Systems, devices, and methods for tracking and compensating for patient motion during a medical imaging scan

1. A motion tracking system for tracking and compensating for motion of a patient during a medical imaging scan, the motion tracking system comprising:

one or more optical detectors, wherein each of the one or more optical detectors is positioned to view a landmark on a patient along a different line of sight;

one or more compute readable storage devices configured to store a plurality of computer executable instructions; and

one or more hardware computer processors in communication with the one or more computer readable storage devices and configured to execute the plurality of computer executable instructions in order cause the motion tracking system to:

receive a digital image from each of the one or more optical detectors;

determine, for each digital image, whether the digital image includes a view of the landmark by:

classifying each pixel in the digital image as one of two colors;

grouping one or more connected regions, wherein the connected regions are comprised of adjacent pixels with the same color;

filtering out one or more connected regions based on a size threshold;

computing a centroid of one or more connected regions; and

grouping together one or more connected regions by their computed centroids;

for each digital image that includes a view of the landmark, determine a position of the landmark in the digital image as viewed by the one or more optical detectors; and

estimate iteratively a three-dimensional pose of the patient, until a measure of error is within a threshold amount.

2. The motion tracking system of claim 1 , wherein the motion tracking system is further caused to repeatedly estimate the three-dimensional pose of the patient at a rate of at least 100 Hz.

3. The motion tracking system of claim 1 , wherein the measure of error is calculated based on a plurality of baseline attributes as compared to a plurality of comparison attributes.

4. The motion tracking system of claim 1 , wherein the grouping the one or more connected regions comprises:

identifying connected regions with centroids occurring within one pixel of each other; and

calculating a centroid for each group of the one or more connected regions.

5. The motion tracking system of claim 4 , wherein the calculating the centroid for each group of the one or more connected regions comprises averaging the centroid for each connected region in the group of one or more connected regions.

6. The motion tracking system of claim 1 , wherein the motion tracking system is further caused to binarize each digital image before classifying each pixel in the digital image as one of two colors.

7. The motion tracking system of claim 1 , wherein the landmark is on an optical marker.

8. The motion tracking system of claim 1 , wherein the motion tracking system is further caused to generate tracking data based on the estimated three-dimensional pose of the patient and to transmit the tracking data to a medical imaging scanner controller to enable a medical imaging scanner to dynamically adjust the medical imaging scan to compensate for patient motion, wherein the medical imaging scanner comprises a magnetic resonance scanner.

9. A motion tracking system for dynamic tracking of and compensation for motion of a patient during a medical imaging scan, the motion tracking system comprising:

a first optical detector;

a second optical detector;

a computer system configured to analyze images generated by the first and second optical detectors to determine changes in position of a landmark on a patient, and to generate tracking data for use by a medical imaging scanner to dynamically adjust scans to compensate for the changes in position of the landmark,

wherein the computer system is configured to dynamically determine whether one or more of the first optical detector or the second optical detector is currently viewing the landmark,

wherein the computer system is configured to dynamically adapt its image analysis to utilize images from all optical detectors that are currently viewing the landmark,

wherein the dynamically adapting its image analysis comprises estimating iteratively a three-dimensional pose of the patient until a measure of error is within a threshold amount, and

wherein the computer system comprises a computer processor and an electronic storage medium; and

the medical imaging scanner, wherein the medical imaging scanner is configured to dynamically adjust scans to compensate for the changes in position of the landmark based on the tracking data.

10. The motion tracking system of claim 9 , further comprising:

one or more additional optical detectors each positioned to view the landmark,

wherein the computer system is further configured to dynamically determine which of all of the optical detectors are currently viewing the landmark.

11. The motion tracking system of claim 9 , wherein the first optical detector is positioned to view the landmark along a first line of sight, and wherein the second optical detector is positioned to view the landmark along a second line of sight.

12. The motion tracking system of claim 9 , wherein the landmark is on an optical marker.

13. The motion tracking system of claim 9 , wherein the measure of error is calculated based on a plurality of baseline attributes as compared to a plurality of comparison attributes.

14. The motion tracking system of claim 9 , wherein the medical imaging scanner comprises a magnetic resonance scanner.

15. The motion tracking system of claim 9 , wherein the computer system is further configured to repeatedly estimate the three-dimensional pose of the patient at a rate of at least 100 Hz.

16. A motion tracking system for dynamic tracking of and compensation for motion of a patient during a medical imaging scan, the motion tracking system comprising:

a first optical detector;

a second optical detector; and

a computer system configured to analyze images generated by the first and second optical detectors to determine changes in position of a landmark on a patient, and to generate tracking data for use by a medical imaging scanner to dynamically adjust scans to compensate for the changes in position of the landmark,

wherein the computer system is configured to dynamically determine whether one or more of the first optical detector or the second optical detector is currently viewing the landmark,

wherein the computer system is configured to dynamically adapt its image analysis to utilize images from all optical detectors that are currently viewing the landmark,

wherein the dynamically adapting its image analysis comprises estimating iteratively a three-dimensional pose of the patient until a measure of error is within a threshold amount, and

wherein the computer system comprises a computer processor and an electronic storage medium.

17. The motion tracking system of claim 16 , wherein the landmark is on an optical marker.

18. The motion tracking system of claim 16 , wherein the measure of error is calculated based on a plurality of baseline attributes as compared to a plurality of comparison attributes.

19. The motion tracking system of claim 16 , wherein the medical imaging scanner comprises a magnetic resonance scanner.

20. The motion tracking system of claim 16 , wherein the computer system is further configured to repeatedly estimate the three-dimensional pose of the patient at a rate of at least 100 Hz.