A Novel Interactive Volume-Exploring Method for Medical Data Based on Texture-Mapping Techniques

In the research on 3D data visualization of medical images, the requirement of huge computation and high throughput for computers is still an obstacle in both volume exploration and volume rendering. In order to accelerate the speed of volume rendering, emphases have been put upon depending on graphics hardware in recent years. In this paper, a new approach to explore medical volume data interactively is presented. By combining traditional 2D and prevalent 3D texture-mapping technique supported by graphics hardware, an algorithm is proposed to generate an plane showing the image information we are interested in dynamically in the common PC. In contrast to previous methods, higher frame-rates can be achieved per second and the image in clipping plane can be displayed in real time. This method can bring us insight into the inner structure of volume data of medical images dynamically. For the convenience of the operator, a 6DOF device is integrated to manipulate the dynamic clipping plane.