Reconstruction-free automatic multi-modality ultrasound registration

Abstract

Image co-registration (S) entails: emitting energy, and responsively and dynamically acquiring images (), the acquired images having a given dimensionality; selecting, repeatedly, and dynamically with the acquiring, from among the acquired images and, as a result of the selecting, changing, repeatedly, and dynamically, membership in a set () of images of the given dimensionality; and, synchronously with the change (S), dynamically and iteratively registering the set to an image having a dimensionality higher than the given dimensionality. The co-registration is realizable with an imaging probe () for the acquiring, and a tracking system for tracking a location, and orientation, of the probe, the registering being specialized for the acquiring with the probe being dynamically, during the acquiring, any one or more of angulated, rotated and translated. The registering is initialized by individual transformations () of members of the set, but without need for reconstruction, of the set into an image of dimensionality higher than the given dimensionality, that derives, from the set, additional pixels () external to the members.