Medical image recording system and medical image recording apparatus

• US 7,439,996 B2
• Filed: 08/10/2004
• Issued: 10/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Konica Minolta Medical & Graphic Incorporated (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Konica Minolta Medical & Graphic Incorporated (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Inventors: Nakazawa, Masayuki, Yamano, Akira
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAM, HAI CHI
• Application Number:
  US10/915,640
• Publication Number:
  US 20050057638A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,533 Days
• Field of Search: 347/110, 347/224, 358 12- 14, 358/3.12, 358/451, 358/522, 358/528
• US Class Current: 347/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/4007 based on interpolation, e.g. bilinear interpolation image demosaicing G06T3/4015; edge-driven or edge-based scaling G06T3/403

Abstract

A medical image recording system for recording the medical image on a recording medium, including: an image data forming section that forms image data including medical image data of a radiographed object and supplementary information; and an image recording section that records the medical image on the basis of the medical image data on the recording medium, wherein the image recording section comprises a switching device for selecting the writing pitch at the time of the recording on the basis of the supplementary information.

Claims

1. A medical image recording system for recording a medical image on a recording medium, comprising:

an image generating apparatus system that forms image data including medical image data of a radiographed object and supplementary information; and

an image recording apparatus that records the medical image based on the medical image data on the recording medium,

wherein the image generating apparatus system comprises;

a first communication section for communicating with the image recording apparatus;

an image generating section for forming the medical image data of the radiographed object; and

a first control section for controlling the image generating section to form the medical image data at a predetermined reading pitch, adding information for deciding a writing pitch to be used in recording the medical image based on the medical image data, to the supplementary information; and

sending the image data to the image recording apparatus through the first communication section; and

wherein the image recording apparatus comprises;

a second communication section for communicating with the image generating apparatus system;

an image recording section for recording an image of the image data; and

a second control section for receiving the image data from the image generating apparatus system through the second communication section;

calculating an interpolation magnification factor from an image of the medical image data to the image of the image data to be recorded, for each of a plurality of writing pitches based on the supplementary information; and

determining the writing pitch to be used to record the image of the image data, among the plurality of writing pitches, based on the calculated interpolation magnification factor; and

controlling the image recording section to record the image of the image data at the determined writing pitch.

2. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein the first control section determines the predetermined reading pitch by selecting from a plurality of reading pitches.

3. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein the image data forming section comprises a plurality of image apparatuses and a plurality of reading pitches over the apparatuses.

4. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein only when there exists such a writing pitch that the reading pitch is an integral multiple of the writing pitch among the plurality of writing pitches, the second control section selects the writing pitch.

5. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein only when there is such a writing pitch among the plurality of writing pitches that an interpolation magnification factor obtained by dividing the reading pitch of the image generating apparatus system by the writing pitch is an integer, the second control section selects the writing pitch to be used to record the image of the image data.

6. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein the image generating apparatus system is connected with the image recording apparatus through a network.

7. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein the image recording apparatus comprises a plurality of image recording apparatuses and a plurality of writing pitches over the plurality of image recording apparatuses, and further comprises a management section connected with the image generating apparatus and the image recording apparatuses,

wherein the management apparatus comprises:

a management side communication section for communicating with the image generating apparatus and image recording apparatuses;

a management side control section for receiving image data from the image generating apparatus through the management side communication section, determining selecting the writing pitch to be used in recording the image of the image data from a plurality of writing pitches, based on the supplementary information, determining the image recording apparatus corresponding to the selected writing pitch among the recording apparatuses and sending the image data to the determined image recording apparatus through the management side communication section.

8. The medical image recording system of claim 7, wherein the management side control section determines the image recording apparatus corresponding to the writing pitch of this combination, when there is a combination between the reading pitch and writing pitch such that the reading pitch of the image generating apparatus is an integral multiple of writing pitch of the image recording apparatus.

9. The medical image recording system of claim 7, wherein the management side control section determines the writing pitch to be used to record the image of the image data, based on the interpolation magnification factor from the formed image to the recorded image, and

determines the image recording apparatus corresponding to the writing pitch.

