Title :
Fast Hardware-Accelerated Volume Rendering of CT Scans
Author :
Liang, Ronghua ; Pan, Zhigeng ; Krokos, Meleagros ; Chen, Mao ; Bao, Jiarui ; Li, Cheng
Author_Institution :
Coll. of Inf. Eng., Zhejiang Univ. of Technol., Hangzhou
Abstract :
As CT scanning is a very common medical imaging method, we propose new hardware-based algorithms using GPU (Graphical Processor Unit) programming for rapid visualization. Firstly, 3D volumes are constructed from CT scans. Then volume rendering is used to display anatomical structures via algorithms founded on improved ray casting and 2D textures. Our methods achieve interactive rendering rates and require an ordinary PC with an off-the-shelf graphics card. We expect our approach to be useful to medical practitioners for handling modern, large-scale medical datasets.
Keywords :
computerised tomography; image reconstruction; image texture; medical image processing; rendering (computer graphics); 2D textures; 3D volume construction; CT scans; GPU; anatomical structures; graphical processor unit programming; hardware-accelerated volume rendering; hardware-based algorithms; interactive rendering rates; large-scale medical datasets; medical imaging method; medical practitioners; off-the-shelf graphics card; ordinary PC; rapid visualization; ray casting; Biomedical imaging; Casting; Computed tomography; Data visualization; Hospitals; Large-scale systems; Magnetic resonance imaging; Medical diagnostic imaging; Programming profession; Rendering (computer graphics); 2D textures; CT scanning; GPU programming; large-scale datasets; medical visualization; ray-casting; volume rendering;
Journal_Title :
Display Technology, Journal of
DOI :
10.1109/JDT.2008.2002223
