Viewing digital slides

• US 9,723,036 B2
• Filed: 11/12/2013
• Issued: 08/01/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Leica Biosystems Imaging Inc. (Danaher Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Leica Biosystems Imaging Inc. (Danaher Corporation)
• Inventors: Brumme, Anne, Eichhorn, Ole
• Primary Examiner(s): Fibbi, Christopher J
• Application Number:
  US14/077,979
• Publication Number:
  US 20140068442A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,358 Days
• Field of Search: 715732, 715751
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 21/26 Stages; Adjusting means therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 21/32 Micromanipulators structurally combined with microscopes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/40 for processing medical images, e.g. editing
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15

Abstract

A system for collaborative viewing of a digital slide image. In an embodiment, a session is established for viewing a digital slide image by a plurality of client viewers. A leader client viewer and non-leader client viewers are identified for the session. When a command is received from the leader client viewer, the command is sent to each of the non-leader client viewers to synchronize a view of the digital slide image at the non-leader client viewers with the view of the digital slide image at the leader client viewer.

Claims

1. A system for collaborative viewing of a digital slide image, comprising a plurality of randomly-accessible blocks stored in a memory, the system comprising:

at least one hardware processor;

a region cache;

a block cache that is logically distinct from the region cache; and

at least one executable software module that, when executed by the at least one hardware processor,

establishes a session for viewing at least a portion of a digital slide image by a plurality of client viewers, wherein the digital slide image comprises an image of a specimen on a microscope slide and is associated with a plurality of discrete individually-toggleable annotation layers, wherein each of the plurality of annotation layers comprises one or more annotations,

identifies a leader client viewer and one or more non-leader client viewers from the plurality of client viewers,

tracks navigation movements on the at least a portion of the digital slide image being viewed,

while tracking the navigation movements,

constructs a region, to be viewed as the at least a portion of the digital slide image, from two or more of the plurality of randomly-accessible blocks,

stores the constructed region in the region cache,

stores, in the block cache, each of the two or more randomly-accessible blocks that is used to construct the region,

pre-fetches, from the memory, one or more of the plurality of randomly-accessible blocks that have not yet been accessed for viewing during the session based on a direction of the navigation movements, and

stores, in the block cache, the pre-fetched one or more randomly-accessible blocks,

receives a command from the leader client viewer, wherein the command comprises an interaction to toggle one or more of the plurality of annotation layers between enabled and disabled, and,

in response to receiving the command from the leader client viewer, sends a command to each of the non-leader client viewers to synchronize a view of the at least a portion of the digital slide image at the one or more non-leader client viewers with the view of the at least a portion of the digital slide image at the leader client viewer by toggling the one or more of the plurality of annotation layers between enabled and disabled in accordance with the command from the leader client viewer.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one executable software module further:

receives a request to establish the session from a first one of the plurality of client viewers;

in response to the request, establishes the session; and

identifies the first client viewer as the leader client viewer.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one executable software module further:

receives a request to establish a new leader client viewer from the leader client viewer; and

,

in response to the request, identifies a new leader client viewer.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein identifying a new leader client viewer comprises identifying one of the one or more non-leader client viewers selected by the leader client viewer.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein identifying a new leader client viewer comprises selecting a client viewer from a queue of one or more non-leader client viewers that have requested to become leader.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a session table comprising a status for each of the plurality of client viewers.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a database, wherein the one or more annotations in the plurality of annotation layers are stored in the database as a simple string.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one executable software module further scales one or more of the annotations to a resolution of the digital slide image.

9. A method for collaborative viewing of a digital slide image, comprising a plurality of randomly-accessible blocks stored in a memory, the method comprising using at least one hardware processor to:

establish a session for viewing at least a portion of a digital slide image by a plurality of client viewers, wherein the digital slide image comprises an image of a specimen on a microscope slide and is associated with a plurality of discrete individually-toggleable annotation layers, wherein each of the plurality of annotation layers comprises one or more annotations;

identify a leader client viewer and one or more non-leader client viewers from the plurality of client viewers;

track navigation movements on the at least a portion of the digital slide image being viewed;

while tracking the navigation movements,

construct a region, to be viewed as the at least a portion of the digital slide image, from two or more of the plurality of randomly-accessible blocks,

store the constructed region in the region cache,

store, in a block cache that is logically distinct from the region cache, each of the two or more randomly-accessible blocks that is used to construct the region,

pre-fetch, from the memory, one or more of the plurality of randomly-accessible blocks that have not yet been accessed for viewing during the session based on a direction of the navigation movements, and

store, in the block cache, the pre-fetched one or more randomly-accessible blocks;

receive a command from the leader client viewer, wherein the command comprises an interaction to toggle one or more of the plurality of annotation layers between enabled and disabled; and

,

in response to receiving the command from the leader client viewer, send a command to each of the non-leader client viewers to synchronize a view of the at least a portion of the digital slide image at the one or more non-leader client viewers with the view of the at least a portion of the digital slide image at the leader client viewer by toggling the one or more of the plurality of annotation layers between enabled and disabled in accordance with the command from the leader client viewer.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a request to establish the session from a first one of the plurality of client viewers;

in response to the request, establishing the session; and

identifying the first client viewer as the leader client viewer.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a request to establish a new leader client viewer from the leader client viewer; and

,

in response to the request, identifying a new leader client viewer.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein identifying a new leader client viewer comprises identifying one of the one or more non-leader client viewers selected by the leader client viewer.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein identifying a new leader client viewer comprises selecting a client viewer from a queue of one or more non-leader client viewers that have requested to become leader.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising maintaining a session table comprising a status for each of the plurality of client viewers.