Patent ID: 7889905

Claim:
A method of registering video frames of a body lumen received from an endoscope inserted into the body lumen to previously acquired images of the body lumen, the method comprising the steps of: computing a plurality of reference images of a body lumen, each reference image including a viewpoint with a depth map and image gradients; receiving video frames from the endoscope wherein said receiving step comprises receiving a live bronchoscopic video frame associated with an airway; and providing a processor to register each video frame received from the endoscope to at least one of the reference images, said processor being programmed to perform the steps of: a) warping the video frame to the viewpoint of one reference image of the plurality of reference images or warping one reference image of the plurality of reference images at a viewpoint to the video frame; b) automatically computing an image difference between (i) the warped video frame and the reference image, or (ii) the warped reference image and the video frame; c) updating a viewpoint of the video frame using an optimization technique; and d) repeating steps a) through c) for each video frame until the viewpoint of the video frame converges on a final viewpoint or a next video frame becomes available.