Patent Document ID: 9406122
Application ID: 14384734
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for localizing a spine in one of an image and a computed tomography image, of a human or animal body, the method comprising the following steps: a) acquiring a plurality of slice images of at least a part of a human or animal body; and b) automatically selecting slice images and/or portions of slice images from the acquired plurality of slice images by considering at least one parameter characterizing a distribution of bones in the acquired plurality of slice images; wherein the selected slice images and/or portions of the slice images include image information about the spine; the at least one parameter represents a refined center of gravity of pixels relating to bones within a refinement window in the acquired plurality of slice images, and the refinement window spans around an original center of gravity of pixels relating to the bones in the acquired plurality of slice images; and the selected slice images and/or portions of the slice images are selected based on a difference between the original center of gravity and the refined center of gravity.