System and method for automated initialization and registration of navigation system

A method for image registration, comprising:

• segmenting (504, 506) a reference organ and a skin surface image of a patient in an image volume;
• tracking (508) a scanner probe in at least one position along the skin surface of a patient;
• acquiring (510) images corresponding to the at least one position and the reference organ;
• reconstructing (512) a three-dimensional volume of the reference organ from the image planes;
• initializing (514) a transformation matrix with initial parameter values constrained by poses and physical constraints of the scanner probe during image acquisition to determine the transformation matrix between the image volume with the three-dimensional volume;
• and
• optimizing (516) the transformation matrix to find coordinates that register the image volume with the three-dimensional volume using a cost function (520).

A system for image registration, comprising:

• a spatial trackable scanner probe (122);
• an imaging device (130) configured to acquire image planes corresponding to at least one position of the scanner probe;
• an image processing module (134) configured to reconstruct a three-dimensional volume of a region of interest from the image planes, the image processing module further configured to initialize a search of a stored model of the image volume to determine candidate images to register the image volume with the three-dimensional volume by employing pose information of the scanner probe during image plane acquisition, and physical constraints of the pose of the scanner probe;
• and
• a registration module (142) configured to register the image volume with the three-dimensional volume.