Fig. 3

Micro-CT and ALMOST imaging of the same samples. Samples of the same shape but with different color patterning are imaged, namely Lego figurines. a, b Photograph of a Lego figurine with a beard dubbed “Dalton” and of a Lego figurine with glasses and happy face dubbed the “Workman.” c A reconstructed sagittal section from the Dalton obtained with micro-CT. d Dalton maximum intensity 3D reconstruction of the micro-CT data made similarly as the ALMOST data (with Arivis). e Dalton volumetric 3D reconstruction of the micro-CT data. f A reconstructed sagittal section from the Dalton obtained with ALMOST, blue channel. g Dalton maximum intensity 3D reconstruction of the ALMOST data, made with Arivis. h The Workman maximum intensity 3D reconstruction of the ALMOST data, made with Arivis. i Using ALMOST, the surface can be revealed similar to the depicted micro-CT surface (cfr e) using, for example, one color channel (here blue). j Overlay of the surfaces from ALMOST (green) and micro-CT imaging (red). The ALMOST surface matches well the CT surface, thereby showing that the retrieved surfaces can be quantitative. Both characters are revealed in ALMOST imaging and can be discriminated, whereas in micro-CT, the figurines look similar. Optical imaging conditions are summarized in Additional file 20: Table S1. Scale bar = 2 mm