Patent ID: 7822461

Claim:
A system for endoscopic path planning, comprising: a memory device for storing a program; a processor in communication with the memory device, the processor operative with the program to: receive an image of a lung, wherein the image includes airways and arteries, and wherein certain peripheral airways are not visible in the image, but peripheral arteries corresponding to the non-visible peripheral airways are visible in the image; identify a target in an image of a lung, wherein the target is located near a non-visible peripheral airway; and automatically generate an endoscopic path to the target, wherein the endoscopic path follows a visible airway that leads to the non-visible peripheral airway, and then, follows a path computed by the processor based on coordinates of the non-visible peripheral airway's nearest matching peripheral artery to the target, wherein the endoscopic path is inside the visible airway that leads to the non-visible peripheral airway and the non-visible peripheral airway that leads to the target.