Patent ID: 11877843
Assignee: BRAINLAB AG
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC A  G  H | IPC A  G  H

Claim 7:
8. A non-transitory computer-readable program storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to track at least a part of a surface of a body of a patient, the at least one processor executing the steps of:
measuring, at a first point in time, first locations of a plurality of points on the surface of the body of the patient by acquiring at least two two-dimensional image datasets, wherein each two-dimensional image dataset represents a thermographic two-dimensional image of at least the part of the surface of the patient's body which comprises the plurality of points, and wherein the two-dimensional thermographic images are taken from different and known viewing directions;
assigning a descriptor to each of at least one point in the plurality of points, the descriptor for each of the at least one point including a calculated value from thermal properties of a corresponding point of the at least one point and also thermal properties of further points in a vicinity of the corresponding point of the at least one point wherein the calculated value from the thermal properties of the corresponding point is characteristic of the corresponding point for identifying the corresponding point;
for each of the at least one point:
determining a first and a second pixels respectively in one of the two-dimensional image datasets which show said plurality of points on the surface of the body of the patient using at least one of the assigned descriptors, wherein the first pixel is in one of the two two-dimensional image datasets and corresponds to a respective point of the at least one point, and wherein the second pixel is in a different one of the two two-dimensional image datasets and corresponds to the respective point of the at least one point,
calculating a spatial location of the respective point of the at least one point of the plurality of points from corresponding locations of the determined first and second pixels in the two-dimensional image datasets and the viewing directions of the two-dimensional thermographic images;

measuring, at a second point in time which is later than the first point in time, second locations of the at least one point of the plurality of points in the same manner as the first locations; and
calculating a movement of at least the part of the surface of the body of the patient from the difference between the first locations and the second locations.