Method and apparatus to generate a volume-panorama image

Abstract

A method and apparatus to generate a volume-panorama image are provided. A method of generating a volume-panorama image includes receiving conversion relationships between volume images, one of the received conversion relationships being between a first volume image of the volume images and a second volume image of the volume images, the second volume image including an area that is common to an area of the first volume image, generating an optimized conversion relationship from the one of the received conversion relationships based on the received conversion relationships, and generating the volume-panorama image based on the generated optimized conversion relationship.

1 . A method of generating a volume-panorama image, comprising:
 receiving conversion relationships between volume images, one of the received conversion relationships being between a first volume image of the volume images and a second volume image of the volume images, the second volume image comprising an area that is common to an area of the first volume image;   generating an optimized conversion relationship from the one of the received conversion relationships based on the received conversion relationships; and   generating the volume-panorama image based on the generated optimized conversion relationship.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the generating of the optimized conversion relationship comprises generating conversion information representing the received conversion relationships and generating the optimized conversion relationship based on the generated conversion information. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the generated conversion information comprises a vector comprising one or more parameters extracted from each of the received conversion relationships. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the parameters represent a relationship of an orientation conversion between the first and second volume images, a relationship of a location conversion between the first and second volume images, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the generating of the optimized conversion relationship comprises determining a similarity between morphological characteristics of the first and second volume images based on the one of the received conversion relationships and generating the optimized conversion relationship based on similarities comprising the determined similarity. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the generating of the optimized conversion relationship further comprises changing the received conversion relationships to maximize a sum of the similarities and generating the optimized conversion relationship based on the changed conversion relationships. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the determined similarity comprises a similarity between a warped morphological characteristic of the second volume image based on the one of the received conversion relationships and the morphological characteristic of the first volume image. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving pieces of image data of the volume images,   wherein the generating of the volume-panorama image comprises generating image data representing the volume-panorama image from the pieces of image data based on the generated optimized conversion relationship.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the generating of the volume-panorama image further comprises generating image data of one of the volume images that is to be combined with the first volume image from the image data of the second volume image based on the generated optimized conversion relationship, and
 wherein the generating of the image data representing the volume-panorama image comprises combining the image data of the first volume image with the generated image data of the one of the volume images that is to be combined with the first volume image.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the generating of the volume-panorama image further comprises determining a local conversion relationship based on local volume images into which the one of the volume images that is to be combined with the first volume image is split and updating the generated image data of the one of the volume images that is to be combined with the first volume image based on the determined local conversion relationship. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising, where the one of the received conversion relationships is a first conversion relationship:
 receiving a second conversion relationship of the received conversion relationships, the second conversion relationship being between the second volume image and a third volume image of the volume images, the third volume image comprising an area that is common to an area of the second volume image and different from the area of the second volume image that is common to the area of the first volume image.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising, where the generated optimized conversion relationship is a first optimized conversion relationship of a plurality of optimized conversion relationships:
 generating the first optimized conversion relationship from the first conversion relationship and a second optimized conversion relationship of the optimized conversion relationships from the second conversion relationship, the generating of the first optimized conversion relationship and the second optimized conversion relationship being based on the first conversion relationship and the second conversion relationship.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 receiving pieces of image data of the volume images,   wherein the generating of the volume-panorama image comprises generating first image data of one of the volume images that is to be combined with the first volume image from the image data of the second volume image, second image data of one of the volume images that is to be combined with the second volume image from the image data of the third volume image, and image data that represents the volume-panorama image, the generating of the first image data being based on the first optimized conversion relationship, the generating of the second image data being based on the second optimized conversion relationship, the generating of the image data that represents the volume-panorama image being based on the image data of the first volume image, the first image data, and the second image data.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining the one of the received conversion relationships based on a partial one of the received conversion relationships, the partial one of the received conversion relationships being between a partial region of the first volume image and a partial region of the second volume image.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising:
 determining the one of the received conversion relationships based on one or more parameters that normalizes the partial region of the first volume image and the partial region of the second volume image into spherical regions.   
     
     
         16 . A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing the method of  claim 1 . 
     
     
         17 . An apparatus to generate a volume-panorama image, comprising:
 an input unit configured to receive pieces of image data of volume images;   an image processor configured to generate an optimized conversion relationship from one of a plurality of conversion relationships between the volume images and generate the volume-panorama image based on the optimized conversion relationship, the one of the plurality of conversion relationships being between a first volume image of the volume images and a second volume image of the volume images, the generated optimized conversion relationship being based on the plurality of conversion relationships; and   an output unit configured to output the generated volume-panorama image.   
     
     
         18 . The apparatus of  claim 17 , wherein the input unit is further configured to receive the plurality of conversion relationships,
 wherein the first volume image comprises an area that is common to an area of the second volume image, and   wherein the image processor comprises an optimization conversion function generation unit and a volume-panorama image generation unit, the optimization conversion function generation unit being configured to generate the optimized conversion relationship from the plurality of conversion relationships, the volume-panorama image generation unit being configured to generate the volume-panorama image based on the generated optimized conversion relationship.   
     
     
         19 . The apparatus of  claim 18 , wherein the optimization conversion function generation unit comprises a conversion information generation unit and a conversion information optimization unit, the conversion information generation unit being configured to generate conversion information representing the plurality of conversion relationships, the conversion information optimization unit being configured to generate the optimized conversion relationship from the plurality of conversion relationships based on the conversion information. 
     
     
         20 . The apparatus of  claim 17 , wherein the first volume image comprises an area that is common to an area of the second volume image, and
 wherein the image processor comprises a conversion relationship determination unit, an optimization conversion function generation unit, and a volume-panorama image generation unit, the conversion relationship determination unit being configured to determine the plurality of conversion relationships based on the received pieces of the image data, the optimization conversion function generation unit being configured to generate the optimized conversion relationship from the determined plurality of conversion relationships, the volume-panorama image generation unit being configured to generate the volume-panorama image based on the generated optimized conversion relationship.   
     
     
         21 . A method of generating a volume-panorama image, comprising:
 receiving pieces of image data of volume images;   determining conversion relationships based on the pieces of the image data, one of the determined conversion relationships being between a first volume image of the volume images and a second volume image of the volume images, the second volume image comprising an area that is common to an area of the first volume image;   generating an optimized conversion relationship from the one of the determined conversion relationships based on the determined conversion relationships; and   generating the volume-panorama image based on the optimized conversion relationship.