Medical Image Data Processing and Interventional Instrument Identification System

A system for processing pixel representative image data of medical images of patient anatomy to automatically identify an interventional device, comprising:

• an acquisition processor for receiving pixel luminance data comprising a plurality of sequential medical images of a patient anatomical portion and luminance data of an individual image comprises a plurality of pixel luminance representative values of a plurality of individual pixels of said individual image;
• and
• an image data processor for,
• detecting and subtracting background image data from said pixel luminance data comprising said plurality of sequential medical images to provide processed pixel luminance data comprising a plurality of processed sequential medical images,
• computing gradient components of individual pixels of said processed pixel luminance data,
• modifying the computed gradient component data by suppressing computed gradient components lacking substantial symmetry about an interventional device width dimension,
• filtering the modified computed gradient component data,
• comparing the filtered modified computed gradient component data with a threshold and
• identifying image data representing an interventional device as data exceeding a threshold.

A method for processing pixel representative image data of medical images of patient anatomy to automatically identify an interventional device, comprising the activities of:

• storing pixel luminance data comprising a plurality of sequential medical images of a patient anatomical portion and luminance data of an individual image comprises a plurality of pixel luminance representative values of a plurality of individual pixels of said individual image;
• detecting and subtracting background image data from said pixel luminance data comprising said plurality of sequential medical images to provide processed pixel luminance data comprising a plurality of processed sequential medical images,
• computing gradient components of individual pixels of said processed pixel luminance data,
• modifying the computed gradient component data by suppressing computed gradient components lacking substantial symmetry about an interventional device width dimension,
• filtering the modified computed gradient component data;
• comparing the filtered modified computed gradient component data with a threshold;
• and
• identifying image data representing an interventional device as data exceeding a threshold.