Medical image sequence interpolation via hierarchical pel-recursive motion estimation

Reduction of exposure in a pulsed cardiac X-ray fluoroscopy system may be accomplished by interrupting exposure during slower phases of the cardiac cycle and filling in the missing frames by interpolation to restore the full frame rate. The authors present a novel interpolation method whereby the collected frames are decomposed into a multiresolution hierarchy and a pixel-recursive algorithm is employed from the lowest to highest resolution in the hierarchy to obtain estimates of the pixel displacements. The intensity changes between corresponding pixels are then interpolated to fill in the missing frames. The authors show a computer simulation of the method, where only 11 of the original 29 frames produce a natural, nearly artifact-free rendition of the sequence.<>