Patent ID: 8090178

Claim:
A method for using a medical imaging system to recognize an internal structure from a three-dimensional image comprising a plurality of image sub-volumes, the method comprising: selecting an image sub-volume of the plurality of image sub-volumes using a binary search pattern comprising: identifying a middle image sub-volume of the plurality of image sub-volumes and using the identified middle image sub volume as a first-selected image sub-volume; dividing the plurality of sub-volumes into a top section and a bottom section that are separated by the middle image sub-volume; identifying a middle image sub-volume of the top section and using the identified middle image sub volume of the top section as a second-selected image sub-volume; identifying a middle image sub-volume of the bottom section and using the identified middle image sub volume of the bottom section as a third-selected image sub-volume; and recursively performing the above steps of dividing and identifying to find subsequent selected image sub-volumes; analyzing the selected image sub-volume for the presence of the internal structure; repeating the steps of selecting an image sub-volume using the binary search pattern and analyzing the selected sub-volume for the presence of the internal structure until the internal structure is found in an image sub-volume; and identifying bounds of the internal structure based on the location of the image sub-volume within which the internal structure is found.