Isosurface extraction using particle systems

We present a new approach to isosurface e xtraction from volume data using particle systems. Particle behavior is dynamic and can b e based on laws of physics or artificial rules. For isosurface e xtraction, we program particles to be a ttracted towards a specific surface value while simultaneously repelling adjacent particles. The repulsive forces are based on the curvature of the surface a t t hat l ocation. A birth-death p rocess results in a denser concentration of particles in areas of high curvature a nd sparser populations in areas of lower curvature. The overall l evel of detail i s controlled through a scaling factor that i ncreases or decreases the repulsive forces of the particles. Once particles reach equilibrium, their locations are used as vertices in generating a triangular mesh of the surface. Advantages of our approach include: vertex densities are based on surface features rather than on the sampling rate of the volume; a single scaling factor simplifies level of detail control; meshing is efficient because it uses neighbor information that has already been generated during the force calculations.