ADAPTIVE SURFACE DATA-COMPRESSION

Three-dimensional (3D) visualization techniques are becoming an import ant tool for medical applications. Computer-generated 3D reconstructio ns of the human skull are used to build stereolithographic models, whi ch can be used to simulate surgery or to create individual implants. A natomy-based 3D models are used to simulate the physical behaviour of human organs. These 3D models are usually displayed by a polygonal des cription of their surface, which requires hundreds of thousands of pol ygons. For interactive applications this large number of polygons is a major obstacle. We have improved an adaptive compression algorithm th at significantly reduces the number of triangles required to model com plex objects without losing visible detail and have implemented it in our surgery simulation system. We present this algorithm using human s kull and skin data and describe the efficiency of this new approach. ( C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.