Simulation of X-ray Attenuation on the GPU

Abstract In this paper, we propose to take advantage of computer graphics hardware to achievean accelerated simulation of X-ray transmission imaging, and we compare results with afast and robust software-only implementation. The running times of the GPU and CPUimplementations are compared in different test cases. The results show that the GPUimplementation with full floating point precision is faster by a factor of about 60 to 65than the CPU implementation, without any significant loss of accuracy. The increase inperformance achieved with GPU calculations opens up new perspectives. Notably, it pavesthewayforphysically-realisticsimulationofX-rayimagingininteractivetime. Categories and Subject Descriptors (accordingtoACMCCS):I.3.5ComputerGraphics:Physically based modeling; I.3.7 Computer Graphics: Raytracing; J.2 Computer Applica-tions: Physics. Keywords: Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism, Raytracing, Physical Sciences andEngineering,Physics. 1 Introduction The simulation of X-ray imaging techniques such as radiography or tomography is extensivelystudied in the physics community and different physically-based simulation codes are available.Deterministic methods based on ray-tracing are commonly used to compute direct images (i.e.images formed by the X-ray beam transmitted without interaction through the scanned object)ofcomputer-aideddesign(CAD)models. Ray-tracingprovidesafastalternativetoMonteCarlomethods [4]. Such programs are very useful to optimize experiment parameters, to conceiveimagingsystems,ortotakeintoaccountnon-destructivetestingduringthedesignofamechanicalstructure[1,10]. However,evenwithfastraytracingalgorithms,thesimulationofcomplexX-rayimagingsystemsstillrequiresverylongcomputationtimesandisnotsuitableforaninteractiveuseaswouldberequiredinamedicaltrainingtool.Physics-basedsimulationsaretraditionallyperformedonCPUs. However,thereisagrowinginterestforgeneral-purposecomputationonGPUs(GPGPU)andthishasbeenanactiveareaofresearchsometime[13].Inthispaper,wepresentanefficientsimulationofX-rayattenuationthroughcomplexobjects,thatmakesuseofthecapabilityimprovementoftoday’sgraphicscards. Wealsocomparetheper-formanceofthisGPUapproachwithanefficientsoftware-onlyimplementation. ToourknowledgethisisthefirstGPU-basedX-Rayattenuationsimulation. Suchasimulationtoolcanbedeployedinmedicalvirtualinteractiveapplicationsfortrainingfluoroscopyguidanceofneedles,cathetersand guidewires [18], and can also be useful to speed-up current physics-based simulation wherecomputationalaccuracyiscritical.

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