MOTION TRACKING SYSTEM FOR REAL TIME ADAPTIVE MOTION COMPENSATION IN BIOMEDICAL IMAGING

• US 20150366527A1
• Filed: 01/29/2014
• Published: 12/24/2015
• 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., Queen's Medical Center, University of Hawai'i
• Inventors: Yu, Jeffrey N., Ernst, Thomas Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,782,141 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 one landmark of the object, wherein the at least one detector is configured to be positioned relative to the object to enable the at least one detector to detect movement of said landmark during the scanning;

a detector processing interface configured to determine motion of the object based on analyzing said data received from the at least one detector, the detector processing interface configured to generate motion tracking data of the object; and

a scanner controller for controlling at least one parameter of the biomedical imaging scanner, wherein the scanner controller is configured to adjust scanner parameters based on the 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 at least one detector is positioned within a bore of the biomedical imaging scanner.

3. The biomedical system of claim 2, wherein the at least one detector only comprises components configured to not interfere with the biomedical imaging scanner.

4. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the at least one landmark comprises a facial feature of the subject.

5. The biomedical system of claim 4, wherein the facial feature comprises at least one tooth of the upper jawbone.

6. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the landmark comprises an organ of the subject.

7. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the at least one landmark comprises an image projected onto the subject.

8. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the at least one detector processing interface is configured to utilize an atlas-segmentation technique for identifying the at least one landmark of the object.

9. The biomedical system of claim 1, wherein the at least one detector is configured to generate data describing a first landmark and a second landmark of the object, wherein the detector processing interface is configured to utilize a first motion tracking technique to determine motion of the first landmark, and a second motion tracking technique to determine the motion of the second landmark, the detector processing interface configured to determine motion of the object based on analyzing the determined motion of the first landmark and the second landmark.

10. The biomedical system of claim 9, wherein the detector processing interface is configured 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.

11. A computer implemented-method for tracking motion of an object during biomedical imaging by a scanner and for compensating for motion of the object, the computer implemented-method comprising:

accessing, by a computer system, an image of the object;

identifying, by the computer system, in the image a landmark of the object, the landmark being a feature naturally existing in the object;

accessing, by the computer system, a plurality of images of the object;

tracking, by the computer system, movement of the landmark in the plurality of images of the object;

translating, by the computer system, the movement in a first reference plane to a second reference plane of the scanner;

generating, by the computer system, data parameters based on the movement in the second reference plane, the data parameters configured to adjust the scanning parameters of the scanner to account for motion of the object; and

transmitting, by the computer system, the data parameters to a scanner controller, the scanner controller configured to control the scanning parameters of the scanner.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the image is from a video.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the accessing of the image of the object is from at least one detector that is positioned within a bore of the scanner.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the at least one detector only comprises components configured to not interfere with the scanner.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the landmark comprises a facial feature.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the facial feature comprises at least one tooth of the upper jawbone.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the landmark comprises an organ.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the identifying comprises utilizing an atlas-segmentation technique for identifying the landmark of the object.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising identifying, by the computer system, in the image a second landmark, the identifying of the landmark performed by utilizing a first motion tracking technique to determine motion of the landmark, and the identifying of the second landmark performed by utilizing a second motion tracking technique to determine the motion of the second landmark, the tracking comprises determining the movement of the landmark and the second landmark in the plurality of images of the object, wherein the movement is an average of the motion of the landmark and the motion of the second landmark.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the movement is determined by applying a first weighting factor to the determined motion of the landmark to generate a first weighted motion, and applying a second weighting factor to the determined motion of the second landmark to generate a second weighted motion, and averaging the first and second weighted motions, 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.