Long Bone X-ray Image Stitching Using C-arm Motion Estimation

In this paper, we propose a novel method to generate panoramic X-ray images intra-operatively by using the previously introduced camera augmented mobile C-arm by Navab et al. [1]. This advanced mobile C-arm system acquires registered X-ray and optical images by construction, which facilitates the generation of panoramic X-ray images based on the motion estimation of the X-ray source. Visual marker tracking is employed to estimate the camera motion and this estimated motion is also applied to the X-ray source. Our proposed method is suitable and practical for intra-operative usage generating panoramic X-ray images without the requirement of a fronto-parallel setup and overlapping X-ray images. The results show that the panoramic X-ray images generated by our method are accurate enough (errors less than 1%) for metric measurements and promise suitability for intra-operative clinical applications in trauma surgery.