Transfer function determination in medical imaging
AssigneeSiemens Healthcare GmbH
InventorsSandra Sudarsky, Kaloian Petkov
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
For rendering in medical imaging, a transfer function is determined. A simple approach to setting the transfer function uses a combination of a rendered image and the voxel data, providing a hybrid of both image and data-driven approaches. A region of interest on a rendered image is used to select some of the voxel data. A characteristic of the selected voxel data is used to determine the transfer function for rendering another image. Both the visual aspect of the rendered image and the voxel data from the scan are used to set the transfer function.
Claims19
A method for rendering an image from a medical scanner, the method comprising:
- scanning a volume of a patient by the medical scanner, the scanning providing intensities representing voxels of the volume;
- rendering, by a graphics processing unit, a first two-dimensional image from the intensities representing the voxels, the rendering using a first transfer function;
- receiving a region of interest determined based on the first two-dimensional image;
- identifying a subset of the voxels from a voxel cache that includes a depth map of the voxels for a surface of an object in the volume of the region of interest;
- determining a second transfer function from a distribution of the intensities of the voxels of the subset;
- and
- rendering, by the graphics processing unit, a second two-dimensional image using the second transfer function.
A system for rendering in medical imaging, the system comprising:
- a medical imaging system configured to scan an internal region of a patient and generate voxel data representing a volume comprising the internal region;
- a renderer configured to render a first image from the voxel data, the renderer configured to render with a transfer function setting based on data related to a subset of voxels from a voxel cache that includes a depth map of voxels for a surface of an object in a part of a region in a second image;
- and
- a display configured to display the rendered first image output by the renderer, the rendered first image representing the internal region.
A method for rendering in medical imaging, the method comprising:
- scanning a volume of a patient by a medical scanner, the scanning providing intensities representing voxels of the volume;
- rendering, by a graphics processing unit, a first two-dimensional image from the intensities representing the voxels, the rendering using a first transfer function;
- and
- rendering, by the graphics processing unit, a second two-dimensional image using a second transfer function, the second transfer function set as a function of the intensities of a subset of the voxels identified from a voxel cache that includes a depth map of voxels for a surface of an object in a region of interest on the first two-dimensional image and a depth of a surface depicted in the first two-dimensional image.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.