Isosurface rendering of medical images improved by automatic texture mapping

Abstract

Advances in medical imaging modalities have allowed the acquisition of large collections of volumetric images for clinical and training purposes, such as Computerized Tomography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Mammography, Fluoroscopy, X-Ray Microtomography, Positron Emission Tomography and Ultrasonography. Volume rendering has proved to be a very flexible and effective technique for exploring and visualizing such massive medical data sets. Realistic models of complex human anatomical structures can be constructed and manipulated by medical professionals to enhance internal structures of interest. This work proposes and evaluates a novel isosurface rendering method for medical images improved by automatic texture mapping. The texture information is generated through different volume projection approaches. Experiments conducted on several data sets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed rendering method.

Keywords:

• Texture mapping
• volume rendering
• projection techniques
• medical image visualization

Notes

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful to FAPESP – São Paulo Research Foundation [grant number 2015/12228-1], [grant number 2011/22749-8]; CNPq – National Council for Scientific and Technological Development [grant number 305169/2015-7] for their financial support.