IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

• US 20160331224A1
• Filed: 05/10/2016
• Published: 11/17/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Uji, Akihito, Sekiguchi, Hiroyuki, Iwase, Yoshihiko
• Granted Patent: US 9,826,896 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/0025 characterised by electronic signal processing, e.g. eye models
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/0033 characterised by user input arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/0058 for multiple images
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/102 for optical coherence tomography [OCT]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/1225 using coherent radiation

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes a detecting unit configured to execute structural analysis on a tomographic image acquired by an acquiring unit and detect an abnormal portion of the eye; and a display control unit configured to cause a displaying unit to display a finding of the abnormal portion detected by the detecting unit, as a sentence or a word in a manner superimposed on the tomographic image.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

an acquiring unit configured to acquire a tomographic image of an eye to be inspected;

a detecting unit configured to execute structural analysis on the tomographic image acquired by the acquiring unit and detect an abnormal portion of the eye; and

a display control unit configured to cause a displaying unit to display a finding of the abnormal portion detected by the detecting unit, as a sentence or a word in a manner superimposed on the tomographic image.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit causes the finding to be displayed at a position on the tomographic image, the position corresponding to a position of the abnormal portion detected by the detecting unit.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit causes the finding to be displayed in a region other than a region arranged between one of an internal limiting membrane and a nerve fiber layer boundary and one of a retinal pigment epithelium boundary and a photoreceptor inner segment/outer segment boundary included in the tomographic image.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an extracting unit configured to extract a layer boundary from the tomographic image,

wherein the detecting unit applies the structural analysis with different algorithms to a first region and a second region in the tomographic image defined by the layer boundary extracted by the extracting unit, and detects a first abnormal portion from the first region and a second abnormal portion different from the first abnormal portion from the second region, and

wherein the display control unit causes the displaying unit to display a finding of the first abnormal portion and a finding of the second abnormal portion as sentences or words in the manner superimposed on the tomographic image.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein the extracting unit extracts at least one of an internal limiting membrane and a nerve fiber layer boundary, and at least one of a retinal pigment epithelium boundary and a photoreceptor inner segment/outer segment boundary, and

wherein the detecting unit applies the structural analysis with different algorithms to the first region and the second region, and generates the first abnormal portion and the second abnormal portion, the first region being a region arranged between one of the internal limiting membrane and the nerve fiber layer boundary and one of the retinal pigment epithelium boundary and the photoreceptor inner segment/outer segment boundary, the second region being a region at a vitreous body side with respect to the one of the internal limiting membrane and the nerve fiber layer boundary.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a receiving unit configured to receive correction by an operator on the finding displayed on the displaying unit,

wherein the display control unit causes the displaying unit to display a corrected finding in a display form different from a display form before the correction.

7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an information acquiring unit configured to acquire information indicative of a diagnosis procedure of at least one disease from information indicative of diagnosis procedures of a plurality of diseases on the basis of the finding of the abnormal portion detected by the detecting unit,

wherein the information acquiring unit acquires the information indicative of the diagnosis procedure of the disease associated with the finding of the abnormal portion detected by the detecting unit, and

wherein the display control unit causes the displaying unit to display the information indicative of the diagnosis procedure of the disease acquired by the information acquiring unit.

8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storage unit configured to store a plurality of tomographic images in association with corresponding findings; and

a similar image acquiring unit configured to acquire a tomographic image associated with a finding matched to the finding of the abnormal portion detected by the detecting unit, from the storage unit.

9. The image processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the similar image acquiring unit acquires a tomographic image obtained by performing scanning with measurement light in a direction the same as a scanning direction of measurement light when the tomographic image with the abnormal portion detected by the detecting unit is obtained, from the storage unit.

10. The image processing apparatus according to claim 8,

wherein the storage unit stores the plurality of tomographic images in association with the corresponding findings and positions of the findings in the tomographic images, and

wherein the similar image acquiring unit acquires a tomographic image associated with a finding and a position of the finding matched to the finding and a position of the finding of the abnormal portion detected by the detecting unit, from the storage unit.

11. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the acquiring unit acquires a fundus image of the eye to be inspected, and

wherein the display control unit causes the displaying unit to further display the fundus image and the finding on the fundus image.

12. The image processing apparatus according to claim 11,

wherein the acquiring unit acquires a plurality of tomographic images at different positions in the eye to be inspected, and

wherein the detecting unit detects the abnormal portion of the eye to be inspected by executing the structural analysis on the plurality of tomographic images.

13. The image processing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein, if findings corresponding to abnormal portions detected by the detecting unit from different tomographic images are the same findings, and a distance between the abnormal portions detected from the different tomographic images is smaller than a threshold, the display control unit causes the same findings to be displayed as a single finding on the fundus image.

14. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the acquiring unit acquires a plurality of tomographic images obtained by performing scanning with measurement light in a different direction on the eye to be inspected,

wherein the detecting unit detects a plurality of abnormal portions of the eye to be inspected by executing the structural analysis on the plurality of tomographic images, and

wherein, on the basis of the plurality of abnormal portions obtained from the plurality of tomographic images, the display control unit causes the displaying unit to display a finding of an abnormal portion common to the plurality of tomographic images.

15. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an estimating unit configured to estimates a disease name on the basis of the finding,

wherein the acquiring unit acquires a plurality of tomographic images obtained by performing scanning with measurement light in a different direction on the eye to be inspected,

wherein the detecting unit detects a plurality of abnormal portions of the eye to be inspected by executing the structural analysis on the plurality of tomographic images, and

wherein the estimating unit estimates a disease name on the basis of findings of the abnormal portions obtained from the plurality of tomographic images.

16. The image processing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the different direction is an orthogonal direction.

17. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the displaying unit includes a touch panel,

wherein the image processing apparatus further comprises a selecting unit configured to temporarily select one patient information among a plurality of pieces of patient information displayed on the displaying unit if the one patient information is tapped, and selects the one patient information if swiping is made after the tapping, and

wherein the acquiring unit acquires the tomographic image corresponding to the patient information selected by the selecting unit.

18. The image processing apparatus according to claim 8,

wherein the storage unit stores each of the plurality of tomographic images in association with a finding, information based on a thickness of a predetermined layer of the tomographic image, and information based on a luminance of a retina included in the tomographic image, and

wherein the similar image acquiring unit acquires a tomographic image associated with a finding of an abnormal portion, information based on the thickness of the layer, and information based on the luminance corresponding to the finding of the abnormal portion detected by the detecting unit, information based on the thickness of the layer, and information based on the luminance.

19. An image processing method comprising:

acquiring, using an acquiring unit, a tomographic image of an eye to be inspected;

executing structural analysis on the tomographic image acquired by the acquiring unit and detecting an abnormal portion of the eye; and

causing a displaying unit to display a finding of the abnormal portion, as a sentence or a word in a manner superimposed on the tomographic image.

20. A storage medium non-temporarily storing a program for causing a computer to execute the image processing method according to claim 19.