Hybrid contouring: A simple algorithm for accurate isosurface extraction

초록

Isosurface extraction and rendering is one of the most popular way to visualize a three dimensional volumetric imaging dataset(e.g. CT, MRI). In this paper, we describe a simple algorithm for geometrically accurate isosurface extraction. An input data is given in the form of piecewise trilinear interpolants defined on a rectilinear grid. There are two well-known methods for isosurface extraction, Marching Cubes and Dual Contouring. Since an ideal isosurface of a trilinear interpolant may have complicated topology and geometry, it is difficult to triangulate an ideal isosurface accurately. An isosurface generated by using Marching Cubes (primal contouring) method may have a significant geometric error in the extracted isosurface when the surface has high curvature features in a cell. Dual contouring may generate undesirable sharp comers in a high curvature area on an isosurface. We present a hybrid approach, called hybrid contouring, that exploits the advantages of primal and dual contouring methods to improve geometric accuracy in an extracted isosurface. © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2008.

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