Haptic Rendering of Dynamic Volumetric Data

With current methods for volume haptics in scientific visualization, features in time-varying data can freely move straight through the haptic probe without generating any haptic feedback-the algorithms are simply not designed to handle variation with time but consider only the instantaneous configuration when the haptic feedback is calculated. This article introduces haptic rendering of dynamic volumetric data to provide a means for haptic exploration of dynamic behavior in volumetric data. We show how haptic feedback can be produced that is consistent with volumetric data moving within the virtual environment and with data that, in itself, evolves over time. Haptic interaction with time-varying data is demonstrated by allowing palpation of a computerized tomography sequence of a beating human heart.