Constrained elastic surface nets: Generating smooth surfaces from binary segmented data

Abstract

This paper describes a method for creating object surfaces from binary-segmented data that are free from aliasing and terracing artifacts. In this method, a net of linked surface nodes is created over the surface of the binary object. The positions of the nodes are adjusted iteratively to reduce energy in the surface net while satisfying the constraint that each element in the surface net must remain within its original surface cube. This constraint ensures that fine detail such as cracks and thin protrusions that are present in the binary data are maintained.