The appropriate positioning of a patient in an X-Ray imaging system can present difficulties for medical professional owing, on one hand to the small size of important anatomical aspects which need to be captured in X-Ray images, and on the other hand to the significant movements in a field of view presented by a typical patient. The present application proposes to obtain an image of the position of a patient in the field of view at approximately the same time that an initial X-Ray image is obtained. If it proves necessary to obtain a subsequent X-Ray image with updated field of view settings (for example, collimation parameters), the movement of the patient at the point of taking the second image is factored into the provision of updated field of view settings.

A medical imaging unit includes a patient receiving area, a housing unit at least partly surrounding the patient receiving area, a detector unit, and a movement detection unit. The movement detection unit includes two or more detection elements configured for detecting a distance from the detection elements to the patient, and including an evaluation unit. The evaluation unit is configured to establish from detected movement of the individual detection elements a three-dimensional movement of the patient within the patient receiving area.

Disclosed is apparatus and method for motion tracking of a subject in medical brain imaging. The method comprises providing a light projector and a first camera; projecting a first pattern sequence (S1) onto a surface region of the subject with the light projector, wherein the subject is positioned in a scanner borehole of a medical scanner, the first pattern sequence comprising a first primary pattern (P.sub.1,1) and/or a first secondary pattern (P.sub.1,2); detecting the projected first pattern sequence (S1) with the first camera; determining a second pattern sequence (S2) comprising a second primary pattern (P.sub.2,1) based on the detected first pattern sequence (S1); projecting the second pattern sequence (S2) onto a surface region of the subject with the light projector; detecting the projected second pattern sequence (S2) with the first camera; and determining motion tracking parameters based on the detected second pattern sequence (S2).

Communication systems are described that use signal constellations, which have unequally spaced (i.e. geometrically shaped) points. In many embodiments, the communication systems use specific geometric constellations that are capacity optimized at a specific SNR. In addition, ranges within which the constellation points of a capacity optimized constellation can be perturbed and are still likely to achieve a given percentage of the optimal capacity increase compared to a constellation that maximizes d.sub.min, are also described. Capacity measures that are used in the selection of the location of constellation points include, but are not limited to, parallel decode (PD) capacity and joint capacity.

Methods and systems are provided for measuring vibrations in an imaging system. In one embodiment, a method for a computed tomography (CT) system includes measuring a vibration level of a rotatable gantry of the CT system with a balance sensor coupled to a stationary housing of the CT system and outputting a notification indicating potential image artifacts based on the vibration level exceeding a vibration threshold.

The present invention relates to chest radiography. In order to improve image quality and consistency, there is provided a breathing status determination device, which comprises an input unit, a processing unit, and an output unit. The input unit is configured to receive a sequence of depth images that is continuously captured with a sensor having a field of view covering a torso of a patient positioned for a chest radiography image examination. The processing unit is configured to analyse the received sequence of depth images to determine a change of depth values inside one or more region-of-interests (ROIs) overtime that represents a respiratory motion of the patient, and to determine a breathing signal based on the determined change of depth values inside the one or more ROIs over time. The output unit is configured to provide the determined breathing signal.

An apparatus for displaying a moving region of interest located within a body includes a positioning system to determine a position and orientation (P&O) of a medical device as well as to track, using an internal position reference sensor, the motion of the region of interest over time. A compensation function block generates a motion compensation function based on the motion of the region of interest, which is configured to compensate for the motion of the region of interest between a first time, for example a time at which an image was acquired and a second time, for example a time at which a P&O of the device was measured. The measured P&O is corrected using the compensation function. A representation of the medical device is superimposed on the image in accordance with the corrected P&O.

Communication systems are described that use signal constellations, which have unequally spaced (i.e. geometrically shaped) points. In many embodiments, the communication systems use specific geometric constellations that are capacity optimized at a specific SNR. In addition, ranges within which the constellation points of a capacity optimized constellation can be perturbed and are still likely to achieve a given percentage of the optimal capacity increase compared to a constellation that maximizes d.sub.min, are also described. Capacity measures that are used in the selection of the location of constellation points include, but are not limited to, parallel decode (PD) capacity and joint capacity.

A radiation imaging system including an imager that performs imaging of moving images by irradiating a subject with radiation, the radiation imaging system including

a storage in which an imaging guide pattern for instructing a predetermined motion to the subject at a time of imaging by the imager is associated with a predetermined word that can be included in an imaging order and is stored,

a hardware processor that acquires an imaging order to imaging by the imager, extracts the predetermined word from the acquired imaging order, and selects an imaging guide pattern that is associated with the extracted predetermined word from imaging guide patterns stored in the storage, and

an instructor that instructs the predetermined motion to the subject, based on the selected imaging guide pattern.

The present invention, in one form, is a method for deriving respiratory gated PET image reconstruction from raw PET data. In reconstructing the respiratory gated images in accordance with the present invention, respiratory motion information derived from individual voxel signal fluctuations, is used in combination to create usable respiratory phase information. Employing this method allows the respiratory gated PET images to be reconstructed from PET data with out the use of external hardware, and in a fully automated manner.