| CPC A61B 5/0066 (2013.01) [A61B 5/0088 (2013.01)] | 25 Claims |
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1. A tomography system comprising:
a probe housing defining a window and configured to be oriented and reoriented, and moved along a path proximate an anatomical item in a live patient, the anatomical item having a surface;
an optical coherence tomography system comprising an optical detector and a light source configured to produce a sample, wherein, during operation, a portion of the sample arm extends outside the probe housing, in free space, via the window, in a direction that depends on orientation and position of the probe housing;
a moveable mirror system disposed within the probe housing and configured to redirect the sample arm;
a motor disposed within the probe housing and coupled to the mirror system; and
a controller configured to automatically:
drive the motor to repeatedly alter orientation of the mirror system about two different axes to thereby repeatedly scan the surface of the anatomic item with light of the sample arm along a trajectory according to a deterministic two-dimensional scan pattern, such that:
each traversal of the scan pattern defines a respective two-dimensional scan area on a respective portion of the surface of the anatomic item, thereby collectively defining a plurality of scan areas;
and
each traversal of the scan pattern yields a respective sparse data frame having a respective first pixel density captured from within the respective two-dimensional scan area, while the probe housing was at a respective orientation and position, thereby collectively yielding a plurality of sparse data frames as the probe housing is oriented, reoriented, and moved along the path;
receive pixel data from the optical detector for the plurality of sparse data frames, wherein at least some frames of the plurality of sparse data frames were captured from different respective probe housing orientations and/or positions, and wherein at least some frame pairs of the plurality of sparse data frames have partially overlapping respective scan areas; and
generate a dense surface image data frame by combining pixel data of at least partially overlapping frames of the plurality of sparse data frames, wherein the dense data frame has a second pixel density greater than the first pixels density.
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