Hand-held optical probe based imaging system with 3D tracking facilities

A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions for execution by a processor, the instructions operable to cause the processor to:

• generate, using a surface rendering device, a three-dimensional surface mesh corresponding to a surface of a target tissue object;
• define the location of the surface mesh with respect to a reference point;
• receive near-infrared sensor data collected by a hand-held probe moved along the surface of the target tissue object, the near-infrared sensor data related to a characteristic of the target tissue object, the sensor data for a plurality of positions and corresponding orientations of the hand-held probe on the target tissue object;
• receive tracking data about the position and orientation of the hand-held probe with respect to the reference point as the hand-held probe is moved along the surface of the target tissue object;
• co-register first sensor data and first tracking data on the surface mesh, the first sensor data a subset of the received near-infrared sensor data, the first tracking data indicating a first probe location and a first probe orientation, the first sensor data of the target tissue object as detected by the hand-held probe at the first probe location and the first probe orientation;
• display the surface mesh, the surface mesh having the first sensor data projected on the surface mesh over a corresponding first area of the surface mesh, the first area of the surface mesh corresponding to a probe area;
• co-register second sensor data and second tracking data on the surface mesh, the second sensor data a subset of the received near-infrared sensor data, the second tracking data indicating a second probe location and a second probe orientation, the second sensor data of the target tissue object as detected by the hand-held probe at the second probe location and the second probe orientation;
• and
• update the displayed surface mesh to include the first sensor data projected over the first area of the surface mesh and the second sensor data projected on the surface mesh over a corresponding second area of the surface mesh, the second area of the surface mesh corresponding to the probe area.

A real-time three-dimensional co-registration near-infrared imaging system, the system comprising:

• an imaging device comprising a plurality of detectors disposed on a probe face, of a hand-held probe the probe face having a probe area;
• a tracking sub-system operable to track in three dimensions both the position and the orientation of the hand-held probe, the tracking sub-system further operable to report to a computer workstation both the position and the orientation of the hand-held probe;
• and
• a computer processor disposed within the computer workstation and operable to execute a set of instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium disposed within the computer workstation, the instructions causing the processor to:
• generate from information received from a surface rendering device a three-dimensional surface mesh of a target tissue object;
• define the location of the three-dimensional surface mesh with respect to a reference point;
• receive sensor data collected by the plurality of detectors as the hand-held probe is moved along the surface of the target tissue object, the sensor data related to a characteristic of the target tissue object, the sensor data for a plurality of positions and corresponding orientations of the hand-held probe on the target tissue object;
• receive tracking data about the position and orientation of the hand-held probe with respect to the reference point as the hand-held probe is moved along the surface of the target tissue object;
• determine from the received tracking data the position and orientation of each of the plurality of detectors with respect to the reference point;
• co-register first sensor data and first tracking data on the surface mesh, the first sensor data a subset of the received sensor data, the first tracking data indicating a first probe location and a first probe orientation, the first sensor data of the target tissue object as detected by the hand-held probe at the first probe location and the first probe orientation;
• display the surface mesh, the surface mesh having the first sensor data projected on the surface mesh over a corresponding first area of the surface mesh, the first area of the surface mesh corresponding to the probe area;
• co-register second sensor data and second tracking data on the surface mesh, the second sensor data a subset of the received sensor data, the second tracking data indicating a second probe location and a second probe orientation, the second sensor data of the target tissue object as detected by the hand-held probe at the second probe location and the second probe orientation;
• and
• update the displayed surface mesh to include the first sensor data projected over the first area of the surface mesh and the second sensor data projected on the surface mesh over a corresponding second area of the surface mesh, the second area of the surface mesh corresponding to the probe area.