Patent Document ID: 5412563
Application ID: 08121628
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of three-dimensional (3D) modeling internal physical structures of a subject comprising the steps of: a) acquiring and storing a three-dimensional (3D) data set of data values from a solid subject by non-intrusive data gathering means, each data value being a measure of a physical parameter of a volume element "voxel" centered at a location within the subject; b) creating a gradient data set of data values from the 3D data set, each data value of the gradient data set representing the spatial change in the 3D data set data values; c) storing the gradient data set; d) displaying an image showing physical structures of said subject to an operator created from one of the sets; e) interacting with the operator to select a plurality of locations on the image known by the operator to correspond to the same tissue type, substantially uniformly distributed over a plurality of said physical structures; f) calculating spatial probability distributions from the data value of the 3D data set and the gradient data set corresponding to the selected locations for the selected tissue type; g) repeating steps "e" and "f" for a plurality of tissue types; h) assigning data values at locations not yet selected, to a tissue type having the highest probability at that location; i) determining connectivity among spatial adjacent data values assigned to the same tissue type to create said 3D model of internal physical structures having the same tissue type; j) manipulating said 3D models by scaling and rotating the models at desired angles; k) displaying the manipulated 3D models on a display means.