METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR OPTICAL IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION USING CONTOUR DETERMINATION

• US 20080218727A1
• Filed: 12/21/2007
• Published: 09/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Softscan Healthcare Group Limited
• Original Assignee: Art Advanced Research Technologies Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Mincu, Niculae, Khayat, Mario, Djeziri, Salim, Leblond, Frederic, Guilman, Olga, Intes, Xavier
• Application Number:
  US11/962,911
• Publication Number:
  US 20080218727A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 356/2
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0091 for mammography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4312 Breast evaluation or disorder diagnosis A61B5/0091 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/24 for measuring contours or curvatures
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/4795 spatially resolved investigating of object in scattering medium in vivo A61B

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and a system for optical imaging of an object in transmission configuration. The method and system obtain contour coordinates of the object using source/detector configurations references and acquire optical data from a region of interest (ROI) of the object. Then, the method and system apply a weighting factor to said optical data as a function of the contour coordinates, and reconstruct an image of the ROI using the weighted optical data and photon diffusion equation.

Claims

1. A method for optical imaging of an object in transmission configuration, the method comprising:

a) obtaining contour coordinates of the object using source/detector configurations references;

b) acquiring optical data from a region of interest (ROI) of the object;

c) applying a weighting factor to said optical data as a function of the contour coordinates; and

d) reconstructing an image of the ROI using the weighted optical data and photon diffusion equation.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of obtaining contour coordinates comprises optically scanning the object to determine object boundaries.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the source/detector configurations references comprises source/detector configuration coordinates in a field of view of a scanner.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said object is comprised between two substantially parallel plates.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4 wherein said optically scanning comprises performing a raster scan.

6. The method as claimed in claim 4 wherein said contour coordinates are obtained in a plane parallel to said parallel plates and wherein a shape of said object in a plane perpendicular to said parallel plates is predetermined thereby providing a 3 dimensional (3D) contour.

7. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1 wherein the weighting factor is a function of optical properties of voxels outside of said ROI.

8. The method as claimed in any ones of claim 1 wherein optical data for which corresponding photon paths are outside of said contour coordinates of said object are excluded from said reconstructing step, and said reconstructing step generates a 3D image depicting optical properties of the object.

9. The method as claimed in any one of claims 8 further comprising a step of obtaining an average μ

_a and μ

_s′

for use in the step of reconstructing the image.

10. The method as claimed in any one of claims 9 further comprising a step of immersing said object in optically matching fluid.

11. A method for optical imaging of an object in transmission configuration, the method comprising:

a) obtaining contour coordinates of the object;

b) determining a region of interest (ROI) within said contour coordinates; and

c) acquiring optical data from said ROI of the object wherein said acquiring of optical data comprises adjusting a light source intensity as a function of said contour coordinates to maximize signal to noise ratio within said ROI.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11 wherein said contour is used to co-localize said ROI within optical images from different scans.

13. The method as claimed in claim 11 wherein said object is a breast.

14. A transmission optical imaging system comprising:

a) one or more light source for injecting light in an object;

b) one or more light detector for detecting light transmitted through said object;

c) an acquisition controller connected to said light source and light detector for collecting data at a plurality of source/detector configurations within said object;

d) a contour coordinate estimator for acquiring and calculating contour coordinates of the object;

e) an optical data estimator for selecting optical data relevant to said object as a function of contour coordinates, and for calculating and applying weighting factors to the optical data as a function of contour coordinates; and

f) an optical image generator for reconstructing an optical image based on said weighted optical data.

15. The transmission optical imaging system of claim 14, wherein the contour coordinate estimator is a raster scanner for optically scanning the object to determine the contour coordinates.