Systems and methods for simulating spine and skeletal system pathologies

A system for creating a visual simulation of a subject's condition, the system comprising:

• a first plurality of virtual models stored in computer accessible memory, each of the first plurality of virtual models corresponding an anatomical structure and having an associated center point;
• a second plurality of virtual models stored in computer accessible memory, each of the second plurality of virtual models having an associated spatial arrangement with one of the first plurality of virtual models;
• an image processor unit, responsive to one or more images, and operational to identify at least one center point on each of a plurality anatomical structures visible in an image;
• a graphics generator unit, responsive to the image processor, and operational to generate from identified center points of the anatomical structures, a curve representation of an arrangement of the anatomical structures in the image, the curve representation comprising a set of three dimensional spatial coordinates including at least each of the identified center points of the anatomical structures;
• and
• a primary morphing processor unit, operatively coupled to the computer accessible memory, operational to access in the computer accessible memory one of the first plurality of virtual models having a corresponding anatomical structure visible in the image, the morphing processor unit further operational to morph parameters of the one of the first plurality of virtual models into a spatial arrangement that substantially mimics the corresponding anatomical structure visible in the image;
• and.
• a secondary morphing processor unit, operatively coupled to the computer accessible memory, and operational to access in the computer accessible memory one of the second plurality of virtual models, the secondary morphing processor unit further operational to morph parameters the one of the second plurality of virtual models into a spatial arrangement with one of the first plurality of virtual models,
• wherein the one second virtual model is not any of translated, rotated or angulated to a same extent as the one first virtual model to achieve the spatial arrangement.