KR101427248B1 - Apparatus and method for generating thumbnail image of medical images - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for generating a thumbnail image of a medical image, and more particularly, to an apparatus and a method for generating a thumbnail image of a medical image by extracting a predetermined region of interest included in a 3D medical image, And a thumbnail image including at least one of information on the reduced 3D medical image or information corresponding to the number of times the thumbnail image is browsed so that a large-capacity medical image can be quickly searched.

Description

[0001] Apparatus and method for generating thumbnail images of medical images [0002]

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for generating a thumbnail image of a medical image, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for generating a thumbnail image corresponding to a user-preset characteristic of a 3D medical image including a plurality of medical images, It is a technique to improve the efficiency in extracting work.

The present invention is derived from research carried out by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and the Korea Industrial Technology Evaluation and Management Center as part of the Knowledge Economy Technology Innovation Project (Industrial Source Technology Development Project) [Project Number: 10038419, Project Name: Intelligent Image Diagnosis and Treatment Support system].

A thumbnail image is a miniature sample image of an image file, and is generally included as data in an image file.

A thumbnail image applied to an existing two-dimensional image file is a method of storing a thumbnail of the entire image, and it is convenient that a user can easily view, select, and select an image without loading all of the image.

When a volume rendered 3D medical image is generated through a plurality of medical images, a thumbnail image such as an existing two-dimensional image is generated, and information provided to a user is very limited. As a result, it is inconvenient to individually load a volume of several hundred megabytes in order to know the detailed characteristics of a medical image.

This results in a waste of time and effort for the user to select medical images.

Korean Patent Registration No. 0916854 entitled " Thumbnail Generation System and Generation Method "has been proposed as an example of a technique for generating a thumbnail image related to a conventional multiple image, though it is not a technique for generating a thumbnail of a medical image.

In the prior art, a technique of extracting a single static image most characteristic of the contents of a file from a dynamic image file including a plurality of image frames to generate a thumbnail image file has been disclosed.

However, in the prior art, a method of selecting a thumbnail image from a plurality of images has a difficulty in highlighting a feature of a medical image because one of the plurality of image frames is selected as an optimal image frame to be used as a thumbnail image based on a color histogram.

Korea Patent No. 0916854 (registered on September 3, 2009)

It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for generating a thumbnail image of a medical image.

Specifically, the present invention receives medical images, generates a 3D medical image by volume rendering the received medical images, extracts a predetermined region of interest included in the 3D medical image to generate a region-of-interest image, And an apparatus and method for generating a thumbnail image including a local image.

The present invention also relates to a medical image processing method, a medical image processing method, a medical image processing method, a medical image processing method, a medical image processing method, and a medical image processing method, And an apparatus and method for generating a thumbnail image including at least one of information corresponding to the number of browsed views.

In addition, the present invention can be applied to a case in which a predetermined three-dimensional medical image fails to extract a predetermined region of interest, information about a three-dimensional medical image displayed in a symbol or text form, a reduced three-dimensional medical image, or a thumbnail image is read And a method for generating a thumbnail image including at least one of the information for displaying a thumbnail image.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of generating a thumbnail image, the method comprising: receiving medical images and generating a 3D medical image by volume rendering the received medical images; Determining whether a predetermined region of interest is included in the 3D medical image; Extracting the region of interest and generating a region-of-interest image if the region of interest includes the region of interest; And generating a thumbnail image including the region-of-interest image.

At this time, the region of interest may be a part of a predetermined long-term or predetermined body before the medical images are taken, or may be a part of the body.

Here, the generating of the thumbnail image may include a part of information on the 3D medical image in the thumbnail image in the form of a symbol, an icon, or a text.

At this time, the information on the three-dimensional medical image may include at least one of patient information, photographing date and time information, photographing site information, photographing method information, and photographing apparatus information.

Meanwhile, in the step of generating the thumbnail image, the 3D medical image may be reduced and the reduced 3D medical image may be included in the thumbnail image.

The method may further include counting a number of times the thumbnail image is browsed after generating the thumbnail image and including information corresponding to the number of times of browsing in the thumbnail image.

If the region of interest is not included, the 3D medical image may be reduced and a thumbnail image including a reduced 3D medical image may be generated.

At this time, the step of generating a thumbnail image including the reduced 3D medical image may include a part of the information related to the 3D medical image in the thumbnail image in the form of a symbol, an icon, or a text.

