Henry Moseley X-Ray Imaging Facility - Reconstruction and Visualisation
Reconstruction and Visualisation
Each imaging instrument has its own reconstruction and visualisation software, but for efficiency of operation the normal method of operation will be to download the data from the imagers onto the servers directly after the acquisition for subsequent reconstruction and visualisation, manipulation and measurement etc., thus freeing up the imagers for further acquisition.
- Data storage/Reconstruction:
- Cluster of 19 servers connected by fast Local Area Network (LAN) to all the CT imagers.
- Protected by Uninterruptable Power Supplies.
- Periodic system backups.
- Visualisation:
- Suite of 4 Dell dual quad-core workstations connected via the high-speed LAN to the server bank. Specification of workstations:
- Dual Quad Core Intel Xeon X5482, 3.20GHz
- 64GB Memory
- Graphics: 768MB nVidia QuadroFX 4600
- 24in widescreen monitor
- Dual-boot: Windows / Linux
- Commercial visualisation software licences for all the workstations.
- Drishti visualisation software installed on a Dell PC.
Reconstruction Software
Xradia instruments
TXMReconstructor by Xradia
- Ring artefact removal
- Beam hardening correction
- Typical time for reconstruction: ~30 min for MicroXCT, ~15 min for NanoXCT
Metris X-tek instruments
- X-tek CT_Pro software
- Ring artefact removal
- Beam hardening correction
- Typical time for reconstruction: ~15 min
Cluster software developed in University of Manchester
- Optimized for cluster hardware
- Novel ring artefact suppression algorithm
- Work in progress on region-of-interest reconstruction, material specific methods, advanced artefact suppression
Visualisation Software
VGStudio MAX
- Dedicated software for industrial computer-tomography data analysis: http://www.volumegraphics.com/products/vgstudiomax/index.html
- Arbitrary freehand or keyed-in rotation and positioning of objects. Clipping capabilities: box clipping or arbitrary clipping planes.
- Arbitrary colour and opacity mapping.
- Various 2D and 3D segmentation tools
- Materials analysis: Detection of defects/porosity, crack detection, inclusions detection. Material distribution and position in composite materials.
- Object extraction: individual objects/parts can be extracted as separate object and exported as voxel data set.
- Camera mode for data walkthrough. Key frame animation tool with interpolation of camera, object, and scene parameters.
Drishti
Free volume exploration and presentation tool
- Two-dimensional transfer functions
- Region growing using user provided seeds
- Animation: Transfer function animation; sub volume animation, overlapping sub volume possible, each sub volume can have its own transfer function set; Camera path; clip plane animation
VTK / Paraview
- Powerful software system for computer graphics, image processing and visualisation http://www.vtk.org/ , http://www.paraview.org/
AVS/Express
- Comprehensive data visualisation tool: http://www.avs.com/software/soft_t/avsxps.html
Gimp
- Versatile image manipulation software: http://www.gimp.org/
IrfanView
- Image viewer: http://www.irfanview.com/
ImageJ
- Image processing and analysis program, http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/
ImageMagick
- Image processing tool, http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php