Patent ID: 7450783

Claim:
A method for measuring characteristics of a feature portion on the surface of living tissue also having a non-feature portion, comprising: obtaining a set of 3-dimensional coordinates corresponding to points on the surface of the living tissue using a 3-dimensional structured light scanner; calculating distances between the coordinates in the set and each of coordinates of a predetermined feature shape and coordinates of a predetermined non-feature shape; assigning the coordinates in the set to a feature portion of the set, which corresponds to the feature portion of the surface, when the coordinates are closer to the coordinates of the predetermined feature shape than to the predetermined non-feature shape; assigning the coordinates in the set to a non-feature portion of the set, which corresponds to the non-feature portion of the surface, when the coordinates are closer to the coordinates of the predetermined non-feature shape than to the predetermined feature shape; and calculating the size of the feature based at least in part on an intersection of the feature portion of the set and the non feature portion of the set.