Patent ID: 7251355

Claim:
A three-dimensional labeling apparatus for labeling a plurality of three-dimensionally placed pixels of a three-dimensional image, comprising: a three-dimensionally-shaped neighboring mask located at a neighboring mask position and covering a first plane and a second plane adjacent to said first plane, said first and second planes comprise a target pixel position and a plurality of pixels neighboring the target pixel position; a labeling device that scans the neighboring mask within the three-dimensional image and assigns a label number to a pixel at the target pixel position, based on a value or a label number of a pixel included in the neighboring mask position, wherein the three-dimensional image includes a three-dimensional gray image; and a binarizing device configured to binarize the three-dimensional gray image before said labeling device scans the neighboring mask within the three-dimensional image and before said labeling device assigns the label number to the pixel at the target pixel position.