JPH0776972B2 - Image information management method - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an image information management method for storing and retrieving image information having various image formats.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

In recent years, in the field of medical diagnosis, many diagnostic devices utilizing X-ray tomographic images, diagnostic devices utilizing the magnetic resonance phenomenon, and the like have appeared, and the types of digital images in this field have significantly increased. Then, the image information of these digital images is usually stored and retrieved by using the incidental information that is stored in association with the image data.

The additional information includes various key information necessary for storage / retrieval, that is, image format information key, image data information such as image size and storage method.

 Patient information key Personal information such as patient name and date of birth.

 Inspection information key Inspection data information such as inspection equipment and inspection date.

 Diagnostic information key Diagnostic information such as doctor name and diagnostic code.

Other information keys are included as general key information, and these key information are recorded in a key information portion provided at a fixed location on the storage medium with a fixed length as shown in FIG. Is common. However, since the handling of the supplementary information varies depending on the manufacturer or the type of diagnostic device, the supplementary information code set on the storage medium, that is, the code format of the key information, is in a wide variety of formats. For example, to explain the patient name information in the patient information key, some diagnostic devices have the address of this information as 12
It is set as 12 bytes from address number 24 to address number 0 to 11
Other information is assigned to the address, whereas other diagnostic equipment is set to 16 bytes from address 0 to address 16, and other information is assigned to address 16 and after. In this example, the address range and the number of bytes to be designated are different, and the storage order is also different. In addition, the format of the image data is often different for each diagnostic device, and the image format information key indicating the difference is also different for each diagnostic device, like the patient information key described above. Therefore, for example, when comparing the contents of incidental information generated by a certain diagnostic device with the contents of incidental information generated by another diagnostic device, it is absolutely necessary to remember each format, and as a result, the type of diagnostic device The problem arises that it becomes difficult to deal with the increase in the number and numbers.

Furthermore, if new key information has to be added as supplementary information, it is necessary to search for an unused area on the storage medium, or to change the length of the key information on the way. If, for example, in the patient name of the patient information key, a patient who needs a large number of bytes in the name by entering katakana, such as a foreigner, comes to the diagnosis, enter the number of bytes. In order to increase the number, it is necessary to shift the address of the key information after the key information of the patient name, and there is a problem from the aspect of expandability that the change cannot be prepared easily.

[Object of the Invention]

The present invention has been made under the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a new image information management method capable of storing incidental information relating to various digital images without any loss.

[Outline of Invention]

An outline of the present invention for achieving the above object is to provide an image information management method for managing image information having various image formats based on incidental information of image data included in the image data. When storing the supplementary information of the above, the contents of the supplementary information are stored together with a preset identifier, and the contents of the stored supplementary information can be transferred to the subsequent process by using the identifier. is there.

Example of Invention

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. First, a method of storing the incidental information will be described. First
The figure is a diagram showing a storage method in the image information management method according to the present invention, the figure (a) is a figure showing the configuration of the whole image information, and the figure (b) is a detailed view of the file header part. FIG. 3C is a detailed view of a single key information section.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is an auxiliary information section, which is composed of a file header section 2 and a key information section 3, and 4 is an image data information section for recording image data. The lengths of the incidental information section 1 and the image data information section 4 are both formed in multiples of 512 bytes, for example. The file header part 2 is fixed to 16 bytes, and as shown in FIG. 2B, a fixed address 5 that can store 14 bytes of information and the length of the key information part that indicates the information length of the entire key information part 3. Code 6 (2 bytes of binary information can be stored). The key information section 3 is composed of a plurality of small sections 3 _-1 , 3 _-2 , 3 _-3 ... 3 _-n , and each small section has patient key information and examination key information as described above. Etc. are stored. Each key information sub-partition 3 _-1 , 3 _-2 , 3 _-3 ... 3 _-n has a key information length that indicates the length of each identifier (2 bytes) 3a and each key information content. It consists of a code (2 bytes) 3b and, for example, key information content 3c that records the name and date of birth of a specific patient. The length of this key information content 3c can be changed as required. Further, the identifier (2 bytes) 3a is, for example, a group number 3d (1 byte), which is a large classification identifier such as a patient information key / examination information key, and a small classification identifier such as a name / date of birth. It shall consist of the element number (1 byte) 3e.

