JP2001166911A - Method and device for treating picture - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize a method and device for processing a picture for operating picture processing for client display with satisfactory responsiveness without increasing any communication load. SOLUTION: A part of picture data of an original picture is fetched from a server to a client (312, 212), and the preliminary trial of picture processing is operated based on the fetched picture data by the client (314), and the established picture processing condition is transmitted from a client to a server (316), and an original picture is processed based on the transmitted picture processing condition by the server (214), and the processed picture is fetched and displayed by the client (318).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an image handling method and apparatus, and more particularly, to an image handling method and apparatus for displaying an image stored in a server on a client.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As one of image processing apparatuses, one or a plurality of medical image pickup apparatuses, one or a plurality of image storage apparatuses (servers) and one or a plurality of image utilization apparatuses (clients) are connected by a communication line. Connected medical image network system (network system)
There is a system.

In this medical image network system,
Store the image captured by the medical imaging device on the server,
Access to server from client (access)
To browse the desired medical image.

[0004] With the improvement of the spatial resolution of imaging by a medical imaging apparatus, the number of pixels of an image increases, and with the improvement of the density resolution, the number of bits of image data (data) per pixel. Therefore, the image stored in the server has an extremely large data amount.

[0005] With respect to such an image, a desired region of interest (ROI: region of interest) is obtained on the client side.
In this case, an image subjected to gradation conversion (window) processing so that “test” has an appropriate density resolution is displayed and observed. Alternatively, the ROI is enlarged or reduced so as to have an appropriate size (zooming).
The displayed image is displayed and observed. For a large image that cannot be displayed on the screen, the display range is moved (panning) to put a desired image on the display screen.

In order to perform such display image processing,
There are a method of taking an original image from a server to a client and performing image processing on the client side, and a method of performing image processing by operating the server from the client side.

[0007]

As described above, the method of taking an original image from a server to a client and processing the original image involves communication of the original image composed of a large amount of image data, and operates the server from the client side. In the method of performing image processing, communication is interposed for each operation, and therefore, when realizing a high-speed response to such an extent that real-time operation is possible, the communication load becomes extremely large. was there.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has as its object to realize an image processing method and apparatus for performing image processing for client display with good responsiveness without increasing the communication load. That is.

[0009]

Means for Solving the Problems (1) According to one aspect of the invention for solving the above-described problems, when an image stored in a server is displayed on a client, an image constituting the stored image is displayed. A part of the data is fetched from the server to the client, image processing for display is performed on the fetched image data by the client, and the image processing conditions determined by the rerun are transmitted from the client to the server, An image handling method, wherein the stored image is processed by the server based on the transmitted image processing conditions, and the processed image is captured and displayed on the client.

As described above, when performing image processing on the client side, the image actually required is often a part of the entire image, and all data is required in the image processing. Do not mean. In the invention from this viewpoint, a part of the image data constituting the original image is taken in from the server to the client, so that unnecessary data is not transferred.

Further, from the above, in the invention in this aspect, since the image data taken from the server to the client is a part of the image data constituting the original image, the responsiveness is improved without increasing the communication load. Can be. In addition, since the client performs a dry-run of image processing for display on the image data, image processing with good responsiveness can be performed. In addition, the determined image processing conditions are transmitted to the server to perform the image processing of the original image, and the image whose data amount has been reduced by the processing is captured and displayed on the client, so that the responsiveness is improved without increasing the communication load. can do.

(2) Another aspect of the invention for solving the above-mentioned problem is the image handling method according to (1), wherein the image stored in the server is a medical image. .

According to the invention from this viewpoint, image processing for displaying a client can be performed with good responsiveness on a medical image without increasing the communication load. (3) Another aspect of the invention for solving the above-described problem is an image handling apparatus that displays an image stored in a server on a client, and a part of image data constituting the stored image. Capturing the image data into the client, performing image processing for display processing on the captured image data on the client side, and transmitting the image processing conditions determined by the preliminary processing to the server. Image processing condition transmitting means, image processing means for processing the stored image on the server side based on the transmitted image processing conditions, and image display means for capturing and displaying the processed image in the client An image handling apparatus comprising:

As described above, when performing image processing on the client side, the image actually required is often a part of the entire image, and all data is required in the image processing. Do not mean. In the invention from this viewpoint, a part of the image data constituting the original image is taken in from the server to the client, so that unnecessary data is not transferred.

