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

Claim 0:
1. A computer implemented method for tracking at least a part of a surface of a patient's body, comprising:
measuring, by one or more processors, at a first point in time, first locations of a plurality of points on the surface of the patient's body 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, by the one or more processors, a descriptor to each of at least one point, of the plurality of points on the surface of the patient's body, wherein the descriptor for each of the at least one point describes a thermal signature, of a corresponding point, that is characteristic of the corresponding point for identifying the corresponding point;
for each of the at least one point:
determining, by the one or more processors and using at least the assigned descriptors that respectively describe a thermal signature for each of the at least one point of the plurality of points on the surface of the patient's body, a first and a second pixels, respectively in one of the two two-dimensional image datasets which show the plurality of points on the surface of the patient's body, wherein the first pixel and the second pixel both correspond to a respective point of the at least one point, and
calculating, by the one or more processors, 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, by the one or more processors, 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, by the one or more processors, a movement of at least the part of the surface of the body from the difference between the first locations and the second locations.