Patent Document ID: 8447383
Application ID: 12848024
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An imaging system, comprising: a computerized-tomography (CT) imaging unit configured to form a 3-dimensional (3-D) CT image of a target object; an ultrasound image forming unit configured to form a 3-dimensional (3-D) ultrasound image of the target object and a 2-dimensional (2-D) ultrasound image of the target object; a storing unit configured to store sets of transform parameters for performing a rigid-body transform upon the 3-D ultrasound image; a processor configured to perform an image registration between the 3-D ultrasound image and the CT image to register a 3-D ultrasound-CT image, establish a 3-D coordinate system with a reference surface being set thereon in the 3-D ultrasound image, perform the rigid-body transform upon the 3-D ultrasound image by sequentially applying the sets of transformation parameters retrieved from the storing unit, calculate similarities between reference images corresponding to the reference surface and the 2-D ultrasound image, and extract a 2-D CT image corresponding to the 2-D ultrasound image from the registered 3-D ultrasound-CT image based on the calculated similarities; and a display unit configured to display the 2-D ultrasound image and the extracted 2-D CT image, wherein: each of the reference images is obtained at the rigid-body transform when the sets of transformation parameters are sequentially applied to the rigid-body transform, and the 2-D ultrasound image is related to a region of interest (ROI) of the target object.