[vtkusers] Segmentation on CT slices (how to separate anatonomical parts)

[Julien de Siebenthal]

Hi,

I'm actually interesting to use VTK for building anatomy pieces from CT
slices and export them in Inventor format. Mainly, I want to separate
the femoral head from the operated hip (more precisely from the
acetabulum). These Inventor objects will be used by a surgical
simulator.

At this time, I have set up a pipeline for displaying each CT slice (in
a 2D window) and reconstructing the CT stack in a 3D OpenInventor model
I may display (in a 3D window).

The point is I would know the best way to separate a femur from the hip.
It would be better I think to do that on the CT slices directly  using
image algorithms. But, I have to indicate by a segmentation trace on
each slice which part I want to exclude. Would it be the best way for
doing that ?

If that's the case, I think I will have to use a class for displaying
the trace on the CT slice (the trace is displayed in dragging the mouse
with button 1, the region to exclude from reconstruction is calculated
in pressing button 3) ? This is actually existing in VTK or somebody has
already written such a class ?

If this may be done, the next step would be easier. I will select the 3D
part I'm interested in (with a seed point using connectivity I presume)
and update the 3D model.

Julien de Siebenthal, Eng.-Phys.

MEM Institute for Biomechanics
Computer Assisted Surgery (CAS) division
3010 Bern, CH