SYSTEMS FOR VISUALIZING IMAGES USING EXPLICIT QUALITY PRIORITIZATION OF A FEATURE(S) IN MULTIDIMENSIONAL IMAGE DATA SETS, RELATED METHODS AND COMPUTER PRODUCTS

• US 20080150937A1
• Filed: 12/21/2006
• Published: 06/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sectra AB
• Original Assignee: Sectra AB
• Inventors: Ljung, Patric, Ynnerman, Anders, Lundstrom, Claes
• Granted Patent: US 7,830,381 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/419
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/08 Volume rendering

Abstract

Visualization systems for rendering images from a multi-dimensional data set, include an interactive visualization system configured to accept user input to define at least one explicit prioritized feature in an image rendered from a multi-dimensional image data set. The at least one prioritized feature is automatically electronically rendered with high or full quality in different interactively requested rendered images of the image data while other non-prioritized features are rendered at lower quality. The visualization system may optionally include a rendering system configured to render images by electronically assigning a level of detail for different tiles associated with an image, each level of detail having a number of pixel samples to be calculated to thereby accelerate image processing.

Claims

1. A visualization system for rendering images from a multi-dimensional data set, comprising:

an interactive visualization system configured to accept user input to define at least one explicit prioritized feature in an image rendered from a multi-dimensional image data set, wherein the at least one prioritized feature is automatically electronically rendered with high or full quality in different interactively requested rendered images of the image data while other non-prioritized features are rendered at lower quality.

2. A system according to claim 1, further comprising a display, wherein the user input comprises a graphical user input in communication with the display configured to allow a user to affirmatively designate at least one feature as a prioritized feature for interactive renderings on the display.

3. A system according to claim 2, wherein the user input is configured to allow a user to define a color for at least one feature in the rendered image and to designate whether that feature with the defined color is a prioritized feature.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein the multi-dimensional data set is a medical image data set.

5. A system according to claim 4, wherein the at least one prioritized feature is tissue or other anatomically or physiologically relevant feature.

6. A system according to claim 1, wherein the multi-dimensional data set is a volumetric or time varying volumetric data set, and wherein the visualization system is configured to visualize with Direct Volume Rendering.

7. A system according to claim 6, wherein the user input is configured to allow a user to explicitly designate the at least one prioritized feature using a parameter associated with a Transfer Function.

8. A system according to claim 1, wherein the system comprises a rendering circuit in communication with the user input, and wherein the user input is configured to allow a user to select whether the at least one prioritized feature is:

(a) to be rendered at high or full quality with a potential delay in frame rate;

or (b) to be rendered at an acceptable frame rate with a potential degradation in quality but at a quality that is greater than non-prioritized features in the rendered images whereby the non-prioritized feature quality is dependent on system resources.

9. A system according to claim 1, wherein the system is configured to interactively display Direct Volume Renderings of different views of a region of a body of a patient based on the image data set in response to a user'"'"'s interactive commands to tilt, zoom, rotate, crop or otherwise manipulate the rendered images, with the different views automatically rendering the prioritized feature with high or full resolution while automatically rendering the non-prioritized feature at low resolution to thereby allocate system storage and/or rendering resources to the prioritized feature.

10. A system according to claim 1, wherein the prioritized feature is an individual component of a Transfer Function (TF), where a prioritized flag is an attribute of a TF component.

11. A system according to claim 1, wherein the explicit prioritized feature is defined based on a user-defined rule connected to a visual appearance of a feature.

12. A system according to claim 11, wherein a feature visualized with at least one of opacity, color luminance and color saturation above a threshold value is defined as the prioritized feature.

13. A system according to claim 1, wherein the explicit prioritized feature is defined based on a user-defined rule connected to a perceptually significant visual appearance of a region in the rendered image at a composited stage.

14. A system according to claim 13, wherein the perceptual significance is based on single-pixel attributes including opacity, color luminance and/or color saturation.

15. A system according to claim 13, wherein the perceptual significance is based on neighborhood analysis of boundary and structure.

16. A system according to claim 1, further comprising a circuit configured to electronically store data regarding position of voxels contributing to the at least one prioritized feature in the rendered image, then electronically project the position of the prioritized feature in the rendered image after a rotation has been applied.

17. A system according to claim 1, wherein the system is configured so that parts of the data set that have been culled or cropped are automatically excluded from being part of the at least one explicit prioritized feature.

18. A system according to claim 1, wherein the system is configured to display a Transfer Function with a user-adjustable trapezoid or other shape that overlies a graph of intensity versus opacity, and wherein the system is configured so that a feature is automatically defined as being prioritized if the feature is significantly affected by a user'"'"'s explicit change to the Transfer Function.

19. A system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one prioritized feature is stored as an electronically selectable template setting that can be applied to subsequent visualizations of other data sets of similar regions of a body or similar examination types.

20. A system according to claim 1, wherein the system is configured to that the at least one prioritized feature is visualized with high or full quality relative to non-prioritized features during user interaction with the visualization including at least one of rotation of a volume and Transfer Function change in Direct Volume Rendering while maintaining a high frame rate of at least about 10 frames per second thereby providing the at least one prioritized feature in high or full quality in the rendered images to the user in substantially real time.

21. A system according to claim 1, wherein the system comprises a visualization pipeline with a server and at least one client, and wherein the system is configured to reduce bandwidth to about 10% or less of the original data for data transfer in the visualization pipeline between the server to a client or from an electronic storage disk to a display associated with the client.

22. A system according to claim 1, wherein the system comprises a user input that allows a user to affirmatively command the data set to be stored with the explicitly defined prioritized feature for subsequent high visualization quality and use of the stored data.

23. A system according to claim 1, wherein the system is configured so that the explicit prioritized feature is rendered using a level-of-detail selection method for the data set.

24. A system according to claim 1, wherein the system is configured so that the explicit prioritized feature is rendered using a level-of-detail assignment for regions of the image.

25. A system according to claim 24, wherein the level-of-detail is collected for tiles and used to set a resolution level for each tile, the resolution corresponding to a number of pixel samples calculated for a respective tile.

26. A method of rendering high or full quality features in a visualization system having limited system capacity, comprising:

accepting user input to define at least one explicit prioritized feature of interest in a rendered image; and

interactively rendering and displaying a series of medical images using the at least one explicit prioritized feature, wherein the at least one prioritized feature is automatically electronically rendered with high or full quality in different interactively requested rendered images of the image data while other non-prioritized features are rendered at lower quality.

27. A method according to claim 26, further comprising:

allowing a user to designate whether the system is to render the images with the at least one prioritized feature at an acceptable frame rate with a potential degradation from full quality or whether the system is allowed to operate at a slower frame rate to command that the prioritized feature to be rendered at full quality.

28. A signal processor circuit comprising a rendering module for rendering images from respective patient multidimensional imaging data sets obtained from different imaging modalities, wherein the circuit is configured to communicate with a graphical user interface associated with a client workstation to accept user input to define at least one explicit prioritized feature in an image rendered from a multi-dimensional image data set, wherein the at least one prioritized feature is automatically electronically rendered with high or full quality in different interactively requested rendered images of the image data while non-prioritized features are rendered at lower quality.

29. A computer program product for providing physician interactive access to patient medical volume data for rendering diagnostic medical images, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer-readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to accept user input to define at least one explicit prioritized feature in an image rendered from a multi-dimensional image data set, wherein the at least one prioritized feature is automatically electronically rendered with high or full quality in different interactively requested rendered images of the image data while other non-prioritized features are rendered at lower quality.