Image reconstruction by position and motion tracking

1. An apparatus for reconstructing an image comprising:

(a) a hand-held image acquisition device configured to acquire local image information from a physical object;

(b) a tracking system comprising:

(i) an image sensor that is apart from the hand-held image acquisition device;

(ii) the image sensor is configured to obtain displacement information for the hand-held acquisition device while the hand-held acquisition device is acquiring the local image information;

(iii) the displacement information is represented by a displacement function; and

(iv) a motion tracking component configured to interpolate the displacement information based on an acceleration of the hand-held image acquisition device;

(c) an image reconstruction system configured to:

(i) compute an inverse of the displacement function;

(ii) combine the inverse of the displacement function with the local image information to transform the local image information into a reconstructed local image information profile; and

(d) a display device configured to display the reconstructed local image information profile.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the hand-held image acquisition device comprises an optical coherence tomography (OCT) based device.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the hand-held image acquisition device comprises an ultrasound imaging probe.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the hand-held image acquisition device comprises an OCT based needle endoscope.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the tracking system comprises a position tracking component configured to provide position information by sampling and recording a trace of the hand-held image acquisition device.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein:

the position tracking component comprises a laser/LED beam assisted position tracking system; and

the position information is recorded and sampled by tracing a movement of the hand-held image acquisition device through light emitted from the laser/LED beam assisted position tracking system.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the motion tracking component comprises:

an accelerometer configured to provide acceleration signals based on acceleration of the hand-held image acquisition device;

an amplifier configured to amplify the acceleration signals;

a filter and signal conditioning component configured to filter the amplified acceleration signals; and

an analog/digital converter configured to digitize the filtered amplified acceleration signals.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the image reconstruction system further comprises a central control system configured to synchronize and manage:

the local image information acquired from the hand-held image acquisition device;

the displacement information obtained by the tracking system; and

the computation and the transformation for image reconstruction.

9. A method for reconstructing an image for an object, comprising:

(a) acquiring, using a hand-held image acquisition device, local image information from a physical object;

(b) obtaining displacement information for the hand-held acquisition device while the hand-held acquisition device is acquiring the local image information, wherein:

(i) the displacement information is obtained by an image sensor that is apart from the hand-held image acquisition device;

(ii) the displacement information is represented by a displacement function; and

(iii) the displacement information is obtained by interpolating the displacement information based on an acceleration of the hand-held image acquisition device;

(c) computing an inverse of the displacement function;

(d) combining the inverse of the displacement function with the local image information to transform the local image information into a reconstructed local image information profile; and

(e) displaying the reconstructed local image information profile.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the hand-held image acquisition device comprises an optical coherence tomography (OCT) based device.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the hand-held image acquisition device comprises an ultrasound imaging probe.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the hand-held image acquisition device comprises a OCT based needle endoscope.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein displacement information is obtained by sampling and recording a trace of the hand-held image acquisition device.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the recording and sampling is provided:

using a laser/LED beam assisted position tracking system; and

by tracing a movement of the hand-held image acquisition device through light emitted from the laser/LED beam assisted position tracking system.

15. The method of claim 9 , wherein the displacement information is obtained by:

measuring acceleration signals of the hand-held image acquisition device using an accelerometer;

amplifying the acceleration signals;

filtering and conditioning the amplified acceleration signals; and

digitizing the filtered amplified acceleration signals.

16. The method of claim 9 , further comprising synchronizing and managing:

the local image information;

the displacement information; and

the computation and the transformation for image reconstruction.

17. An apparatus for reconstructing an image comprising:

(a) a hand-held image acquisition device configured to acquire local image information from a physical object;

(b) a tracking system configured to obtain displacement information for the hand-held acquisition device while the hand-held acquisition device is acquiring the local image information, wherein:

(i) the displacement information is represented by a displacement function; and

(ii) the tracking system comprises a motion tracking component configured to interpolate the displacement information based on an acceleration of the hand-held image acquisition device;

(c) an image reconstruction system configured to:

(i) compute an inverse of the displacement function;

(ii) combine the inverse of the displacement function with the local image information to transform the local image information into a reconstructed local image information profile; and

(d) a display device configured to display the reconstructed local image information profile.

18. A method for reconstructing an image for an object, comprising:

(a) acquiring, using a hand-held image acquisition device, local image information from a physical object;

(b) obtaining displacement information for the hand-held acquisition device while the hand-held acquisition device is acquiring the local image information, wherein:

(i) the displacement information is represented by a displacement function; and

(ii) the displacement information is obtained by interpolating the displacement information based on an acceleration of the hand-held image acquisition device;

(c) computing an inverse of the displacement function;

(d) combining the inverse of the displacement function with the local image information to transform the local image information into a reconstructed local image information profile; and

(e) displaying the reconstructed local image information profile.