10. The medical image recording system of claim 7, wherein the management side control section determines the image recording apparatus corresponding to the writing pitch of this combination, when there is a combination between the reading pitch and interpolation magnification factor such that the value obtained by dividing the reading pitch of the image generating apparatus by the interpolation magnification factor is an integral multiple.

11. The medical image recording system of claim 7, wherein the image generating apparatus and image recording apparatus are connected through a network.

12. The medical image recording system of claim 7, wherein there is a combination between the image generating apparatus and

the image recording apparatus that one reading pitch of the image generating apparatus is an integral multiple of one writing pitch of the image recording apparatus.

13. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein there is a combination of the reading pitch and the writing pitch so that the interpolation magnification factor obtained by dividing the reading pitch of the image generating apparatus system by the writing pitch is an integer.

14. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein the supplementary information includes at least one of radiographing condition information indicating radiographing conditions of the object, usage information of the image data, reading pitch information of the image generating apparatus system having formed the image data, and information on the interpolation magnification factor of the image data.

15. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of writing pitches are two or more different types of writing pitches where P1<

P2<

. . . <

Pn (n≧

2), and 1.0<

(Pi/P1) <

1.9 is satisfied in at least one of i (i =2, 3, . . . , n).

16. The medical image recording system of claim 15, wherein 1.1<

(Pi/P1) <

1.7 is satisfied at least one of i (i =2, 3, . . . n).

17. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein The multiple writing pitches include at least three writing pitches.

18. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein the second control section conducts the image recording apparatus to record the writing pitch used to record the image of the image data, together with the image of the image data, on the recording medium.

19. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein the image recording apparatus records the image of the image data on a recording medium using a photothermal silver halide material as the recording medium.

20. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein the image generating apparatus system comprises a plurality of image generating apparatuses and the second control section comprises:

a setting section for setting the writing pitch for each image generating apparatus of the image generating apparatus system to be used to record the image, selected among the plurality of writing pitches, as writing pitch information for each image generating apparatus for forming image data;

a determining section for determining the writing pitch to be used to record the image of the image data, based on the writing pitch information for the image generating apparatus set by the setting section and the supplementary information including information on a type of the image generating apparatus having formed the inputted image data; and

wherein the second control section controls the image recording apparatus to record the image of the image data according to the writing pitch determined by the determining section.

21. The medical image recording system of claim 20, wherein the image recording apparatus further comprises:

a storage section for storing the writing pitch information for the image generating apparatus set by the setting section in a form associated with each of the image generating apparatus,

wherein the determining section determines the writing pitch to be used to record the image of the image data, based the writing pitch information for the image generating apparatus stored by the storage section and the supplementary information including the information on the type of the image generating apparatus having formed the inputted image data.

22. The medical image recording system of claim 20, wherein the second control section further comprises:

a mode setting section for setting either a variable writing pitch mode for determining the writing pitch in response to the information on the type of the image generating apparatus, or a fixed writing pitch mode for determining a predetermined writing pitch independently of the information on the type of the image generating apparatus,

wherein the determining section determines the writing pitch to be used to record the image of the image data, based on a mode set by the mode setting section, the writing pitch information for the image generating apparatus set by the setting section, and the information on the type of the image generating apparatus of the image generating apparatus where the image data has been inputted.

23. The medical image recording system of claim 20, wherein the setting section sets the writing pitch information for the image generating apparatus for a plurality of writing pitches with respect to at least one type of image generating apparatus, and

wherein when the writing pitch information for the image generating apparatus shows a plurality of writing pitches based on the information on the type of the image forming apparatus, the determining section determines the writing pitch to be used to record the image of the image data, selected from the plurality of the writing pitches based on other information among the information for deciding the writing pitch.

24. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein the information for deciding a writing pitch includes at least one of radiographing condition information indicating radiographing conditions of the object, usage information of the image data, reading pitch information of the image generating apparatus system having formed the image data, and information on the interpolation magnification factor of the image data.