At this time, after generating the thumbnail image including the reduced 3D medical image, counting the number of times the thumbnail image is browsed, and including information corresponding to the number of times of browsing in the thumbnail image As shown in FIG.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for generating a thumbnail image, the apparatus comprising: a receiver for receiving medical images; A rendering unit for rendering a 3D medical image by volume rendering the received medical images; An interest region extracting unit that extracts the region of interest and generates a region-of-interest image if the region of interest includes the region of interest; And a thumbnail generating unit for generating a thumbnail image including the region-of-interest image.

At this time, the thumbnail generating unit may generate at least one of the information on the 3D medical image displayed in symbol, icon or text form, the reduced 3D medical image, or the information corresponding to the number of browsing times in which the thumbnail image is viewed It can be further included in the thumbnail image.

At this time, if the region of interest is not included in the region of interest extracted by the region extracting unit, the thumbnail generating unit may reduce the 3D medical image and generate a thumbnail image including the reduced 3D medical image.

Here, if the region of interest is not included in the region of interest extracted by the region extracting unit, the thumbnail generating unit may generate information on the 3D medical image displayed in a symbol, icon, or text form, or a number of times the thumbnail image is viewed The medical image may be further included in the thumbnail image including the reduced 3D medical image.

The present invention relates to a medical image processing apparatus, a medical image processing method, a medical image processing method, a medical image processing method, a medical image processing method, a medical image processing method, The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for generating a thumbnail image including at least one of information corresponding to the number of times of browsing, and can quickly search for an image including a region of interest without opening a large-capacity medical image.

In addition, it is possible to perform a quick search using information on a three-dimensional medical image displayed in symbol or text form.

In addition, when a medical image data storage status, statistical data, and the like of a medical institution are viewed at a remote place where no actual image exists, it is possible to search through a thumbnail image without downloading a large-capacity medical image.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus for generating a thumbnail image according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a flowchart illustrating a process of generating a thumbnail image of a medical image in a thumbnail image generating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a view illustrating an example of a thumbnail image including a region-of-interest image generated according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a view illustrating an example of a thumbnail image that does not include a region-of-interest image generated according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen configuration in which thumbnail images are output according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear.

However, the present invention is not limited to or limited by the embodiments. Like reference symbols in the drawings denote like elements.

Hereinafter, an apparatus and method for generating a thumbnail image of a medical image according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus for generating a thumbnail image according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1, a thumbnail image generation apparatus 100 includes a control unit 110, a rendering unit 112, a region of interest extraction unit 114, a thumbnail generation unit 116, a reception unit 120, a storage unit 130, . ≪ / RTI >

The receiving unit 120 receives the medical images taken by the medical image photographing apparatus by wire or wirelessly.

The storage unit 130 stores an operating system for controlling the overall operation of the thumbnail image generating apparatus 100, an application program, and received medical images. In addition, the storage unit 160 stores a 3D medical image generated using the medical image received according to the present invention and a thumbnail image corresponding to the 3D medical image.

The rendering unit 112 performs volume rendering of the received medical images to generate a three-dimensional medical image.

The region-of-concern extracting unit 114 checks whether a predetermined region of interest is included in the 3D medical image, and if the region of interest is included in the region of interest, extracts the region of interest and generates a region-of-interest image. At this time, the region of interest may be a predetermined body organ or part of the body or at least one of the lesions before the medical images are taken.

The region-of-interest extracting unit 114 may generate an image photographed in a predetermined direction. Typical shooting directions are coronal, sagittal, and horizontal.

The thumbnail generating unit 116 generates a thumbnail image including a region-of-interest image by extracting a region of interest by the region-of-interest extracting unit 114.

At this time, a plurality of interest site images may be included in the thumbnail image. The plurality of interest site images may be images corresponding to a plurality of regions of interest, or may be images taken from one region of interest in another direction. For example, if the region of interest is the brain, liver, or heart, the thumbnail generator 116 may generate a thumbnail image to include both brain images, liver images, and heart images. As another example, if the region of interest is a heart, the thumbnail generator 116 may generate a thumbnail image so as to include all of the images of the heart taken in coronal, sagittal, and horizontal planes .

When generating a thumbnail image including a region-of-interest image, the thumbnail generating unit 116 generates a thumbnail image including information on a three-dimensional medical image displayed in a symbol, icon, or text form, At least one of the pieces of information corresponding to the number of times may be included in the thumbnail image. At this time, the information on the three-dimensional medical image may include at least one of patient information, photographing date and time information, photographing site information, photographing method information, and photographing apparatus information.

