US 11,872,764 B2
Three-dimensional printing from images
Chamith Sudesh Rajapakse, Cherry Hill, NJ (US)
Assigned to THE TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERISTY OF PENNSYLVANIA, Philadelphia, PA (US)
Appl. No. 16/768,645
Filed by The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (US)
PCT Filed Dec. 5, 2018, PCT No. PCT/US2018/064134
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date May 29, 2020,
PCT Pub. No. WO2019/113254, PCT Pub. Date Jun. 13, 2019.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/595,528, filed on Dec. 6, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2021/0170689 A1, Jun. 10, 2021
Int. Cl. B29C 64/386 (2017.01); B33Y 10/00 (2015.01); B33Y 30/00 (2015.01); B33Y 50/00 (2015.01); G06T 7/11 (2017.01); G06T 7/149 (2017.01); B29C 64/118 (2017.01); G06T 11/00 (2006.01); G06T 17/00 (2006.01)
CPC B29C 64/386 (2017.08) [B29C 64/118 (2017.08); B33Y 10/00 (2014.12); B33Y 30/00 (2014.12); B33Y 50/00 (2014.12); G06T 7/11 (2017.01); G06T 7/149 (2017.01); G06T 11/008 (2013.01); G06T 17/00 (2013.01); G06T 2207/10081 (2013.01); G06T 2207/10088 (2013.01); G06T 2207/20121 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30004 (2013.01); G06T 2211/40 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for 3D printing from multi-dimensional images, the method comprising:
receiving at least one multi-dimensional image of a structure, wherein receiving the multi-dimensional image of the structure comprises receiving a magnetic resonance (MR) image or a computed tomographic (CT) image of a structure of a patient, wherein receiving the multi-dimensional image of the structure comprises pre-processing the multi-dimensional image to generate a binary image;
for each two dimensional (2D) slice of a plurality of 2D slices of the multi-dimensional image, converting, row-by-row for each row of a plurality of rows of the 2D slice, voxels of the 2D slice into 3D printing instructions for the 2D slice, wherein converting voxels of each 2D slice into 3D printing instructions comprises converting visual image intensity data in the MR image or CT image of the structure of the patient to structural density information for 3D printing, wherein the structural density information for 3D printing specifies that different regions of the 2D slice have different levels of structural material density; and
3D printing a physical model based on the structure by 3D printing, slice by slice, each 2D slice using the 3D printing instructions, including performing variable density printing using the structural density information.