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Real-time ray casting rendering of volume clipping in medical visualization

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Abstract

This paper presents a real-time ray casting rendering algorithm for “volume clipping plane” as an extension of the conventional ray casting technique. For each viewing direction a (moderate) pre-processing step is performed: the ray traverses the entire volume data (no early ray termination). Its intensity and opacity contributions are divided into several segments which are then sorted and stored by depth. At each sampling position along a segment, accumulated transparency and color are stored at a moderate memory overhead. For visualizing real-time volume clipping, only relevant segment contributions (maximum two) at the location of the clipping plane are considered, thus reducing the calculation to meet real-time requirements. Compared with the previous work that involves time-consuming re-clipping, re-traversing and re-shading, the proposed method achieves quality identical to ray casting at real-time speed. The performance is independent of the volume resolution and/or the number of clipping planes along a given viewing direction. Therefore it is suitable for real-time “internal volume inspections”, involving one or several cutting planes, typically applied e.g., in medical visualization and material testing applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The State Key Laboratory of CAD and CG, Zhejiang University, 310027, Hangzhou, P.R. China

    Chen Wei, Hua Wei, Bao HuJun & Peng QunSheng

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  1. Chen Wei
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  2. Hua Wei
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  3. Bao HuJun
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  4. Peng QunSheng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chen Wei.

Additional information

This project is partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.60103017), the National Natural Science Foundation of China for Innovative Research Groups (Grant No.60021201) and for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (Grant No.69925204) and the National Grand Fundamental Research 973 Program of China (Grant No.2002CB312101).

CHEN Wei is a research stuff in The State Key Lab of CAD&CG at Zhejiang University. He received his Ph.D. degree in 2002 from Dept. of Applied Mathematics of Zhejiang University. He has performed research in volume rendering and related technical areas for recent six years. His current research interests include hardware-accelerated rendering, photo-realistic rendering, point-based rendering, medical visualization and medical image analysis.

HUA Wei received his B.S. degree from Dept. of Bioengineering in 1996 and Ph.D. degree from Dept. of Applied Mathematics in 2002, Zhejiang University, P.R. China. Currently, he is an assistant researcher in the State Key Lab of CAD & CG in Zhejiang University. His research interests include computer graphics, 3D imaging and rendering, and geometric modeling.

BAO HuJun received his B.S. degree in 1987 and Ph.D. degree in 1993, both from Dept. of Applied Mathematics of Zhejiang University. He is a professor and the director of the State Key Lab of CAD & CG in the Zhejiang University currently. His research interests include photo-realistic rendering, computer animation, and geometric signal processing.

PENG QunSheng is a professor in the State Key Lab of CAD&CG, Zhejiang University. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of East Anglia, UK in 1983. His research interests include photo-realistic rendering, image based rendering, infrared imaging and simulation.

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Chen, W., Hua, W., Bao, H. et al. Real-time ray casting rendering of volume clipping in medical visualization. J. Comput. Sci. & Technol. 18, 804–814 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02945470

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02945470

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