Patent ID: 7315635

Claim:
An anatomical characteristic position detecting system comprising: a shape information obtaining means which obtains shape information for use at least in generating an artificial image corresponding to an input medical image of an object, and an anatomical characteristic position detecting means which detects an anatomical characteristic position of the object on the basis of the shape information obtained by the shape information obtaining means, wherein the obtaining of the shape information comprises: determining an average shape based on a plurality of radiation images of objects substantially similar to the object in the input medical image, determining eigenvectors for deforming the average shape, wherein the eigenvectors are based on the average shape and the plurality of radiation images of the objects substantially similar to the object in the input medical image, extracting data corresponding to a shape of the object in the input medical image, determining a parameter based on at least a portion of the data extracted from the object in the input medical image such that a shape of the artificial image approximates the extracted data, and estimating the shape information based on the determined parameter, the determined average shape and the determined eigenvectors.