SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IN-CONTEXT MPR VISUALIZATION USING VIRTUAL INCISION VOLUME VISUALIZATION

• US 20070229500A1
• Filed: 03/12/2007
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Corporate Research Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Williams, James, Engel, Klaus
• Granted Patent: US 7,889,194 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/422
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/08 Volume rendering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/00 Manipulating 3D models or images for computer graphics
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2219/008 Cut plane or projection plane definition
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 428/24355 Continuous and nonuniform or irregular surface on layer or component [e.g., roofing, etc.]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 428/25 Web or sheet containing structurally defined element or component and including a second component containing structurally defined particles

Abstract

A method for multi-planar reconstruction of digitized medical images includes providing an image volume, sampling the neighborhood about each point in a planar region and saving a color value and a depth, providing a projection plane onto which rendering rays are projected from a viewing point through said image volume, advancing sampling points along rays through the image volume, computing depths of each sampling point, determining for sampling points on rays that penetrates the planar region if a depth of said sampling point is less than the buffer depth of a corresponding point in the planar region and sampling neighborhoods of points about such sampling points, determining if sampling points are near said planar region, applying first transfer function to sample values interpolated from first volume for sampling points close to or inside the planar region, and otherwise applying second transfer function to sample values interpolated from second volume.

Claims

1. A method of multi-planar reconstruction of a digitized medical image comprising the steps of:

providing a digitized medical image volume, said image comprising a plurality of intensities on a 3-dimensional grid of points;

providing a planar region inside said image volume in which a multi-planar reconstruction will be rendered;

sampling the neighborhood about each point in said planar region wherein a color value for each said point and a depth of each said point within the image volume are saved in a buffer;

providing a projection plane comprising a 2-dimensional lattice of points onto which rendering rays are projected from a viewing point through said image volume;

advancing a sampling point along a ray through said image volume;

computing a depth of said sampling point in said image volume;

determining for a sampling point on a ray that penetrates said planar region if a depth of said sampling point is less than the buffer depth of a corresponding point in said planar region and sampling a neighborhood of points about such a sampling point;

determining if said sampling point is near said planar region, wherein a first transfer function is applied to a sample value interpolated from a first volume if said sampling point is close to or inside the planar region, and a second transfer function is applied to a sample value interpolated from a second volume if said sampling point is not close to the planar region; and

accumulating the output of the transfer function.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein sampling the neighborhood about each point in said planar region comprises tri-linear interpolation.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising window leveling said interpolated sample values.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising if a leveled luminosity of said sampled point is lower than a pre-determined threshold, and discarding any such sampling points from the multi-planar reconstruction.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein sampling a neighborhood of points about a sampling point whose depth is less than the buffer depth of a corresponding planar point comprises tri-linear interpolation.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising discarding a sampling point whose depth is greater than the buffer depth of the corresponding planar point.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing shading on the outputs of said transfer functions.

8. A method of multi-planar reconstruction of a digitized medical image comprising the steps of:

providing a first digitized medical image volume, said image comprising a plurality of intensity data on a 3-dimensional grid of points;

providing a planar region inside said first image volume in which a multi-planar reconstruction will be rendered;

computing a depth for each point in said planar region and saving said depth value in a buffer associated with said planar region;

providing a second digitized medical image volume, said image comprising a plurality of intensity data on a 3-dimensional grid of points;

embedding said planar region from said first image volume within said second image volume;

volume rendering said second digitized image volume, wherein a plurality of rays are projected from a viewing point through said second image volume wherein a sample output for sampling points along each ray is accumulated on a projection plane,

determining, for each sampling point along each ray, whether said sampling point is near said planar region, wherein said sampling point is rendered with a first transfer function applied to first image data if said sampling point is close to or inside the planar region, and said sampling point is rendered with a second transfer function applied to second image data if said sampling point is not close to the planar region.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining for each sampling point along each ray that penetrates said planar region if a depth of said sampling point is less than the buffer depth of a corresponding point in said planar region and discarding a sampling point that does not satisfy said criteria.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein said first image volume and said second image volume are acquired using differing imaging modalities.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein said first image volume is acquired before performing a medical procedure, and said second image volume is acquired after performing said medical procedure.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising for a sampling point near to said planar region, rendering said sampling point with a third transfer function applied to second image data.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising interpolating an output on the boundary of said planar region with said second image volume from the output of said first transfer function and the output of the second transfer function.

14. A program storage device readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer to perform the method steps for multi-planar reconstruction of a digitized medical image comprising the steps of:

providing a digitized medical image volume, said image comprising a plurality of intensities on a 3-dimensional grid of points;

providing a planar region inside said image volume in which a multi-planar reconstruction will be rendered;

sampling the neighborhood about each point in said planar region wherein a color value for each said point and a depth of each said point within the image volume are saved in a buffer;

providing a projection plane comprising a 2-dimensional lattice of points onto which rendering rays are projected from a viewing point through said image volume;

advancing a sampling point along a ray through said image volume;

computing a depth of said sampling point in said image volume;

determining for a sampling point on a ray that penetrates said planar region if a depth of said sampling point is less than the buffer depth of a corresponding point in said planar region and sampling a neighborhood of points about such a sampling point;

determining if said sampling point is near said planar region, wherein a first transfer function is applied to a sample value interpolated from a first volume if said sampling point is close to or inside the planar region, and a second transfer function is applied to a sample value interpolated from a second volume if said sampling point is not close to the planar region; and

accumulating the output of the transfer function.

15. The computer readable program storage device of claim 14, wherein sampling the neighborhood about each point in said planar region comprises tri-linear interpolation.

16. The computer readable program storage device of claim 15, the method further comprising window leveling said interpolated sample values.

17. The computer readable program storage device of claim 16, the method further comprising if a leveled luminosity of said sampled point is lower than a pre-determined threshold, and discarding any such sampling points from the multi-planar reconstruction.

18. The computer readable program storage device of claim 14, wherein sampling a neighborhood of points about a sampling point whose depth is less than the buffer depth of a corresponding planar point comprises tri-linear interpolation.

19. The computer readable program storage device of claim 14, the method further comprising discarding a sampling point whose depth is greater than the buffer depth of the corresponding planar point.

20. The computer readable program storage device of claim 14, the method further comprising performing shading on the outputs of said transfer functions.