Volume rendering of medical image data via hardware and in software

George J. Grevera; Jayaram K. Udupa; Dewey Odhner

doi:10.1117/12.383031

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18 April 2000 Volume rendering of medical image data via hardware and in software

George J. Grevera, Jayaram K. Udupa, Dewey Odhner

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Proceedings Volume 3976, Medical Imaging 2000: Image Display and Visualization; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.383031
Event: Medical Imaging 2000, 2000, San Diego, CA, United States

Abstract

At the 1999 meeting of SPIE Medical Imaging, we presented results that demonstrated that a software-only-based technique, Shell Rendering, was capable of rendering hard surfaces at rates faster than hardware-assisted, triangle- based surface rendering by a factor of 18 to 31 while maintaining comparable image quality. We noted that the framework of Shell Rendering actually encompasses both hard surface rendering of medical image data via Shell Rendering in software with two techniques of OpenGL-based hardware- assisted volume rendering using 2D and 3D texture mapping. Although our previous results demonstrated that shell rendering is faster than hardware-assisted surface rendering, its speed is comparable to but slightly lower than hardware-assisted volume rendering methods. Detailed timing results for various input medical image data sets as well as for various computer platforms are presented in the paper. The images produced by the various methods are presented as well for subjective quality assessment. We conclude that for medical image visualization, Shell Rendering is an efficient technique that combines aspects of surface rendering and volume rendering. Furthermore, it accomplishes this without requiring expensive hardware while producing high quality images on PCs using an entirely software-based approach.

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George J. Grevera, Jayaram K. Udupa, and Dewey Odhner "Volume rendering of medical image data via hardware and in software", Proc. SPIE 3976, Medical Imaging 2000: Image Display and Visualization, (18 April 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.383031

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