The number of times of browsing is the number of times the thumbnail image is selected and the related medical image is browsed, and the thumbnail generating unit 116 updates the information corresponding to the number of browsing times displayed in the thumbnail image when the number of browsing is increased . The thumbnail generating unit 116 may display the number of browsing times on a thumbnail image as a corresponding icon for each predetermined unit. For example, one thumbnail image can be displayed every ten times.

FIG. 3 is a view illustrating an example of a thumbnail image including a region-of-interest image generated according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3, the thumbnail generating unit 116 basically generates a thumbnail including the region-of-interest image 320 when the region of interest extracting unit 114 extracts a region of interest.

At this time, the thumbnail generating unit 116 may generate information about the 3D medical image 310 or the 3D medical image, which is reduced according to a predetermined arrangement, in addition to the thumbnail image. 3 includes gender and age information 330, photographing date and time information 340, and photographing apparatus information 350.

On the other hand, if the interested region extraction unit 114 does not include the region of interest or fails to extract the region of interest, the thumbnail generation unit 116 reduces the three-dimensional medical image and includes the reduced three- A thumbnail image can be generated.

The thumbnail generating unit 116 generates a thumbnail image including a reduced 3D medical image without the region-of-interest image, and generates a thumbnail image including information on a three-dimensional medical image displayed in a symbol, icon, or text form, It is possible to generate at least one of the information corresponding to the number of browsing by further including it in the thumbnail image.

4 is a view illustrating an example of a thumbnail image that does not include a region-of-interest image generated according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4, the thumbnail generating unit 116 generates a thumbnail including a three-dimensional medical image 410 that is basically reduced when the region-of-interest extracting unit 114 has not extracted a region of interest.

At this time, the thumbnail generating unit 116 may generate thumbnail images in addition to the information about the three-dimensional medical images reduced according to the predetermined arrangement. 4 includes gender and age information 430, photographing date and time information 440, and photographing apparatus information 450.

The thumbnail generating unit 116 counts the number of times the thumbnail image is browsed and displays information 460 corresponding to the number of times of browsing on the thumbnail image. FIG. 4 shows a case in which one star is added to a thumbnail image every time the predetermined number of viewing times is exceeded.

The control unit 110 may control the overall operation of the thumbnail image generating apparatus 100. [ The control unit 110 may perform functions of a rendering unit 112, a region-of-interest extracting unit 114, and a thumbnail generating unit 116. The control unit 110, the rendering unit 112, the region-of-interest extracting unit 114, and the thumbnail generating unit 116 are separately described to distinguish the respective functions. Accordingly, the control unit 110 may include at least one processor configured to perform the functions of the rendering unit 112, the region-of-interest extraction unit 114, and the thumbnail generation unit 116, respectively. The control unit 110 may include at least one processor configured to perform some of the functions of the rendering unit 112, the region-of-interest extraction unit 114, and the thumbnail generation unit 116, respectively.

In addition, the controller 110 may control the thumbnail images generated by the thumbnail generator 116 to be displayed as shown in FIG. 5 below.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen configuration in which thumbnail images are output according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5, a screen for searching for a thumbnail image includes a storage location display area 510, a thumbnail image display area 520, a horizontal scroll bar 530, a vertical scroll bar 540, and a search word input window 550 . ≪ / RTI >

Hereinafter, a method for generating a thumbnail image of a medical image according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a process of generating a thumbnail image of a medical image in a thumbnail image generating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the thumbnail image generating apparatus receives medical images from the medical image photographing apparatus (S210).

Then, the thumbnail image generation device generates a 3D medical image by volume rendering the received medical images (S212).

Thereafter, the thumbnail image generating apparatus determines whether a predetermined region of interest is included in the 3D medical image (S214). At this time, the region of interest may be a predetermined body organ or part of the body or at least one of the lesions before the medical images are taken.

If it is determined in step S214 that the region of interest is included in the 3D medical image, the thumbnail image generation apparatus extracts the region of interest and generates the region-of-interest image (S216). At this time, the region-of-interest image can be generated as an image photographed in a predetermined direction, and typical image-taking directions include coronal, sagittal, and horizontal.

Then, the thumbnail image generating device confirms the information about the three-dimensional medical image displayed in a symbol, icon, or text form to be included in the thumbnail image or the reduced three-dimensional medical image (S218).

Then, the thumbnail image generating apparatus generates a thumbnail image including the region-of-interest image (S220). At this time, the information confirmed in step S218 may be added to the thumbnail image according to the predetermined arrangement of the thumbnail image. At this time, a plurality of interest site images may be included in the thumbnail image. The plurality of interest site images may be images corresponding to a plurality of regions of interest, or may be images taken from one region of interest in another direction.

