Patent ID: 7492932
Filing Date: 2009-02-17
Classification: G06K

Abstract:
1. A method for combining a plurality of previously stored medical images to form a human readable fused medical image for presentation to a human viewer, the method comprising the steps of: receiving the plurality of previously stored medical images at a network service from a data storage source where the data had been stored after having been previously generated by a medical imaging modality; retrieving, by the network service, software codes and hardware logic files to enable the network service to implement an image fusion process to form the human readable fused medical image from the plurality of previously stored medical images, the software codes containing software instructions for execution on a processor and the hardware logic files describing hardware logic to be used to reconfigure and reprogram a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA); configuring, by the network service the FPGA using the hardware logic files to reconfigure and reprogram the FPGA to implement at least a part of the image fusion process; executing, by the network service, the image fusion process software instructions in the processor and using the FPGA that has been reconfigured and reprogrammed using the hardware logic files to form the human readable fused image from the plurality of previously stored medical images; and providing, by the network service as an output, the human readable fused image.