By scanning across semitransparent animals using our laser-based instrument DeepPIV, we can collect detailed information about their structures. In the gallery below, you can interact directly with several 3D models created in this way, posted to MBARI’s Sketchfab page. You can download the models in various formats from the Sketchfab pages, our contact us for other formats.

How these models were created

The reconstruction scan data is stored in video format. Typically, a number of scan passes is made of each animal of interest, selecting the best one for further processing. The selected scan is usually several seconds (a few hundred frames) long. The individual frames are aligned and cropped using custom MATLAB programs, and consecutively exported as a stack of frames. The appropriate interframe spacing is determined using additional views of the object of interest. The stack of frames is imported into 3D Slicer for visualization and creation of mesh models. Volume renders can be directly displayed and are the most accurate portrayal of the data, but 3D meshes are needed for most applications, including computational models and animations. Such models are created in 3D slicer by segmentation of features of interest. Remeshing is performed in Meshlab (using Poisson surface reconstruction), before the PLY files are imported into Blender for visualization.

Additional model information

Data collection details and links to additional data can be found in the table below. This includes video links to the original scan data. The downloadable model files on Sketchfab include a 10 mm cube for scale. Click here to open the table in a new window.