US 12,332,393 B2
Method to register an optical tracking system with a particle detector system
Don F. DeJongh, Naperville, IL (US); Ethan A. DeJongh, Naperville, IL (US); Victor Rykalin, Naperville, IL (US); Nicholas Karonis, DeKalb, IL (US); Kirk Duffin, DeKalb, IL (US); Caesar Ordonez, DeKalb, IL (US); and John Winans, DeKalb, IL (US)
Assigned to ProtonVDA LLC., Naperville, IL (US); and Board Of Trustees Of NIU, Naperville, IL (US)
Filed by ProtonVDA LLC., Naperville, IL (US); and Board Of Trustees Of Northern Illinois University (NIU), DeKalb, IL (US)
Filed on Oct. 20, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/970,240.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/270,328, filed on Oct. 21, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0126392 A1, Apr. 27, 2023
Int. Cl. G01T 5/08 (2006.01); G01T 1/16 (2006.01); G01T 1/29 (2006.01)
CPC G01T 5/08 (2013.01) [G01T 1/1603 (2013.01); G01T 1/2978 (2013.01)] 10 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for registering an optical tracking system with a particle detector system in a common voxel coordinate grid to improve quality assurance, accuracy, speed, and operating cost efficiencies of a medical imaging process, the method comprising the steps of:
defining, with a camera system as the optical tracking system, a rigid body from a first set of markers on an object support and a second set of markers on a tracking frame;
obtaining, with the camera system, a time-dependent coordinate transformation from camera coordinates to rigid body coordinates;
obtaining, with the camera system, a coordinate transformation from the camera coordinates to tracker coordinates of the tracking frame;
obtaining, with the camera system, a time-dependent coordinate transformation from the rigid body coordinates to the tracker coordinates;
calibrating, with a proton imaging system as the particle detector system, locations of trackers in an isocentric coordinate system;
obtaining, with the proton imaging system, a coordinate transformation from the tracker coordinates to isocentric coordinates in the isocentric coordinate system;
defining, with the proton imaging system, voxel coordinates of the common voxel coordinate grid to coincide with the isocentric coordinates at a beginning of measurement, wherein the voxel coordinates move with the rigid body;
obtaining, with the camera system and the proton imaging system, a time-dependent coordinate transformation from the tracker coordinates to the voxel coordinates;
measuring, with the proton imaging system, a proton trajectory in the tracker coordinates; and
placing the proton trajectory into the voxel coordinates of the common voxel coordinate grid by utilizing the time-dependent coordinate transformation from the tracker coordinates to the voxel coordinates and the proton trajectory measured by the proton imaging system.