Interactive medical volume visualizations for surgical online applications

Abstract

For surgical planning, the exploration of 3d visualizations and 2d slice views is essential. We introduce a new technique to bring visualizations of 3d scenes of any kind and 2d image stacks generated by CT or MRI into the web. We pre-render 3d scenes from different perspectives and show these images during user interaction in a Flash based framework. Therewith we can create a 3d spatial relation. We support different zoom levels and can provide different presets for visualizations. The new technique is used to provide complex and enhanced 3d visualizations for surgical therapy planning and educational purposes as well as for evaluation of new visualization techniques. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.