GROUPING IMAGE ANNOTATIONS

• US 20160048987A1
• Filed: 04/17/2014
• Published: 02/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: SEVENSTER, MERLIJN, PETERS, JOOST FREDERIK
• Granted Patent: US 10,497,157 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10072 Tomographic images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10116 X-ray image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30004 Biomedical image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/38 Registration of image sequences
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/60 Analysis of geometric attributes

Abstract

A system for grouping image annotations is disclosed. A display unit (1) is arranged for displaying a plurality of medical images relating to a subject (5) comprising a representation of an anatomical object. An annotation unit (2) is arranged for receiving information regarding input of a plurality of annotations (3) of the plurality of medical images via a user interface (4), wherein each annotation comprises geometric information relative to an image of the plurality of medical images. A grouping unit (4) is arranged for detecting a group of annotations among the plurality of annotations, based on the geometric information and a set of rules that define general properties of geometric relationships of annotations (3) that belong to the same object. The detecting of the group of annotations is further based on a geometric relationship between the plurality of medical images.

Claims

1. A system for grouping image annotations, comprising

a display unit for displaying a plurality of medical images relating to a subject on a display screen, wherein the plurality of medical images comprises a representation of at least one anatomical object;

and

an annotation unit for receiving, from a user, input relating to the plurality of medical images, and creating, from said input, one or more annotations across the plurality of medical images, each annotation comprising geometric information;

a grouping unit for detecting a group of annotations among said one or more annotations, the detecting including processing said geometric information based on a set of rules that define properties of geometric relationships of annotations that belong to a single anatomical object and wherein detecting the group of annotations is based on a geometric relationship between the plurality of medical images.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the display unit is arranged for displaying an indication of which annotations belong to the group.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the geometric information comprises a position of the annotation relative to said at least one medical image and/or an orientation of the annotation with respect to said at least one medical image and/or a shape of the annotation.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the grouping unit comprises a geometric unit for determining a geometric relationship between at least two annotations that are associated with different medical images of an image dataset, based on the geometric relationship between the different medical images and the geometric information of said at least two annotations.

5. The system according to claim 1,

wherein the annotation unit is further arranged for receiving time information indicative of a time of input of at least two annotations of the plurality of annotations, and

wherein the grouping unit is arranged for performing the detecting further based on the time information.

6. The system according to claim 1,

wherein the grouping unit comprises a region unit for determining a first region around a first annotation and a second region around a second annotation, based on the geometric information, and an overlap unit for determining an overlap region of the first region and the second region, and

wherein the grouping unit is arranged for performing the detecting of the group of annotations based on a size of the overlap region.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the geometric information of a first annotation comprises an indication of a first line and the geometric information of a second annotation comprises an indication of a second line, and wherein the grouping unit is arranged for detecting whether the first annotation and the second annotation belong to the same group based on a location of an intersection point of the first line and the second line.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the annotation unit is arranged for receiving information regarding input of a text annotation comprising a text string, and a plurality of non-text annotations, wherein each non-text annotation comprises a symbol, and wherein the grouping unit is arranged for detecting a non-text annotation that is closest to the text annotation, based on the geometric information, and grouping the text annotation with the closest non-text annotation of the plurality of non-text annotations.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of medical images comprises differently oriented reconstructed planes having a known geometric relationship.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of medical images are constituted by two images series, and wherein the system further comprises a registration unit for registering the two image series to obtain the geometric relationship between the plurality of medical images.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the grouping unit is arranged for detecting the group of annotations based on annotations being positioned at similar coordinates in the plurality of medical images.

12. The system according to claim 1, wherein the set of rules define properties of geometric relationships of annotations that belong to a single clinical finding.

13. A workstation comprising a system according to claim 1.

14. A method of grouping image annotations, comprising

displaying a plurality of medical images relating to a subject on a display screen, wherein the plurality of medical images comprises a representation of at least one anatomical object;

receiving, from a user, input relating to the plurality of medical images, and creating, from said input, one or more annotations across the plurality of medical images, each annotation comprising geometric information; and

detecting a group of annotations among said one or more annotations, including processing said geometric information based on a set of rules that define properties of geometric relationships of annotations that belong to a single anatomical object and wherein detecting the group of annotations is based on a geometric relationship between the plurality of medical images.

15. A computer program product comprising instructions for causing a processor system to perform the method according to claim 14.