Patent ID: 7327853

Claim:
A method of extracting 3D bag images from continuously reconstructed 2D CT image slices comprising: A. Detecting a starting slice from a series of N s1 +N s2 slices, further comprising: A1. Computing slice energy for each 2D CT image slice; A2. Thresholding slices into high energy slices and low energy slices: A3. Counting the number of high energy slices until a predetermined number of high energy slices are achieved within an N s1 number of slices; A4. Counting the number of high energy slices in the last N s2 slices; and A5. Using and checking a starting slice criterion to determine whether a starting slice has been detected; B. Counting bag slices; C. Splitting 3D bag images, if necessary; and D. Detecting an ending slice.