Registration and compression of dynamic images

• US 20080231910A1
• Filed: 03/19/2007
• Published: 09/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Avinash, Gopal Biligeri, Gering, David Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 7,929,793 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/448
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10072 Tomographic images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30004 Biomedical image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/73 using feature-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/124 Quantisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/132 Sampling, masking or truncation of coding units, e.g. adaptive resampling, frame skipping, frame interpolation or high-frequency transform coefficient masking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/167 Position within a video image, e.g. region of interest [ROI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/176 the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/63 using sub-band based transform, e.g. wavelets

Abstract

A technique for selecting portions of a dynamic medical image data set to be stored and portions of the medical image data set to be discarded or processed differently in order to reduce the overall amount of image data that is stored for each image data set. The dynamic image data is segmented and registered. The segmentation and registration enables changes in intensity based on patient motion to be distinguished from changes in intensity due to anatomical function. In general, the regions with changes in intensity due to anatomical function are more relevant than regions with changes in intensity due to patient motion. The regions of greatest relevance are stored at their full resolution. Regions of lesser relevance are stored at less than the full resolution. Regions of no relevance are discarded and not stored at all.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for processing image data, comprising:

accessing dynamic image data;

registering the dynamic image data;

segmenting the dynamic image data;

assigning data compression information to the dynamic image data; and

compressing the dynamic image data based on the data compression information.

2. The computer-implemented method for processing image data as recited in claim 1, wherein compressing the dynamic image data comprises compressing a first portion of the dynamic image data with lossless compression based on the data compression information.

3. The computer-implemented method for processing image data as recited in claim 2, wherein compressing the dynamic image data comprises compressing a second portion of the dynamic image data with lossy compression based on the data compression information.

4. The computer-implemented method for processing image data as recited in claim 3, wherein the first portion and second portion of dynamic image data are stored in long-term storage.

5. The computer-implemented method for processing image data as recited in claim 1, comprising:

discarding a portion of the dynamic image data based on the data compression information.

6. The computer-implemented method for processing image data as recited in claim 1, wherein the dynamic image data comprises image data acquired at a plurality of points in time.

7. The computer-implemented method for processing image data as recited in claim 1, wherein segmenting the dynamic image data comprises selecting a segmentation algorithm from a plurality of segmentation algorithms based on the purpose for obtaining the dynamic image data.

8. The computer-implemented method for processing image data as recited in claim 1, wherein segmenting the dynamic image data comprises segmenting the dynamic image data based on changes in image intensity over time.

9. The computer-implemented method for processing image data as recited in claim 1, comprising:

creating a mask from segmented image data, wherein the mask comprises data compression information.

10. The computer-implemented method for processing image data as recited in claim 9, wherein creating the mask is based on a clinical purpose for obtaining the image data.

11. The computer-implemented method for processing image data as recited in claim 10, wherein creating the mask comprises selecting a purpose for obtaining the image data from among a plurality of purposes for obtaining the image data.

12. The computer-implemented method for processing image data as recited in claim 9, comprising:

storing the mask in long-term data storage.

13. The computer-implemented method for processing image data as recited in claim 9, wherein assigning data compression information to the dynamic image data comprises transferring data compression information from the mask to the dynamic image data.

14. A computer-implemented method for storing image data, comprising:

accessing dynamic image data comprising image data representative of each of a plurality of images acquired over a time interval;

registering the image data representative of each of the plurality of images acquired over a time interval; and

compressing a first portion of the dynamic image data with lossless data compression and a second portion of the dynamic image data with lossy data compression.

15. The computer-implemented method for storing image data as recited in claim 14, comprising:

storing the first portion and second portion of the dynamic image data in long-term storage.

16. The computer-implemented method for storing image data as recited in claim 15, comprising:

discarding a third portion of the dynamic image data.

17. The computer-implemented method for storing image data as recited in claim 14, comprising:

segmenting the dynamic image data.

