomography [CT] · CPC title

• G06T7/0012

  Biomedical image inspection · CPC title

• G06T7/20

  Analysis of motion (motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51) · CPC title

• A61B2090/3735

  Optical coherence tomography [OCT] · CPC title