Exploded Views for Volume Data

Information

• Replaced by: bruckner-2006-EVV
• Publication Type: Technical Report
• Workgroup(s)/Project(s):
  • ExVisation: Expressive Visualization of Volumetric Data
• Date: April 2006
• Keywords: exploded views, illustrative visualization, volume rendering

Abstract

Exploded views are an illustration technique in which an object is partitioned into several segments. These segments are displaced to reveal otherwise hidden detail. In this paper we apply this concept to volumetric data in order to solve the general problem of occlusion. In many cases an object of interest is occluded by other structures which nonetheless provide important context information. While transparency or cutaways can be used to reveal a focus object, the problem of these techniques is that they remove parts of the information. Exploded views, on the other hand, do not suffer from this drawback. Our approach employs a force-based model: the volume is divided into a part configuration controlled by a number of forces and constraints. The focus object exerts an explosion force causing the parts to arrange according to the given constraints. We show that this novel and flexible approach allows for a wide variety of explosion-based visualizations including view-dependent explosions. Furthermore, we present a high-quality GPU-based volume ray casting algorithm for exploded views which allows rendering and interaction at several frames per second.

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BibTeX

@techreport{TR-186-2-06-03,
  title =      "Exploded Views for Volume Data",
  author =     "Stefan Bruckner and Eduard Gr\"{o}ller",
  year =       "2006",
  abstract =   "Exploded views are an illustration technique in which an
               object is partitioned into several segments. These segments
               are displaced to reveal otherwise hidden detail. In this
               paper we apply this concept to volumetric data in order to
               solve the general problem of occlusion. In many cases an
               object of interest is occluded by other structures which
               nonetheless provide important context information. While
               transparency or cutaways can be used to reveal a focus
               object, the problem of these techniques is that they remove
               parts of the information. Exploded views, on the other hand,
               do not suffer from this drawback. Our approach employs a
               force-based model: the volume is divided into a part
               configuration controlled by a number of forces and
               constraints. The focus object exerts an explosion force
               causing the parts to arrange according to the given
               constraints. We show that this novel and flexible approach
               allows for a wide variety of explosion-based visualizations
               including view-dependent explosions. Furthermore, we present
               a high-quality GPU-based volume ray casting algorithm for
               exploded views which allows rendering and interaction at
               several frames per second.",
  month =      apr,
  address =    "Favoritenstrasse 9-11/E193-02, A-1040 Vienna, Austria",
  institution = "Institute of Computer Graphics and Algorithms, Vienna
               University of Technology ",
  note =       "human contact: technical-report@cg.tuwien.ac.at",
  keywords =   "exploded views, illustrative visualization, volume rendering",
  URL =        "https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2006/TR-186-2-06-03/",
}