Patent ID: 8576223

Claim:
A method for viewing a labeled three-dimensional (3D) object comprising: obtaining viewable data of a 3D object; displaying at least a portion of an outer surface of the 3D object based on a current view comprising an initial default view, or a user selected view based on a query received from a user; retrieving, from storage, at least one identification label for each of a plurality of items within the current view; defining a first axis within the current view; selecting, from a plurality of positions along the first axis, a position that has a smallest angle between the selected position and a selected item from the plurality of items; displaying the identification label associated with the selected item at a point along a second axis within the current view between the selected position and the selected item; rotating within the 3D object around a display of at least one internal structure beneath the outer surface of the 3D object in response to the query or a selected computer-generated search term to another view; adjusting an opacity of a portion of the outer surface of the 3D object and updating the display of the identification labels based on the rotated display within the 3D object and the adjusted opacity, wherein the smallest angle is defined as the angle at the intersection, at the selected item, of the second axis with a third axis that is substantially perpendicular to the first axis.