Image-based fusion of endoscopic image and ultrasound images

An image fusion controller for an image-based fusion of an endoscopic image of an anatomical region generated by an endoscope and an ultrasound image of the anatomical region generated by a laparoscopic ultrasound probe, the image fusion controller comprising:

• a probe detector controlling a detection of the laparoscopic ultrasound probe within a field-of-view of the endoscope;
• an image transformer controlling a computation of an image transformation between an endoscopic image space of the endoscope and an ultrasound image space of the laparoscopic ultrasound probe derived from the detection by the probe detector of the laparoscopic ultrasound probe within the field-of-view of the endoscope;
• and
• an image integrator controlling the fusion of the endoscopic image and the ultrasound image based on the image transformation computed by the image transformer.

A method for an image-based fusion of an endoscopic image of an anatomical region generated by an endoscope and an ultrasound image of the anatomical region generated by a laparoscopic ultrasound probe, the method comprising:

• an image fusion workstation detecting the laparoscopic ultrasound probe within a field-of-view of the endoscope of the anatomical region;
• the image fusion workstation computing an image transformation between an endoscopic image space of the endoscope and an ultrasound image space of the laparoscopic ultrasound probe,
• wherein the image fusion workstation derives the image transformation from the detection of the laparoscopic ultrasound probe within a field-of-view of the endoscope of the anatomical region;
• and
• the image fusion workstation fusing the endoscopic image and the ultrasound image based on the image transformation.