Digital x-ray imaging system with automatic tracking
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsSteven P. Roehm, James A. Smith, Ruchi Mangalik
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An x-ray fluorographic system which produces a cineangiogram enables a feature in the image to be identified with a cursor and automatically tracked in subsequent images. The identified feature, such as a suspected lesion in a coronary artery, is located in each x-ray frame of the cineangiogram and the data is displayed such that the feature remains motionless in the center of each successive image.
Claims9
In a digital x-ray system which produces a sequence of x-ray frames, a method for automatically displaying the sequence of x-ray frames which comprises:
- identifying a feature depicted in the first of the x-ray frames;
- for each subsequent x-ray frame in the sequence;
- a) extracting a search kernel from the prior x-ray frame which is an array of pixel values centered on the identified feature located in the prior x-ray frame;
- b) extracting a tracking window from the current x-ray frame which is an array of pixel values centered on the identified feature located in the prior x-ray frame;
- c) filtering the data in both the search kernel and the tracking window to enhance the edges of features depicted therein;
- d) finding the location of the identified feature in the current x-ray frame by locating the peak correlation between the search kernel and the tracking window;
- e) extracting an array of image data from the current x-ray frame which is centered on the current location of the identified feature;
- and
- f) producing a display using the array of image data.
A method of displaying a sequence of x-ray frames, the steps comprising:
- digitally processing each x-ray frame in the sequence so that an identified feature therein is displayed at a substantially fixed location on a display screen;
- magnifying each digitally processed x-ray frame;
- and
- displaying each magnified and digitally processed x-ray frame in a palindrome mode in which they are cyclically displayed in the sequence they were acquired followed by the reverse sequence they were acquired.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.