SBI motion artifact removal apparatus and method

• US 7,982,776 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2007
• Issued: 07/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. (Johnson & Johnson)
• Original Assignee: Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. (Johnson & Johnson)
• Inventors: Weir, Michael P., Dunki-Jacobs, Robert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ometz; David L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le; Quang V
• Application Number:
  US11/777,602
• Publication Number:
  US 20090015695A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,467 Days
• Field of Search: 348/208.99, 348/241, 250/234, 600/173, 600/476
• US Class Current: 348/208.99
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 26/101 with both horizontal and vertical deflecting means, e.g. raster or XY scanners colour television using laser beams scanning a display screen H04N9/3129
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20201 Motion blur correction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/73 Deblurring; Sharpening
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51

Abstract

A system, method and apparatus for eliminating image tearing effects and other visual artifacts perceived when scanning moving subject matter with a scanned beam imaging device. The system, method and apparatus uses a motion detection means in conjunction with an image processor to alter the native image to one without image tearing or other visual artifacts. The image processor monitors the motion detection means and reduces the image resolution or translates portions of the imaged subject matter in response to the detected motion.

Claims

1. A system for removing motion artifacts from image data comprising:

an SBI device adapted for delivering an SBI formatted image data stream of a subject matter being imaged, said SBI device further comprising an illuminating-scanning portion and a detecting portion;

a motion detection means, said motion detection means being operably adapted to detect a motion of said illuminating-scanning portion relative to said subject matter being imaged and output a motion data; and

a processor adapted for accepting said SBI formatted image data stream and said motion data, processing said SBI formatted image data stream using said motion data to remove the motion artifacts, said processing changing the resolution by eliminating a first plurality of scanned lines in the SBI formatted image data stream from a field of view and replacing said first plurality of scanned lines using data derived at least in part from a remaining second plurality of scanned lines to produce a motion corrected data stream, and outputting said motion corrected image data stream.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said change to the resolution is selected from the group consisting of:

a) a reduction in the resolution in proportion to an increase in said motion detected by said motion detection means; and

b) a reduction in the resolution in one or more steps based upon a threshold of motion being detected by said motion detection means.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said processing by said processor further comprises translating each data point of said SBI formatted image data stream to a corrected position based on at least one of a plurality of motions detected within a frame by said motion detection means, and thereafter reconstructing said motion corrected image data stream.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein said corrected position corresponds to a plurality of corrected data points determined by a weighting function based on at least one of said plurality of motions, and wherein said plurality of motions occur within a frame between said data points.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein said weighting function is correlated to said motion.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein said plurality of corrected data points are pixels in a Cartesian frame and wherein said motion corrected image data stream is a Cartesian display compatible data stream.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein said Cartesian frame is sized sufficiently to allow substantially lossless translation between said SBI formatted image data stream and said Cartesian frame.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein said motion detection means comprises an accelerometer, said accelerometer being operably connected to said illuminating-scanning portion.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein said accelerometer is a set of solid-state MEMS accelerometers, said MEMS accelerometers being operably connected to said illuminating-scanning portion.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein said accelerometer is two or more sets of solid-state MEMS accelerometers, said MEMS accelerometers being operably connected to said illuminating-scanning portion at different locations.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein said motion detection means is an algorithm running in said processor.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein said motion detection means comprises an algorithm and an accelerometer.

13. An apparatus for removing motion artifacts from video, comprising:

a video source input, said video source input providing a video stream of an imaged subject matter from an SBI imaging device;

a motion detector, said motion detector being adapted to detect the motion of said SBI imaging device relative to said imaged subject matter and output a vector describing said motion; and

a processor, said processor being operably connected to said motion detector, and said processor decreasing the resolution of said video stream in relation to the detection of said motion by eliminating a first plurality of lines in said video stream and replacing said first plurality of lines using data derived at least in part from a remaining second plurality of lines in said video stream to remove the motion artifact from said video stream.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the operation of decreasing the resolution is selected from the group consisting of:

a) proportionally decreasing the resolution relative to an increasing of motion detected; and

b) decreasing the resolution in steps dependent upon a threshold motion detected.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said processor is further adapted to remove the motion artifacts by translating each data point in said video stream to a corrected position based on said vector describing the motion detected by said motion detector.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein said corrected position corresponds to a plurality of corrected data points determined by a weighting function, and wherein said motion detected is a plurality of vectors occurring within a frame between said data points, and wherein said weighting function is based on at least one of said plurality of vectors.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein said weighting function is correlated to said vector.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein said plurality of corrected data points are pixels in a Cartesian frame and further comprising an outputted Cartesian display compatible video stream derived from said Cartesian frame.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein said Cartesian frame is sized sufficiently to allow substantially lossless translation between said each data point in said video stream and said Cartesian frame.

20. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said motion detector comprises an accelerometer, said accelerometer being operably attached to said SBI imaging device.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein said accelerometer is a set of solid-state MEMS accelerometers.

22. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein said accelerometer is two or more sets of solid-state MEMS accelerometers, said MEMS accelerometers being operably attached to said SBI imaging device at different locations on said SBI imaging device.

23. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said motion detector is an algorithm running in said processor.

24. A method of removing motion artifacts from an image, said method comprising:

a) acquiring the image from a video source, said video source having acquired the image from an SBI imaging device;

b) acquiring motion data from a motion detector, said motion data being correlated temporally with the image, and said motion data describing the motion of said SBI imaging device during said acquiring of the image from said SBI imaging device;

c) selectively reducing the resolution of the image based on said motion data from said motion detector to create a motion corrected image, said operation of selectively reducing the resolution of the image performed by decreasing the resolution of the image in relation to said motion data by eliminating a first plurality of lines in the image and replacing said first plurality of lines using data derived at least in part from a remaining second plurality of lines in the image to remove the motion artifacts from the image; and

d) outputting said motion corrected image.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the operation of selectively reducing the resolution is selected from the group consisting of:

i) proportionally reducing the resolution in proportion to said motion data; and

ii) reducing the resolution in steps as said motion data exceeds threshold values.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein said motion detector is operably connected to said SBI imaging device, said motion data is a vector describing the motion of said SBI imaging device, and c) further comprises:

c) translating each data point of the image based on said vector to reconstruct a motion corrected image.