Method, an apparatus, a system and a computer program for transferring scan geometry between subsequent scans

• US 8,620,056 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2007
• Issued: 12/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Bystrov, Daniel, Pekar, Vladimir, Young, Stewart, Bergmans, Cornelis Johannes Fransiscus Maria, Van Muiswinkel, Arianne
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Wenpeng
• Application Number:
  US12/307,620
• Publication Number:
  US 20090208105A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,378 Days
• Field of Search: 382/132, 382/128, 324/307, 600/410
• US Class Current: 382/132
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/54 Signal processing systems, e.g. using pulse sequences ; Generation or control of pulse sequences; Operator console
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/543 Control of the operation of the MR system, e.g. setting of acquisition parameters prior to or during MR data acquisition, dynamic shimming, use of one or more scout images for scan plane prescription G01R33/546 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30004 Biomedical image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30244 Camera pose
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/74 involving reference images or patches

Abstract

A method, an apparatus and a computer program for transferring scan geometry between a first region and a second region, similar to the first region includes identifying the first and second regions in an overview image, followed by determining of the first scan geometry corresponding to the first region. Then, the first scan geometry is transferred into the second scan geometry corresponding to the second region using information on geometrical correspondence between the first and second regions. The transferring includes establishing corresponding mappings between similar regions and their respective scan geometries.

Claims

1. A method for transferring scan geometry from a first scan to a second scan for similar regions, the method comprising the acts of:

loading an overview scan of an object comprising a first region and a second region;

identifying the first region and the second region in the overview scan;

determining a first scan geometry corresponding to the first region;

transferring by a processor the first scan geometry into a second scan geometry corresponding to the second region using information on geometrical correspondence between the first region and the second region,

wherein a weighting factor is used to distinguish between samples of scan geometries and the first scan geometry for determining the second scan geometry.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the act of identifying the first region and the second region is performed automatically by image segmentation of the overview scan.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the act of determining the first scan geometry is performed by analyzing preceding scans of similar regions.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first scan geometry is determined based on a pre-stored model.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the act of transferring comprises establishing correspondence mappings between similar regions and their respective scan geometries.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the method further comprises a preparatory act of:

pre-processing a geometry database comprising a plurality of regions with corresponding scan geometries for establishing samples of the scan geometry.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the samples of scan geometries are obtained from a database, and wherein the first scan geometry is assigned a higher weight than weights assigned to the samples.

8. An apparatus for transferring scan geometry from a first scan to a second scan for similar regions, the system comprising:

an input for loading an overview scan of an object comprising a first region and a second region;

a processor configured for;

identifying the first region and the second region in the overview scan;

determining a first scan geometry corresponding to the first region;

automatically transferring without user intervention the first scan geometry into a second scan geometry corresponding to the second region using information on geometrical correspondence between the first region and the second region of the overview scan; and

using a weighting factor to distinguish between samples of scan geometries and the first scan geometry for determining the second scan geometry.

9. An image acquisition system, comprising an apparatus with an imaging module for obtaining scan data, said system further comprising an apparatus according to claim 8.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the samples of scan geometries are obtained from a database, and wherein the processor assigns the first scan geometry a higher weight than weights of the samples.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is configured to identify the first region and the second region by image segmentation of the overview scan.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is configured to determine the first scan geometry by analyzing preceding scans of similar regions.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is configured to determine the first scan geometry based on a pre-stored model.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor is configured to perform the transferring by establishing correspondence mappings between similar regions and their respective scan geometries.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to pre-process a geometry database comprising a plurality of regions with corresponding scan geometries for establishing samples of the scan geometry.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying computer instructions which, when executed by a processor, configure the processor to perform the acts of:

identifying the first region and the second region in the overview scan;

determining a first scan geometry corresponding to the first region;

automatically transferring without user intervention the first scan geometry into the second scan geometry corresponding to the second region using information on geometrical correspondence between the first region and the second region of the overview scan; and

using a weighting factor to distinguish between samples of scan geometries and the first scan geometry for determining the second scan geometry.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the identifying act comprises segmentation of the overview scan.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the determining act comprises analyzing preceding scans of similar regions.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the first scan geometry is determined based on a pre-stored model.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the transferring act comprises establishing correspondence mappings between similar regions and their respective scan geometries.