53 results about "Virtual endoscopy" patented technology

A system, and computer implemented method are provided for interactively displaying three-dimensional structures. Three-dimensional volume data (34) is formed from a series of two-dimensional images (33) representing at least one physical property associated with the three-dimensional structure, such as a body organ having a lumen. A wire frame model of a selected region of interest is generated (38b). The wireframe model is then deformed or reshaped to more accurately represent the region of interest (40b). Vertices of the wire frame model may be grouped into regions having a characteristic indicating abnormal structure, such as a lesion. Finally, the deformed wire frame model may be rendered in an interactive three-dimensional display.

A method of orienting a virtual camera for rendering a virtual endoscopy image of a lumen in a biological structure represented by a medical image data set, e.g., a colon. The method comprises selecting a location from which to render an image, determining an initial orientation for the virtual camera relative to the data set for the selected location based on the geometry of the lumen, determining an offset angle between the initial orientation and a bias direction; and orienting the virtual camera in accordance with a rotation from the initial orientation towards the bias direction by a fractional amount of the offset angle which varies according to the initial orientation. The fractional amount may vary according to the offset angle and/or a separation between a predetermined direction in the data set and a view direction of the virtual camera for the initial orientation. Thus the camera orientation can be configured to tend towards a preferred direction in the data set, while maintaining a good view of the lumen and avoiding barrel rolling effects.

A system, and computer implemented method are provided for interactively displaying three-dimensional structures. Three-dimensional volume data (34) is formed from a series of two-dimensional images (33) representing at least one physical property associated with the three-dimensional structure, such as a body organ having a lumen. A wire frame model of a selected region of interest is generated (38b). The wireframe model is then deformed or reshaped to more accurately represent the region of interest (40b). Vertices of the wire frame model may be grouped into regions having a characteristic indicating abnormal structure, such as a lesion. Finally, the deformed wire frame model may be rendered in an interactive three-dimensional display.

A method for virtual endoscopy in a lumen includes acquiring from a patient an imaging dataset exhibiting a lesion external to a lumen wall; deriving a three-dimensional (3-D) volume of the lesion; obtaining data on maximum bend characteristics for a given endoscope; and deriving projection criteria, based on the 3-D volume and the maximum bend, for projecting an endoluminal image of said lesion, indicating an optimal biopsy insertion point.

A method for registration of virtual endoscopy images in first and second patient positions comprises performing colon segmentation and feature extraction, including centerline and colon surface data for each of the images; resampling the centerline and colon surface data; computing respective local descriptors; pairing point correspondences on the centerlines between the first and second images by minimal cost matching; extrapolating the centerline point correspondences to a 3-dimensional/3-dimensional (3D/3D) transformation between the first and second images. The method also includes selecting a position for a virtual endoscope in one of the images; associating an orthogonal reference frame with the virtual endoscope; and applying the 3D/3D transformation to the orthogonal reference frame so as to derive a corresponding transformed reference frame for the virtual endoscope in the other of the images.

An endo-robot can be tracked and a reconstructed 3D volume of data can be created for virtual endoscopy. The 3D position and orientation of each image captured by the endo-robot is determined. The longitudinal distance traveled inside the structure of interest is determined. The position, orientation and longitudinal distance are used to register the position of the endo-robot to a corresponding position inside the 3D volume of data. Virtual endoscopy can be used to locate areas of interest and correlate clinical findings with the images of the areas of interest.

A method for automatically determining a start or finish location near to an end of a lumen in a medical image data set is described. The location may thus be used in determining a camera path for virtual endoscopy (e.g. colonoscopy). The data set comprises a plurality of voxels arranged along first, second and third directions and the method includes: segmenting the data set to identity a group of voxels classified as belonging to the lumen; selecting one of the axes of the data set as a primary direction based on an expected direction of the lumen at the end of interest; selecting a slice through the data set which is perpendicular to the primary direction and includes voxels at a spatial extremity of the group of voxels classified as belonging to the lumen along this direction; identifying a two-dimensional (2D) region of the voxels classified as belonging to the lumen within the selected slice; and selecting, based on the position of the 2D region, a position within the data set as the terminal location for the virtual colonoscopy camera path.

An apparatus and method for displaying a three-dimensional virtual endoscopic image are provided. In the method, information on a virtual endoscopic image is input in the form of volume data expressed as a function of three-dimensional position. A two-dimensional reference image, a three-dimensional reference image, and a virtual endoscopic image are detected from the volume data. The detected images are displayed on one screen. Virtual cameras are respectively displayed on areas, in which the two and three-dimensional reference images are respectively displayed. Here, a camera display sphere and a camera display circle are defined on the basis of a current position of each virtual camera. When information regarding to one image, among the two and three-dimensional reference images and the virtual endoscopic image on one screen, is changed by a user's operation, information regarding to the other images is changed based on the information changed by the user's operation.

