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Marching cubes: A high resolution 3D surface construction algorithm

Authors:

William E. Lorensen,

Harvey E. ClineAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics, Volume 21, Issue 4

Pages 163 - 169

https://doi.org/10.1145/37402.37422

Published: 01 August 1987 Publication History

Abstract

We present a new algorithm, called marching cubes, that creates triangle models of constant density surfaces from 3D medical data. Using a divide-and-conquer approach to generate inter-slice connectivity, we create a case table that defines triangle topology. The algorithm processes the 3D medical data in scan-line order and calculates triangle vertices using linear interpolation. We find the gradient of the original data, normalize it, and use it as a basis for shading the models. The detail in images produced from the generated surface models is the result of maintaining the inter-slice connectivity, surface data, and gradient information present in the original 3D data. Results from computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR), and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) illustrate the quality and functionality of marching cubes. We also discuss improvements that decrease processing time and add solid modeling capabilities.

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Index Terms

Marching cubes: A high resolution 3D surface construction algorithm

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Marching cubes: A high resolution 3D surface construction algorithm
SIGGRAPH '87: Proceedings of the 14th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques

We present a new algorithm, called marching cubes, that creates triangle models of constant density surfaces from 3D medical data. Using a divide-and-conquer approach to generate inter-slice connectivity, we create a case table that defines triangle ...
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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics

ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Volume 21, Issue 4

July 1987

299 pages

ISSN:0097-8930

DOI:10.1145/37402

Editor:
Maureen C. Stone

Issue’s Table of Contents

SIGGRAPH '87: Proceedings of the 14th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques
August 1987
352 pages
ISBN:0897912276
DOI:10.1145/37401
Editor:
Maureen C. Stone

Copyright © 1987 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 August 1987

Published in SIGGRAPH Volume 21, Issue 4

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