An anatomical image

Now we will work with a 3D brain image.

Like the camera image in The cameraman, the pixel data for the 3D image is in a text file called anatomical.txt. Download anatomical.txt to your working directory.

I happen to know this image has is length 32 on the third dimension, but I don’t know what the size of the first two dimensions are.

So, I know the image is of shape (I, J, 32), but I don’t know what I and J are.

Here are the first four lines of anatomical.txt.

0.0000
0.0000
53.0000
43.0000

The data is in the same floating point text format as the camera picture pixel data.

Real all the lines of the file into a list of float values, as before.

# Read the lines into a list of floats

How many pixel values does this file contain?

When I have my image array correctly shaped, then, if I take a slice over the third dimension:

slice_on_third = image_array[:, :, 0]

slice_on_third will be shape (I, J) (the size of the first two dimensions).

So, how many pixel values does a slice in the third dimension contain — given that we know the third dimension is length 32? Put another way, what is the value for I * J?

# Find the size of a slice over the third dimension
# P = ?

Call P the number of values per slice on the third dimension (so P == I * J where we don’t yet know I or J).

Is this slice over the third dimension square (does I == J)?

We need to find the values for I and J.

Find candidates for I by using the modulus operator (%) to find a few numbers between 120 and 200 that divide exactly into the slice size P. Hint: the first value will be 120.

# Make a list of canidates for I

These numbers are candidates for I - the first number in the pair (I, J). We now need to find the corresponding J for each candidate for I.

Use the integer division operator (//) to get a list of pairs of numbers I and J such that I * J == P. Hint: the first pair of I, J is (120, 221).

# Make list of pairs of I, J such that I * J == P

The full image shape will be three values, with one of these (I, J) pairs followed by 32. For example, the correct shape might be (120, 221 , 32) (it isn’t!). Try reshaping the pixel data with a few of the (I, J, 32) candidates to see which one is likely to be right. You might want to plot a slice over the third dimension to see how it looks.

# Make the pixel values list into an array
# Try reshaping the array with candidate triples of (I, J, 32)
# Which I, J, 32 triple is the right one?