Isosurface generation method and visualization system
AssigneeCanon U.S.A., Inc.
InventorsZhimin Lu, Hitoshi Nakamura
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a method and system for constructing isosurfaces from 3D data sets, such as 3D image data that are based on a cubic grid (voxel image data). Specifically, 3D image is rendered from a voxel image that can be generated by a variety of medical modalities. The present invention is a modification of the MCA that allows for constructing an isosurface without holes resulting from some cubes having ambiguous isosurface topology. Specifically, to avoid holes resulting from ambiguities, multiple isosurfaces having different resolution levels are generated for ambiguous cubes to resolve the ambiguity.
Claims22
A method for generating an isosurface from a voxel image obtained from a medical modality, the method comprising:
- applying to at least a portion of the voxel image the Marching Cube Algorithm (MCA) in a first spatial resolution to generate a first isosurface, wherein the first spatial resolution corresponds to a first cubic grid;
- applying to the at least a portion of the voxel image the MCA in a second spatial resolution to generate a second isosurface, wherein the second spatial resolution is lower than the first spatial resolution and corresponds to a second cubic grid;
- identifying ambiguous cubes on the first cubic grid, wherein an ambiguous cube is a cube having an ambiguity in isosurface topology;
- for each identified ambiguous cube determining whether there is a difference between the first and second isosurfaces;
- and
- modifying the first isosurface based on the second isosurface if the first isosurface is different from the second isosurface, such that the modified first isosurface has connections with faces of a cube or cubes of the first cubic grid, the connections of the modified first isosurface being the same as or similar to connections of the second isosurface to a cube or cubes of the second cubic grid.
A system for generating an isosurface from a voxel image obtained from a medical modality, the method comprising:
- memory in communication with a processor, the memory including the voxel image;
- the processor executing instructions comprising:
- applying to at least a portion of the voxel image the Marching Cube Algorithm (MCA) in a first spatial resolution to generate a first isosurface, wherein the first spatial resolution corresponds to a first cubic grid;
- applying to the at least a portion of the voxel image the MCA in a second spatial resolution to generate a second isosurface, wherein the second spatial resolution is lower than the first spatial resolution and corresponds to a second cubic grid;
- identifying ambiguous cubes on the first cubic grid, wherein an ambiguous cube is a cube having an ambiguity in isosurface topology;
- for each identified ambiguous cube determining whether there is a difference between the first and second isosurfaces;
- and
- modifying the first isosurface based on the second isosurface if the first isosurface is different from the second isosurface such that the modified first isosurface has connections with faces of a cube or cubes of the first cubic grid, the connections of the modified first isosurface being the same as or similar to connections of the second isosurface to a cube or cubes of the second cubic grid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.