The software works by taking information from data collected in 3-D form. With a simple click and drag of the mouse, users tell the program what they wish to remove. The program is quick because it takes broad, coarse cuts to remove data that isn't needed. When most of that's gone, the computer can make more refined calculations much faster.

An image that has been selected and refined could be projected onto the patient's body, Barrett said, to serve as a road map during an operation. The software is also expected to help doctors make better diagnoses because a physician can look at part of a patient's anatomy — say an organ — more closely, or better locate tumors.

Software company Adobe, which has long had a relationship with BYU's computer scientists, helped fund the research for development of Live Surface. An earlier software, developed by Barrett and his students under the name Intelligent Scissors, was renamed Magnetic Lasso and is now incorporated into 5.0 Adobe PhotoShop, where it quickly yanks two-dimensional objects out of images.

BYU has applied for a patent on Live Surface, and Adobe will have nonexclusive licensing rights to the product, Barrett said.

The computer-science research behind it is being presented today at the International Workshop on Volume Graphics in Boston.

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