AN OPTICAL-SYSTEM FOR MEASURING SURFACE SHAPES FOR RADIOTHERAPY PLANNING

A system which uses two remote cameras to obtain surface contours for radiotherapy patients is described. Two variants are presented: one wh ich requires couch movement to obtain multiple outlines, and one utili zing a special illumination method to achieve multiple outlines from o ne image per camera. In addition, a technique is discussed in which th e grey-scale information from the skin surface (e.g., skin marks place d by the radiotherapist) may be utilized in displaying three-dimension al surface information. The system may also be used to monitor patient position in real time during each treatment.