James E Roth

US Patent:

53155122, May 24, 1994

Filed:

Sep 1, 1989

Appl. No.:

7/402904

Inventors:

James A. Roth - Dobbs Ferry NY

Assignee:

Montefiore Medical Center - Bronx NY

International Classification:

G06F 1542

US Classification:

36441325

Abstract:

The disclosure is directed to an apparatus and method for producing a three-dimensional image representation of a body. The body can be animate or inanimate; i. e. the invention can be used to obtain 3D image representations of for example, parts of the human body or any object that one wishes to view or measure. The 3D image representations can be used to produce 2D displays of sections, contours, etc. , or displays having 3D perspective, such as wire-frame type illustrations. This facilitates automatic computation of areas or volumes. In a disclosed embodiment, an ultrasonic imaging subsystem is provided for producing signals representative of two-dimensional images of sections of the body, the subsystem including a scanning transducer that is moveable to determine the section of the body to be imaged. The image representative signals are stored as arrays of digital pixel values. A three-dimensional acoustic digitizer subsystem is provided for deriving and storing information representative of the position and orientation of the transducer during the scanning of an associated section of the body.