The convex hull concept also has industrial applications where points must be plotted on a curve. For example, engineers who design auto bodies use its principles. He began exploring a way to normalize curvature as well. Arriving at the Health Science Center, Dr. Fox described the concept to Dr. Downs and Jack L. Lancaster, PhD, a physicist, professor of radiology and head of the RIC's computer software development team. I didn't know the mathematical term or the concept of convex hull, but Hunter and Jack sure did.
Convex hull keeps the whole brain image in a three-dimensional space.
For example, you want to scale the orange to be the same size as the grapefruit so you can determine where the seeds lie relative to the different shapes. You take the outer surface of the orange and the central point of the orange and find the lengths in every direction. You do the same thing with the grapefruit. Dr. Fox had conceived of several measurements, but computer applications of the convex hull allow for thousands that touch virtually any point on the curved surface. Convex hull is being used on images of the whole brain and is accurate to within 2 millimeters.