Motion tracking system for real time adaptive motion compensation in biomedical imaging

• US 10,653,381 B2
• Filed: 09/06/2017
• Issued: 05/19/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: KinetiCor, Inc., Queen's Medical Center, Research Corporation of The University of Hawaii
• Original Assignee: KinetiCor, Inc.
• Inventors: Yu, Jeffrey N., Ernst, Thomas Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang, Jon
• Application Number:
  US15/696,920
• Publication Number:
  US 20180070904A1
• Time in Patent Office: 986 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/055 involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/702 Posture restraints
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/721 using a separate sensor to detect motion or using motion information derived from signals other than the physiological signal to be measured
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/032 Transmission computed tomography [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/037 Emission tomography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/0492 using markers or indicia for aiding patient positioning
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/527 using data from a motion artifact sensor
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/283 Intercom or optical viewing arrangements, structurally associated with NMR apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/5608 Data processing and visualization specially adapted for MR, e.g. for feature analysis and pattern recognition on the basis of measured MR data, segmentation of measured MR data, edge contour detection on the basis of measured MR data, for enhancing measured MR data in terms of signal-to-noise ratio by means of noise filtering or apodization, for enhancing measured MR data in terms of resolution by means for deblurring, windowing, zero filling, or generation of gray-scaled images, colour-coded images or images displaying vectors instead of pixels image data processing or generation, in general G06T
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/56509 due to motion, displacement or flow, e.g. gradient moment nulling G01R33/567 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/04 involving 3D image data
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10072 Tomographic images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30004 Biomedical image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2211/428 Real-time
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/207 for motion estimation over a hierarchy of resolutions multi-resolution motion estimation or hierarchical motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/53
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/73 using feature-based methods

Abstract

The disclosure herein provides methods, systems, and devices for tracking motion of a patient or object of interest during biomedical imaging and for compensating for that motion in the biomedical imaging scanner and/or the resulting images to reduce or eliminate motion artifacts. In an embodiment, a motion tracking system is configured to overlay tracking data over biomedical imaging data in order to display the tracking data along with its associated image data. In an embodiment, a motion tracking system is configured to overlay tracking data over biomedical imaging data in order to display the tracking data along with its associated image data. In an embodiment, one or more detectors are configured to detect images of a patient, and a detector processing interface is configured to analyze the images to estimate motion or movement of the patient and to generate tracking data describing the patient'"'"'s motion. The detector processing interface is configured to send the tracking data to a scanner controller to enable adjustment of scanning parameters in real-time in response to the patient'"'"'s motion.

Claims

1. A biomedical system for tracking motion of an object during biomedical imaging and for compensating for motion of the object, the biomedical system comprising:

a biomedical imaging scanner configured to perform scanning of the object to generate biomedical images of the object;

at least one detector for generating data describing at least a first landmark and a second landmark of the object,

one or more computer readable storage media configured to store a plurality of computer executable instructions; and

one or more hardware computer processors in communication with the one or more computer readable storage media and configured to execute the plurality of computer executable instructions in order to cause the biomedical system to;

determine motion of the first landmark using a first motion tracking technique;

determine motion of the second landmark using a second motion tracking technique;

differentiate between object movement and skin movement based at least in part on the determined motion of the first landmark and the determined motion of the second landmark;

generate motion tracking data of the object based at least in part on the object movement differentiated based at least in part on the determined motion of the first landmark and the determined motion of the second landmark; and

control one or more scanner parameters of the biomedical imaging scanner based on the generated motion tracking data, the scanner parameters configured for controlling the biomedical imaging scanner to account for motion of the object during the scanning of the object.

2. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the object movement and the skin movement are differentiated based at least in part on comparing the determined motion of the first landmark and the determined motion of the second landmark.

3. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the first motion tracking technique and the second motion tracking technique are the same.

4. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the first motion tracking technique and the second motion tracking technique are different.

5. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the first and second landmarks comprise one or more of a facial feature of the subject, an organ of the subject, or an image projected onto the subject.

6. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the biomedical system is further caused to utilize an atlas-segmentation technique for identifying the first landmark or the second landmark of the object.

7. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the biomedical system is further caused to apply a first weighting factor to the determined motion of the first landmark and apply a second weighting factor to the determined motion of the second landmark, wherein the first weighting factor is based on a historical accuracy of the first motion tracking technique and the second weighting factor is based on a historical accuracy of the second motion tracking technique.

8. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the biomedical system is further caused to perform calculations of a characteristic of the object.

9. The biomedical system of claim 8, wherein the biomedical system is further caused to perform the calculations of the characteristic of the object by measuring distances of points on the object to the at least one detector.

10. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the biomedical system is further caused to characterize different types of body organs and/or facial features of the object.

11. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the biomedical system is further caused to measure at least the first and second landmarks of the object in coordinates of the at least one detector.

12. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the biomedical imaging scanner comprises one or more of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, computerized tomography (CT) scanner, or positron emission tomography (PET) scanner.

13. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the at least one detector is positioned within a bore of the biomedical imaging scanner.

14. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the at least one detector is positioned in a head cage of the biomedical imaging scanner.

15. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the at least one detector is positioned within a body of the biomedical imaging scanner.

16. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the at least one detector is positioned flat against a bore of the biomedical imaging scanner.

17. The biomedical system of claim 1, further comprising a first detector and a second detector, wherein the first detector and the second detector are positioned to view the first landmark at a different angle.

18. The biomedical system of claim 17, wherein the first detector and the second detector are positioned at a 90 degree angle to each other.

19. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein each of the first motion tracking technique and the second motion tracking technique comprise one of anatomical landmark tracking, three-dimensional surface modeling tracking, or distance tracking.

20. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the determined motion of the first landmark and the determined motion of the second landmark each comprise six degrees of freedom.