Method and system for panoramic display of medical images
View Patent ↗A method for displaying a medical image comprises selecting a point in a medical image, creating a panoramic digital image by propagating a plurality of rays from said selected point, wherein said panoramic digital image comprises a plurality of pixels, each pixel being associated with one of the propagated rays, wherein the value associated with each pixel is computed by integrating an opacity value associated with each point in the image along the path of each ray through the image, wherein the integration of the opacity value is terminated once a threshold value is reached, and viewing said panoramic digital image in an interactive display application. The interactive display application enables the view to zoom and pan the image, as well as changing orientation. The panoramic digital image can be incorporated into a patient medical record and stored in a database.
1. A method for visualizing a digital medical image, said method comprising the steps of:
providing an image with a plurality of intensities corresponding to a domain of points in a 3-dimensional space;
selecting a point in the domain of the image;
propagating a plurality of rays from said selected point to a virtual display screen that surrounds the selected point, wherein said virtual display screen comprises a plurality of pixels, and a value associated with each pixel is computed along the path of each ray through the image domain; and
generating a 2-dimensional panoramic digital photograph from said virtual display screen, wherein said panoramic digital photograph is at least two orders of magnitude smaller than said image and is adapted for display on a computer display monitor,
wherein said 2-dimensional panoramic digital photograph is adapted for display in an interactive display application over a low-bandwidth connection.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the value associated with each pixel is computed by integrating an opacity value associated with each domain point in the image along the path of each ray through the image domain, and wherein the integration of the opacity value is terminated once a threshold value is reached.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual display screen is in the form of a cube surrounding the selected point.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual display screen is in the form of a cylinder surrounding the selected point.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual display screen is in the form of a sphere surrounding the selected point.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the interactive display application is a stand alone application.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the interactive display application is an embedded application.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the interactive display application is a plug-in to another application.
9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising annotating the panoramic digital photograph.
10. The method of claim 1 , farther comprising adding a hyperlink to the panoramic digital photograph.
11. The method of claim 2 , further comprising integrating those opacity values corresponding to a type of tissue to be rendered in the panoramic digital photograph.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the panoramic digital photograph can be incorporated into a digital medical record database.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein a digital medical record can be retrieved from said database over a computer network.
14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the interactive display application enables at least one of zooming the digital photograph, panning the digital photograph, and changing the viewing orientation of the digital photograph.
15. A method for displaying a 3-dimensional digital image, said method comprising the steps of:
providing 3-dimensional (3D) image with a plurality of intensities corresponding to a domain of points in a 3-dimensional space;
selecting a point in the domain of the 3D image and
creating a 2-dimensional panoramic digital image by propagating a plurality of rays from said selected point wherein said panoramic digital image comprises a plurality of pixels, each pixel being associated with one of the propagated rays, wherein a value associated with each pixel is computed by integrating an opacity value associated with each domain point in the 3D image along the path of each ray through the 3D image domain, wherein the integration of the opacity value is terminated once a threshold value is reached, and wherein said panoramic digital image is at least two orders of magnitude smaller than said 3D image and is adapted for display on a computer display monitor,
wherein said 2-dimensional panoramic digital photograph is adapted for display in an interactive display device over a low-bandwidth connection.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein said 3D image is a medical image, the method further comprising integrating those opacity values corresponding to a type of tissue to be rendered in the panoramic digital image.
17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising creating a plurality of panoramic digital images, wherein each panoramic digital image comprises a rendering of a single type of tissue.
18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising simultaneously viewing two or more panoramic digital images in said interactive display application.
19. The method of claim 15 wherein said panoramic digital image is formed from a virtual digital screen that surrounds the selected point in the 3D image, and wherein said rays are propagated in all directions from said selected point.
20. The method of claim 15 , further comprising navigating said 2-dimensional panoramic digital image in said display application, and retrieving said 3-dimensional digital image.
21. A program storage device readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer to perform the method steps for visualizing a digital medical image, said method comprising the steps of:
providing an image with a plurality of intensities corresponding to a domain of points in a 3-dimensional space;
selecting a point in the domain of the image;
propagating a plurality of rays from said selected point to a virtual display screen that surrounds the selected point, wherein said virtual display screen comprises a plurality of pixels, and a value associated with each pixel is computed along the path of each ray through the image domain; and
generating a panoramic digital photograph from said virtual display screen, wherein said panoramic digital photograph is at least two orders of magnitude smaller than said image and is adapted for display on a computer display monitor,
wherein said 2-dimensional panoramic digital photograph is adapted for display in an interactive display application over a low-bandwidth connection.
22. The computer readable program storage device of claim 21 , wherein the value associated with each pixel is computed by integrating an opacity value associated with each domain point in the image along the path of each ray through the image domain and wherein the integration of the opacity value is terminated once a threshold value is reached.
23. The computer readable program storage device of claim 21 , wherein the virtual display screen is in the form of a cube surrounding the selected point.
24. The computer readable program storage device of claim 21 , wherein the virtual display screen is in the form of a cylinder surrounding the selected point.
25. The computer readable program storage device of claim 21 , wherein the virtual display screen is in the form of a sphere surrounding the selected point.
26. The computer readable program storage device of claim 21 , wherein the interactive display application is a stand alone application.
27. The computer readable program storage device of claim 21 , wherein the interactive display application is an embedded application.
28. The computer readable program storage device of claim 21 , wherein the interactive display application is a plug-in to another application.
29. The computer readable program storage device of claim 21 , the method further comprising annotating the panoramic digital photograph.
30. The computer readable program storage device of claim 21 , the method further comprising adding a hyperlink to the panoramic digital photograph.
31. The computer readable program storage device of claim 22 , the method further comprising integrating those opacity values corresponding to a type of tissue to be rendered in the panoramic digital photograph.
32. The computer readable program storage device of claim 21 , wherein the panoramic digital photograph can be incorporated into a digital medical record database.
33. The computer readable program storage device of claim 32 , wherein a digital medical record can be retrieved from said database over a computer network.
34. The computer readable program storage device of claim 21 , wherein the interactive display application enables at least one of zooming the digital photograph, panning the digital photograph, and changing the viewing orientation of the digital photograph.