Medical Image Range Overlap Visualization for Positional Comparison
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Solution Overview
Problem
In medical imaging, comparing multiple medical images from different sources or captured at different times can make it difficult for doctors to grasp the relative positional relationship between cross-sectional images, as existing methods often expand the range to a sum area, obscuring the relative positional relationship.
Innovation Solution
An information processing apparatus that acquires and displays the ranges of positions for multiple three-dimensional medical images, allowing users to visualize the overlapping and common ranges between images, facilitating the comparison of medical images by displaying corresponding positional relationships without requiring significant eye movement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If the range is expanded to a sum area to include all images, then the coverage is improved, but the relative positional relationship becomes obscured
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the display area into multiple distinct range indicators, each representing a specific three-dimensional image's coverage area. These segmented indicators are displayed separately rather than merged into a single sum area, allowing doctors to distinguish the relative positional relationships between different images while maintaining comprehensive coverage information.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different visual characteristics (such as transparency, color, or positioning) to different range indicators based on their corresponding three-dimensional images. This local differentiation allows the display to maintain both comprehensive coverage and clear distinction of relative positions, resolving the contradiction between unified coverage and individual identification.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple three-dimensional images are displayed simultaneously, then the comparison capability is improved, but the positional relationship becomes difficult to grasp
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces range indicators as intermediary visual elements that mediate between the multiple three-dimensional images and the doctor's perception. These indicators serve as a visual bridge, translating complex spatial relationships into easily comprehensible graphical representations that maintain comparison capability while improving positional relationship clarity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a visual dimension by displaying range indicators in a graphical interface that overlays or accompanies the three-dimensional images. This dimensional transformation converts abstract positional data into concrete visual information, enabling simultaneous display of multiple images while maintaining clear spatial relationships through graphical representation.
Data Source
AI summary
Based on information regarding positions of two-dimensional images included in a first three-dimensional image and two-dimensional images included in a second three-dimensional image, an information processing apparatus acquires information regarding a first range, which is a range of positions where the two-dimensional images included in the first three-dimensional image are present, and a second range, which is a range of positions where the two-dimensional images included in the second three-dimensional image are present, and displays, on a display unit, a figure indicating the first range such that an area, in the first range, included in the second range is distinguishable.