REAL TIME SD-OCT WITH DISTRIBUTED ACQUISITION AND PROCESSING

• US 20090093980A1
• Filed: 10/05/2007
• Published: 04/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Volcano Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: CardioSpectra, Inc. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Piercy, Joseph P., Kemp, Nathaniel J., McElroy, Austin Broderick
• Granted Patent: US 9,347,765 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/77
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/378 using ultrasound
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0066 Optical coherence imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 9/02084 Processing in the Fourier or frequency domain when not imaged in the frequency domain
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 9/02089 Displaying the signal, e.g. for user interaction
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 9/02091 Tomographic interferometers, e.g. based on optical coherence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/4795 spatially resolved investigating of object in scattering medium in vivo A61B
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/003 Reconstruction from projections, e.g. tomography
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10101 Optical tomography; Optical coherence tomography [OCT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10132 Ultrasound image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20056 Discrete and fast Fourier transform, [DFT, FFT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2211/428 Real-time

Abstract

The present invention relates to distributed computing system to acquire, process, and display OCT images at real-time frame rates.

Claims

1. A method for computing optical imaging data comprising the steps of:

a. using at least two processors from a cluster of processors for data acquisition, pre-processing, Fourier Transformation, post-processing, image display, and post-display interaction;

b. processing the data acquisition, pre-processing, Fourier Transformation, post-processing, image display, and post-display interaction by the at least two processors; and

c. transmitting the data from the data acquisition, pre-processing, Fourier Transformation, post-processing, image display, and post-display interaction to display optical coherence tomography images at real-time frame rates.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing step further comprises interfacing the data acquisition and the image display with a user interface.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein data acquisition further comprises triggering instrumentation, synchronization of instrumentation, and digitization of the optical imaging signal.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein pre-processing further comprises noise removal, windowing and apodization, and interpolation to linear wavenumber space.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein post-processing further comprises filtering, edge detection, feature extraction, and mapping the polar representations.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of requesting additional post-processing, interactive processing, measurement of image features, and playback control.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the processors is a graphical processing unit.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphic processing unit performs the Fourier Transformation.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the at least two processors for performing ultrasound imaging.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a digitizer performs the preprocessing and the Fourier Transformation.

11. A processing system for computing optical imaging date comprising:

a. an optical coherence tomography system;

b. at least two processors coupled to the optical coherence tomography system for performing data acquisition, pre-processing, Fourier Transformation, post-processing, image display, and post-display interaction;

c. at least a memory for data storage;

d. a display for displaying optical imaging data; and

e. a communication link connecting the at least two processors to the at least memory, and the display for providing data communication.

12. The processing system of claim 11, wherein the at least two processors is a plurality of processors.

13. The processing system of claim 12, wherein the at least memory is a plurality of memories and the plurality of processors communicate between the plurality of memories.

14. The processing system of claim 13, wherein the plurality of processors and the plurality of memories are interfaced with a user interface and the communication link is a computer network.

15. The processing system of claim 11, wherein one of the at least two processors is a graphic processing unit.

16. The processing system of claim 11, further comprising an ultrasound system coupled to the at least two processors.

17. The processing system of claim 11, further comprising an interface with the data acquisition and the image display.

18. The processing system of claim 11, further comprising a digitizer coupled to the optical coherence tomography system for performing the preprocessing and Fourier Transformation, wherein the digitizer is coupled to the at least two processors.