Visualization of values of a physical property detected in an organism over time
A system for visually indicating, in real time or post hoc, values of a physical property detected over a period of time along a dimension of an organism to a user on a temporal plot and a profile plot, either individually or concurrently. The detected values may be visually indicated on the temporal plot using any of a variety of techniques, including, but not limited to, a contour technique, a line trace technique or a mesh plot technique. Further, the detected values may be visually indicated on the profile plot using any of a variety of techniques, including, but not limited to a contour technique, a line trace technique or a histogram technique. To provide a finer spatial resolution, values may be interpolated for locations between the locations at which values were detected, and these values may be displayed on the temporal plot and the profile plot.
1. A tangible computer storage medium encoded with computer executable instructions that, when executed, perform a method comprising:
obtaining data representing pressure at a plurality of locations along the length of an organism;
identifying a location along the length of the organism of a structural feature of the organism based at least in part on the data; and
rendering in a graphical user interface a plot depicting at least a portion of the pressure data, the plot having a spatial axis and the graphical user interface comprising a display of an anatomical image of a portion of the organism and/or a marker, the anatomical image and/or marker being aligned relative to the spatial axis of the plot based on the identified location of the structural feature, the anatomical image and/or marker being rendered to indicate a relationship between the structural feature and the data.
2. The computer storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the plot comprises a spatial-temporal plot.
3. The computer storage medium of claim 1 , wherein obtaining data representing pressure comprises:
receiving measurements from a plurality of pressure sensors positioned along the length of the organism; and
interpolating pressure values between measurements from adjacent ones of the plurality of pressure sensors, the interpolated pressure values comprising a portion of the obtained data.
4. The computer storage medium of claim 1 , wherein identifying the location based at least in part on the data comprises:
receiving user input through the graphical user interface to specify a position of a visual indication of the structural feature, the position being specified relative to the spatial axis and the input being received while the at least the portion of the pressure data is rendered in the graphical user interface.
5. The computer storage medium of claim 4 , wherein:
the marker comprises a user manipulable control;
rendering the plot comprises rendering a spatio-temporal plot depicting pressure contours; and
the user input indicates a position of the user manipulable control relative to the spatial axis.
6. The computer storage medium of claim 5 , wherein:
the user manipulable control comprises a line perpendicular to the spatial axis positioned over the plot, the line being positioned relative to the spatial axis based on the user input.
7. The computer storage medium of claim 5 , wherein:
the graphical user interface comprises the display of the anatomical image of the portion of the organism;
the anatomical image comprises a representation of the structural feature, the structural feature comprising a sphincter; and
rendering the graphical user interface comprises displaying the anatomical image with the sphincter aligned with the visual indication of the structural feature.
8. The computer storage medium of claim 4 , further comprising:
rendering an annotation based on the identified location of the structural feature to indicate the identified location of the structural feature.
9. The computer storage medium of claim 1 , wherein identifying the location along the length of the organism comprises computing the location from at least a portion of the data representing pressure.
10. The computer storage medium of claim 1 , wherein rendering the plot comprises rendering the plot with the spatial axis oriented vertically in the graphical user interface.
11. The computer storage medium of claim 1 , wherein rendering the plot comprises rendering a contour plot, a line trace plot, a mesh plot or a histogram.
12. The computer storage medium of claim 1 , wherein rendering the plot comprises rendering at least two types of plots concurrently, the two types of plots being aligned relative to the spatial axis.
13. The computer storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining of the data representing the pressure comprises obtaining data from a plurality of sensors concurrently with rendering the plot in the graphical user interface.
14. The computer storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining of the data representing the pressure comprises obtaining data post hoc from a recording medium.
15. The computer storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the structural feature comprises a sphincter, the graphical user interface comprises the marker and the marker comprises a landmark identifier having a position relative to the spatial axis indicating a location of the sphincter.
16. The computer storage medium of claim 1 , wherein:
the anatomical image and/or a marker comprises a marker; and
the marker comprises a textual identification of the structural feature.
17. The computer storage medium of claim 1 , wherein:
the anatomical image and/or a marker comprises a marker; and
the marker comprises a numerical identification of the location of the structural feature.
18. A tangible computer storage medium encoded with computer executable instructions that, when executed, perform a method comprising:
obtaining data representing pressure at a plurality of locations along the length of an organism;
rendering in a graphical user interface a plot depicting at least a portion of the pressure data, the plot comprising a spatial axis;
receiving user input identifying a location along the spatial axis corresponding to a structural feature of the organism; and
based on the user input, displaying the plot in the graphical user interface with a visual indicator of the structural feature positioned relative to the spatial axis of the plot based on the identified location of the structural feature, the visual indicator being displayed to indicate a positional relationship between the structural feature and the data.
