Towards the self-calibration of a multiview radiographic imaging system for the 3D reconstruction of the human spine and rib cage

The main objective of this study was to develop a 3D reconstruction technique of the spine and rib cage of idiopathic scoliotic patients using the self-calibration of the imaging system. The proposed approach computes the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of the radiographic setup with respect to the global coordinate system used at Ste-Justine Hospital. Our approach determines an optimal estimate of the geometrical parameters of the imaging system from a nonlinear minimization of the mean square distance between the observed and analytical projections of a set of matched points identified on a pair of radiographic views. The accuracy of the optimal estimate for the intrinsic parameters was significantly improved when geometric knowledge such as the known length of detectable straight bars is incorporated as a set of equality constraints in the optimization process. Furthermore, in order to retrieve the 3D structure of interest in the global coordinate system, a reference plane including the origin of the global coordinate system is specified. Computer simulations were performed to evaluate the self-calibration procedure and to determine the minimum knowledge required to obtain an accurate 3D reconstruction for clinical applications. An in vitro validation on real images of a dry cadaveric human spine showed that the method is feasible and reaches the expected accuracy.