[0015] Furthermore, in the invention from this viewpoint, the image data taken from the server to the client is part of the image data constituting the original image by the image taking means, so that the communication load is increased. Responsiveness can be improved. In addition, since the client performs image processing for display on the image data by the image processing execution means, image processing with good responsiveness can be performed. Also, by means of the image processing condition transmitting means,
The determined image processing conditions are transmitted to the server to perform the image processing of the original image, and the image whose data amount has been reduced by the processing is captured and displayed on the client by the image display means, so that the responsiveness without increasing the communication load. Can be better.

(4) According to another aspect of the invention for solving the above-described problem, the image stored in the server is a medical image. .

According to the invention from this viewpoint, it is possible to realize a medical image handling apparatus that performs image processing for client display with good responsiveness without increasing the communication load.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiment. FIG. 1 shows a conceptual diagram of a medical image network system (network system). This system is an example of an embodiment of the image handling apparatus of the present invention. The configuration of the present system shows an example of the embodiment of the device of the present invention. The operation of the system provides an example of an embodiment of the method of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the present system includes a communication line 10 such as an intranet.
Server 200 and client 3 connected via
00 and medical image capturing devices 400 and 500.
The server 200 is an example of the embodiment of the server according to the present invention. The client 300 is an example of an embodiment of the client according to the present invention.

Although a plurality of servers and clients are provided, only one each is shown as a representative. Also, two medical image pickup apparatuses are represented, but usually more are connected. The communication line 100 is not limited to the intranet, but may be the Internet (Internet), a LAN (LocalAr
ea Network), WAN (Wide Area)
Network) or other suitable systems. The communication line 100 may be a wireless network.

Server 200 and client 300
Are all data processing apparatuses provided with communication means, for example, an engineering workstation (EWS: En
Gineering Work Station) and personal computers (PC: personal co.
mputer).

The medical image pickup devices 400 and 500 are, for example, an X-ray CT (Computed Tomograph).
y) Apparatus, MRI (Magnetic Resonan)
ce Imaging) apparatus, ultrasonic imaging apparatus, X-ray imaging apparatus, PET (Position Emission)
Tomography, gamma camera (γ camera)
ra) and the like. Each of the medical image capturing apparatuses 400 and 500 has a communication unit, and stores the captured image in the server 200.
Can be sent to

The server 200 includes a medical image pickup device 40
It has an image library that stores medical images transmitted from 0,500. Client 30
0 accesses the image library of the server 200 to obtain a desired medical image, and displays it on the display unit for use in diagnosis or the like. Hereinafter, the image library is simply referred to as a library.

FIG. 2 shows a block (bl) of the server 200.
ock) figure. As shown in FIG.
Has a data processing unit 202. A communication unit 204 is connected to the data processing unit 202 so that data communication can be performed through the communication line 100. Data processing unit 20
2, an image storage unit 206 is connected. The medical images received from the medical image capturing devices 400 and 500 are stored here to form an image library.

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of the client 300. As shown in the figure, the client 300 has a data processing unit 302. A display unit 304 and an operation unit 306 are connected to the data processing unit 302 to enable an interactive operation by an operator.

The data processing unit 302 also includes a communication unit 308
Are connected, and data communication can be performed through the communication line 100. An image memory 310 is further connected to the data processing unit 302, and stores a medical image captured from a server via communication. Data processing unit 3
02 performs various image processing for display on the medical image stored in the image memory 310 based on the operation of the operator. Hereinafter, a medical image is simply referred to as an image.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the data processing unit 202 of the server 200 and the data processing unit 302 of the client 300 from the viewpoint of performing image processing for display. The function of each block shown in FIG. 1 is realized by, for example, a computer program or the like. Data processing unit 202 and data processing unit 3
02 is connected via communication.

As shown in the figure, the data processing unit 302 of the client 300 has an image data request unit 312. The image data request unit 312 requests image data from the server 200 based on the operation of the operator.
When requesting image data, the operator inputs information for specifying a desired image and information for data processing.
The image data request unit 312 transmits the information to the server 200.

When the image processing is, for example, the window processing, the information relating to the data processing includes information indicating that the image processing is the window processing and the window level (window).
level) and window width (window wi)
dth).

