Improving the robustness and accuracy of the marching cubes algorithm for isosurfacing

This paper proposes a modification of the Marching Cubes algorithm for isosurfacing, with the intent of improving the representation of the surface in the interior of each grid cell. Our objective is to create a representation which correctly models the topology of the trilinear interpolant within the cell and which is robust under perturbations of the data and threshold value. To achieve this, we identify a small number of key points in the cell interior that are critical to the surface definition. This allows us to efficiently represent the different topologies that can occur, including the possibility of "tunnels." The representation is robust in the sense that the surface is visually continuous as the data and threshold change in value. Each interior point lies on the isosurface. Finally, a major feature of our new approach is the systematic method of triangulating the polygon in the cell interior.     

Edge groups: an approach to understanding the mesh quality of marching methods

Marching Cubes is the most popular isosurface extraction algorithm due to its simplicity, efficiency and robustness. It has been widely studied, improved, and extended. While much early work was concerned with efficiency and correctness issues, lately there has been a push to improve the quality of Marching Cubes meshes so that they can be used in computational codes. In this work we present a new classification of MC cases that we call Edge Groups, which helps elucidate the issues that impact the triangle quality of the meshes that the method generates. This formulation allows a more systematic way to bound the triangle quality, and is general enough to extend to other polyhedral cell shapes used in other polygonization algorithms. Using this analysis, we also discuss ways to improve the quality of the resulting triangle mesh, including some that require only minor modifications of the original algorithm.     

Edge Transformations for Improving Mesh Quality of Marching Cubes

Marching Cubes is a popular choice for isosurface extraction from regular grids due to its simplicity, robustness, and efficiency. One of the key shortcomings of this approach is the quality of the resulting meshes, which tend to have many poorly shaped and degenerate triangles. This issue is often addressed through post processing operations such as smoothing. As we demonstrate in experiments with several datasets, while these improve the mesh, they do not remove all degeneracies, and incur an increased and unbounded error between the resulting mesh and the original isosurface. Rather than modifying the resulting mesh, we propose a method to modify the grid on which Marching Cubes operates. This modification greatly increases the quality of the extracted mesh. In our experiments, our method did not create a single degenerate triangle, unlike any other method we experimented with. Our method incurs minimal computational overhead, requiring at most twice the execution time of the original Marching Cubes algorithm in our experiments. Most importantly, it can be readily integrated in existing Marching Cubes implementations, and is orthogonal to many Marching Cubes enhancements (particularly, performance enhancements such as out-of-core and acceleration structures).     

用鞍点保证拓扑正确的快速等值面提取技术

等值面提取是研究三维数据场可视化的有效方法。针对已有的一些等值面提取算法存在的二义性问题,提出了用鞍点保证拓扑正确的快速等值面提取算法。用二线性插值和三线性插值函数来近似计算立方体表面和内部点的值,根据立方体中面鞍点和体鞍点个数的不同,将立方体剖分成不同数目的四面体。这种剖分只和原始数据的属性有关,与给定的等值无关,因此在数据不变的情况下只需要剖分一次。最后,用分层分组的方法将四面体分类到不同组中,避免在等值面提取过程中访问那些不含有等值面的四面体,从而提高了算法的速度。该算法在等值平滑变化或是随机变化时都能保持良好的特性。     

一种新的抽取等值面的四面体分解方法

Marching Cubes算法是一种从三维数据场中抽取等值面的简单有效的算法。然而，该算法并不能保证抽取出的等值面的拓扑同三维数据场的数据保持一致，即等值面的拓扑存在二义性。解决这个问题的方法是，将三维数数据场中每一个立方体网格单元分解为五个四面体单元，从每一个四面体单元中抽取等值面。但是，在分解过程中由于分解二义义性的存在，等值面的拓扑仍然存在二义性。本文采用24-分解方法解决了这个问题，生成了拓扑正确的等值面。     

Dual Marching Cubes: Primal Contouring of Dual Grids

We present a method for contouring an implicit function using a grid topologically dual to structured grids such as octrees. By aligning the vertices of the dual grid with the features of the implicit function, we are able to reproduce thin features of the extracted surface without excessive subdivision required by methods such as Marching Cubes or Dual Contouring. Dual Marching Cubes produces a crack‐free, adaptive polygonalization of the surface that reproduces sharp features. Our approach maintains the advantage of using structured grids for operations such as CSG while being able to conform to the relevant features of the implicit function yielding much sparser polygonalizations than has been possible using structured grids.     

