JP3164646B2 - Image display device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image display apparatus employing a browsing technique for switching a display image so as to turn a page of a book one by one.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art According to an image display apparatus employing such a browsing technique, a plurality of images (groups of images) satisfying certain conditions are selected from an image disk for storing a large number of images. By arranging and ordering the images according to a certain standard, this image group can be handled as one book. The observer can arbitrarily adjust the turning direction of the previous page or the next page (hereinafter referred to as “browsing direction”) and the speed thereof by appropriately operating input devices such as a keyboard, a mouse, and a trackball. Thus, the displayed image can be switched with the same feeling as turning the pages of a book one by one. As described above, the browsing technique is similar to a human customary sense of turning a page, and has been rapidly spread, and has become an indispensable technique for an image display device.

[0003] Also in the medical field, image display devices employing such browsing techniques have become widespread and have greatly contributed to the efficiency of image interpretation work. When diagnosing medical images, it is often not possible to uniquely identify an image suitable for image reading, for example, an image of an optimal region of interest or an image into which a contrast agent flows, from the beginning of the search. Because of this, multiple images (image groups) are extracted from a certain wide area,
The respective images of the image group are displayed while being sequentially switched, and the observer himself observes the displayed image and determines whether the image is suitable for the image reading or another image. It is desirable that this determination and the operation of switching images be shortened as much as possible, and the browsing technique contributes to the simplification of this image switching operation.

When performing a browsing operation using a conventional image display apparatus, the observer is always conscious of the image group scale (the image arrangement order and the number of images), and the position of the displayed image and the browsing direction (page turning direction). It is desirable to grasp the contents such as the amount and the remaining amount. This is a useless browsing operation contrary to the user's intention, for example, the designation of the browsing direction is incorrect regardless of the image to be displayed is the image of the next page of the currently displayed image, so the image of the previous page is displayed. This is to avoid useless browsing operation such as erroneous browsing.

[0005] However, it is practically difficult to grasp the above contents while judging or interpreting whether the image is an image of interest or another image, and therefore, it is often necessary to uselessly browse. will have to go.
At present, an image display device that addresses this point has not yet been provided.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to recognize browsing information including the position, the browsing direction, and the remaining amount of a display image to an observer. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image display device that supports a browsing operation by providing the browsing operation in an easy-to-use form, eliminates useless browsing operation, and thereby can increase the efficiency of an image diagnosis operation.

[0007]

An image display apparatus according to the present invention uses a plurality of medical images constituting an image group according to a predetermined standard.
Storage means for arranging and storing the medical images arranged in accordance with the following, display means for displaying medical images output from the storage means based on the arrangement, and an arrangement of the displayed medical images in the image group.
Create information that indicates to which location of
Information processing means, the display means the medical image and
In both cases, the information is simultaneously displayed . Further, the information is displayed as a line cursor for the model image.
Indicates the position of the medical image displayed by
It is characterized by the following .

[0008]

According to the image display device of the present invention, it is possible to display the position information of the image output from the storage means for storing a large number of images in the arrangement of the multiple images together with the images.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of an image display device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of this embodiment. An input device 2 such as a keyboard, a mouse, or a trackball is connected to the control device 1. The control device 1 specifies an image to be displayed next in response to an instruction from the input device 2, and determines the timing of display switching. It outputs a browsing control signal for instructing. Further, the control device 1 is connected to the image disk device 4, the image memory 5,
Central processing unit (CPU) 6, display port 9, and CR
A T (cathode ray tube) display 10 is connected. The image disk device 4 includes an X-ray diagnostic device, an ultrasonic diagnostic device, an X-ray CT device, and a magnetic resonance imaging device (MR
I) and a device for storing images obtained by an image acquisition device such as a nuclear medicine device or an endoscope. The device is provided with a storage medium such as a magnetic disk or an optical disk and a management means therefor. Perform storage and retrieval of images. This group of images is composed of a series of slice images acquired in a certain examination of a patient using, for example, an X-ray CT apparatus. The image memory 5 stores the images of the image group arranged in accordance with a predetermined reference such as a slice position and an acquisition time, and displays the next image in accordance with a browsing control signal supplied from the control device 1. One or more images are selectively supplied to the display port 9.
Since the image groups are arranged and stored in the image memory 5 in this manner, the observer can easily operate the input device 2 without recognizing detailed information such as the number of each image. Can be browsed.

