Patent ID: 7744528

Claim:
A method for imaging an organ system cavity comprising: positioning a first part of an imaging system in the organ system cavity; acquiring a plurality of images using the imaging system, where the imaging system carries out imaging at angles up to and including 360 degrees around an axis of the first part of the imaging system; removing distortion from the images by producing image segments from ring-like portions of each of the acquired images using a combination of clipping and dewarping processes that remove distortions introduced by imaging at angles up to and including 360 degrees around an axis of the first part of the imaging system; combining at least portions of two or more image segments to create a map of at least a portion of the interior surface of the organ system cavity, wherein the combining at least portions of two or more image segments includes determining any motion of the first part of the imaging system relative to the organ system cavity; wherein determining any motion of the first part of the imaging system is carried out using a visual tracking method that determines motion in the form of at least one motion component selected from the group consisting of translation, rotation, scaling, and deformation; and wherein at least one of the motion components is used to derive an image registration between two or more images that are used to create the map of at least a portion of the interior surface of the organ system cavity.