Composite radiographic image that corrects effects of parallax distortion
AssigneeRadlink, Inc.
InventorsWenchao Tao, Ning Xuan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure is directed toward systems and methods for generating a composite radiographic image that corrects effects of parallax distortion. A sequence of radiographic images—including a series of discrete exposures or image frames from a fluoroscopic procedure—may be acquired using a C-arm apparatus. An exemplary method may include receiving a plurality of radiographic image frames pertaining to a patient, identifying a region of interest on the image frames, cropping the region of interest from a plurality of image frames, selecting a plurality of sequential portions of cropped image frames, and stitching together the selected portions to form a composite image that corrects effects of parallax distortion.
Claims20
A method of generating radiographic image that corrects effects of parallax distortion comprising:
- receiving a plurality of sequential radiographic image frames pertaining to a patient from a single X-ray detector;
- identifying a region of interest on the image frames;
- cropping the identified region of interest from a plurality of the image frames to create cropped image frames;
- and
- stitching together in a sequential order a plurality of selected portions of the cropped image frames as a composite image, wherein the selected portions are selected according to a method comprising:
- selecting a sequentially first portion from a first cropped image frame as a first selected portion;
- applying intensity-based image registration using a gradient descent algorithm on anatomical landmarks without using artificial markers;
- measuring a displacement with respect to a longitudinal axis of the region of interest between each pair of sequentially adjacent cropped image frames;
- selecting a plurality of interior portions from a plurality of cropped image frames occurring sequentially later than the first cropped image frame as interior selected portions, wherein each interior selected portion is not otherwise altered or adjusted for geometric distortion, and has a dimension corresponding to the measured displacement between (a) the cropped image frame from which the immediately preceding selected portion was taken and (b) the cropped image frame providing the interior selected portion;
- and
- selecting a sequentially last portion from a last cropped image frame as a last selected portion.
A method of generating an anteroposterior pelvic image that corrects effects of parallax distortion comprising:
- receiving a plurality of sequential anteroposterior radiographic image frames pertaining to a patient from a single X-ray detector;
- identifying a region of interest on each of the image frames;
- cropping the identified region of interest from a plurality of the image frames to create cropped image frames;
- and
- stitching together a plurality of selected portions of cropped image frames, wherein the plurality of selected portions of cropped image frames is selected according to a method comprising:
- selecting a sequentially first portion from a first cropped image frame;
- executing an iterative process to select a plurality of interior portions, the process including:
- applying intensity-based image registration using a gradient descent algorithm on anatomical landmarks without using artificial markers;
- measuring a displacement with respect to a longitudinal axis of the region of interest between each pair of sequentially adjacent cropped image frames;
- selecting an interior portion from the sequentially later cropped image frame, wherein the selected portion is not otherwise altered or adjusted for geometric distortion, and has a dimension equal to the measured displacement;
- and
- selecting a sequentially last portion from a last cropped image frame.
A system for generating a radiographic image that corrects effects of parallax distortion comprising:
- a C-arm including an x-ray source and x-ray detector disposed thereon;
- a computer communicatively coupled to the C-arm including instructions on a non-transitory memory that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
- receive a plurality of sequential radiographic image frames pertaining to a patient from a single X-ray detector;
- identify a region of interest on each of the image frames;
- crop the identified region of interest from a plurality of the image frames to create cropped image frames;
- and
- stitch together in a sequential order a plurality of selected portions of the cropped image frames, wherein the selected portions are selected according to an algorithm comprising the steps of:
- selecting a sequentially first portion from a first cropped image frame;
- executing an iterative process to select a plurality of interior portions, the process including:
- applying intensity-based image registration using a gradient descent algorithm on anatomical landmarks without using artificial markers;
- measuring a displacement with respect to a longitudinal axis of the region of interest between each pair of sequentially adjacent cropped image frames;
- selecting an interior portion from the sequentially later cropped image frame, wherein the selected portion is not otherwise altered or adjusted for geometric distortion, and has a dimension equal to the measured displacement;
- and
- selecting a sequentially last portion from a last cropped image frame.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.