Methods, systems, and computer program product for virtually modifying surface region curvature to detect protrusions

A method comprising:

• digitally deforming three dimensional digital data representing a colon wall on the inside side of a colon at regions that are double curved towards the inside of the colon, which regions represent protrusions in the colon wall until a principle curvature of minimum curvature through a point on the protrusion has a curvature value of zero;
• Converting the deformed three dimensional digital data into a display showing what the regions of the colon wall that are double curved towards the inside of the colon wall would look like without said protrusions in the colon wall;
• and displaying the deformed regions with the same regions of the colon wall before and after the digital deforming;
• the method further including comparing an extent of deformation of the deformed surface region after digital deforming to the deformed surface region before digital deforming to determine an amount of protrusion;
• and displaying an indication of the amount or protrusion.

A method for detecting protrusions on the inner surface of a tubular part of a human body, comprising the steps of:

• scanning the body or parts thereof to obtain three dimensional digital data of at least a part of an internal surface of the tubular part;
• detecting a surface region from the three dimensional digital data, which surface region has at least one point, at which first and second principle curvatures intersect and are normal to each other, the first principle curvature having a maximum curvature value of curvatures through the point and the second principle curvature having a minimum curvature value of curvatures intersecting at the point, the first and second principle curvatures both having an original curvature value that is large than zero, the second curvature having a lower curvature value than the first, the surface being deformed until the second principle curvature has a curvature value of zero such that the deformed surface region depicts the detected surface region without the protrusion;
• digitally modifying the second principle curvature such that it has a modified curvature value that is lower than its original curvature value, by which modification the surface region is digitally deformed to form a deformed surface region;
• comparing an extent of deformation of the deformed surface region as compared to the detected surface region to determine an amount of protrusion;
• comparing the determined amount of protrusion with a threshold;
• in response to the determined amount of protrusion exceeding the threshold, displaying the detected surface region with the protrusion marked;
• and
• displaying the detected surface without the protrusion;
• and
• displaying an indication of the determined amount of protrusion.