Accurate surface voxelization for manipulating volumetric surfaces and solids with application in simulating musculoskeletal surgery

Abstract

Existing volumetric representations model a non-thickness surface using voxels, and thus cannot accurately manipulate topology changes in the interactions between surfaces and solids. The study describes a volume representation in which face flags and distance-levels on each voxel represent surface topology and geometry, and an object flag identifies solids. Also presented is a set of algorithms that voxelize solids and surfaces, check the closures of the interactions among the volumetric surfaces and solids and manipulate various operations on the solids. A surgical example, in which the procedures involved in the complex interactions between cutting surfaces and anatomic structures and various geometric and topologic manipulations on the structures, are simulated to demonstrate that these novel volume representation techniques and algorithms are feasible in manipulating the interactions between surfaces and solids in a volume.