Exploration and Quantification of Industrial CT Data

PR/BA/DA

Markus Hadwiger, Eduard Gröller

Content:

Description

Non-destructive testing (NDT) is a scientific discipline which examines the internal structures of industrial components such as machine parts, pipes and ropes without destroying them. Industrial pieces require critical inspection before they are assembled into a finished product in order to ensure safety stability, and usefulness of the finished object. A common class of features in this context are defects such as pores and shrinkage cavities in varying cast parts, as well as more complex materials with a broad spectrum of different inclusions, like minerals or asphalt. In recent years, 3D CT has become common in NDT, which has created powerful new possibilities, but also new challenges for the inspection and testing process. Industrial CT volumes are generally quite large, with voxels commonly stored with 16 bits of precision, which leads to several hundred MB to one or more GB of raw data per scan. Real-time volume rendering has become an essential tool for visualizing these volumes. However, for NDT practitioners visualization is just one part of the workflow, which includes a variety of processing tasks such as defect detection and quantification, computing statistical measures and properties such as material porosity, performing accurate measurements and comparisons, and many more. We work in co-operation with the Austrian Foundry Research Institute (ÖGI) with the goal to explore industrial CT volumes, and facilitate the whole quantification approach of the components at hand.

Task

Your task will be the expansion of the exploration and quantification possibilities in our system. This includes
  • The integration of new tools (e.g., different measurement tools)
  • The preprocessing process (e.g., testing of different region growing approaches)
  • The rendering- and visualization (e.g., design of new transfer functions) process of industrial CT data.
We provide a high quality GPU-based volume renderer (HVR) as framework and offer the possibility to contribute in an industrial research project and work with real-world industrial CT data. There are different tasks suitable for the duration of your internship (student project, diploma thesis...) and depending on your interests. You are also welcome to contribute your own ideas.

Requirements

Basic knowledge in computer graphics and visualization, C++ programming, experience with OpenGL and vertex/fragment programs is advantageous.

Additional Information

Contact: Markus Hadwiger, Tel: 01/20501 30703