Patent ID: 7801965

Claim:
A method of processing data in which a plurality of imaging modalities configured to capture the data, and associated apparatuses configured to locally process and store the data, are connected to one another via a data transmission unit, the data transmission unit configured to interchange data between the plurality of imaging modalities, the method comprising: storing data common to the plurality of imaging modalities on each imaging modality, one of the plurality of imaging modalities being defined as a master imaging modality; and coordinating the stored common data between the plurality of imaging modalities such that a respective imaging modality remains operational regardless of a state of the data transmission unit, wherein coordinating the stored common data includes: transmitting a message by the imaging modality to a replication unit included in the imaging modality when the imaging modality makes a change in the common data stored therein, reading and transmitting, by the replication unit, the changed common data to the master imaging modality, storing, by the master imaging modality, the changed common data in a master memory unit of the master imaging modality, allocating by the master imaging modality to the changed common data the time of change in the common data, cyclically transmitting, by another imaging modality of the plurality of imaging modalities to the master imaging modality, a change request and the time associated with the common data currently stored in the another imaging modality, comparing the time of change in the common data stored in the master imaging modality with the time transmitted by the another imaging modality, and updating the common data stored in the another imaging modality with the common data stored in the master imaging modality when the time transmitted by the another imaging modality and the time stored in the master imaging modality are not the same.