Method and apparatus for obtaining a three-dimensional map of tympanic membrane thickness
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for acquiring a three-dimensional mapping of a physical specimen characterized by a surface and a refractive index, the method comprising:
- a. obtaining a plurality of surface sub-images of a field of view of the surface of the physical specimen;
b. obtaining a depth-resolved profile of the physical specimen at one or more fixed locations on each of the plurality of surface sub-images;
c. extracting at least one of an image feature for use as a landmark for local registration of adjacent sub-images;
d. pairwise locally registering sub-images to define a set of transformation matrices, each transformation matrix characterizing a coordinate transformation between neighboring sub-images;
e. iteratively concatenating the transformation matrices so as to reference all of the transformation matrices to one of a plurality of coordinate frames of a plurality of sub-mosaics;
f. repeating the process of steps (d)-(e) so as to reference all of the transformation matrices to a unitary global coordinate frame of the field of view of the surface of the physical specimen; and
g. generating a three-dimensional globally co-registered mapping of the physical specimen based in part upon the depth-resolved profile at each of the plurality of locations.
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus for combining a low coherence interferometry (LCI) technique for single-point thickness measurement with videootoscopy for recording the image of a tissue such as the tympanic membrane (TM). TM thickness distribution maps are obtained by mapping the LCI imaging sites onto an anatomically accurate wide-field image of the TM, generated by mosaicking a sequence of multiple small field-of-view video-otoscopy images.
22 Citations
13 Claims
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1. A method for acquiring a three-dimensional mapping of a physical specimen characterized by a surface and a refractive index, the method comprising:
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a. obtaining a plurality of surface sub-images of a field of view of the surface of the physical specimen; b. obtaining a depth-resolved profile of the physical specimen at one or more fixed locations on each of the plurality of surface sub-images; c. extracting at least one of an image feature for use as a landmark for local registration of adjacent sub-images; d. pairwise locally registering sub-images to define a set of transformation matrices, each transformation matrix characterizing a coordinate transformation between neighboring sub-images; e. iteratively concatenating the transformation matrices so as to reference all of the transformation matrices to one of a plurality of coordinate frames of a plurality of sub-mosaics; f. repeating the process of steps (d)-(e) so as to reference all of the transformation matrices to a unitary global coordinate frame of the field of view of the surface of the physical specimen; and g. generating a three-dimensional globally co-registered mapping of the physical specimen based in part upon the depth-resolved profile at each of the plurality of locations. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A three-dimensional otoscopic mapping system comprising:
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a. a hand-held probe having an otoscopic tip for insertion into an ear canal; b. focusing optics for directing low-coherence light to ear tissue via the ear canal and for collecting scattered light within a field-of-view of a sub-image of the ear tissue; c. a dichroic beamsplitter for reflecting light scattered by a tympanic membrane of a subject onto a camera; d. a low-coherence interferometer system for analyzing a depth profile at a plurality of points on the tympanic membrane; and e. a processor for mosaicking a plurality of the sub-images and the depth profile at each of the plurality of sub-images to form a map combining two-dimensional surface data with depth data in a visual representation. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
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Specification