Interactive volume segmentation with the PAVLOV architecture

We propose a new paradigm for interactive volume visualization which allows enhanced exploration of datasets through the use of real-time volume processing (e.g., segmentation) tightly coupled with rendering. We show examples of how this paradigm supports a new way of examining a dataset by providing interactive visual feedback to segmentation parameter adjustment. We have developed a hardware co-processor, called PAVLOV, based on a SIMD mesh architecture. It supports our paradigm by providing volume processing at over 15 Hz while also rendering of the results at 30 Hz. We show how PAVLOV´s programmability is used for volume processing applications, such as interactive segmentation and feature extraction. We further compare 3D segmentation on mesh architectures to known efficient methods for 2D segmentation.