Image navigation

• US 9,323,402 B1
• Filed: 05/24/2012
• Issued: 04/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Merative US LP
• Original Assignee: DR Systems Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Fram, Evan K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ghebretinsae, Temesgh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Xie, Kwin
• Application Number:
  US13/479,558
• Time in Patent Office: 1,433 Days
• Field of Search: 345173-174
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0236 using selection techniques to select from displayed items
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS

Abstract

Systems and methods for navigating between images of multiple exams using gestures performed on a touch sensitive input device.

Claims

1. A method of navigating between images of multiple image series, wherein each image series comprises multiple images, the method comprising:

accessing, by a computing device having one or more computer processors, a data store storing a plurality of medical exams, at least some of the medical exams including a plurality of series of images, at least some of the series of images including a plurality of images, wherein each series of images is associated with a series type; and

displaying, on a display of the computing device, a first image of a first series of images of a first series type within a first exam of a patient, wherein the first series of images includes a first plurality of images each depicting respective anatomic positions of an anatomic portion of the patient;

wherein, while the first image of the first series of images is displayed, the computing device is configured to;

in response to receiving a first input from a user of the computing device, display, on the display of the computing device, another image in the first series of images in place of the first image of the first series of images;

in response to receiving a second input, different from the first input, from the user of the computing device;

identify a second series of images within a second exam of the patient, the second series of images being of the first series type;

determine an anatomic position of the first image of the first series of images within the anatomic portion of the patient;

select a second image from the second series of images depicting the same determined anatomic position of the patient, wherein the second series of images includes a second plurality of images each depicting respective anatomic positions of the same anatomic portion of the patient; and

display, on the display of the computing device, the second image in place of the first image of the first series of images; and

in response to receiving a third input, different from the first and second inputs, from the user of the computing device;

identify a third series of images within the first exam of the patient, wherein a third series type of the third series of images is different than the first series type;

determine an anatomic position of the first image of the first series of images within the anatomic portion of the patient;

select a third image from the third series of images depicting the same determined anatomic position of the patient, wherein the third series of images includes a third plurality of images each depicting respective anatomic positions of the same anatomic portion of the patient; and

display the third image in place of the first image of the first series of images.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first input comprises movement of a single finger on a touch sensitive input device in a first direction and the second input comprises movement of two fingers on the touch sensitive input device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second input comprises movement of two fingers on the touch sensitive input device in the first direction.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the third input comprises movement of the single finger on the touch sensitive input device in a second direction that is substantially perpendicular to the first direction.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the second series of images being of the first series type comprises determining similarities between the first series of images and the second series of images.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the second series of images being of the first series type comprise determining the second series of images based on similarities between the first series type and a second series type of the second series of images.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second image of the second series of images within the second exam is not an initial image of the second series of images.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second image of the second series of images within the second exam is selected based on an image number of the second image of the second series matching an image number of the first image of the first image series.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein respective series types indicate anatomic plane, projection, orientation, or 3D volumetric display of images of respective series.

10. The method of 1, wherein the selected second image is generated using Multiplanar Reconstruction (MPR) or Maximum Intensity Projection reconstruction (MIP).

11. A computing system comprising:

one or more computer processors,

a touch sensitive input device configured to detect user interactions with the touch sensitive input device; and

a tangible computer readable medium storing;

a data structure indicating relationships between series of images of respective exams, each of the exams including a plurality of series of images, each of the series of images including a plurality of images; and

software instructions configured for execution by the one or more computer processors,

wherein, when executed by the one or more computer processors, the software instructions cause the computing system to perform operations comprising;

displaying, on a display, a first image of a first series of images within a first exam of a patient, wherein the first series of images depicts respective anatomic positions of an anatomic portion of the patient;

in response to a first user interaction;

automatically selecting a second series of images of a second exam based on a relationship in the data structure between a first series type of the first series of images and a second series type of the second series of images, wherein the relationship indicates the first series type and the second series type are the same or similar, and wherein the second series of images depicts respective anatomic positions of the same anatomic portion of the patient;

determining an anatomic position of the first image of the first series of images within the anatomic portion of the patient; and

selecting a second image from the second series of images depicting the same determined anatomic position of the first image; and

displaying the selected second image in place of the first image on the display.

12. A method of navigating between images of multiple image series, wherein each image series comprises multiple images, the method comprising:

accessing medical exam image data comprising at least a first series of images of a first series type and a second series of images of a second series type, each of the first and second series of images being related to a particular medical exam of a patient, wherein the first series of images includes a plurality of images each depicting respective anatomic positions of an anatomic portion of the patient, wherein the second series of images includes a plurality of images each depicting respective anatomic portions of the same anatomic portion of the patient;

displaying, on a display of a computing device having one or more computer processors, a first image of the first series of images;

wherein, while displaying the first image of the first series of images, the computing device is configured to;

in response to receiving a first input from a user of the computing device;

select a second image in the first series of images; and

display the selected second image on the display of the computing device in place of the first image; and

in response to receiving a second input, different from the first input, indicating a request to display images of the second series of images, from the user of the computing device;

determine an anatomic position of the first image of the first series of images within the anatomic portion of the patient;

select a second image from the second series of images depicting the same determined anatomic position of the patient; and

display the selected second image from the second series of images on the display of the computing device in place of the first image.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the anatomic position includes one or more of an anatomic location, plane, projection, orientation, or 3D view.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the first input and second input comprise multi-touch actions performed by the user on a touch sensitive input device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the touch sensitive input device comprises a touchscreen device or a touchpad.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the first input and second input comprises actions detected based on movement of at least a portion of the user.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the actions are detected based on images of the at least a portion of the user acquired with an image capture device.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein, further while displaying the first image of the first series of images, the computing device is configured to:

in response to receiving a third input, different from the first and second inputs, from the user of the computing device, select a third image from a third series of images of another medical exam, wherein the third series of images is automatically selected to substantially match a third series type of the third series of images with the first series type; and

display the selected third image on the display of the computing device in place of the first image.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein respective series types indicate anatomic plane, projection, orientation, or 3D volumetric display of images of respective series.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the third input comprises movement of two fingers on the touch sensitive input device in a first direction.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein the first input comprises movement of a single finger on a touch sensitive input device in a first direction and the second input comprises movement of the single finger on the touch sensitive input device in a second direction that is substantially perpendicular to the first direction.

22. The method of claim 12, wherein the second series of images is identified based on similarities between the first series of images and the second series of images.

23. The method of claim 12, wherein the second series of images is identified based on similarities between the first series type and the second series type of the second series of images.

24. The method of claim 12, wherein the second image of the second series of images is not an initial image of the second series of images.

25. The method of claim 12, wherein the second image of the second series of images is selected based on an image number of the second image of the second series of images matching an image number of the first image within the first image series.

26. The method of claim 12, wherein the first series type is the same as the second series type of the second series of images.

27. The method of claim 12, wherein the first series type is not the same as the second series type of the second series of images.

28. The method of claim 12, wherein the first and/or second image is reconstructed from an imaging volume to substantially match the anatomic position of the first image.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the anatomic position includes one or more of an anatomic location, plane, projection, orientation, or 3D view.