Three-dimensional electronic unpacking of packed bags using 3-D CT images
Samuel Moon-Ho Song, Carl R. Crawford, Douglas P. Boyd · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2009
We present a 3-D electronic unpacking technique for airport security images based on volume rendering techniques developed for medical applications. Two electronic unpacking techniques are presented: (1) object-based unpacking and (2) unpacking by bag-slicing. Both techniques provide photo-realistic 3-D views of contents inside a packed bag with clearly marked threats. For the object-based unpacking, the 3-D objects within packed bags are unpacked (or isolated) though object selection tools that cut away undesired regions to isolates the 3-D object from the background clutter. With this selection tool, the operator is able to electronically unpack various 3-D objects and manipulate (rotate and zoom) the 3-D photo-realistic views for the immediate classification of the suspect object. The unpacking by bag-slicing technique places arbitrary cut planes to show the content beyond the cut plane that can be stepped forward or backward electronically. The methods may be used to reduce the need for manual unpacking of suitcases.