Patent ID: 8712117

Claim:
A method for detecting a protrusion of at least a part of a surface of an internal part of a human body from three dimensional digital data representing said surface or said internal part thereof, comprising the steps of: detecting a point on a surface of the internal part at which a pair of normal curvatures intersect, the pair of normal curvatures including a first principle curvature with a maximum curvature value and a second principle curvature with a minimum curvature, both having curvatures values that are one of (1) both above zero or (2) both below zero, wherein the second principle curvature is normal to the first principle curvature; digitally modifying the second principle curvature such that it has a modified curvature value that is closer to zero than its original curvature value, by which modification the surface region is digitally deformed by an extent such that a deformed surface region is formed, wherein the extent of deformation of the deformed surface region as compared to the detected surface region is related to an amount of protrusion; and determining the amount of the protrusion based on the comparing of the detected and deformed surface region.