Surface modeling method by polygonal primitives for visualizing three-dimensional volume data

Abstract

A method of surface modeling by polygon is presented. Its purpose is to visualize 3-D image given in the form of stacked 2-D images, such as computerized tomography data. The method is based on the cuberille model of 3-D image space. To speed up the visualization procedure and to obtain compact data structure, we devised a small set of polygonal volume primitives (PVP) with regular shape. We classified the 256 possible cuberille configurations into 21 cases using rotation operator, and five basic PVPs that fit the cases well are selected. One of the five basic PVPs posed distinctively is located at each cuberille of the surface according to the configuration and normal direction estimated from gradient operator. After the surface is tiled with PVPs, the generated polygons that are derived from the primary faces of PVPs are shaded for visualization. © 1992 Springer-Verlag.