research-article

Display of Surfaces from Volume Data

Author:

Marc LevoyAuthors Info & Claims

IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Volume 8, Issue 3

Pages 29 - 37

https://doi.org/10.1109/38.511

Published: 01 May 1988 Publication History

Abstract

The application of volume-rendering techniques to the display of surfaces from sampled scalar functions of three spatial dimensions is discussed. It is not necessary to fit geometric primitives to the sampled data; images are formed by directly shading each sample and projecting it onto the picture plane. Surface-shading calculations are performed at every voxel with local gradient vectors serving as surface normals. In a separate step, surface classification operators are applied to compute a partial opacity of every voxel. Operators that detect isovalue contour surfaces and region boundary surfaces are examined. The technique is simple and fast, yet displays surfaces exhibiting smooth silhouettes and few other aliasing artifacts. The use of selective blurring and supersampling to further improve image quality is described. Examples from molecular graphics and medical imaging are given.

References

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1. G.T. Herman and H.K. Liu, "Three-Dimensional Display of Human Organs from Computer Tomograms," Computer Graphics and Image Processing, Jan. 1979, pp. 1-21.

[2]

2. K.H. Hoehne and R. Bernstein, "Shading 3D-Images from CT Using Gray-Level Gradients," IEEE Trans. Medical Imaging, Mar. 1986, pp. 45-47.

[3]

3. D.S. Schlusselberg and W.K. Smith, "Three-Dimensional Display of Medical Image Volumes," NCGA 86 Conf. Proc., NCGA, Fairfax, Va., pp. 114-123.

[4]

4. S. Goldwasser, "Rapid Techniques for the Display and Manipulation of 3D Biomedical Data," NCGA 86 Conf. tutorial, NCGA, Fairfax, Va.

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5. Y. Trousset and F. Schmitt, "Active-Ray Tracing for 3D Medical Imaging," Eurographics 87 Conf. Proc., Amsterdam, pp. 139-149.

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6. S.M. Pizer et al., "3D Shaded Graphics in Radiotherapy and Diagnostic Imaging," NCGA 86 Conf. Proc., NCGA, Fairfax, Va., 1986, pp. 107-113.

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7. W.E. Lorensen and H.E. Cline, "Marching Cubes: A High Resolution 3D Surface Construction Algorithm, Computer Graphics (Proc. SIGGRAPH), July 1987, pp. 163-169.

Digital Library

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8. T.R. Williams, A Man-Machine Interface for Interpreting Electron Density Maps, doctoral dissertation, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C., 1982.

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9. G.D. Purvis and C. Culberson, "On the Graphical Display of Molecular Electrostatic Force-Fields and Gradients of the Electron Density," J. Molecular Graphics, June 1986, pp. 89-92.

[10]

10. A.R. Smith, "Volume Graphics and Volume Visualization: A Tutorial," Tech. Memo 176, Pixar Inc., San Rafael, Calif., 1987.

[11]

11. R.A. Drebin, verbal presentation in Computer Graphics and the Sciences, tutorial at SIGGRAPH 87.

[12]

12. M. Levoy and T. Whitted, "The Use of Points as a Display Primitive," Tech. Report 85-022, Computer Science Dept., Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1985.

[13]

13. M. Levoy, "Rendering of Surfaces from Volumetric Data," Tech. Report 87-016, Computer Science Dept., Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1987.

[14]

14. M. Levoy, "Direct Visualization of Surfaces from Computed Tomography Data," SPIE Medical Imaging II Conf. Proc., Newport Beach, Calif., Feb. 1988 (to appear).

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15. P. Bui-Tuong, "Illumination for Computer-Generated Pictures," CACM, June 1975, pp. 311-317.

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16. T. Porter and T. Duff, "Compositing Digital Images," Computer Graphics (Proc. SIGGRAPH), July 1984, pp. 253-259.

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17. E. Catmull and A.R. Smith, "3D Transformations of Images in Scanline Order," Computer Graphics, (Proc. SIGGRAPH), July 1980, pp. 279-285.

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18. A. Kaufman, "Voxel-Based Architectures for Three-Dimensional Graphics," Proc. IFIP 10th World Computer Congress, Amsterdam, Sept. 1986, pp. 361-366.

Cited By

Tahir RNonaka JIwata KMatsushima TSakamoto NBi CNakao MMurai H(2024)Analysis Towards Energy-Aware Image-based In Situ Visualization on the FugakuProceedings of the International Conference on High Performance Computing in Asia-Pacific Region10.1145/3635035.3635048(154-163)Online publication date: 18-Jan-2024
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Šmajdek ULesar ŽMarolt MBohak C(2024)Combined volume and surface rendering with global illumination cachingThe Visual Computer: International Journal of Computer Graphics10.1007/s00371-023-02932-940:4(2491-2503)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2024
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Wu YYang YCao Y(2023)GPU-based adaptive data reconstruction for large-scale statistical visualizationJournal of Visualization10.1007/s12650-022-00892-126:4(899-915)Online publication date: 6-Mar-2023
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Index Terms

Display of Surfaces from Volume Data
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Computer graphics
    1. Rendering
    2. Shape modeling
      1. Parametric curve and surface models
      2. Volumetric models

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Published In

cover image IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications

IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications Volume 8, Issue 3

May 1988

67 pages

ISSN:0272-1716

Editor:
John Staudhammer
Univ. of Florida, Gainesville

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Copyright © Copyright © 1988 IEEE. All Rights Reserved.

Publisher

IEEE Computer Society Press

Washington, DC, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 May 1988

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Cited By

Tahir RNonaka JIwata KMatsushima TSakamoto NBi CNakao MMurai H(2024)Analysis Towards Energy-Aware Image-based In Situ Visualization on the FugakuProceedings of the International Conference on High Performance Computing in Asia-Pacific Region10.1145/3635035.3635048(154-163)Online publication date: 18-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3635035.3635048
Šmajdek ULesar ŽMarolt MBohak C(2024)Combined volume and surface rendering with global illumination cachingThe Visual Computer: International Journal of Computer Graphics10.1007/s00371-023-02932-940:4(2491-2503)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s00371-023-02932-9
Wu YYang YCao Y(2023)GPU-based adaptive data reconstruction for large-scale statistical visualizationJournal of Visualization10.1007/s12650-022-00892-126:4(899-915)Online publication date: 6-Mar-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s12650-022-00892-1
Blanch R(2023)BiVis: Interactive and Progressive Visualization of Billions (and Counting) ItemsHuman-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 202310.1007/978-3-031-42283-6_4(65-85)Online publication date: 28-Aug-2023
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Lee SKye H(2022)Efficient MIP volume rendering via fast SIMD interpolation and memory access reorderingMultimedia Tools and Applications10.1007/s11042-022-13732-z82:7(10515-10534)Online publication date: 5-Sep-2022
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Gao YChang CYu XPang PXiong NHuang C(2022)A VR-based volumetric medical image segmentation and visualization system with natural human interactionVirtual Reality10.1007/s10055-021-00577-426:2(415-424)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2022
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Xu YMeng CLi YLi NRen LXia K(2022)A Self-supervised 3D/2D Registration Method for Incomplete DSA VesselsBiomedical and Computational Biology10.1007/978-3-031-25191-7_2(13-31)Online publication date: 13-Aug-2022
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Faludi BZentai NŻelechowski MZam ARauter GGriessen MCattin P(2021)Transfer-function-independent acceleration structure for volume rendering in virtual realityProceedings of the Conference on High-Performance Graphics10.2312/hpg.20211279(1-10)Online publication date: 6-Jul-2021
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