U.S. Philips Corporation

Moeller-wedel Gmbh

Airbus Deutschland Gmbh

Rolf-Rainer Grigat

Achim Ibenthal

Detlef Gotting

Martin Schmidt

Jochen Koetke

Peter Schalt

Thomas Hoell

Stefan Oelckers

Stefan Oelkers

Lars Eckert

Sven Siggelkow

Soenke Fritz

An operating microscope including an optical unit for forming an image of an object plane in oculars of the microscope, an optoelectronic image receiver coupled to the microscope and optics to form images, of objects placed in a region between a front objective of the microscope and an object plane of the microscope, on the optoelectronic image receiver. The microscope has a magnification factor of the optics to form images, and a system to detect optical markings forming a markings pattern placed on a surgical instrument or an object placed in the region between the front objective of the microscope and the object plane of the microscope. The system calculates a geometrical position and orientation of the markings pattern in relation to the optoelectronic image receiver, relative to the microscope.

Method and instrument for surgical navigation

A device for evaluating a wind tunnel measurement, in which a processor identifies a flow element on an image recorded in the wind tunnel. The identified flow element subsequently may be segmented and further analyzed in order to obtain accurate information about the flow behaviour of an object to be analyzed. In addition, a method, a computer-readable storage medium, a program element, and an arrangement are disclosed.

Device for automatic evaluation and control of wind tunnel measurements

The invention relates to a method for positional optimization in navigation, in particular neural navigation in surgery with an operation microscope and at least one optoelectronic image detector which may be connected to the microscope and also a computer system. The data obtained from the at least one image detector which lie in the microscope field-of-view for the operator, contain information on the position of an operation instrument, in particular the instrument tip. The actual position of the instrument in the x- and y-direction as well as in the z-direction of a three-dimensional coordinate system is continuously or intermittently determined from the relevant positional data. A separation determination is carried out for the positional determination in the z-direction by means of depth of focus evaluation and/or stereoscopic image analysis. The invention further relates to a navigation instrument, using marking, close to the instrument tip, lying within the field of view of the microscope during use thereof.

In a method of data reduction of a luminance and/or chrominance signal of a digital picture signal by means of fractal image coding, in which method each image of the luminance/chrominance signal is divided into range blocks of n.times.n pixels each, in which a domain block is searched for each range block, which domain block is imageable on the range block with a minimal deviation while using a transformation function, which domain blocks have a larger size than the range blocks, and in which information on the transformation functions is transmitted, from which information the image data are regained at the receiver end in an iterative process, the search is facilitated in that a digital search tree strategy is employed in the search for that domain block which is imageable on a range block with a minimal deviation while using a transformation function.

Method of data reduction by means of fractal image coding

For time-sequential segment tracing, also of moving regions, a method of segmenting time-sequential images of a picture signal, in which, within an image, the image is split up into regions during its segmentation, and in which adjacent pixels having similar luminance and/or chrominance values are associated with a region is characterized in that it is attempted in time-sequential images to retrace regions of an image I.sub.n in a subsequent image I.sub.n+1 by performing a motion estimation of the regions of the image I.sub.n, in that the new position of the region in the image I.sub.n+1 is determined with reference to the motion vectors determined for each region by means of the motion estimation, in that subsequently the displaced regions are adapted to the image contents of the image I.sub.n+1, and in that pixels of the image I.sub.n+1 not covered by these adapted regions are added to one of these regions or to newly formed regions.

Method of image segmentation

In a method of data reduction of a luminance and/or chrominance signal of a digital picture signal by means of fractal image coding, in which method each image of the luminance/chrominance signal is divided into range blocks of n.times.n pixels each, in which a domain block is searched for each range block, which domain block is imageable on the range block with a minimal deviation while using a transformation function, which domain blocks have twice the size of the range blocks, and in which information on the transformation functions is transmitted, from which information the image data are regained at the receiver end in an iterative process, the search for appropriate domain blocks is facilitated in that the data of each range block are examined on geometrical basis functions which are possibly satisfactory approximations of the data structure of the range block, in that a difference value is computed from the basis function found for the best approximation of the data structure of the range block and the data of the range block, which difference value represents a residual roughness, in that the data of the domain blocks are examined on geometrical basis functions which are possibly satisfactory approximations of the data structure of the domain block, in that a difference value is computed from the basis function found for the best approximation of the data structure of the domain block and the data of the domain block, which difference value represents a residual roughness, in that the search for the domain block which is imageable on a range block with a minimal deviation, and the associated transformation function is performed with reference to the computed difference values of the range block and the computed difference values of the domain blocks, and in that information on the mutually balanced basis functions of this block and of the most favorable domain block, as well as the transformation function, by means of which the most favorable domain block is imageable on the range block, is transmitted for each range block as a data-reduced data current instead of the luminance/chrominance signal.

Method of data reduction by means of a fractal image coding and encoder

To achieve an enhanced data reduction, a method of fractal image coding, in which method an image to be encoded is divided into range blocks which do not overlap and jointly cover the image contents completely, in which domain blocks comprising areas of the image contents in their original form or in a transformed form are generated from the image contents, and all areas of the image contents are covered by at least one domain block, for each range block the domain block most similar to the range block being searched, and the addresses of the domain blocks found as the most similar and possibly the transform functions used for their generation being transmitted instead of the data of the range blocks, is characterized in that, in a sequence of images, the fractal image coding performed exclusively within the images is only performed with basic images comprised in the image sequence at selectable time intervals, in that, for intermediate images provided between the basic images, the same range and domain block division is used as for the basic images, and in that, individually for each range block in a search area, that domain block is searched in an intermediate image which was found as the most similar in the previous image for the range block of the same position, and in that, if said domain block is found in the search area, the displacement vectors of this block relative to the domain block found as the most similar in the previous image are transmitted instead of the address and possibly the transform function.

Growing community of inventors

Halstenbek, Germany

Rolf-Rainer Grigat