Patent ID: 7324104

Claim:
A computer-readable medium which includes thereon a set of instructions for generating a centerline in a virtual object represented as a plurality of voxels, wherein the set of instructions are configured to program a processing arrangement to perform the steps of: computing the distance from boundary (DFB) for each voxel in the virtual object; selecting a seed point in the virtual object as the current voxel; selecting a next point from a set of points having a distance from the current voxel determined by the distance from boundary value of the current voxel; connecting the current voxel to the next point and assigning the next point as the new current voxel; and repeating the steps of selecting a next point and connecting until the centerline for the object is complete, thereby generating a centerline for at least one of display and navigation within the virtual object; wherein the set of points is the set of voxels on the surface of at least a portion of a sphere centered at the current voxel and having a radius equal to the DFB value of the current voxel, and wherein the next point has a DFB value that is higher than the DFB value of its neighbors.