Illustrative Context-Preserving Exploration of Volume Data

Information

• Publication Type: Journal Paper (without talk)
• Workgroup(s)/Project(s):
  • ExVisation: Expressive Visualization of Volumetric Data
• Date: November 2006
• ISSN: 1077-2626
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
• Number: 6
• Volume: 12
• Pages: 1559 – 1569
• Keywords: focus+context techniques, volume rendering, illustrative visualization

Abstract

In volume rendering it is very difficult to simultaneously visualize interior and exterior structures while preserving clear shape cues. Highly transparent transfer functions produce cluttered images with many overlapping structures, while clipping techniques completely remove possibly important context information. In this paper we present a new model for volume rendering, inspired by techniques from illustration. It provides a means of interactively inspecting the interior of a volumetric data set in a feature-driven way which retains context information. The context-preserving volume rendering model uses a function of shading intensity, gradient magnitude, distance to the eye point, and previously accumulated opacity to selectively reduce the opacity in less important data regions. It is controlled by two user-specified parameters. This new method represents an alternative to conventional clipping techniques, shares their easy and intuitive user control, but does not suffer from the drawback of missing context information.

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BibTeX

@article{bruckner-2006-ICE,
  title =      "Illustrative Context-Preserving Exploration of Volume Data",
  author =     "Stefan Bruckner and S\"{o}ren Grimm and Armin Kanitsar and
               Eduard Gr\"{o}ller",
  year =       "2006",
  abstract =   "In volume rendering it is very difficult to simultaneously
               visualize interior and exterior structures while preserving
               clear shape cues. Highly transparent transfer functions
               produce cluttered images with many overlapping structures,
               while clipping techniques completely remove possibly
               important context information. In this paper we present a
               new model for volume rendering, inspired by techniques from
               illustration. It provides a means of interactively
               inspecting the interior of a volumetric data set in a
               feature-driven way which retains context information. The
               context-preserving volume rendering model uses a function of
               shading intensity, gradient magnitude, distance to the eye
               point, and previously accumulated opacity to selectively
               reduce the opacity in less important data regions. It is
               controlled by two user-specified parameters. This new method
               represents an alternative to conventional clipping
               techniques, shares their easy and intuitive user control,
               but does not suffer from the drawback of missing context
               information.",
  month =      nov,
  issn =       "1077-2626",
  journal =    "IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics",
  number =     "6",
  volume =     "12",
  pages =      "1559--1569",
  keywords =   "focus+context techniques, volume rendering, illustrative
               visualization",
  URL =        "https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2006/bruckner-2006-ICE/",
}