The data processing unit 202 of the server 200 has an image data procurement unit 212. The image data procurement unit 212 procures image data in response to a request from the image data request unit 312. That is, an image specified by the client is read from the library, and the image data is selected according to information on data processing.

When the information relating to the data processing is the window level and the window width, the window processing is performed based on the information. However, the window processing is performed by setting the window width here to, for example, about several times the window width transmitted from the client 300. By such a window process, only data that falls within the window is selected from the image data constituting the original image. The amount of selected image data (volume: volume)
e) is reduced to, for example, about several times smaller than the volume of the image data constituting the original image.

The image data procurement unit 212 transmits the procured image data to the client 300. Thereby, the client 300 acquires the requested image data. The acquired image is displayed on the display unit 304. The portion including the image data request unit 312 and the image data procurement unit 212 is an example of an embodiment of the image capturing unit according to the present invention.

As described above, when image processing is performed on the client side, the image actually required is often a part of the entire image, and all data is required in the image processing. Do not mean. In the invention from this viewpoint, a part of the image data constituting the original image is taken in from the server to the client, so that unnecessary data is not transferred.

Since the volume of the image data is reduced from that of the original image, the image data can be taken in with a high response to the operation of the operator. Further, the window processing performed in the process of procuring the image data is performed without the involvement of the operator from the client 300 side, so that the responsiveness is not hindered. Therefore, the requested image is displayed on the display unit 304 instantaneously.

In the client 300, image processing is executed by the image processing execution unit 314 with respect to the captured image data. The replay of the image processing is performed based on the operation of the operator. The image processing execution unit 314 is an example of an embodiment of an image processing execution unit according to the present invention.

The operator performs window adjustment on the captured image. That is, the operation unit 306 is operated to adjust the window level and the window width so that the display image has a desired gradation. Since the window adjustment by the operator is performed on the image data taken into the client 300, the responsiveness to the operation is good.

Note that this window processing is not a window processing for the original image but an image data procurement unit 2.
Although the window processing is performed on the image that has been subjected to the window processing in advance in step 12, the window processing can be performed without any problem because the window processing is performed in a range narrower than the window width of the previous window processing.

The window level and window width determined by the window adjustment correspond to the processing condition transmitting unit 31.
6 is input. The processing condition transmitting unit 316 transmits the determined image processing conditions to the server. The processing condition transmission unit 316 is an example of an embodiment of the image processing condition transmission unit in the present invention.

In the server 200, the image processing unit 21
4 processes the original image under the transmitted image processing conditions. That is, the original image is windowed based on the transmitted window level and window width. The image processing unit 214 is an example of an embodiment of an image processing unit according to the present invention.

An image obtained by window processing the original image is transmitted to the client 300. Client 30
0 displays an image by the image display unit 318. As a result, the window-processed image is displayed on the display unit 304. The image display unit 318 is an example of an embodiment of an image display unit in the present invention.

In the process of window processing in the image processing unit 214, there is no involvement of the operator from the client 300 side, so that responsiveness is not hindered. In addition, since the amount of image data is reduced by the window processing, the responsiveness does not decrease. Therefore, an image obtained by windowing the original image is displayed on the display unit 304 instantaneously.

The image displayed on the display unit 304 is an image obtained by windowing the original image based on the window processing conditions determined by the pre-feed. That is, the same image as the image obtained by performing window adjustment on the original image from the beginning can be obtained. In addition, this image can be obtained with much more responsiveness than when a window is adjusted by taking an original image into a client and window adjustment is performed by operating a server from the client as in the related art.

The image processing is not limited to the window processing, and may be, for example, a zooming processing or a panning processing (Pan & Zoom). Pan and zoom are performed as follows.

The image data requesting unit 312 transmits information indicating pan and zoom as information relating to data processing based on the operation of the operator. Based on this information, the image data procurement unit 212 of the server 200 transmits to the client 300 image data in which the matrix size of the original image is reduced to half, for example.

As described above, when performing image processing on the client side, the image actually required is often a part of the entire image, and all data is required in the image processing. Do not mean. In the invention from this viewpoint, a part of the image data constituting the original image is taken in from the server to the client, so that unnecessary data is not transferred.

