Patent ID: 11955246
Assignee: INTUITIVE SURGICAL OPERATIONS, INC.
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  A | IPC A  G

Claim 10:
11. A method of modeling a 3D structure comprising:
producing a 3D image scan data model of the 3D structure that includes 3D voxel grid that indicates viscoelasticity at 3D locations within the 3D structure;
producing a volume mesh representation of the 3D structure that includes primitive volumetric cells that include both surface vertices that define a surface mesh portion of the volume mesh and internal vertices internal to the volume mesh;
determining deformation of the volume mesh in response to a simulated force by accessing both surface vertices in the first sub-list and internal vertices in the second sub-list;
sorting the surface vertices of the primitive volumetric cells of the volume mesh into a first sub-list and sorting the internal vertices of the primitive volumetric cells of the volume mesh into a second sub-list;
using a data structure that includes at least one base address pointing to a list comprising the first sub-list and the second sub-list, a count of surface vertices in the first sub-list, and a count of internal vertices in the second sub-list, to store the first sub-list and to store the second sub-list in a memory storage device, wherein the at least one base address is used for accessing the first sub-list and the at least one base address and the count of the surface vertices in the first sub-list are used to access the second sub-list in the memory storage device;
applying shading to the surface mesh by accessing from the memory storage device only surface vertices of the primitive volumetric cells within the volume mesh included in the first sub-list;
determining viscoelasticity values that correspond to surface vertices of the primitive volumetric cells and determining viscoelasticity values that correspond to internal vertices of the primitive volumetric cells, based upon the viscoelasticity at 3D locations within the 3D structure; and
determining deformation of the volume mesh in response to the simulated force as a function of the viscoelasticity values determined to correspond to the surface vertices and the viscoelasticity values determined to correspond to internal vertices, by accessing from the memory storage device both surface vertices of the primitive volumetric cells within the volume mesh included in the first sub-list and internal vertices of the primitive volumetric cells within the volume mesh included in the second sub-list.