JPH0591997A - Image treating system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To avoid unnatural movement of a cursor on two display windows by converting inputted coordinates based on a relation between images displayed on both display windows. CONSTITUTION:CR images from two directions are stored in an image memory 1 and these are read out under a control of a CPU 4 and are transferred to a display apparatus such as a CRT through a display circuit 2 and are each displayed on two display windows 7 and 8. A mouse 6 is connected to the CPU 4 through a control circuit 5 and when a coordinate signal is inputted by operating the mouse, a cursor on the screen of the display apparatus 3 appears at a position indicated by the coordinate signal. The CPU 4 calculates a three dimensional positional, relation between read out images and performs coordinate conversion and the coordinate signal is transferred to a main window from the mouse 6 as it is and the coordinate-converted signal is transferred to a sub-window.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus which handles medical images such as X-ray images or other general images.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When performing CT imaging with an X-ray CT apparatus,
Usually, a fluoroscopic image (CR image) is photographed prior to the CT photographing, and a position to be CT-scanned, an image reconstruction center, an image reconstruction range, or the like is planned on the CR image. Such a position input of the slice plane and the image reconstruction center / range is performed using a pointing device (coordinate input device) such as a mouse or a trackball. That is, the cursor is moved on the display window according to the operation of the mouse or the like, the correspondence with the image displayed there can be visually confirmed, and the push button provided on the mouse or the like is clicked. Then, the position on the displayed image is input. In this case, if the CR images in the two directions are obtained and are respectively displayed in the two display windows of the display device, the slice plane and the like can be captured three-dimensionally, so that the positional relationship can be easily grasped. .

[0003]

However, when displaying images of one object viewed from two directions in two display windows, the coordinates input by the coordinate input device are set to the coordinates in one display window. If they are made compatible, there is a problem that they are not made compatible on the other display window.
That is, a mouse, a trackball, or the like is a device that detects a movement on a horizontal plane, and the movement in the left / right direction is the movement in the left / right direction of the cursor on the screen, and the movement in the front / rear direction is the movement in the vertical direction on the screen. It is possible to perform a coordinate input operation that matches the operator's sense by making it correspond to the movement, but if this correspondence is established in one display window, the other display is displayed. This is because such correspondence cannot be realized in the window.

In view of the above, the present invention has two objects for one object.
When the images viewed from the directions are displayed in the two display windows and the coordinates are input by the coordinate input device, the operation of the coordinate input device and the movement of the cursor in the two windows are opposed to the sense of the operator. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus which is capable of easily inputting coordinates by coping with each other.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, in the image processing apparatus according to the present invention, when displaying images viewed from different directions for one target in two display windows, one of In the display window, a cursor is displayed at the position corresponding to the coordinates input by the coordinate input means, and in the other display window, the three-dimensional positional relationship between the images displayed in these display windows is displayed. The feature is that the cursor is displayed at the coordinate-converted position. In one display window, the cursor is moved according to the up / down / left / right operation of the coordinate input means, and the movement of the cursor in the other display window is changed. It is possible to make the motion converted corresponding to the three-dimensional positional relationship between the images displayed in the two display windows. In, the movement of the cursor is not unnatural for the operator in the other display window, making it easier to understand the sensory, the coordinate input operation is facilitated.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, CR images from two directions are stored in the image memory 1 in this embodiment, and these are read out under the control of the CPU 4 and the display device 3 such as a CRT is read through the display circuit 2. And are displayed in the two display windows 7 and 8 of the display screen, respectively. The display circuit 2 manages the display windows 7 and 8 and reduces the two CR images, and sends them as display signals to the display device 3 in accordance with the sizes of the display windows 7 and 8. A mouse 6 is connected to the CPU 4 via a control circuit 5. The control circuit 5 controls the operation of the mouse 6 and fetches coordinate signals from the mouse 6 into the CPU 4. When the coordinate signal is input by operating the mouse 6, the cursor on the screen of the display device 3 appears at the position designated by the coordinate signal.

