Camera view and screen scraping for information extraction from imaging scanner consoles

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions executable by at least one electronic processor for performing a method of providing remote assistance to a plurality of local operators of one or more medical imaging devices disposed in a corresponding number of medical imaging device bays via a communication link from a remote location that is remote from the medical imaging device bays to the medical imaging device bays, the method comprising, over the course of medical imaging examinations using the medical imaging devices:

• extracting successive image frames from video or screen sharing of controller displays of the medical imaging devices;
• screen-scraping information related to one or more settings of the medical imaging devices used in the medical imaging examinations from the successive image frames over the course of the medical imaging examinations, the one or more settings of the medical imaging devices including one or more of an examination dialog screen, a scan selection dialog screen, a scan settings dialog screen, or an acquisition monitoring dialog screen;
• maintaining status information on the medical imaging examinations at least in part using the screen-scraped information;
• retrieving from a database, at least one workflow template based on the information extracted from the screen-scraped video;
• comparing the status information on the medical imaging examinations with information in the retrieved at least one workflow template;
• and
• outputting an alert perceptible at the remote location when the status information on one or more of the medical imaging examinations satisfies an alert criterion.

A method for providing remote assistance to a local operator of a medical imaging device disposed in a medical imaging device bay via a communication link from a remote location that is remote from the medical imaging device bay to the medical imaging device bay, the method comprising, over the course of a medical imaging examination:

• extracting successive image frames from video or screen sharing of a controller display of the medical imaging device;
• screen-scraping information related to one or more settings of the medical imaging device used in the medical imaging examination from the successive image frames over the course of the medical imaging examination, the one or more settings of the medical imaging device including one or more of an examination dialog screen, a scan selection dialog screen, a scan settings dialog screen, or an acquisition monitoring dialog screen;
• maintaining status information on the medical imaging examination at least in part using the screen-scraped information;
• and
• displaying the status information on the medical imaging examination at a workstation display.