A wide variety of incidental information of digital images is stored such that each key information content 3c has a predetermined common identifier 3a together with the key information length code 3b. As a result, digital images having various kinds of key information can be efficiently managed by using a common identifier. In particular, the length of the key information may differ for the same key information depending on the type of digital image, but according to the present embodiment, it is possible to treat key information of different length as the same idea. Also, since the length of the key information content 3c can be changed,
It is easy to add / change the contents of key information. If necessary, the key information section length code 6 can be set as an information length including the image data information section 4.

Next, a transfer means for outputting the contents of each key information stored as described above to the outside will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a transfer means using the image information management method according to the present invention.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 11 denotes an input identifier register that holds an identifier input by means not shown in the drawing,
Reference numeral 12 is a comparator for comparing the identifier held in the input identifier register 11 with the identifier held in the identifier register 18 described later. The signal from the comparator 12 is sent to the pointer control register 13 and the auxiliary information content register 16. By the way, the above-mentioned identifier register 18 stores the image information data storage unit 15 after storing the digital image by the above-described storage method.
The identifier of certain key information in certain image information designated by the pointer register 14 is fetched from and held.
Similarly, the length of the key information and the content of the key information are fetched and held in the key information length register 17 and the key information content register 16, respectively. Also, the pointer register
14 is controlled by a signal from the pointer control register 13. Reference numeral 19 is an output auxiliary information content register which transfers the content of the key information to the outside in response to the signal from the comparator 12.

In order to obtain the content of the supplementary information (that is, key information) required from the image information storage unit 15, an identifier (for example, a large-class patient information key) corresponding to the content of the supplementary information is input by an input identifier register by means not shown. Enter in 11. The identifier input to the input identifier register 11 is compared with the identifier of the identifier register 18 described later by the comparator 12. By the way, the identifier of the key information stored in the image information storage unit 15 is fetched and held in the identifier register 18 according to an instruction from the pointer register 14. Similarly, in the key information length register 17 and the key information content register 16, the length of the key information and the content of the information are taken out and held by the instruction of the pointer register 14.

If the input identifier and the retrieved identifier match, the contents of the auxiliary information content register 16 at that time (for example, the specific patient name, date of birth, etc.) are output by the instruction from the comparator 12. It is taken out to the auxiliary information content register 19.

However, if the two do not match, the pointer control register 13 reads the contents of the key information length register 17 according to an instruction from the comparator 12, and the pointer information is stored in the pointer information register 14.
Instruct to retrieve the next key information from 15. The identifier of the extracted key information is held in the identifier register and again compared with the identifier input by the comparator 12. If the two do not match, the above operation is repeated until the input identifier and the information in the identifier register 18 match. When the two coincide with each other, the contents of the information are taken out to the output auxiliary information contents register 19 as described above.

This makes it possible not only to easily retrieve the contents of the key information corresponding to an arbitrary identifier, but also to divide the identifiers into major classifications and minor classifications (3d, 3e), making it easy to retrieve the necessary information. You can It is possible to easily compare the contents of the incidental information generated by a certain diagnostic device with the contents of the incidental information of another diagnostic device by using a common identifier. There is no need to do it.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the contents of incidental information of a wide variety of digital images of different formats are stored together with a preset identifier, and this identifier can be used for retrieval, so even if different bytes are used. Even a number of pieces of key information can be treated as the same idea, and the contents of the key information can be easily added / changed and images can be easily searched.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a storage method in an image information management method according to the present invention. FIG. 1 (a) is a diagram showing a configuration of entire image information, FIG. 1 (b) is a detailed diagram of a file header portion, and FIG. (C) is a detailed view of the key information section. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a transfer means using the image information management method according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a conventional storage method. 1 …… Attached information section, 2 …… File header section, 3 ……
Key information section, 3 _-1 , 3 _-2 , 3 _-3 , ... 3 _-n ... Small section of key information, 6 ... Key information section length code, 3a ... Identifier,
11 …… input identifier register, 12 …… comparator, 13 …… pointer control register, 14 …… pointer register, 15 …… image information storage unit, 16 …… incidental information content register, 17 …… incidental information length register , 18 …… Identifier register, 19 …… Output additional information content register.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An image information management method for managing image information having various image formats on the basis of incidental information of image data included in the image information, wherein the incidental information is stored in an image information recording medium. At this time, an identifier having information indicating the classification of the additional information is generated, the identifier is stored together with the additional information and the additional information length code indicating the length of the additional information, and the stored identifier is used. An image information management method, characterized in that the image information is searched by.