Efficient and Quality Contouring Algorithms on the GPU

Interactive isosurface extraction has recently become possible through successful efforts to map algorithms such as Marching Cubes (MC) and Marching Tetrahedra (MT) to modern Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) architectures. Other isosurfacing algorithms, however, are not so easily portable to GPUs, either because they involve more complex operations or because they are not based on discrete case tables, as is the case with most marching techniques. In this paper, we revisit the Dual Contouring (MC) and Macet isosurface extraction algorithms and propose, respectively: (i) a novel, efficient and parallelizable version of Dual Contouring and (ii) a set of GPU modules which extend the original Marching Cubes algorithm. Similar to marching methods, our novel technique is based on a case table, which allows for a very efficient GPU implementation. In addition, we enumerate and evaluate several alternatives to implement efficient contouring algorithms on the GPU, and present trade‐offs among all approaches. Finally, we validate the efficiency and quality of the tessellations produced in all these alternatives.     

On generating topologically consistent isosurfaces from uniform samples

A set of sample points of a function of three variables may be visualized by defining an interpolating functionf of the samples and examining isosurfaces of the formf(x, y, z)=t for various values oft. To display the isosurfaces on a graphics device, it is desirable to approximate them with piecewise triangular surfaces that (a) are geometrically good approximations, (b) are topologically consistent, and (c) consist of a small number of triangles. By topologically consistent we mean that the topology of the piecewise triangular surface matches that of the surfacef(x, y, z)=t, i.e., the interpolantf determines both the geometry and the topology of the piecewise triangular surface. In this paper we provide an efficient algorithm for the case in whichf is the piecewise trilinear interpolant; for this case existing methods fail to satisfy all three of the above conditions simultaneously.     

Marching Cubes算法研究现状

对现有的Marching Cubes改进算法从拓扑结构二义性、提高逼近精度、算法的时间和空间效率3个方面进行综述,对每一类改进算法进行新的分类,并对各类算法的实验结果进行比较.     

Controlled topology simplification

We present a simple, robust, and practical method for object simplification for applications where gradual elimination of high frequency details is desired. This is accomplished by converting an object into multi resolution volume rasters using a controlled filtering and sampling technique. A multiresolution triangle mesh hierarchy can then be generated by applying the Marching Cubes algorithm. We further propose an adaptive surface generation algorithm to reduce the number of triangles generated by the standard Marching Cubes. Our method simplifies the topology of objects in a controlled fashion. In addition, at each level of detail, multilayered meshes can be used for an efficient antialiased rendering     

移动立方体算法的三重线性插值研究

移动立方体算法是目前最有影响的等值面构造方法,已经过了许多改进。现在采用的是三重线性插值模型,用三重线性插值计算等值面与体单元的交点。文章对三重线性插值生成的等值面进行了分析,分析了等值面的一些特点,重点讨论了等值面与边界体单元的交线的两种例外情况,基于这两种情况,给出了改进算法,最后通过实验验证了考虑这两种情况后算法的可行性。     

基于图像分割的三维重构

三维重构方法是医学图像可视化系统、治疗计划系统的重要技术。基于图像分割的三维重构方法结合了图像分割、等值面抽取、网格简化三种技术,是不同于传统Marching Cubes算法的一种三维重构方法。它首先将医学图像分割为二值图,然后利用Marching Cubes方法进行等值面抽取,最后对得到的网格模型进行简化。实验结果表明,基于图像分割的三维重构方法加快了Marching Cubes的运算速度,改善了重构的效果,有利于实现对基于三维重构的大型几何模型的实时绘制和交互。     

针对脊柱CT图像三维重构MC方法的改进

对原始MC（Marching Cubes）方法存在的问题和局限进行改进,并以此为基础重构脊柱三维模型,使之满足术前分析和远程手术的要求。采用双曲渐近线判别式消除面二义性问题,利用插值函数的空间连续性解决体二义性问题。提出基于对象相关性的cube连通性判断,减少三角面片过多的问题,进一步采用Decimation算法消减面片网格。实验证明了上述改进方法的有效性和正确性,可得到良好的三维重构效果。     

Convex contouring of volumetric data

In this paper, we present a fast, table-driven isosurface extraction technique on volumetric data. Unlike Marching Cubes or other cell-based algorithms, the proposed polygonization generates convex negative space inside individual cells, enabling fast collision detection on the triangulated isosurface. In our implementation, we are able to perform over 2 million point classifications per second. The algorithm is driven by an automatically constructed lookup table that stores compact decision trees by sign configurations. The decision trees determine triangulations dynamically by values at cell corners. Using the same technique, we can perform fast, crack-free multiresolution contouring on nested grids of volumetric data. The method can also be extended to extract isosurfaces on arbitrary convex, space-filling polyhedra.     

