3D reconstruction from 2D images and applications to cell cytoskeleton

Abstract

Approaches to achieve three dimensional (3D) reconstruction from 2D images can be grouped into two categories: computer-vision-based reconstruction and tomographic reconstruction. By exploring both the differences and connections between these two types of reconstruction, the thesis attempts to develop a new technique that can be applied to 3D reconstruction of biological structures. Specific attention is given to the reconstruction of the cell cytoskeleton from electron microscope images. The thesis is composed of two parts. The first part studies computer-vision-based reconstruction methods that extract 3D information from geometric relationship among images. First, a multiple-feature-based stereo reconstruction algorithm that recovers the 3D structure of an object from two images is presented. A volumetric reconstruction method is then developed by extending the algorithm to multiple images. The method integrates a sequence of 3D reconstruction from different stereo pairs. It achieves a globally optimized reconstruction by evaluating certainty values of each stereo reconstruction. This method is tuned and applied to 3D reconstruction of the cell cytoskeleton. Feasibility, reliability and flexibility of the method are explored.

(cont.) The second part of the thesis focuses on a special tomographic reconstruction, discrete tomography, where the object to be reconstructed is composed of a discrete set of materials each with uniform values. A Bayesian labeling process is proposed as a framework for discrete tomography. The process uses an expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm with which the reconstruction is obtained efficiently. Results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves high reconstruction quality even with a small number of projections. An interesting relationship between discrete tomography and conventional tomography is also derived, showing that discrete tomography is a more generalized form of tomography and conventional tomography is only a special case of such generalization.