Patent ID: 7558402

Claim:
A computer implemented method for tracking a deformable global shape of an object in motion in a sequence of digital medical images, the method performed by the computer comprising the steps of: providing a probabilistic subspace shape model for the deformable global shape derived from a set of training shapes; defining one or more control points along the deformable global shape; tracking each of the one or more control points as the object is in motion; estimating uncertainty of a location of a control point in motion; exploiting the uncertainty to constrain the deformable global shape using a point dependent covariance matrix to employ the subspace shape constraint model using a non-orthogonal projection; fusing the subspace constraint model and the uncertainty to determine a current location of the object by correcting outlier control points according to the probabilistic subspace shape model; and remedying error accumulation during tracking of the one or more control points by using a multi-template adaptive matching framework.