Stylized volume visualization of streamed sonar data

Current visualization technology implemented in the software for 2D sonars used in marine research is limited to slicing whilst volume visualization is only possible as post processing. We designed and implemented a system which allows for instantaneous volume visualization of streamed scans from 2D sonars without prior resampling to a voxel grid. The volume is formed by a set of most recent scans which are being stored. We transform each scan using its associated transformations to the view-space and slice their bounding box by view-aligned planes. Each slicing plane is reconstructed from the underlying scans and directly used for slice-based volume rendering. We integrated a low frequency illumination model which enhances the depth perception of noisy acoustic measurements. While we visualize the 2D data and time as 3D volumes, the temporal dimension is not intuitively communicated. Therefore, we introduce a concept of temporal outlines. Our system is a result of an interdisciplinary collaboration between visualization and marine scientists. The application of our system was evaluated by independent domain experts who were not involved in the design process in order to determine real life applicability.

[1]  Andrew H. Gee,et al.  Stradx: real-time acquisition and visualization of freehand three-dimensional ultrasound , 1999, Medical Image Anal..

[2]  Chaoli Wang,et al.  High dimensional direct rendering of time-varying volumetric data , 2003, IEEE Visualization, 2003. VIS 2003..

[3]  Anders Ynnerman,et al.  Local Ambient Occlusion in Direct Volume Rendering , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[4]  Penny Rheingans,et al.  Case Study on Visualizing Hurricanes Using Illustration-Inspired Techniques , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[5]  Ole Arve Misund,et al.  Dynamics of moving masses: variability in packing density, shape, and size among herring, sprat, and saithe schools , 1993 .

[6]  P. Perona,et al.  Where is the sun? , 1998, Nature Neuroscience.

[7]  Kwan-Liu Ma,et al.  Visualization of multidimensional, multivariate volume data using hardware-accelerated non-photorealistic rendering techniques , 2002, 10th Pacific Conference on Computer Graphics and Applications, 2002. Proceedings..

[8]  Ivan Viola,et al.  A Multidirectional Occlusion Shading Model for Direct Volume Rendering , 2010, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[9]  Maneesh Agrawala,et al.  The assumed light direction for perceiving shape from shading , 2008, APGV '08.

[10]  Georgios Sakas,et al.  Data Intermixing and Multi‐volume Rendering , 1999, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[11]  B. Marx.  The Visual Display of Quantitative Information , 1985 .

[12]  D. MacLennan,et al.  Fisheries acoustics , 2004, Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries.

[13]  Stefan Bruckner,et al.  TECHNICAL REPORT VolumeShop: An Interactive System for Direct Volume , 2022 .

[14]  Larry A. Mayer,et al.  3D visualization for pelagic fisheries research and assessment , 2002 .

[15]  Ivan Viola,et al.  Sonar Explorer: A New Tool for Visualization of Fish Schools from 3D Sonar Data , 2007, EuroVis.

[16]  François Gerlotto,et al.  Three dimensional structure and morphology of pelagic fish schools , 2010 .

[17]  Oliver Deussen,et al.  Image enhancement by unsharp masking the depth buffer , 2006, SIGGRAPH 2006.

[18]  Pierrick Coupé,et al.  Probe trajectory interpolation for 3D reconstruction of freehand ultrasound , 2007, Medical Image Anal..

[19]  Nassir Navab,et al.  Fast hybrid freehand ultrasound volume reconstruction , 2009, Medical Imaging.

[20]  Wendy L. Braje,et al.  Invariant Recognition of Natural Objects in the Presence of Shadows , 2000, Perception.

[21]  Rolf J. Korneliussen,et al.  Combining multibeam-sonar and multifrequency-echosounder data: examples of the analysis and imaging of large euphausiid schools , 2009 .

[22]  Richard Prager,et al.  Freehand 3D ultrasound without voxels: volume measurement and visualisation using the Stradx system. , 2002, Ultrasonics.