A virtual reality patient and environments for image guided diagnosis

Abstract

We describe a real-time virtual reality platform and a novel visualization technique designed to deliver constant rendering speed of highly detailed anatomical structures at interactive rates using portable, and low-cost computers. Our solution represents the torso section of the human body as a volumetric data set and employs label maps as the prime data format of storing anatomical structures. Multi-channel 3D textures are uploaded to the GPU and a simple pixel shader algorithm allows operators to select structures of interest in real-time. The visualization module described herein was successfully integrated into a virtual-reality 3D Anatomical Guidance System for Ultrasound Operators and its rendering performance tested on a "backpack" system. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.