Comparison of six three-dimensional reconstruction algorithms

Three-dimensional reconstruction algorithms allow direct visualization of anatomy displayed in a set of tomograms. The raycasting and Cuberille methods generate images based on the distance to a surface patch and on the surface normal of the patch. The methods of marching cubes and dividing cubes use surface normals obtained from the normalized gradient of the tomograms. The authors show that the normalized gradient produces accurate estimates of surface normals, and how the ray-casting and Cuberille methods can utilize the normalized gradient. The four existing and two extended algorithms are compared with respect to image quality and to ease of implementation