As a result of the determination in step S214, if the region of interest is not extracted from the 3D medical image, the thumbnail image generating apparatus generates information on the 3D medical image displayed in a symbol, icon, or text to be included in the thumbnail image, (S222).

Then, the thumbnail image generating apparatus generates a thumbnail image that does not include the region-of-interest image (S224). That is, the thumbnail image generating apparatus generates a thumbnail image using the information confirmed in step S222 according to a predetermined arrangement of the thumbnail image.

After step S220 or step S224, the thumbnail image generating apparatus counts the number of times the thumbnail image is selected and the related medical image is browsed (S226).

Then, the thumbnail image generation apparatus displays the number of times of browsing on the thumbnail image (S228).

The method for generating a thumbnail image according to an embodiment of the present invention may be implemented in the form of a program command that can be executed through various computer means and recorded in a computer readable medium. The computer-readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, and the like, alone or in combination. The program instructions recorded on the medium may be those specially designed and constructed for the present invention or may be available to those skilled in the art of computer software. Examples of computer-readable media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs; magnetic media such as floppy disks; Magneto-optical media, and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. Examples of program instructions include machine language code such as those produced by a compiler, as well as high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. The hardware devices described above may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operations of the present invention, and vice versa.

As described above, the present invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments, such as specific elements, and specific embodiments and drawings. However, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the above- And various modifications and changes may be made thereto by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains.

Accordingly, the spirit of the present invention should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments described, and all of the equivalents or equivalents of the claims, as well as the following claims, belong to the scope of the present invention .

Claims (16)

Receiving medical images and rendering the received medical images by volume rendering to generate three-dimensional medical images;
Determining whether a predetermined region of interest is included in the 3D medical image;
Generating a region-of-interest image by extracting the region of interest and generating a thumbnail image including the region-of-interest image if the region of interest includes the region of interest;
Counting a number of times a thumbnail image including the region-of-interest image is browsed and including information corresponding to the number of times of browsing in a thumbnail image including the region-of-interest image;
If the region of interest is not included or the extraction of the region of interest is unsuccessful, generating a thumbnail image including the reduced three-dimensional medical image by reducing the three-dimensional medical image; And
Counting the number of times the thumbnail image including the reduced 3D medical image is browsed and including information corresponding to the number of times of browsing in a thumbnail image including the reduced 3D medical image
Lt; / RTI >
The step of generating a thumbnail image including the region-of-interest image
A thumbnail image including images corresponding to the plurality of interested areas when the plurality of areas of interest are included or images obtained by photographing one area of interest in a plurality of predetermined directions when the area of interest is one
A method for generating a thumbnail image. The method according to claim 1,
The region of interest,
Characterized in that the medical image is a part or a part of a predetermined long-term or predetermined body before taking the medical images
A method for generating a thumbnail image. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the generating the thumbnail image comprises:
And a part of the information on the three-dimensional medical image is included in the thumbnail image in the form of a symbol, an icon or a text
A method for generating a thumbnail image. The method of claim 3,
Wherein the information on the three-dimensional medical image includes:
At least one of patient information, photographing date and time information, photographing site information, photographing method information, and photographing apparatus information
A method for generating a thumbnail image. delete delete delete delete delete A receiving unit for receiving medical images;
A rendering unit for rendering a 3D medical image by volume rendering the received medical images;
An interest region extracting unit that extracts the region of interest and generates a region-of-interest image if the region of interest includes the region of interest; And
Wherein when a region of interest is extracted from the region of interest extracted by the region extraction unit, a thumbnail image including the region-of-interest image is generated, and if the region of interest is not included in the region of interest, And a thumbnail generating unit for generating a thumbnail image including the reduced medical image and reducing the medical image,
The thumbnail generating unit
Generating a thumbnail image including images corresponding to the plurality of regions of interest when the region of interest includes a plurality of regions of interest,
Wherein the thumbnail image further includes at least one of information on the 3D medical image displayed in a form of a symbol, an icon, or text, information corresponding to the number of browsing times of the reduced 3D medical image, or the thumbnail image
A device for generating a thumbnail image. 11. The method of claim 10,
The region of interest,
Or a part of a body or a part of a body predetermined before taking the medical images.
A device for generating a thumbnail image. delete 11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein the information on the three-dimensional medical image includes:
At least one of patient information, photographing date and time information, photographing site information, photographing method information, and photographing apparatus information
A device for generating a thumbnail image. delete delete A computer-readable recording medium having recorded therein a program for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 4.

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