According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a determination of a (floating) isocenter of a radiotherapy system can be provided. For example, the radiotherapy system can comprises a patient support structure, a gantry configured to be rotatable around a gantry axis and having a radiation source, and at least one radiation imaging device. The system can include a calibration system comprising at least one first optical detector mounted at the gantry, at least one second optical detector fixed in a surrounding area of the patient support structure and/or the gantry, first fiducial markers selectively attachable at the patient support structure at defined positions and detectable by the first optical detector, and a phantom selectively attachable at the patient support structure at a defined position. The phantom can include second fiducial markers detectable by the second optical detector, and third fiducial markers configured to be detectable by the radiation imaging device. The system can comprises a controller configured to selectively activate the radiation source and rotate the gantry, and, for one or more rotational positions of the gantry, to determine a point of intersection of a beam axis of the radiation source and the gantry axis by linking detection data of the first optical detector, the second optical detector and/or the radiation imaging device.

The present invention provides improved methods and apparatus that use machine vision techniques to rapidly and automatically guide objects into desired docking configurations. The present invention is based at least in part upon using multi-depth, rotationally symmetric targets that are observed from two or more observation perspectives. By taking advantage of parallax effects associated with the multi-depth topography of the target, the apparent positions of target features in captured image information encodes position and angular alignment of the objects relative to each other in three dimensional space. The practice of the present invention provides a fast, accurate, reliable and automatic approach to achieve hard or soft docking configurations in the electron beam therapies as well as to implement real-time gating and tracking during the course of a treatment.

Apparatus and methods for therapy delivery are disclosed. In one embodiment, a therapy delivery system includes a plurality of movable components including a radiation therapy nozzle and a patient pod for holding a patient, a patient registration module for determining a desired position of at least one of the plurality of movable components, and a motion control module for coordinating the movement of the least one of the plurality of movable components from a current position to the desired position. The motion control module includes a path planning module for simulating at least one projected trajectory of movement of the least one of the plurality of moveable components from the current position to the desired position.

In various embodiments, methods and devices are provided for generating a radiotherapy treatment plan for a subject to be implemented on a radiotherapy device. In certain embodiments the methods involve determining all feasible radiotherapy beam orientations free of collision for said radiotherapy device and said subject to provide a set of radiotherapy beam orientations; selecting from the set of all feasible radiotherapy beam orientations a subset of beams that meet treatment goals to be used in treatment of the subject to provide a selected beam set; calculating a navigation trajectory for the radiotherapy device to delivery said subset of beams to the subject where the trajectory is free of collision; and generating and writing instruction files to a tangible medium that can be executed by said radiotherapy device.

An object tracking device includes a superimposed image creation unit configured to create a plurality of superimposed images in which each of a plurality of non-tracking object images which do not include a tracking object image feature is superimposed on a tracking object section image which includes a tracking object image feature; a discriminator creation unit configured to learn at least one of an image feature and position information of the tracking object, based on the plurality of superimposed images to create a discriminator; and a tracking object specifying unit configured to specify at least one of the image feature and the position information of the tracking object in a tracked image including the respective image features of the tracking object and an obstacle, based on the discriminator and the tracked image.

Provided is a method of positioning a patient for radiation treatment and/or of monitoring a position of the patient during radiation treatment. The method includes providing surface data from a 3D surface scanner indicative of a surface of a body part of the patient to be irradiated in the radiation treatment. Surface data are calibrated with respect to a relative position of the 3D surface scanner and an isocenter position of a radiation treatment apparatus. A beam path of a radiation beam is determined based on planning data for the radiation treatment and intersected with a part of the surface of the patient represented by the surface data. Further, at least a first portion of the patient's surface located inside the beam path and/or at least a second portion of the patient's surface located outside the beam path is calculated.

A method is provided of producing an optical filter. The method comprises depositing a first mirror layer onto a substrate; depositing an insulating layer on the first mirror; exposing at least some of a plurality of portions of a surface of the insulating layer to a dose of energy; developing the insulating layer in order to remove a volume from the at least some of the plurality of portions of the insulating layer, wherein the volume of the insulating layer removed from each portion is related to the dose of energy exposed to each portion, and wherein a remaining thickness after the removal of the volume from each portion of the insulating layer is related to the dose of energy exposed to each portion. The method further comprising depositing a second mirror layer on the remaining thickness of each of the plurality of portions of the insulating layer.

Subject positioning systems and methods are provided. A method may include obtaining first information of at least part of a subject when the subject is located at a preset position, and determining, based on the first information, a first position of each of one or more feature points located on the at least part of the subject. The method may include obtaining, using an imaging device, second information of the at least part of the subject when the subject is located at a candidate position. The method may further include determining, based on the second information, a second position of each of the one or more feature points, a first distance between the first position and the second position for each feature point of the one or more feature points, and a target position of the subject based at least in part on the one or more first distances.

An immobilization apparatus having at least one or more straps that engage a surface; wherein at least one of the straps comprises a force gauge to determine the amount of force applied to a patient immobilized with said straps; wherein the position of the patient is replicable for treatment of radiation and other head or neck treatments.

A multi-purpose object for calibrating, monitoring and/or tracking a patient in a treatment system and/or a treatment planning system is described, the multi-purpose object being made of transparent material and defining an internal space having one or more targets, wherein an upper surface is coated so as to define a pattern of transparent markings. The interior of the multi-purpose object can be back lit to present a high contrast surface image for a patient treatment, tracking or monitoring system.