Patent ID: 7295951

Claim:
A method of evaluating the quality of a deformation field, said method comprising the steps of: providing a deformation field Φ=(φ x ,φ y ,φ z ) that transforms a point (x,y,z) in a first domain to a point (X,Y,Z) in a second domain, wherein { X = ϕ x ⁡ ( x , y , z ) = x + u x ⁡ ( x , y , z ) Y = ϕ y ⁢ ⁡ ( x , y , z ) = y + u y ⁡ ( x , y , z ) Z = ϕ z ⁡ ( x , y , z ) = z + u z ⁡ ( x , y , z ) , and wherein u x , u y , u z are displacement fields calculating a quality factor that is function of the displacement fields and the Jacobian matrix DΦ(x,y,z) of the deformation field; rejecting said deformation field if its quality factor has magnitude less than a predetermined value; and providing said quality factor and rejection status of said deformation field to a user.