The present invention relates to a method of and system for storing, communicating, and displaying image data and, particularly, storing the image data at a server, communicating at least a portion of the image data from the server to a client via a network, and displaying one or more images at the client using the communicated data.
In medical imaging, data is acquired by an imaging system (e.g., a computed-tomography system, a magnetic-resonance system, a computed-radiography system, etc.) as a series of two-dimensional (2D) image planes. The series of planes represent a three-dimensional (3D) or higher-dimensional image (e.g., a 3D image changing over time is considered to be a four-dimensional (4D) image). Prior systems stored the series of planes in memory and various storage media as either a “slice” model or a “matrix” model.
The slice model is a structure where the acquired data is stored as a series (sometimes referred to as a “stack”) of images. That is, each image plane is represented by a 2D array. Each 2D array includes a plurality of points represented by the structure (x, y), and each point has a value (e.g., an intensity, color, etc.).
The matrix model is a structure where the acquired data is stored as a single 3D array. The 3D array includes a plurality of points represented by the structure (x, y, z), and each point has a value (e.g., an intensity). For the matrix model, the 3D array includes all of the acquired points.
Medical image viewing has traditionally been film-based. A physician interested in viewing a multi-slice data set had no choice but to view the data as it was acquired, i.e., as a series of 2D planes along the direction of the scan. Both the slice model and matrix models are sufficient mechanisms to store data that is rendered in this fashion. However, these models are not adequate in other applications.