# US 9,519,980 B2 · Object information acquiring apparatus > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 9,519,980 B2 - Document ID: US9519980B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 14/711,920 - Filed: 2015-05-14 - Published: 2015-11-26 - Granted: 2016-12-13 - Earliest claimed: 2014-05-26 - Assignees: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha - Applicants: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha - Inventors: Takuji Oishi - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US9519980B2 ## CPC - G06T 12/30: Image post-processing, e.g. metal artefact correction - A61B 5/0095: {by applying light and detecting acoustic waves, i.e. photoacoustic measurements} - G06T 11/00: Two-dimensional [2D] image generation - G06T 12/20: Inverse problem, i.e. transformations from projection space into object space - A61B 5/14542: {for measuring blood gases (A61B5/14551 takes precedence)} - G06T 2207/10024: Color image - G06T 2207/10084: Hybrid tomography; Concurrent acquisition with multiple different tomographic modalities - G06T 2207/30104: Vascular flow; Blood flow; Perfusion - G06T: IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL - A61B: DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION (usefulness limited to only animals A61D) ## Abstract An object information acquiring apparatus is used that has a receiver receiving acoustic waves propagating through an object at a plurality of measurement positions; and a processor acquiring on a two-dimensional flat surface projection image data obtained by projecting a distribution of property information relating to a measurement target within the object, wherein the processor acquires intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data within the object and non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data within the object, based on the acoustic waves, determines voxel coordinates projected onto the two-dimensional flat surface, based on the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data, and acquires the projection image data, based on values of the non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data. ## Claims ### Claim 1 An object information acquiring apparatus, comprising: a receiver that receives acoustic waves propagating through an object at a plurality of measurement positions; and a processor that acquires projection image data obtained by projecting on a two-dimensional flat surface a distribution of property information relating to a measurement target within the object, wherein the processor acquires intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data within the object and non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data within the object, based on the acoustic waves, determines voxel coordinates projected onto the two-dimensional flat surface, based on the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data, and acquires the projection image data, based on values of the non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data corresponding to the voxel coordinates. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processor determines the voxel coordinates by selecting a voxel, for which the size of the value thereof reaches a maximum, from among voxels in a projecting direction when acquiring the projection image data. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the processor projects the non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data for a voxel corresponding to an image of a measurement target within the object. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the processor projects the non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data for a voxel for which the size of the value thereof in the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data is greater than a prescribed threshold value. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processor acquires, for the determined voxel coordinates, the projection image data by assigning any of hue, lightness and chroma to the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data, and assigning any of the hue, lightness and chroma not used for the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data to the non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional data. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a projection amount designator that determines a range of voxels in the projecting direction when acquiring the projection image data. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the processor acquires three-dimensional image data by acquiring a plurality of sets of projection image data while shifting the range of voxels determined by the projection amount designator by one voxel at a time. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processor aligns the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data with a coordinate system of the non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data is data that enables an image of a measurement target within an object to be distinguished from noise according to the size of a value, and the non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data is data for which it is difficult to distinguish between an image of the measurement target and noise according to the size of a value. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data is a distribution of presence ratios of substances that compose the object. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a display that displays the projection image data. ### Claim 12 An object information acquiring apparatus, comprising: a processor that acquires intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data within an object, based on acoustic waves which are generated from the object, acquires non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data within the object, based on the acoustic waves, determines voxel coordinates projected onto a projection plane, based on the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data, and acquires projection image data by projecting, on the projection plane, the non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data corresponding to the voxel coordinates. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the processor determines the voxel coordinates by selecting a voxel, for which a value of the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data reaches a maximum, from among voxels in a projecting direction when acquiring the projection image data. ### Claim 14 (depends on 12) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the processor determines the voxel coordinates by selecting a voxel corresponding to an image of a measurement target within the object in the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data. ### Claim 15 (depends on 12) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the processor determines the voxel coordinates by selecting a voxel for which a value of the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data is greater than a prescribed threshold value. ### Claim 16 (depends on 12) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the processor acquires, for the determined voxel coordinates, the projection image data by assigning any of hue, lightness and chroma to the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data, and assigning any of the hue, lightness and chroma not used for the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data to the non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional data. ### Claim 17 (depends on 12) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising a projection amount designator that determines a range of voxels in a projecting direction when acquiring the projection image data. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the processor acquires a plurality of sets of projection image data by shifting the range of voxels determined by the projection amount designator by one voxel at a time. ### Claim 19 (depends on 12) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the processor aligns a coordinate system of the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data and a coordinate system of the non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data. ### Claim 20 (depends on 12) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data is data that enables an image of a measurement target to be distinguished from noise according to a value, and the non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data is data for which it is difficult to distinguish between an image of the measurement target and noise according to a value. ### Claim 21 (depends on 12) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data is any of a distribution of initial acoustic pressure, a distribution of a light energy absorption density, a distribution of an absorption coefficient, and B-mode image data; and the non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data is a distribution of presence ratios of substances that compose the object or color Doppler image data. ### Claim 22 (depends on 12) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising a display that displays the projection image data. ### Claim 23 (depends on 12) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the projection plane is a two-dimensional plane. ### Claim 24 (depends on 18) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the processor acquires three-dimensional image data using the plurality of sets of projection image data. ### Claim 25 (depends on 17) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the processor acquires a plurality of sets of projection image data by shifting the range of voxels determined by the projection amount designator. ### Claim 26 (depends on 21) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the distribution of presence ratios of substances is a distribution of oxygen saturation. ### Claim 27 (depends on 12) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising: a light source that irradiates the object with light, and a receiver that receives the acoustic waves at a plurality of measurement positions, wherein the receiver receives the acoustic wave generated from the object which is irradiated with light from the light source, and wherein the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data is any of a distribution of initial acoustic pressure, a distribution of a light energy absorption density, a distribution of an absorption coefficient, and wherein the non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data is a distribution of presence ratios of substances that compose the object. ### Claim 28 (depends on 27) The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 27, wherein the distribution of presence ratios of substances is a distribution of oxygen saturation. ### Claim 29 An object information acquiring method, comprising: acquiring intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data within an object, based on acoustic waves from an object; acquiring non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data within the object, based on the acoustic waves; determining voxel coordinates projected onto a projection plane based on the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data; and acquiring projection image data by projecting, on the projection plane, the non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data corresponding to the voxel coordinates, wherein at least one of said steps is performed using a CPU. ### Claim 30 A display controlling method, comprising: displaying intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data acquired based on acoustic waves generated from an object; selecting voxel coordinates projected onto a projection plane from among the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data; displaying non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data within the object; and displaying projection image data by projecting, on the projection plane, non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data, acquired based on the acoustic wave, corresponding to the voxel coordinates, wherein at least one of said steps is performed using a CPU. ### Claim 31 A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to perform the steps of: acquiring intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data within an object, based on acoustic waves generated from an object, acquiring non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data within the object, based on the acoustic waves, determining voxel coordinates projected onto a projection plane based on the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data, and acquiring the projection image data by projecting, on the projection plane, the non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data corresponding to the voxel coordinates. ### Claim 32 A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to perform the steps of: displaying intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data acquired based on acoustic waves generated from an object, selecting voxel coordinates projected onto a projection plane from among the intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data, displaying non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data within the object, displaying projection image data by projecting, on the projection plane, non-intensity-dependent three-dimensional image data, acquired based on the acoustic wave, corresponding to the voxel coordinates.