The central processing unit 6 has an image processing unit 7 provided with various image processing means such as image reduction processing, binarization processing, contour enhancement processing, and the like, and a browsing information processing apparatus 8. The browsing information processing device 8 includes the control device 1
The browsing control signal output from the is input, the position of the image displayed according to the signal with respect to the image group scale (arrangement order, the number of images), the browsing direction,
The remaining amount is calculated, and browsing information is created and supplied to the display port 9.

The display port 9 forms a display screen from the image supplied from the image memory 5 and the browsing information supplied from the browsing information processing device 8, and forms a CR.
It is supplied to a T (cathode ray tube) display 10.

Next, the operation of the image display apparatus configured as described above will be described focusing on the configuration of the display screen and its changes. FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are views showing display examples of this display screen, and the observer selects and uses one of the display screens as appropriate in the interpretation work. In the following, area A is a range for displaying browsing information, and area B is a range for displaying an image.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a display screen suitable for displaying a group of images composed of a plurality of slice images having continuous slice positions. FIG. 2A shows one image. This is the case of single frame display method for single display,
FIG. 2B shows a case of a multi-frame display method in which a plurality of images are divided and displayed. The browsing information includes a model image 12 indicating a position of a display image and a line cursor 11.
, Arrows 13a and 13b selectively displayed to indicate the browsing direction, and a bar graph 14 indicating the remaining amount. In the case of the multi-frame display method as shown in FIG. 2B, the width of the line cursor 11 'is adjusted by adjusting the width according to the number of simultaneously displayed frames.

At the time of the browsing operation, the controller 1
Supplies a browsing control signal to the browsing information processing device 8 and the image memory 5, whereby the display image is switched in conjunction with the operation of the input device 2, and the display position of the line cursor 11 is changed to the arrangement position of the display image. , The arrow 13a or 13b according to the browsing direction is selectively displayed, and the bar portion (black portion) of the bar graph 14 expands and contracts in the left and right direction according to the remaining amount. I do. The observer can confirm the current position of the display image and the browsing state from the browsing information, and thereby can perform an appropriate browsing operation.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a display screen suitable for displaying an image group composed of a plurality of images having discontinuous slice positions, and FIG. 3A shows a case of a single frame display system. FIG. 3B shows the case of the multi-frame display method. As shown in FIG. 3A, the browsing information is obtained by reducing each image of the image group, arranging the reduced images 15 according to the arrangement of the image memory 5 and displaying the list, and enclosing the reduced image 15 with a frame cursor 16. This indicates the display image. The browsing direction and the remaining amount are provided by arrows 13a and 13b and a bar graph 14, as in FIG. In the case of the multi-frame display method shown in FIG. 3B, the size and shape of the frame cursor 16 'are adjusted according to the number of frames and their positional relationship.

