Three-dimensional reconstruction and visualization of geological materials with IDL - examples and source code

This paper demonstrates a method for 3-D reconstruction and visualization of geological materials with the programmable data analysis and visualization environment IDL. Custom IDL programs are presented for importing, filtering and visualizing of data derived from precision serial lapping. Classified raster images can be sequentially read and imported into a voxel array. The voxel array can be processed by median and/or binary filter programs with variably shaped filter kernels to achieve consistent 3-D reconstruction and noise reduction. Filtered results can be visualized by means of a voxel-projecting program and a surface-rendering program. The use of the IDL slicer application, a 3-D analysis and visualization tool which is included in the standard IDL edition, is also demonstrated. The source code of the custom IDL programs is available at the IAMG webspace along with test data sets of two rock samples, which serve to demonstrate the program features. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.