Interactive Illustrative Volume Visualization

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• Publication Type: PhD-Thesis
• Month: March
• Rigorosum: April 11, 2008
• Keywords: volume rendering, illustrative visualization

This thesis is devoted to the computer-assisted generation of illustrations directly from volumetric data using advanced visualization techniques. The concept of a direct volume illustration system is introduced for this purpose. Instead of requiring an additional modeling step, this system allows the designer of an illustration to work directly on the measured data. Abstraction, a key component of traditional illustrations, is used in order to reduce visual clutter, emphasize important structures, and reveal hidden detail. Low-level abstraction techniques are concerned with the appearance of objects and allow flexible artistic shading of structures in volumetric data sets. High-level abstraction techniques control which objects are visible. For this purpose, novel methods for the generation of ghosted and exploded views are introduced.

The visualization techniques presented in this thesis employ the features of current graphics hardware to achieve interactive performance. The resulting system allows the generation of expressive illustrations directly from volumetric data with applications in medical training, patient education, and scientific communication.

@phdthesis\{bruckner-2008-IIV,
  title =      "Interactive Illustrative Volume Visualization",
  author =     "Stefan Bruckner",
  year =       "2008",
  abstract =   "Illustrations are essential for the effective communication
               of complex subjects. Their production, however, is a
               difficult and expensive task. In recent years,
               three-dimensional imaging has become a vital tool not only
               in medical diagnosis and treatment planning, but also in
               many technical disciplines (e.g., material inspection),
               biology, and archeology. Modalities such as X-Ray Computed
               Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) produce
               high-resolution volumetric scans on a daily basis. It seems
               counter-intuitive that even though such a wealth of data is
               available, the production of an illustration should still
               require a mainly manual and time-consuming process.  This
               thesis is devoted to the computer-assisted generation of
               illustrations directly from volumetric data using advanced
               visualization techniques. The concept of a direct volume
               illustration system is introduced for this purpose. Instead
               of requiring an additional modeling step, this system allows
               the designer of an illustration to work directly on the
               measured data. Abstraction, a key component of traditional
               illustrations, is used in order to reduce visual clutter,
               emphasize important structures, and reveal hidden detail.
               Low-level abstraction techniques are concerned with the
               appearance of objects and allow flexible artistic shading of
               structures in volumetric data sets. High-level abstraction
               techniques control which objects are visible. For this
               purpose, novel methods for the generation of ghosted and
               exploded views are introduced.  The visualization techniques
               presented in this thesis employ the features of current
               graphics hardware to achieve interactive performance. The
               resulting system allows the generation of expressive
               illustrations directly from volumetric data with
               applications in medical training, patient education, and
               scientific communication.",
  address =    "Favoritenstrasse 9-11/186, A-1040 Vienna, Austria",
  school =     "Institute of Computer Graphics and Algorithms, Vienna
               University of Technology",
  month =      3,
  keywords =   "volume rendering, illustrative visualization",
  URL =        "http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2008/bruckner-2008-IIV/",
}