Medical image recording system and medical image recording apparatus

• US 20050057638A1
• Filed: 08/10/2004
• Published: 03/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• 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
• Granted Patent: US 7,439,996 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 the medical image on a recording medium, comprising:

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.

2. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein the image data forming section comprises:

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

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

a first control section for conducting the image forming section to form the medical image data at a predetermined reading pitch;

adding the information concerning the writing pitch to be used in recording the medical image on the basis of the medical image data, to the supplementary information; and

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

wherein the image recording section comprises;

a second communication section for communicating with the image forming apparatus; and

a second control section for receiving image data from the image forming section through the second communication section;

determining the writing pitch to be used to record the image of the image data, from the multiple writing pitches, based on the supplementary information, and conducting the image recording section to record the data of the image data at the determined writing pitch.

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

4. The medical image recording system of claim 2, wherein the image data forming section comprises a plurality of a image data forming apparatuses and a plurality of reading pitches over the apparatuses.

5. The medical image recording system of claim 2, wherein the second control section selects the writing pitch when there exists such a writing pitch that the reading pitch is an integral multiple of certain writing pitch among the plurality of writing pitches.

6. The medical image recording system of claim 2, wherein the second control section selects the writing pitch to be used in recording the image of the image data, based on the interpolation magnification factor from the formed image to the image to be recorded.

7. The medical image recording system of claim 2, wherein the second control section selects the writing pitch of this combination as a writing pitch to be used to record the image of the image data, when there is a combination between the reading pitch and a magnification ratio of radiography wherein the value obtained by dividing the reading pitch of the image forming apparatus by the magnification ratio of radiography is an integral multiple.

8. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein the image forming section is connected with the image recording section through a network.

9. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein the image recording section 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 forming section and the image recording apparatuses, wherein the management apparatus comprises:

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

a management side control section for receiving image data from the image forming section 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.

10. The medical image recording system of claim 9, 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 forming apparatus is an integral multiple of writing pitch of the image recording apparatus.

11. The medical image recording system of claim 9, 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.

12. The medical image recording system of claim 9, 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 forming section by the interpolation magnification factor is an integral multiple.

13. The medical image recording system of claim 9, wherein the image forming section and image recording apparatus are connected through a network.

14. The medical image recording system of claim 9, wherein there is a combination between the image data forming section and the image recording section that one reading pitch of the image data forming section is an integral multiple of one writing pitch of the image recording section.

15. The medical image recording system of claim 2, wherein there is a combination between the reading pitch and interpolation magnification factor where the value obtained by dividing the reading pitch of the image forming section by the interpolation magnification factor from the formed image to the recorded image is an integral multiple.

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

17. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein a plurality of the aforementioned 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) .

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

(Pi/P1) <

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

19. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein at least three writing pitches are used.

20. The medical image recording system of claim 2, wherein the second control section conducts the image recording section to record the writing pitch used to record the image of the image data, together with the image data, on the recording medium.

21. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein the image recording section records the image data on a recording medium according to the photothermal silver halide method.

22. The medical image recording system of claim 1, wherein the image data forming section comprises a plurality of a image data forming apparatuses and the image recording section comprises:

a setting section for setting the writing pitch to be used to record an image selected among a plurality of the writing pitches, as writing pitch information for each image forming 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 supplementary information including at least one of the writing pitch information set by the setting section and the information on the type of the image forming apparatus having formed the inputted image data; and

a control section for conducting the image recording section to record the image of the image data according to the writing pitch determined by the determining section.

23. The medical image recording system of claim 22, wherein the image recording apparatus further comprises:

a storage section for storing writing pitch information set by the setting section in a form associated with each image forming apparatus, wherein the determining section determines the writing pitch to be used to record the image of the image data, based on the supplementary information including at least one of the writing pitch information stored by the storage section and the information on the type of the image forming apparatus having forming the inputted image data.

24. The medical image recording system of claim 22, wherein the image recording apparatus 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 forming apparatus, or a fixed writing pitch mode for determining a predetermined writing pitch independently of the information on the type of the image forming apparatus, wherein the determining section determines the writing pitch to be used to record the image of the image data, based on the mode set by the mode setting section, the writing pitch information set by the setting section, and the information on the type of the image forming apparatus of the image forming apparatus where the image data has been inputted.

25. The medical image recording system of claim 22, wherein the setting section sets the writing pitch information for a plurality of writing pitches with respect to at least one type of image forming apparatus, and wherein the determining section determines the writing pitch to be used to record the image of the image data selected from a plurality of the writing pitches based on the information on other conditions.

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

a plurality of an image data forming apparatuses that form image data of a radiographed object;

a plurality of an image recording apparatuses that records the medical image on the basis of the medical image data on the recording medium, each recording apparatus has at least one of a predetermined writing pitch;

a management section connected with the image forming apparatuses and the image recording apparatuses, wherein the management section comprises;

a receiving section to receive the medical image data from a plurality of an image data forming apparatus;

a discriminating section to discriminate a type of the image data forming apparatus from which the medical image data was generated;

a determining section to determine the recording apparatus to which the image data should be sent according to the type of the image forming apparatus;

a sending section to send the image data to the image recording apparatus.

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

a plurality of an image data forming apparatuses that form image data of a radiographed object;

an image recording section that records the medical image on the basis of the medical image data on the recording medium;

and comprises a plurality of writing pitches;

a management section connected with the image forming apparatuses and the image recording section, wherein the management section comprises;

a receiving section to receive the medical image data from an image data forming apparatus;

a discriminating section.to discriminate a type of image data forming apparatus from which the medical image data was generated;

a sending section to send the image data and the type to an image recording section; and

wherein the image recording section further comprises a control section for conducting the image recording with a predetermined writing pitch according to the accepted type.

28. A medical image recording apparatus for recording the medical image of a radiographed object on a recording medium, comprising:

a plurality of trays for loading the recording medium;

a tray selecting section for selecting a tray as an output destination from a plurality of the trays;

an image recording section for recording the medical image on the recording medium by switching between at least two writing pitches; and

a control section for setting the writing pitch for each of the trays and switching the writing pitch of the image recording section conforming to the selected tray.

29. The medical image recording apparatus of claim 28, wherein the control section has a table for storing the writing pitch to be set conforming to the tray serving as an output destination.

30. The medical image recording apparatus of claim 28, wherein the control section selects either the mode where the writing pitch conforming to the selected tray is set and switching is performed between writing pitches of the image recording section, or the mode where one writing pitch is set for all trays, without switching performed between writing pitches of the image recording section;

and conducts the image recording section to record the medical image in conformity to the set mode.

31. The medical image recording apparatus of claim 28, wherein the control section switches between at least three writing pitches, and conducts the image recording section to record the medical image.

32. The medical image recording apparatus of claim 28, wherein the image recording section records the writing pitch on a recording medium when recording a medical image on the recording medium.

33. The medical image recording apparatus of claim 28, wherein the image recording section records a medical image on a recording medium according to the photothermal silver halide method.

34. A medical image recording apparatus for recording the medical image of a radiographed object on a recording medium, comprising:

a plurality of trays for loading the recording medium;

a tray selecting section for selecting a tray as an out put destination from a plurality of the trays;

an image recording section for recording the medical image on the recording medium by switching between at least two writing pitches; and

a control section for conducting the image recording section to record the medical image by setting the writing pitch for each size of the recording medium for recording and switching the writing pitch of the image recording section.