Applying 'Marching Cubes' algorithm to DICOM

[hsash]

hi all,

i would really appreciate any guidance and help in this.

basically i need to open a series of DICOM files (medical imaging format) which are binary files and do a thresholding algorithm so that the pixels are either white or black. i would then need to 'stack' them and use the famous 'marching cubes' algorithm to generate a 3D model. i am supposed to use OpenGL at this stage to generate a more or less realistic 3D model of the body part, say a skull.

i am really at a loss how to go about it as i am a true beginner at c++. a few questions.

1. do i need to put the data in a 3 - dimensional array?
2. how do i open all slices of image (say 40 DICOM slices) and stack them up?
3. how do i use OpenGL to read the data?

i have googled to my wits end and read paul bourke's paper but still am at a loss. please, if anyone knows how to do this or knows of a tutorial please point me to it.

deeply appreaciate and anxiously awaiting replies.

Thank you!

[ch123]

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[turbozedd]

How do you plan to threshhold? And what does the data look like after it has been converted out of binary?

What are the inputs and outputs of the "marching cube" algorithm?

The output of the algorithm will dictate how you employ openGL.

There are many openGL tutorials, but you need to know your data before you can display it.