Three-dimensional surface reconstruction for industrial computed tomography

Modern high resolution medical computed tomography (CT) scanners can produce geometrically accurate sectional images of many types of industrial objects. Computer software has been developed to convert serial CT scans into a 3-D surface form, suitable for display on the scanner itself. This software, originally developed for imaging the skull, has been adapted for application to industrial CT scanning, where serial CT scans through an object of interest may be reconstructed to demonstrate spatial relationships in three dimensions that cannot be easily understood using the original slices. The methods of 3-D reconstruction and solid modeling are reviewed, and reconstruction in three dimensions from CT scans through familiar objects is demonstrated