Patent ID: 7239136

Claim:
A method for acquiring MR image data for an object and performing motion compensation on the MR image data, the method comprising: a) generating a uniform magnetic field through the object; b) generating magnetic field gradients for imaging a portion of the object and an RF excitation field for evoking NMR response signals from the object; c) generating a plurality of navigator waveforms for evoking a corresponding plurality of navigator echoes from the portion of the object while the object is being imaged; d) sampling the NMR response signals and the plurality of navigator echoes; and, e) processing the plurality of navigator echoes by determining a subset of similar navigator echoes according to a similarity metric and removing rigid-body translations from the sampled NMR response signals associated with the subset of similar navigator echoes; and f) displaying MR images generated based on the motion compensated MR image data.