Information

Replaced by RAUTEK06.

Abstract

Volume-rendering techniques are conventionally classified into two categories represented by direct and indirect methods. Indirect methods require to transform the initial volumetric model into an intermediate geometrical model in order to efficiently visualize it. In contrast, direct volume-rendering (DVR) methods can directly process the volumetric data. Modern 3D scanning technologies, like CT or MRI, usually provide data as a set of samples on rectilinear grid points, which are computed from the measured projections by discrete tomographic reconstruction. Therefore the set of these reconstructed samples can already be considered as an intermediate volume representation. In this paper we introduce a new paradigm for direct direct volume rendering (D²VR), which does not require a rectilinear grid at all, since it is based on an immediate processing of the measured projections. Arbitrary samples for ray casting are reconstructed from the projections by using the Filtered Back-Projection algorithm. Our method removes an unnecessary and lossy resampling step from the classical volume rendering pipeline. Thus, it provides much higher accuracy than traditional grid-based resampling techniques do. Furthermore we also present a novel high-quality gradient estimation scheme, which is also based on the Filtered Back-Projection algorithm. Finally we introduce a hierarchical space partitioning approach for projection-based volumetric data, which is used to accelerate D²VR.

Additional Files and Images

Additional files:
Technical Report
Technical Report




BibTeX

Download BibTeX-Entry
@techreport{TR-186-2-05-03,
  title =      "D²VR: High Quality Volume Rendering of Projection-based
               Volumetric Data",
  author =     "Bal{\'a}zs Csebfalvi and Peter Rautek and S{\"o}ren
               Grimm and Stefan Bruckner and Meister Eduard Gr{\"o}ller",
  year =       "2005",
  abstract =   "Volume-rendering techniques are conventionally classified
               into two categories represented by direct and indirect
               methods. Indirect methods require to transform the initial
               volumetric model into an intermediate geometrical model in
               order to efficiently visualize it. In contrast, direct
               volume-rendering (DVR) methods can directly process the
               volumetric data. Modern 3D scanning technologies, like CT or
               MRI, usually provide data as a set of samples on rectilinear
               grid points, which are computed from the measured
               projections by discrete tomographic reconstruction.
               Therefore the set of these reconstructed samples can already
               be considered as an intermediate volume representation. In
               this paper we introduce a new paradigm for direct direct
               volume rendering (D²VR), which does not require a
               rectilinear grid at all, since it is based on an immediate
               processing of the measured projections. Arbitrary samples
               for ray casting are reconstructed from the projections by
               using the Filtered Back-Projection algorithm. Our method
               removes an unnecessary and lossy resampling step from the
               classical volume rendering pipeline. Thus, it provides much
               higher accuracy than traditional grid-based resampling
               techniques do. Furthermore we also present a novel
               high-quality gradient estimation scheme, which is also based
               on the Filtered Back-Projection algorithm. Finally we
               introduce a hierarchical space partitioning approach for
               projection-based volumetric data, which is used to
               accelerate D²VR.",
  address =    "Favoritenstrasse 9-11/186, A-1040 Vienna, Austria",
  institution = "Institute of Computer Graphics and Algorithms, Vienna
               University of Technology",
  note =       "human contact: technical-report@cg.tuwien.ac.at",
  month =      apr,
  number =     "TR-186-2-05-03",
  keywords =   "Volume Rendering, Filtered Back-Projection, Reconstruction",
  URL =        "http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2005/TR-186-2-05-03/",
}