# US 10,244,945 B2 · System for reconstructing surface motion in an optical elastography system

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- Number: US 10,244,945 B2
- Document ID: US10244945B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 16/110,295
- Filed: 2018-08-23
- Published: 2018-12-20
- Granted: 2019-04-02
- Earliest claimed: 2014-08-15
- Assignees: TIRO Medical Limited
- Applicants: Tiro Medical Limited
- Inventors: James Geoffrey Chase; Tom Botterill
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10244945B2

## CPC

- A61B 5/0077: {Devices for viewing the surface of the body, e.g. camera, magnifying lens}
- A61B 5/004: {adapted for image acquisition of a particular organ or body part (A61B5/0082 takes precedence; arrangements for optical scanning A61B5/0062)}
- A61B 5/0051: {by applying vibrations}
- A61B 5/0064: {Body surface scanning}
- A61B 5/4312: {Breast evaluation or disorder diagnosis (optical mammography A61B5/0091)}
- A61B 5/7275: {Determining trends in physiological measurement data; Predicting development of a medical condition based on physiological measurements, e.g. determining a risk factor}
- A61B: DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION (usefulness limited to only animals A61D)

## Abstract

A method for an optical elastography system converts digital images of an actuated breast into a description of surface motion. The surface motion can subsequently be used to ascertain whether the breast has regions of abnormal stiffness, e.g., indicating a significant likelihood of breast cancer. The steps of the method use a model based segmentation to identify profile of the breast in each image, and for each pair of images computing skin surface motion using an optical flow algorithm. This method eliminates a preliminary step of placing fiducial markers on the subject.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A system for analyzing surface motion of body tissue of a subject with optical elastography comprising:
a controller device that controls a vibration unit capable of stimulating a body tissue of a subject by an actuator that vibrates the body tissue, a plurality of cameras, a strobe light, and a computational device which processes image data from the plurality of cameras, wherein surface motion of body tissue is analyzed by capturing a set of images at a plurality of time-steps of a surface of a region of stimulated tissue with the plurality of cameras distributed about the tissue;
developing a 3D surface model of the tissue region from the set of images captured at the plurality of time-steps;
estimating the surface motion of the vibrating body tissue region between time-step images;
estimating a 3D surface motion of the vibrating body tissue region by combining the 3D surface model with the estimated tissue surface motion between time-step images; and
analyzing the 3D surface motion to identify abnormalities in the motion of the vibrating body tissue region.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the 3D surface model is developed by segmenting each image to identify a tissue region and localize an outline profile of the tissue surface and estimating a 3D surface model of the tissue region at each time-step by fitting the 3D surface model to the localized profile of each image for the corresponding time-step.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the 3D surface model is developed by using a structured light illumination system.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The system of claim 3, wherein the structured light illumination system comprises a paired laser and grating system for each camera of the plurality of cameras.

### Claim 5 (depends on 3)

The system of claim 3, wherein the structured light illumination system comprises a paired LED, grating and imaging optics for each camera of the plurality of cameras.

### Claim 6 (depends on 3)

The system of claim 3, wherein the structured light illumination system comprises a laser.

### Claim 7 (depends on 3)

The system of claim 3, wherein the structured light illumination system comprises a LED.

### Claim 8 (depends on 3)

The system of claim 3, wherein the light pattern is static.

### Claim 9 (depends on 3)

The system of claim 3, wherein the light pattern is dynamic.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the camera system (and 3D surface model) is a time of flight camera.