Towards real-time registration of 4D ultrasound images

In this paper, we demonstrate a method for fast registration of sequences of 3D liver images, which could be used for the future real-time applications. In our method, every image is elastically registered to a so called fixed ultrasound image exploiting the information from previous registration. A few feature points are automatically selected, and tracked inside the images, while the deformation of other points are extrapolated with respect to the tracked points employing a fast free-form approach. The main intended application of the proposed method is real-time tracking of tumors for radiosurgery. The algorithm is evaluated on both naturally and artificially deformed images. Experimental results show that for around 85 percent accuracy, the process of tracking is completed very close to real time.