19. The computer storage medium of claim 18 , wherein:
the visual indicator comprises a user manipulable control; and
receiving the user input comprises receiving input through the graphical user interface manipulating the control.
20. The computer storage medium of claim 19 , wherein the user manipulable control is movable by the user along the spatial axis.
21. The computer storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the visual indicator comprises a marker.
22. The computer storage medium of claim 21 , wherein the structural feature comprises a sphincter and the marker comprises a user manipulable control movable by the user along the spatial axis to indicate the position of the sphincter.
23. The computer storage medium of claim 22 , wherein the marker comprises a landmark location identifier having a label identifying the structural feature.
24. The computer storage medium of claim 21 , wherein the marker extends across at least a portion of the plot.
25. The computer storage medium of claim 24 , wherein the marker comprises a line extending over the plot along a temporal dimension.
26. The computer storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the visual indicator comprises an anatomical image representing the structural feature.
27. The computer storage medium of claim 26 , wherein the anatomical image comprises an image representing a gastrointestinal tract and the structural feature comprises a sphincter.
28. The computer storage medium of claim 27 , wherein the structural feature comprises a sphincter, and the image comprises a representation of the sphincter aligned with the spatial axis of the plot based on the identified location of the structural feature.
29. The computer storage medium of claim 18 , wherein rendering the plot comprises rendering a spatio-temporal plot depicting pressure contours.
30. The computer storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the visual indicator comprises a textual identification of the structural feature.
31. The computer storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the visual indicator comprises a numerical identification of the location of the structural feature.
32. The computer storage medium of claim 18 , further comprising:
rendering an annotation based on the identified location of the structural feature to indicate the identified location of the structural feature.
33. A tangible computer storage medium encoded with computer executable instructions that, when executed, perform a method comprising:
obtaining data representing pressure at a plurality of locations along the length of an organism;
identifying a location along the length of the organism of a structural feature of the organism based at least in part on the data; and
rendering in a graphical user interface a plot depicting at least a portion of the pressure data, the plot having a spatial axis and the graphical user interface comprising a marker aligned relative to the spatial axis of the plot based on the identified location of the structural feature, the marker identifying a position on the spatial axis so that a positional relationship between the structural feature and the data is indicated by the marker.
34. The computer storage medium of claim 33 , wherein:
the marker comprises a user manipulable control movable by the user along the spatial axis; and
identifying the location based at least in part on the data comprises receiving user input identifying a location of the user manipulable control relative to the spatial axis.
35. The computer storage medium of claim 33 , wherein the marker comprises a landmark identifier.
36. The computer storage medium of claim 33 , wherein the marker comprises a label identifying the structural feature.
37. The computer storage medium of claim 33 , wherein the marker comprises a line extending over a portion of the plot along a temporal dimension.
38. The computer storage medium of claim 33 , wherein rendering the plot comprises rendering a spatio-temporal plot depicting pressure contours.
39. The computer storage medium of claim 33 , wherein the marker comprises a textual identification of the structural feature.
40. The computer storage medium of claim 33 , wherein the marker comprises a numerical identification of the location of the structural feature.
41. The computer storage medium of claim 33 , further comprising:
receiving user input identifying a location along the spatial axis corresponding to a structural feature of the organism; and
rendering an annotation based on the identified location of the structural feature to indicate the identified location of the structural feature.
42. A tangible computer storage medium encoded with computer executable instructions that, when executed, perform a method comprising:
obtaining data representing pressure at a plurality of locations along the length of an organism;
identifying a location along the length of the organism of a structural feature of the organism; and
rendering in a graphical user interface a plot depicting at least a portion of the pressure data, the plot having a spatial axis and the graphical user interface comprising a display of an anatomical image of a portion of the organism, the anatomical image being aligned relative to the spatial axis of the plot based on the identified location of the structural feature, the anatomical image being positioned to indicate a relationship between the structural feature and the data.
43. The computer storage medium of claim 42 , wherein the anatomical image comprises a representation of a gastrointestinal tract.
44. The computer storage medium of claim 42 , wherein the structural feature comprises a sphincter, and the image comprises a representation of the sphincter aligned with the spatial axis of the plot based on the identified location of the structural feature.
45. The computer storage medium of claim 42 , wherein rendering the plot comprises rendering a spatio-temporal plot depicting pressure contours.
46. The computer storage medium of claim 42 , wherein the graphical user interface further displays a marker aligned relative to the spatial axis based on the identified location of the structural feature.
47. The computer storage medium of claim 42 , wherein identifying the location along the length of the organism of the structural feature comprises receiving user input through a graphical user interface, the user input indicating a position along the spatial axis of the plot.