At the time of the browsing operation, the input device 2
The displayed image is switched in conjunction with the operation of (1), and the frame cursor 16 moves so as to surround the reduced image of the displayed image, and the arrow 13a or 13 corresponding to the browsing direction.
b is selectively displayed, and the bar (black portion) of the bar graph 14 expands and contracts in the left-right direction of the paper according to the remaining amount, and the observer uses the browsing information to determine the arrangement relationship between the displayed image and other images. And the current browsing status can be easily checked. As shown in FIGS. 3C and 3D, an image number 15 'may be displayed instead of the reduced image 15. When the images of the image group are displayed as a list with reduced images or image numbers, the browsing direction is not limited to a one-dimensional direction along the arrangement direction of the image memory 5 but also to a two-dimensional direction such as a jump display. 3B. In this case, as shown in FIG. 3E, the display of the arrows 13a and 13b is changed to 8 so as to correspond to the two-dimensional movement of the frame cursor 16.
The direction is changed to an arrow 13 'capable of selectively indicating the direction and displayed. Further, when the number of images in the image group exceeds the number displayed in the list, as shown in FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the contents of the browsing information, that is, the image position, the direction of the browsing, and the remaining amount are not displayed. Only the direction and the remaining amount may be displayed. FIG. 4A is a diagram illustrating an example of a main menu displayed for the selection using the icon technology, and FIG. 4B is a diagram illustrating a display example based on the selection. As shown in FIG. 4A, the main menu 18 includes a direction menu 18a, a remaining amount menu 18b,
The viewer is composed of a position menu 18c and an OK menu 18d, and the observer operates a mouse (which may be shared with the input device 2) to move a cursor (not shown) to a desired menu, for example, a direction menu 18a, a remaining amount menu. 1
8b. Similarly, by specifying the OK menu 18d, only the arrow 13a or 13b indicating the direction of browsing and the bar graph 14 indicating the remaining amount can be displayed as shown in FIG. 4B. The cancel menu 19 is a menu for returning to the main menu 18.

In addition to the selection of the content of the browsing information shown in FIG. 4, a display method of an image position in the content is provided.
That is, the display method of the display of the model image 12 and the line cursor 11 as shown in FIG. 2 and the display method of the list display of reduced images and image numbers as shown in FIG. 3 may be selectable.
The selection of the display method of the position information is performed using the submenu 20 shown in FIG. This submenu 20
Is displayed when the user specifies the position including the position menu 18c of the main menu 18 shown in FIG.
When the position menu 18c is specified together with the remaining amount menu 18b of the main menu 18 as shown by hatching in FIG.
A submenu 20 is displayed. Submenu 20 is
The position menu 20a is composed of a position menu 20a, an image number menu 20b, a reduced image menu 20c, and an OK menu 20d. The position menu 20a is a menu for specifying the display of the model image 12 and the line cursor 11 as shown in FIG. The image number menu 20b is shown in FIG.
The reduced image menu 20c is a menu for specifying a list display of image numbers as shown in (c) and (d).
This is a menu for specifying a list display of reduced images as shown in FIGS. By specifying any one of them, or the image number menu 20b and the reduced image menu 20c in combination, and further specifying the OK menu 20d, the position and remaining amount information as shown in FIG. 5C is displayed. FIG. 5C shows the image number menu 2
This is a display example when a combination of 0b, the reduced image menu 20c, and the remaining amount menu 18b is designated.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the observer can perform the browsing operation while referring to the browsing information, that is, the position, the browsing direction, and the remaining amount of the display image. Image diagnosis can proceed efficiently without performing.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be implemented with various modifications. For example, in the above description, browsing information and images are multi-displayed on one CRT display, but two CRT displays may be prepared and displayed on each.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, the browsing information can be provided to the observer together with the image, and the observer can accurately perform the browsing operation. Can proceed efficiently.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a view showing an example of a display screen displayed on the CRT display shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary view showing another example of a display screen displayed on the CRT display shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary view for explaining a modification which enables selection of the content of browsing information displayed on the CRT display shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an exemplary view for explaining a modification in which the content of browsing information displayed on the CRT display shown in FIG. 1 and a display method of an image position can be selected;

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Control device, 2 ... Input device, 3 ... Data / control signal shared bus, 4 ... Image disk, 5 ... Image memory, 6 ...
CPU, 7: image processing device, 8: browsing information processing device, 9: display port, 10: CRT display.

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A Tokoro a large number of medical images constituting the image group
Storage means for arranging and storing according to a predetermined standard ; display means for displaying a medical image output from the storage means based on the arrangement ; Which position in the array
Information processing person who creates information indicating whether the item belongs to
And displaying the information together with the medical image on the display means.
Image display device comprising Shimesuru. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information is a line image for a model image.
Indicates the position of the medical image displayed by the cursor display.
2. The image display according to claim 1, wherein the image is displayed.
apparatus.