Patent ID: 8050473

Claim:
A method for the interactive segmentation of medical image slice data using a computer, the method comprising: (a) displaying an image of a training shape comprising a two dimensional medical image training slice; (b) applying a set of initial landmarks on a boundary of a training object of interest on the training shape; (c) generating an active shape model using the initial landmarks; (d) manually tracing segments of typical boundaries of the object of interest to train a boundary cost function; (e) generating an oriented active shape model using the active shape model and the boundary cost function; (f) selecting an input image slice of a set of target medical image slices and displaying a first target slice; (g) recognizing a shape of a target object of interest in the input image slice by applying landmarks from the oriented active shape model and automatically specifying an initial position of the target shape on the input image slice; (h) determining positions of new landmarks on the target object; (i) generating a new shape representing the target object using the new landmarks on the target object; and (j) displaying the new shape of the target object on the target medical input image slice, wherein the new shape closely conforms with the boundaries of the target object.