Patent ID: 9619925
Date: 2017-04-11
CPC Classifications: A61B,G06T

Claim:
1. A method for generating at least one volume-viewing image based upon three-dimensional image data of an interior of a body generated by way of a medical imaging system, the method comprising: obtaining the three-dimensional image data from the medical imaging system; segmenting, by one or more processors, a plurality of different functional structures of the body in the three-dimensional image data; determining, by the one or more processors, structure selection data for fixing at least one functional structure to be visualized and at least one functional structure not to be visualized and determining a total number of the at least one functional structure to be visualized; fixing, by the one or more processors, the at least one functional structure to be visualized and the at least one functional structure not to be visualized using the structure selection data; obtaining, by the one or more processors, a plurality of different viewing spheres associated with the at least one functional structure to be visualized, each of the plurality of different viewing spheres associated with a view-relevant parameter; combining, by the one or more processors, the plurality of different viewing spheres; determining, by the one or more processors, a start viewpoint of the at least one functional structure to be visualized based on the combined plurality of different viewing spheres and a visible surface of the at least one functional structure to be visualized; determining, by the one or more processors, a plurality of viewpoints in a region around the start viewpoint, the plurality of viewpoints including the start viewpoint; determining, by the one or more processors, a plurality of candidate viewpoints of a region of the visible surface of the target structure from the plurality of viewpoints, a number of the candidate viewpoints being less than a number of the plurality of viewpoints and the region of the visible surface being less than the visible surface; selecting, by the one or more processors, one of the plurality of candidate viewpoints; generating, by the one or more processors, the at least one volume-viewing image from the three-dimensional image data with respect to the selected viewpoint; and displaying, by the one or more processors, the generated at least one volume-viewing image including the region of the visible surface of the at least one functional structure to be visualized with respect to the selected viewpoint, wherein individual transfer functions are separately assigned to the segmented functional structures.