Patent ID: 7430323

Claim:
A method of atlas mapping rigidly aligned temporally successive N−1 dimensional images of a subject, which form a N dimensional representation of the subject including one temporal dimension, where N is an integer number greater than 2, the method comprising: generating a N dimensional template; generating attribute vectors for a plurality of points of the N dimensional representation of the subject and of the N dimensional template, each point of the plurality of points including a plurality of temporally successive voxels of the N dimensional representation of the subject and of the N dimensional template; evaluating the generated attribute vectors associated with the plurality of points to identify points in the N dimensional template that correspond to respective points in the N dimensional representation of the subject, each of the generated attribute vectors being based on attributes of the plurality of temporally successive voxels; and deforming the N dimensional template to the N dimensional representation of the subject according to relative positions of the respective corresponding points of the N dimensional representation of the subject and of the N dimensional template.