United States Patent m
Menegazzi
US005732203A [ii] Patent Number: [45] Date of Patent:
[54] PROCESS FOR RESTORING THE INNER VOLUMES OF A SOLID WITH A VIEW TO COMPUTATIONS AND ASSOCIATED APPLICATION
[75] Inventor: Pascal Menegazzi, Rueil Malmaison. France
[73] Assignee: Institut Francais du Petrole, Rueil-Malmaison. France
[21] Appl. No.: 854,726
[22] Filed: May 12,1997
Related U.S. Application Data
[63] Continuation of Ser. No. 595,507, Feb. 1,1996, abandoned, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 174,282, Dec. 28, 1993, abandoned.
[30] Foreign Application Priority Data
Dec. 29, 1992 [FR] France 92/15985
[51] Int. CI.6 G06F 15/00
[52] U.S. CI 395/120
[58] Field of Search 395/120. 124.
395/118. 119, 129; 345/118
[56] References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 4,879,652 11/1989 Nowak 364/413.18
4,969,110 11/1990 Litde et al 364/550
5,178,148 1/1993 Lacosteetal 128/660.03
5,184,733 2/1993 Amarson et al 209/585
5,267,018 11/1993 Kauppinen 356/379
5,351,725 10/1994 Suthergreen et al 141/1
5,583,973 12/1996 DeLusi et al 395/120
FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
3340024 5/1985 Germany .
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Computer Vision, Graphics, and Image Processing, vol. 44. No. 1, Oct.. 1988. pp. 1-29 J.-D. Boissonnat "Shape Reconstruction from Planar Cross Sections".
Primary Examiner—Phu K. Nguyen
Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Antonelli, Terry, Stout, & Kraus,
LLP
[57] ABSTRACT
The reconstitution of volumes located inside a solid for carrying out computations relative to the volume is disclosed. The process comprises producing digitized images of a plurality of parallel cross-sections of the solid surrounding the volume, processing the digitized images to digitally create a contour of the volume, and digitally processing the contour of the volume so that the contour may be exploited for application. An application of the process is for example reconstitution of a cooling circuit of a cylinder head of an internal-combustion engine.
12 Claims, 4 Drawing Sheets
