Interactive diffusion tensor imaging fiber data visualization via leap motion

Abstract

Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) reveals subtle abnormalities associated with stroke, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia and dyslexia, which has a broad application prospect in the medical field. The densely sampled 3-D DTI fiber tracts in biological specimens have high geometric, spatial and anatomical complexity. To provide users with more immersive and convenient interactions in exploring DTI fibers, we design specific interactions based on the APIs of Leap Motion. Leap Motion is a somatosensory interaction device focusing on hand tracking. We design four different interaction modes for users to analyze the data in different interaction stages and scenarios, in order to better explore the DTI fibers which users are interested in by Leap Motion gestures. They are Normal Mode, Box Basic Interaction Mode, Box Logic Operation Mode, and Cluster Exploration Mode. Users can conduct tradition manipulations over the whole DTI fiber data in Normal Mode. Boxes are employed to filter out uninteresting tracts in Box Basic Interaction Mode, and expression-based queries are further designed to get logic set operations based on multiple boxes in Box Logic Operation Mode, e.g., the intersection, union and complement of boxes. Complex logic combination queries are allowed to perform to reduce visual clutter and help users explore DTI fibers more precisely. In Cluster Exploration Mode, DTI fibers can be classified by clustering them into spatially and anatomically related tracts and then different clusters can be explored individually by designed gestures. Compared with the explorations through traditional input devices, the evaluation tests show that the proposed approach is more intuitive and efficient in 3-D explorations and provides an immersive experience for users to explore the DTI fiber data.