Contouring Discrete Indicator Functions

We present a method for calculating the boundary of objects from Discrete Indicator Functions that store 2‐material volume fractions with a high degree of accuracy. Although Marching Cubes and its derivatives are effective methods for calculating contours of functions sampled over discrete grids, these methods perform poorly when contouring non‐smooth functions such as Discrete Indicator Functions. In particular, Marching Cubes will generate surfaces that exhibit aliasing and oscillations around the exact surface. We derive a simple solution to remove these problems by using a new function to calculate the positions of vertices along cell edges that is efficient, easy to implement, and does not require any optimization or iteration. Finally, we provide empirical evidence that the error introduced by our contouring method is significantly less than is introduced by Marching Cubes.     

一种面向三维点集的快速表面重构算法

在对目前比较流行的空间三角化算法进行对比研究的基础上 ,对 Hugues Hoppe提出的算法进行了改进 ,即借鉴 Marching Cubes算法的基本思想 ,首先通过自动选取适当的参数 ,用包围盒方法将三维散乱点划分为数据区域 ;然后求取点的切平面及法向 ,同时采用广度优先算法遍历数据点来调整法向和快速地求取 Marching Cubes的等势函数 ;最后用基于查表法的 Marching Cubes来输出三角面片 ,即得到表面模型 .实验结果表明 ,改进后的算法效率有较大的提高 .新算法不仅适用于表面三维散乱点数据 ,也可以对体数据进行重构 ,具有一定的通用性 .     

Quality Isosurface Mesh Generation Using an Extended Marching Cubes Lookup Table

The Marching Cubes Algorithm may return degenerate, zero area isosurface triangles, and often returns isosurface triangles with small areas, edges or angles. We show how to avoid both problems using an extended Marching Cubes lookup table. As opposed to the conventional Marching Cubes lookup table, the extended lookup table differentiates scalar values equal to the isovalue from scalar values greater than the isovalue. The lookup table has 3⁸= 6561 entries, based on three possible labels, ‘?’ or ‘=’ or ‘+’, of each cube vertex. We present an algorithm based on this lookup table which returns an isosurface close to the Marching Cubes isosurface, but without any degenerate triangles or any small areas, edges or angles.     

基于MITK的医学图像三维表面重建算法

对MITK算法平台进行研究,根据其总体框架、数据模型、算法模型的设计准则,依托该平台对医学图像序列实现基于体积元素的Marching Cubes表面绘制算法,并将绘制后的模型进行三维可视化显示。该方法构造出的等值面虽不能反映整个原始数据场的全貌及细节,但对感兴趣的等值面可以产生清晰的图像,而且可以利用现有的图像硬件实现绘制功能并进行实时交互操作。     

A modified look-up table for implicit disambiguation of Marching Cubes

A new triangulation scheme for the Marching Cubes algorithm is proposed. The scheme allows the extraction of continuous isosurfaces from volumetric data without the need to use disamgiguation techniques.     

Fast Generation of Leakproof Surfaces from Well-Defined Objects by a Modified Marching Cubes Algorithm

Local surface reconstruction by the Marching Cubes algorithm and its derivatives has a well known ambiguity, which prevents constructed surfaces from being closed and simple. We investigate this ambiguity assuming that a 3D image samples well-defined objects. In this case it is justified to aim at tiling of extracted object voxels rather than at reconstructing iso surfaces. Compared to iso surface reconstruction, our algorithm provides essentially the same level of confidence with respect to surface location at a lower computational cost. We present a leak detection and mending scheme which resolves the Marching Cubes ambiguity and guarantees a well-defined behaviour with respect to which objects are covered by which surface. We detail how to implement our leak mending method within a completely tabulated Marching Cubes algorithm. We finally give an example of how the adapted algorithm is of benefit to a recently developed 3D MR spectroscopy technique.