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MINC associates the dimensions of a medical image with standard
textual names, such as ``xspace'' or ``time''. This
association serves both to clarify the interpretation of each
dimension and to specify the relationships among variables which share
the same coordinate space. The length of a dimension is defined when
the file is created.
NetCDF's model of a dimension is very simple, associated just a
name, a numeric identifier, and a length with each dimension. To
extend this model to represent the full set of attributes associated
with a MINC dimension object, MINC relies on the concept of a
``dimension variable'', which is a variable with the same name
as the corresponding dimension object.
While specialized applications can and occasionally do define
additional dimensions, MINC defines the following standard dimension
names:
- xspace - Spatial axis, defined to increase from
patient left to patient right.
- yspace - Spatial axis, defined to increase from
patient posterior to patient anterior.
- zspace - Spatial axis, defined to increase from
patient inferior to patient superior.
- time - Time axis.
- xfrequency - Spatial frequency axis.
- yfrequency - Spatial frequency axis.
- zfrequency - Spatial frequency axis.
- tfrequency - Temporal frequency axis.
- vector_dimension - Axis used for components of a vector
field. If present, this dimension should be the fastest-varying
dimension of the image variable. Unlike the rest of the
dimensions, this dimension is not associated with a dimension
variable.
Next: Variables
Up: MINC 1.0 Name and
Previous: Introduction
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Robert VINCENT
2004-05-28