Persistent coordinates system for image processing

An anatomical localization method for generating persistent coordinates of a location on a human body across multiple digitally generated images acquired at different time points, the method comprising:

• generating a template mesh representing a surface of a human body, the surface including predefined anatomical regions and reference structures;
• determining a pose of a human subject from image data comprising at least one of RGB images, RGB-D images, video images, infrared images, or volumetric image data;
• segmenting the human body into a plurality of rigid or semi-rigid anatomical segments based on at least one of the determined pose or image-derived geometry;
• encoding a location on the human body by computing coordinates of the location within a local coordinate frame defined for one of the anatomical segments using reference geometry derived from the image data;
• projecting the encoded coordinates onto the template mesh to generate a persistent spatial coordinate defined in a coordinate space of the template mesh, the persistent spatial coordinate being invariant to changes in subject pose across the different time points;
• re-projecting the persistent spatial coordinate from the template mesh into subsequently acquired images or imaging modalities to enable at least one of feature tracking, localization, or annotation propagation over time;
• and
• selectively refining the persistent spatial coordinate to improve spatial consistency across the different time points,
• wherein the encoding and projecting steps are performed without constructing a subject-specific deformable mesh of the human subject at the time the persistent spatial coordinate is generated.