The invention discloses a method which can carry out follow-up tracing and virtual endoscopy to a gastroscope probe in gastroscopy process to implement analogue scaling biopsy on the focus in the stomach and provides a device for computer analogue scaling biopsy; the device comprises a main control module and a three-dimensional space locator used for acquiring spatial location and orientating information of the gastroscope probe, wherein, the main control module comprises a three-dimensional surface model module of an inner gastric wall, a three-dimensional space locating module of the gastroscope probe, a follow-up tracing module, a virtual endoscopy module and an analogue scaling biopsy module. The method can help to carry out callback and follow-up examination to stomach diseases, can realize noninvasive analogue scaling biopsy of stomach focus and can support doctors to make completely non-invasive focus image analysis in vitro.

The invention relates to a method for processing of a three-dimensional image data set, wherein the three-dimensional image data set is converted to a data set suitable for a two-dimensional image reproduction. The invention further relates to apparatuses for performing the required calculations and/or for reproduction of the data representations. The invention is particularly appropriate for medical applications of endoscopy, in particular, coloscopy.

A system and method for performing a virtual endoscopy in a branching structure is provided. The method comprises the steps of: determining an initial viewpoint and viewing direction of a virtual endoscope in a branching structure; casting a plurality of rays from the initial viewpoint along the viewing direction; and determining an occurrence of a branch in the branching structure, wherein the occurrence is associated with a cluster that corresponds to the branch.

A system and method for performing a virtual endoscopy is provided. The method comprises the steps of: calculating a distance map using three-dimensional (3D) data of a lumen; calculating a multiplanar reconstruction (MPR) of the lumen, wherein the MPR is calculated orthogonal to the lumen at an endoscope position; performing a first region growing on the MPR of the lumen at the endoscope position, wherein data associated with the first region is marked; calculating a minimum distance and a maximum distance from the marked data of the first region growing using corresponding distances from the distance map; performing a second region growing on the MPR of the lumen for data outside the first region growing, wherein data associated with the second region is marked; and performing a 3D rendering of the marked data associated with the first region growing and the second region growing.

The invention relates to a device for merging a 2D radioscopy image with an image obtained from a 3D image data record, having a memory unit that stores the 2D radioscopy image and the 3D image data record, a segmentation unit that segments an inner surface of a hollow organ from the 3D image data record, a registration unit that registers the 2D radioscopy image with the 3D image data record, a back-projection unit that back-projects the pixels of the 2D radioscopy image onto the segmented surface, taking account of the projection geometry of the 2D radioscopy image and the registration, and an image merger unit that generates a virtual endoscopy view of the surface from the segmented surface using the back-projected pixels. The device primarily allows 2D radioscopy images to be superimposed during interventional procedures with a fly display of the interior of an interesting organ.

A method for automatic virtual endoscopy navigation, including: (a) using a fisheye camera to generate an endoscopic image and a depth image from a current position of the camera in lumen computed tomographic (CT) data; (b) segmenting a first region and a second region from the depth image, wherein the first region identifies a view direction of the camera and the second region is an area through which the camera can be moved without touching an inner surface of the lumen; (c) moving the camera from the current position, while pointing the camera in the view direction, to a next position in the second region; and (d) repeating steps (a-c) in sequence using the next position in step (c) as the current position in step (a).

A method for performing four-dimensional virtual endoscopy, includes capturing a heart image sequence of a patient by an imaging equipment and a electrocardiagram signal displaying a cardiac cycle of the heart. The electrocardiagram signal is used to select images to derive the corresponding three-dimensional view successively in the corresponding cardiac cycle with the corresponding heart image in the common and selected phase point of each corresponding cardiac cycle.

The invention relates to a method for the pictorial representation of a three-dimensional measured data record representing part of a hollow body, comprising the following steps: processing of a first subset of the two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional measured data record for an image reproduction in a first two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional intraluminal pictorial representation of an inner surface of the part of the hollow body, processing of a second subset of the three-dimensional measured data record for an image reproduction in a second two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional intraluminal pictorial representation of the part of the hollow body, representation of the processed first subset of the three-dimensional measured data record in the form of the first two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional intraluminal pictorial representation in a representation plane and representation of the processed second subset of three-dimensional measured data record in the form of the second two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional intraluminal pictorial representation in the representation plane. data of the second subset of the three-dimensional measured data record for one or several planes in a predetermined distance perpendicular to the surface structure represented in the first two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional intraluminal pictorial representation are represented color-coded on the surface structure of the inside of the hollow body which is represented in the entire first two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional intraluminal pictorial representation.

The present invention discloses a virtual endoscopy system based on a CT image. The system comprises: an image collection module configured to receive a plurality of CT images; an image processing module being in communication connection with the image collection module and configured to perform smooth processing and boundary processing of each CT image in the CT images transmitted by the image collection module; a three-dimensional conversion module being in communication connection with the image processing module and configured to perform surface reconstruction of each CT image after the processing through the image processing module to obtain a special three-dimensional image; a center line extraction module being in communication connection with the three-dimensional conversion module and configured to extract the center line of the special three-dimensional image; and a roaming module being in communication connection with the three-dimensional conversion module and the center line extraction module and configured to control the movement track of a virtual camera taking a center line as a viewpoint in the special three-dimensional image and perform roaming.