18. The computer-implemented method for storing image data as recited in claim 17, wherein segmenting the dynamic image data comprises selecting a segmentation algorithm from a plurality of segmentation algorithms based on the purpose for obtaining the dynamic image data.

19. The computer-implemented method for storing image data as recited in claim 15, wherein segmenting the dynamic image data comprises:

creating a mask labeled with dynamic image data compression information based on segmented dynamic image data; and

transferring the dynamic image data compression information from the mask to the dynamic image data.

20. The computer-implemented method for storing image data as recited in claim 19, wherein the dynamic image data compression information comprises a plurality of compression quality factors:

a first compression quality factor corresponding to the region of most relevance, a second compression quality factor corresponding to the region of lesser relevance, and a third compression quality factor corresponding to the region of no relevance.

21. The computer-implemented method for storing image data as recited in claim 20, wherein the first compression quality factor corresponds to lossless data compression, the second compression quality factor corresponds to lossy data compression, and the third compression quality factor corresponds to discarding the image data.

22. A computer-implemented method for storing image data, comprising:

accessing dynamic image data comprising image data representative of each of a plurality of images acquired over a time interval;

registering the image data representative of each of the plurality of images acquired over a time interval; and

compressing different portions of the dynamic image data with different data compression based on a purpose for obtaining the dynamic image data.

23. The computer-implemented method for storing image data as recited in claim 22, comprising:

segmenting the dynamic image data to produce segmented image data.

24. The computer-implemented method for storing image data as recited in claim 23, wherein segmenting the dynamic image data comprises selecting a segmentation algorithm from a plurality of segmentation algorithms based on the purpose for obtaining the dynamic image data.

25. The computer-implemented method for storing image data as recited in claim 22, wherein compressing different portions of the dynamic image data comprises compressing a first portion of the dynamic image data with lossless compression and a second portion of the dynamic image data with lossy data compression.

26. The computer-implemented method for storing image data as recited in claim 25, comprising:

discarding a third portion of the dynamic image data.

26-1. A system for processing image data, comprising:

means for accessing dynamic image data;

means for registering the dynamic image data;

means for segmenting the dynamic image data;

means for assigning data compression information to the dynamic image data; and

means for compressing the dynamic image data based on the data compression information.

27. A system for storing image data, comprising:

means for accessing dynamic image data comprising image data representative of each of a plurality of images acquired over a time interval;

means for registering the image data representative of each of the plurality of images acquired over a time interval; and

means for compressing a first portion of the dynamic image data with lossless compression and a second portion of the dynamic image data with lossy compression based on the image data compression information.

28. A system for storing image data, comprising:

means for accessing dynamic image data comprising image data representative of each of a plurality of images acquired over a time interval;

means for registering the image data representative of each of the plurality of images acquired over a time interval; and

means for compressing different portions of the dynamic image data with different data compression based on a purpose for obtaining the dynamic image data.

29. A machine-readable medium for processing medical image data, comprising:

code operable to access dynamic image data;

code operable to register the dynamic image data;

code operable to segment the dynamic image data;

code operable to assign data compression information to the dynamic image data; and

code operable to compress the dynamic image data based on the data compression information.

30. A machine-readable medium for processing medical image data, comprising:

code operable to access dynamic image data comprising image data representative of each of a plurality of images acquired over a time interval;

code operable to register the image data representative of each of the plurality of images acquired over a time interval; and

code operable to compress a first portion of the dynamic image data with lossless compression and a second portion of the dynamic image data with lossy compression based on the image data compression information.

31. A machine-readable medium for processing medical image data, comprising:

code operable to access dynamic image data comprising image data representative of each of a plurality of images acquired over a time interval;

code operable to register the image data representative of each of the plurality of images acquired over a time interval; and

code operable to compress different portions of the dynamic image data with different data compression based on a purpose for obtaining the dynamic image data.