Method, system and apparatus for adjusting image data to compensate for modality-induced distortion

1. A method of generating adjusted image data to compensate for modality-induced distortion in a computing device having a processor interconnected with a memory and a display, comprising, at the processor:

receiving a three-dimensional image captured with a first imaging modality and including (i) distorted surface image data depicting a surface of an object and (ii) distorted volume image data depicting a volume of the object;

extracting the distorted surface image data from the three-dimensional image;

receiving reference surface image data captured with a second imaging modality and depicting the surface of the object;

determining a surface transformation for registering the distorted surface image data with the reference surface image data;

determining a volume transformation informed by the surface transformation, by:

applying the surface transformation to the distorted volume image data;

for each of a plurality of slices in the distorted volume image data;

retrieving control parameters of the first imaging modality from the three-dimensional image;

selecting a planar transformation based on the control parameters;

projecting the reference surface image data onto a plane corresponding to the slice; and

optimizing the planar transformation to minimize an error level between the slice and the projected reference surface image data;

generating an adjusted three-dimensional image by applying the volume transformation to the three-dimensional image; and

storing the adjusted three-dimensional image in the memory.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first imaging modality is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second imaging modality is three-dimensional surface scanning.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the surface transformation comprises:

identifying a plurality of point pairs, each pair including a point in the distorted surface image data and a point in the reference surface image data, each point pair depicting the same portion of the surface of the object; and, for each point pair:

determining a distance between the point in the distorted surface image data and the point in the reference surface image data.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein determining the surface transformation further comprises:

selecting a transformation function; and

optimizing the transformation function to minimize the distance.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

storing, in the memory, a plurality of volume transformations corresponding to different ones of a plurality of surface transformations;

determining the volume transformation by retrieving, from the memory, the volume transformation corresponding to the determined surface transformation.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the volume transformation applies the same transformation function as applied by the surface transformation.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the volume transformation is a localized version of the surface transformation, and wherein applying the volume transformation comprises applying the volume transformation to only a subset of the distorted volume image data.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

at the processor, controlling the display to present the adjusted three-dimensional image.

10. A computing device, comprising:

a memory;

a display; and

a processor interconnected with the memory and the display, the processor configured to:

receive a three-dimensional image captured with a first imaging modality and including (i) distorted surface image data depicting a surface of an object and (ii) distorted volume image data depicting a volume of the object;

extract the distorted surface image data from the three-dimensional image;

receive reference surface image data captured with a second imaging modality and depicting the surface of the object;

determine a surface transformation for registering the distorted surface image data with the reference surface image data;

determine a volume transformation informed by the surface transformation, by:

applying the surface transformation to the distorted volume image data;

for each of a plurality of slices in the distorted volume image data:

retrieving control parameters of the first imaging modality from the three-dimensional image;

selecting a planar transformation based on the control parameters;

projecting the reference surface image data onto a plane corresponding to the slice; and

optimizing the planar transformation to minimize an error level between the slice and the projected reference surface image data;

generate an adjusted three-dimensional image by applying the volume transformation to the three-dimensional image; and

store the adjusted three-dimensional image in the memory.

11. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein the first imaging modality is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

12. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein the second imaging modality is three-dimensional surface scanning.

13. The computing device of claim 10 , the processor further configured to determine the surface transformation by:

identifying a plurality of point pairs, each pair including a point in the distorted surface image data and a point in the reference surface image data, each point pair depicting the same portion of the surface of the object; and, for each point pair:

determining a distance between the point in the distorted surface image data and the point in the reference surface image data.

14. The computing device of claim 13 , the processor further configured to determine the surface transformation by:

selecting a transformation function; and

optimizing the transformation function to minimize the distance.

15. The computing device of claim 10 , the processor further configured to:

store, in the memory, a plurality of volume transformations corresponding to different ones of a plurality of surface transformations;

determine the volume transformation by retrieving, from the memory, the volume transformation corresponding to the determined surface transformation.

16. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein the volume transformation applies the same transformation function as applied by the surface transformation.

17. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein the volume transformation is a localized version of the surface transformation, and wherein applying the volume transformation comprises applying the volume transformation to only a subset of the distorted volume image data.

18. The computing device of claim 10 , the processor further configured to:

control the display to present the adjusted three-dimensional image.