title: Three-dimensional surface reconstructions using a general purpose image processing system.
abstract: A general purpose two-dimensional (2-D) image processing software system was used to produce high quality three-dimensional (3-D) surface reconstructions from serial sections such as CT scan slices. Depth-encoded 3-D surface images, gradient-shaded 3-D surface images, and weighted sums of these two images were computed. Images that simulate transmission radiographs ("volumetric" views) were created from the same slice data. Hidden surfaces were displayed by reconstructing in 3-D only subvolumes of the original data set. The 2-D image processing functions used were limited to: planar subimage selection and merge, arithmetic and boolean operations, piecewise linear gray scale transform, convolution (1-D), and format conversion (byte-integer-float). Using these methods any user with a general purpose 2-D image processing system can analyze and view multi-slice data as 3-D volume and surface projections.
authors.affiliation: Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110.
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Hoffmeister
authors.forename: G C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Rinehart
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Vannier
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003196:Computer Graphics; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D012886:Skull / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D012984:Software; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*