Here, as shown in FIG. 2, one CR image is a human body viewed from the direction of the right side surface, and is displayed in the display window 7, and the other CR image is viewed from the front direction of the human body.
It is assumed that the image is displayed in the display window 8. That is, the horizontal direction of the display window 7 is the height direction of the human body, and the vertical direction of the window 7 is the front-back direction of the human body. In the display window 8, the horizontal direction is the height direction of the human body, and the vertical direction is the horizontal direction of the human body. Cross-shaped cursors C1 and C2 appear in the two display windows 7 and 8, respectively, and the positions thereof correspond to the position of the mouse 6.

When one of the display windows 7 and 8 is clicked, for example, by clicking the switch of the mouse 6, the movement of the mouse 6 is the main and the other is the subordinate. In the main window, the brightness of the cursor etc. is increased or the line is thickened so that a clear display is made.In the main window, the brightness of the cursor etc. is reduced or the line is thinned or the line is thinned. The types of are changed to dotted lines so that you can understand their master-slave relationship.

First, assuming that the window 7 is mainly used, the cursor C1 in the window 7 moves up, down, left and right in accordance with the forward, backward, left and right movements of the mouse 6. That is, the coordinate signal input from the mouse 6 is directly sent to the window 7 of the display device 3, and the cursor C1 is displayed at the position represented by the coordinate signal. Therefore, when the mouse 6 is moved left and right, the cursor C1 moves on the horizontal line L1 of the window 7, and when the mouse 6 is moved forward and backward, the cursor C1 moves on the vertical line L3. On the contrary,
In the window 8, the cursor C2 moves left and right along the horizontal line L2 according to the left and right movements of the mouse 6, but the cursor C2 does not move at all when the mouse 6 moves forward and backward. Since window 7 was mainly selected,
The left and right movements of the mouse 6 are the cursor C1 in the window 7.
The front and rear movements of the mouse 6 correspond to the left and right movements of the mouse 6 in the window 7. Therefore, when the position of the human body in the front-back direction is changed by moving the mouse 6 back and forth, the movement becomes a movement in a direction perpendicular to the screen in the window 8 (the line L3 of the window 7 is a direction perpendicular to the screen in the window 8). It should be the line of), so it does not move.

On the other hand, when the window 8 is mainly used, the coordinate signal input from the mouse 6 is sent to the window 8 of the display device 3 as it is, and the cursor C2 is displayed at the position represented by the coordinate signal. The mouse 6 is considered to move on a plane defined by the left-right direction and the height direction of the human body. Therefore, the mouse 6 is moved left and right, and the cursor C2 in the window 8 moves to the horizontal line L2.
When moving upward, the cursor C1 in the window 7 also moves on the horizontal line L1, but when the mouse 6 is moved in the front-back direction and the cursor C2 in the window 8 moves on the vertical line L4, the cursor C1 in the window 7 moves. Does not move.

The coordinate signal in the subordinate window is obtained by converting the coordinate signal input from the mouse 6 based on the three-dimensional positional relationship of the images displayed in the windows 7 and 8. The CPU 4 obtains a three-dimensional positional relationship between the images read from the image memory 1,
Based on this, this coordinate conversion is performed. The coordinate signal from the mouse 6 is sent to the main window as it is,
The switching of sending the coordinate-converted signal to the subordinate window is performed by the CPU 4 in response to the selection of the master / slave of the window. If the mouse 6 is not moved even if such a master / slave switching is performed, the positions of the cursors C1 and C2 do not change, and only the display of master / slave changes.

Further, a window 9 representing a virtual image viewed from the height direction as shown by a dotted line 9 may be displayed on the screen of the display device 3. In this window 9, only the cursor C3 is shown and an image etc. may not be displayed.
This makes it easy to see where the positions of the windows 7 and 8 indicated by the cursors C1 and C2 are on a plane perpendicular to the height direction of the human body. The coordinate signal representing the position of the cursor 3 in the window 9 is also obtained by the coordinate conversion in the CPU 4. When the window 9 is selected as the main one, the plane on which the mouse 6 moves is considered to be a plane that intersects the human body at a right angle, so when the cursor C3 moves up and down, the cursor C1 moves to the line L3.
The cursor C2 does not move, but the cursor C2 moves vertically along the line L4, but the cursor C1 does not move.

