You have requested a machine translation of selected content from our databases. This functionality is provided solely for your convenience and is in no way intended to replace human translation. Neither SPIE nor the owners and publishers of the content make, and they explicitly disclaim, any express or implied representations or warranties of any kind, including, without limitation, representations and warranties as to the functionality of the translation feature or the accuracy or completeness of the translations.
Translations are not retained in our system. Your use of this feature and the translations is subject to all use restrictions contained in the Terms and Conditions of Use of the SPIE website.
18 April 2000Volume rendering of medical image data via hardware and in software
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.
The alert did not successfully save. Please try again later.
George J. Grevera, Jayaram K. Udupa, 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