Edge-preserving compression of CT scans using wavelets

This work addresses the subject of efficient storage of computed tomography (CT) data with an emphasis on the quality of surfaces. Industrial dimensional metrology often requires high measurement accuracy and it is shown that this is retained using wavelet-based compression methods. The applied techniques include a tensor product wavelet transform and soft wavelet shrinkage. In these tests, performed on real objects, dimensional CT measurements of compressed and uncompressed volumes were compared. The necessary storage space was reduced significantly with a negligible loss of accuracy. The storage space required for a multi-sphere phantom was decreased to 4.7% (from 638 MB to 30 MB), with an average deviation below 1 mu m from the original volume.