Implementation of several rendering and volume rotation methods for volume rendering of 3D medical dataset

In common CT or MRI scanning, volumetric data are acquired as a series of separated slices. Normal practice requires radiologists to interpret the three-dimensional (3D) object or volumetric data by studying these individual slices. Nevertheless, this process is burdensome and time-consuming. With the help from rendering techniques, these indirectly will ease the decision-making process and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of treatment planning. In general, surface rendering and volume rendering are among techniques widely used in medical applications. Among these, volume rendering is the most common visualization technique used to render both geometric and densitometric of data under investigation. This project implements three types of visualization methods based on volume rendering technique which are maximum intensity projection (MIP), local maximum intensity projection (LMIP) and ray-casting to investigate their limitations and significances. Different methods can be used to depict different features of the object in the data. The uses of methods are dependent on user demand and specified application. In order to assist radiologists to understand better on the nature of the 3D object and increase efficiency on detecting locations of abnormalities in the structure of the object, this project is also implementing volume rotation methods, which are Euclidean transformation and shear transformation to rotate the volumetric data in three-dimension space based on user-defined viewing angles. With the incorporation of volume rotation and rendering methods, these might help radiologists to depict different features of the object in any viewing angles.