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Marching cubes: A high resolution 3D surface construction algorithm

Authors:

William E. Lorensen,

Harvey E. ClineAuthors Info & Claims

SIGGRAPH '87: Proceedings of the 14th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques

Pages 163 - 169

https://doi.org/10.1145/37401.37422

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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Marching cubes: A high resolution 3D surface construction algorithm

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

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

Seminal graphics: pioneering efforts that shaped the field, Volume 1
July 1998
460 pages
ISBN:158113052X
DOI:10.1145/280811
Editor:
Rosalee Wolfe
DePaul University
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

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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SIGGRAPH: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 01 August 1987

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SIGGRAPH '87 Paper Acceptance Rate 33 of 140 submissions, 24%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 1,822 of 8,601 submissions, 21%

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Croce VBilli DCaroti GPiemonte ADe Luca LVéron P(2024)Comparative Assessment of Neural Radiance Fields and Photogrammetry in Digital Heritage: Impact of Varying Image Conditions on 3D ReconstructionRemote Sensing10.3390/rs1602030116:2(301)Online publication date: 11-Jan-2024
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