Patent ID: 7672492

Claim:
A method for providing a image of an anatomical object and for providing segmentation of the object from neighboring objects in an image obtained from data obtained from medical imaging equipment, comprising: using medical imaging apparatus to perform the steps of: obtaining the data, such data including imaging data of the object and data from the neighboring objects; generation of prior knowledge of the anatomical object to be segmented in an image from neighboring objects in the image using the obtained data; wherein the prior knowledge includes: obtaining an average shape template of the anatomical object and identifying high level context features of the object, such high level context features including at least one of either identifiable interface regions between the object and neighboring objects or boundary sections on the object; wherein an initial front from the template is used to initiate a level set evolution process to segment the object from neighboring objects; and wherein the method includes using the high-level context features to define blocker regions to prevent front in the level set evolution process from leaking into neighboring objects.