On Approximating Contours of the Piecewise Trilinear Interpolant Using Triangular Rational-Quadratic Bézier Patches

Given a three dimensional (3D) array of function values F/sub i,j,k/ on a rectilinear grid, the marching cubes (MC) method is the most common technique used for computing a surface triangulation T approximating a contour (isosurface) F(x, y, z)=T. We describe the construction of a C/sup 0/ continuous surface consisting of rational quadratic surface patches interpolating the triangles in T. We determine the Bezier control points of a single rational quadratic surface patch based on the coordinates of the vertices of the underlying triangle and the gradients and Hessians associated with the vertices.

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