As a result, image data in which the volume of the image data constituting the original image is reduced to a quarter can be obtained.
The resulting image is displayed on the display unit 304. Since the volume of image data to be taken was reduced from the original image,
The image data can be taken in with good responsiveness to the operation of the operator. Further, since the matrix reduction processing performed in the process of procuring image data is performed without the involvement of the operator from the client 300 side, the responsiveness does not decrease. Therefore, the requested image is instantaneously displayed on the display unit 30.
4 is displayed.

For this image data, a pan and zoom pre-run is performed by the image processing pre-run unit 314. The replay of the image processing is performed based on the operation of the operator. That is, the image is panned and zoomed by operating the operation unit 306 to obtain an image displaying a desired ROI in a desired size. Since pan and zoom by the operator is performed on the image data taken into the client 300, the responsiveness to the operation is good.

Note that this pan and zoom is not a process for the original image but a process for an image with a reduced matrix size. However, since there is no problem in displaying the ROI image, the pan and zoom is appropriately performed. be able to.

The position and zoom magnification of the ROI determined by the pan and zoom are transmitted to the server through the processing condition transmission unit 316. In the server 200, the image processing unit 214 processes the original image according to the transmitted position of the ROI and the zoom magnification. An image obtained by panning and zooming the original image is transmitted to the client 300, and is displayed on the display unit 30 by the image display unit 318.
4 is displayed.

In the process of image processing in the image processing unit 214, there is no involvement of the operator from the client 300 side, so that responsiveness is not hindered. Further, the data after the pan-and-zoom processing is composed of a part of the original image data, and the responsiveness does not decrease because the data amount is reduced. Therefore, the image obtained by zooming the ROI of the original image is displayed on the display unit 304 instantaneously.

The image displayed on the display unit 304 is an image obtained by processing the original image based on the ROI and the zoom magnification determined by the pre-run. That is, the same image as the image obtained by performing pan and zoom on the original image from the beginning can be obtained. Moreover, this image can be obtained with much more responsiveness than in the conventional case where the original image is taken into the client to perform pan and zoom, or when the server is operated from the client side to perform pan and zoom.

Although an example in which medical images are handled has been described above, the present invention is not limited to medical images and can be applied to handling of images in various other fields, and similar effects can be obtained in those fields. It goes without saying that you can do it.

[0053]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, it is possible to realize an image processing method and apparatus for performing image processing for client display with good responsiveness without increasing the communication load.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of an apparatus according to an example of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a server in the apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a client in the apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a data processing unit shown in FIGS. 2 and 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 100 communication line 200 server 202, 302 data processing unit 204, 308 communication unit 206 image storage unit 300 client 304 display unit 306 operation unit 310 image memory 400, 500 medical image capturing apparatus

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5B057 AA09 BA03 BA05 BA07 CA12 CA16 CD05 CE09 5B069 AA01 AA10 BA01 BA04 BB16 BC02 CA14 LA03

Claims (10)

[Claims] In displaying an image stored in a server on a client, a part of image data constituting the stored image is imported from the server to the client, and the captured image data is displayed on the client. Performing image processing for image processing, transmitting the image processing conditions determined by the dry processing from the client to the server, processing the stored image in the server based on the transmitted image processing conditions, An image handling method, wherein a processed image is imported to the client and displayed. 2. The image handling method according to claim 1, wherein the image processing for display is window processing. 3. The image handling method according to claim 1, wherein the image processing for display is zooming processing. 4. The image handling method according to claim 1, wherein the image processing for display is a panning process. 5. The image handling method according to claim 1, wherein the image stored in the server is a medical image. 6. An image handling device for displaying an image stored in a server on a client, wherein the image capturing means captures a part of the image data constituting the stored image in the client, Image processing dry-run means for performing a dry-run of image processing for display on the client side for image data; image processing condition transmitting means for transmitting the image processing conditions determined by the dry-run to the server; and the transmitted image processing conditions. An image handling apparatus comprising: an image processing unit that processes the stored image on the server side based on the image processing; and an image display unit that captures the processed image in the client and displays the image. 7. The image handling apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the image processing for display is window processing. 8. The image handling apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the image processing for display is zooming processing. 9. The image handling apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the image processing for display is a panning process. 10. The image stored in the server is a medical image.
The image handling device according to any one of the above.