Structure Size Enhanced Histogram: A Transfer Function for 3D Volume Visualization

Direct volume visualization requires the definition of transfer functions (TFs) for the assignment of opacity and color. Multi-dimentional TFs are based on at least two image properties, and are specified by means of 2D histograms. In this work we propose a new type of a 2D histogram which combines grey value with information about the size of the structures. This Structure Size Enhanced (SSE) histogram is an intuitive approach for representing anatomical features. Clinicians - the users we are focusing on - are much more familiar with selecting features by their size than by their gradient magnitude value. As a proof of concept, we employ the SSE histogram for the definition of two-dimentional TFs for the visualization of 3D MRI and CT image data.

[1]  William E. Lorensen,et al.  The Transfer Function Bake-Off , 2001, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[2]  Rafael Wiemker,et al.  Fast detection of meaningful isosurfaces for volume data visualization , 2001, Proceedings Visualization, 2001. VIS '01..

[3]  Stanley T. Birchfield,et al.  Spatiograms versus histograms for region-based tracking , 2005, 2005 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR'05).

[4]  Joe Michael Kniss,et al.  Multidimensional Transfer Functions for Interactive Volume Rendering , 2002, IEEE Trans. Vis. Comput. Graph..

[5]  Charl P. Botha,et al.  New technique for transfer function specification in direct volume rendering using real-time visual feedback , 2002, SPIE Medical Imaging.

[6]  Marc Stamminger,et al.  Spatialized Transfer Functions , 2005, EuroVis.

[7]  Anna Vilanova,et al.  Visualization of boundaries in volumetric data sets using LH histograms , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[8]  Bernhard Preim,et al.  Distance-based transfer function design: Specification Methods and Applications , 2006, SimVis.

[9]  Bernhard Preim,et al.  Visualization in Medicine: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications , 2007 .

[10]  Christopher Zach,et al.  User-Centric Transfer Function Specification in Augmented Reality , 2004, WSCG.

[11]  Valerio Pascucci,et al.  The contour spectrum , 1997, Proceedings. Visualization '97 (Cat. No. 97CB36155).