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

Claim 33:
34. A method to produce, in a computer memory, a volume mesh structure that represents a three-dimensional (3D) model, the method comprising:
determining surface vertex viscoelasticity values that correspond to 3D locations of surface vertices of primitive volumetric cells within the volume mesh structure; and
determining internal vertex viscoelasticity values that correspond to 3D locations of internal vertices of the primitive volumetric cells within the volume mesh structure;
sorting surface vertices and internal vertices of the primitive volumetric cells within the volume mesh structure to produce a unified mesh structure including:
a list of 3D surface vertex locations of the primitive volumetric cells within the volume mesh structure, each surface vertex location associated within the unified mesh structure with a corresponding viscoelasticity value; and
a list of 3D internal vertex locations of the primitive volumetric cells within the volume mesh structure, each internal vertex location associated within the unified mesh structure with a corresponding viscoelasticity value; and
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 list of three dimensional (3D) locations of surface vertices of the primitive volumetric cells of the volume mesh structure and to store the list of 3D locations of internal vertices of the primitive volumetric cells of the volume mesh structure in the computer memory, 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 computer memory.