Spatio-temporal analysis of nonrigid motion from 4D data

Abstract

Presents a method for analysis of nonrigid motion in time sequences of volume images (4D data). In this method, nonrigid motion of the deforming object's contour is dynamically approximated by a deformable surface. In order to reduce the number of parameters describing the deformation, we make use of modal analysis, which provides a spatial smoothing of the surface, and Fourier analysis of the time signals of the main deformation spectrum components, which provides a temporal smoothing. Thus, a complex nonrigid deformation displayed in 4D data is described by very few parameters: the main excited spatial modes and the main Fourier harmonics. Therefore, 4D data can be analyzed and reduced in a very efficient way. The power of the approach is illustrated by results on 4D heart-scan data.<>