Patent ID: 7643685

Claim:
A method involving at least one source 2D projection of a source multifeatured object and a reference library of 3D reference objects, the method comprising: a. providing a plurality of reference 3D representations, each of the plurality of reference 3D representations representing a corresponding different member of the library of 3D reference objects; and b. searching over rigid motions and deformations of the plurality of reference 3D representations to identify a best match reference 3D representation having a 2D projection most resembling the at least one source 2D projection, wherein said searching involves selecting each reference 3D representation among the plurality of reference 3D representations and for each selected reference 3D representation applying both rigid motion and deformation operators to that selected reference 3D representation to generate multiple versions of that selected reference 3D representation, and for each version of that selected reference 3D representation, computing a measure of fit between that version of that selected 3D representation and the at least one source 2D projection, and wherein the best-fit 3D representation is the version of the reference 3D representation from the plurality of reference 3D representations that yields a best measure of fit.