Development of 3D image reconstruction based on untracked 2D fetal phantom ultrasound images using VTK

Abstract

Three dimensional (3D) ultrasound image reconstruction based on two dimensional (2D) images has become a famous method for analyzing some anatomy related to abnormalities. 3D ultrasound image reconstruction system is required in order to view the specific part of the object and so that it can be used for analysis purpose. In this paper, 2D images of fetal phantom were taken by using untracked free-hand ultrasound system. Few sets of 2D images were taken with different number of slices and after some basic 2D image processing, 3D reconstruction is done by using surface rendering techniques by implementing contour filtering and marching cubes algorithm in Visual C++ 6.0 with Visualization Toolkit (VTK) toolbox. From the experiment, we can conclude that in order to reconstruct a better 3D image, the aid of tracking sensor is important. Besides, image processing need to be performed thoroughly by adding other detailed processing techniques so that noises can be fully removed. From the result also, it can be concluded that the marching cube algorithm can give a better result compare to contour filtering where marching cubes algorithm can generate higher intensity 3D image which can make user easy to detect inner part and edges of 3D images. The number of slices should also be increased to improve the accuracy of the 3D image constructed.