FIG. 3 shows the case of setting the slice plane and the image reconstruction position, and FIG. 4 shows the case of setting the rectangular area. Since the positional relationship is the same as in FIG. 2, the relative movement of the cursor is shown in FIG. Will be the same as In FIG. 3, the slice lines S1 and S2 appear in the windows 7 and 8. However, when the slice line S1 is inclined in the window 7,
The position of the slice line S2 on the window 8 is assumed to be on the line (actually plane) L1 on the window 7. This line L1 is also shown in the window 7 and can be changed separately. Further, as a marker for indicating both end positions of the image reconstruction area, a
1 and a2 appear, and a3 and a4 appear on S2.

Here, assuming that the window 7 is mainly selected, if the mouse 6 moves left and right, S1,
All of a1, a2, S2, a3, and a4 move in parallel in the left-right direction. At this time, the relative positional relationship between them does not change. When the mouse 6 moves back and forth, a1 and a2 are S
1 moves up and down (the distance between a1 and a2 is unchanged at this time), and S1, S2, a3 and a4 do not move.

When the window 8 is mainly used and the mouse 6 moves left and right, S1, a1, a2,
S2, a3, and a4 all move in parallel in the left-right direction (the relative positional relationship between them does not change), and when the mouse 6 moves in the front-rear direction, a3 and a4 move up and down on S2 (the distance between a3 and a4 is Unchanged), S1, S2, a1 and a2 do not move. S
The tilt angle of 1 is to be changed separately. Also, a
The distance between 1 and a2 and the distance between a3 and a4 may be changed separately or may be predetermined. If the window 9 representing the cross section of the human body is provided and the reconstruction area a5 in that cross section is displayed, the three-dimensional positional relationship becomes easier to understand.

In FIG. 4, rectangular areas B1, B2 and B3 are displayed in windows 7, 8 and 9, respectively. The movement of these rectangular areas associated with the movement of the mouse 6 is the same as above. The size of each rectangular area can be changed by another means.

In the above display example, the height direction of the human body is parallel to the left and right of the windows 7 and 8, but it may not be parallel as shown in FIG. Also in this case, by performing coordinate conversion based on the three-dimensional positional relationship between the images displayed in the windows 7 and 8, when the main window is the window 7, the cursor C1 is moved by the horizontal movement of the mouse 6 to move the cursor C1 to the window 7. It is possible to move the cursor C2 horizontally on the horizontal line L1 and to move the cursor C2 vertically on the vertical line L2 in the window 8.

Although the mouse 6 is used as the coordinate input device in the above, another coordinate input device such as a trackball may be used. Also, the display image is not limited to these examples.

[0019]

As described above with reference to the embodiments,
According to the image processing device of the present invention, images viewed from different directions are displayed in two or more display windows,
When the cursor corresponding to the coordinates input by the coordinate input device is displayed in each of those windows, the movement of the cursor becomes a natural movement corresponding to the input coordinates in any of the windows, and matches the operator's feeling. The coordinate input operation can be intuitively understood and the operation efficiency can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display example in each display window of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing another display example in each display window of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another display example in each display window of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing still another display example in each display window of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 image memory 2 display circuit 3 display device 4 CPU 5 control circuit 6 mouse 7, 8, 9 display window

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A display unit having at least two display windows, each of which displays an image of one object viewed from different directions, a coordinate input unit for inputting coordinates, and one display window. The cursor is displayed at the position corresponding to the input coordinate within the display window, and the cursor is displayed in the other display window at the coordinate-converted position according to the three-dimensional positional relationship between the images displayed in these display windows. An image processing apparatus comprising: a display control unit.