Iso-Surface Extraction and Approximation Error
Jan Patera · 2004
At present, many devices produce the volume data as their output. The well-known data acquisition tools are e.g. MRI, CT or PET scanners, which are used mainly in the medical field. The volume data can represent density, velocity, humidity etc. in the form of structured or unstructured grid. Scientists need to explore such data to study their inner properties and relations and to make decisions. The volume data visualization is a strong tool for such explorations. There are many methods for the volume data visualization. The volume rendering and the surface rendering approaches are governing two main visualization branches in this field. The volume rendering methods visualize the data as a whole. In the apart of that, the surface rendering methods are trying to find surfaces in the volume data and visualize them. The group of methods for the surface rendering contains also methods for the iso-surface extraction from the volume data. This thesis provides a reasonable overview of the main techniques that serve for the volume data acquisition as well as the state of the art in the field of the iso-surface extraction methods. The important methods are sensibly described together with appropriate references given and their difficulties, pros and cons are discussed as well. The offered work also concerns a research that was recently done and the outline of possible directions in which the future research can head towards. This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic – project MSM 235200005. Copies of this report are available on http://www.kiv.zcu.cz/publications/ or by surface mail on request sent to the following address: University of West Bohemia in Pilsen Department of Computer Science and Engineering Univerzitni 8 306 14 Plzeň Czech Republic Copyright © 2004 University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Czech Republic