Real-time autostereoscopic visualization of registration-generated 4D MR image of beating heart

Abstract

This paper presents a real-time autostereoscopic visualization system using the principle of Integral Videography(IV). We develop MIP and composite volume ray casting method for IV volume rendering, and implemented the algorithm on GPU to achieve real-time rendering. The system was used to visualize 4D MR image that was generated from registration of 3D MR image and 4D ultrasound image. The registration scheme consists of inter-modality rigid registration between 3D MR image and 3D ultrasound image and intra-modality non-rigid registration between 3D ultrasound images. Registration processes were also implemented on GPU. Evaluation of processing speed showed that GPU processing time was 48x, 13x, 21x faster than CPU processing time for IV volume rendering, rigid registration, and non-rigid registration respectively. We also enabled real-time user interactivity for IV visualization system. In the future, We plan to use this system to develop intra-operative surgery navigation system for intra-cardiac surgery on beating heart. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.