体绘制技术在激光共焦扫描显微镜中的应用

激光共焦扫描显微镜 (LCSM)是一种高精度显微测试仪器 ,利用其采集的序列二维断层图像重构三维图形是LCSM系统的重要组成部分。本文研究了LCSM系统数据场的体绘制方法并应用在LCSM系统中。实验结果表明此方法用于LCSM系统 ,能够生成逼真的三维图形。     

Volume rendering of segmented image objects

This paper describes a new method of combining ray-casting with segmentation. Volume rendering is performed at interactive rates on personal computers, and visualizations include both "superficial" ray-casting through a shell at each object's surface and "deep" ray-casting through the confines of each object. A feature of the approach is the option to smoothly and interactively dilate segmentation boundaries along all axes. This ability, when combined with selective "turning off" of extraneous image objects, can help clinicians detect and evaluate segmentation errors that may affect surgical planning. We describe both a method optimized for displaying tubular objects and a more general method applicable to objects of arbitrary geometry. In both cases, select three-dimensional points are projected onto a modified z buffer that records additional information about the projected objects. A subsequent step selectively volume renders only through the object volumes indicated by the z buffer. We describe how our approach differs from other reported methods for combining segmentation with ray-casting, and illustrate how our method can be useful in helping to detect segmentation errors.     

Frequency domain volume rendering by the wavelet X-ray transform

We describe a wavelet based X-ray rendering method in the frequency domain with a smaller time complexity than wavelet splatting. Standard Fourier volume rendering is summarized and interpolation and accuracy issues are briefly discussed. We review the implementation of the fast wavelet transform in the frequency domain. The wavelet X-ray transform is derived, and the corresponding Fourier-wavelet volume rendering algorithm (FWVR) is introduced, FWVR uses Haar or B-spline wavelets and linear or cubic spline interpolation. Various combinations are tested and compared with wavelet splatting (WS). We use medical MR and CT scan data, as well as a 3-D analytical phantom to assess the accuracy, time complexity, and memory cost of both FWVR and WS. The differences between both methods are enumerated.     

一种适用于激光共焦扫描显微镜的体绘制

激光共聚焦扫描显微镜(LCSM)主要运用于生物医学研究,利用其采集的序列二维断层图像重构三维图形是LCSM系统的重要组成部分。主要研究了LCSM系统数据场的体绘制方法,根据其数据场特点,提出了最大值绘制算法。实验结果表明,此方法适用于LCSM系统,能够生成逼真的三维图形。     

Multiresolution maximum intensity volume rendering by morphological adjunction pyramids

We describe a multiresolution extension to maximum intensity projection (MIP) volume rendering, allowing progressive refinement and perfect reconstruction. The method makes use of morphological adjunction pyramids. The pyramidal analysis and synthesis operators are composed of morphological 3-D erosion and dilation, combined with dyadic downsampling for analysis and dyadic upsampling for synthesis. In this case the MIP operator can be interchanged with the synthesis operator. This fact is the key to an efficient multiresolution MIP algorithm, because it allows the computation of the maxima along the line of sight on a coarse level, before applying a two-dimensional synthesis operator to perform reconstruction of the projection image to a finer level. For interpolation and resampling of volume data, which is required to deal with arbitrary view directions, morphological sampling is used, an interpolation method well adapted to the nonlinear character of MIP. The structure of the resulting multiresolution rendering algorithm is very similar to wavelet splatting, the main differences being that (i) linear summation of voxel values is replaced by maximum computation, and (ii) linear wavelet filters are replaced by nonlinear morphological filters.     

基于体绘制思维的人脸识别算法优化研究

传统的人脸识别算法主要解决二维正面图像识别,如果人体姿态发生明显变化,或外界环境发生显著变化,则算法性能大大降低,无法获取准确的识别结果。体绘制算法针对三维数据场进行绘制,绘制的图像能够描述人脸的内部细节,可提高人脸识别精度。因此,提出一种基于体绘制思维的人脸识别算法,依据聚类思想对二维人脸库进行聚类,在各分类的基础上,构建人脸相似模型。通过错切变形体制算法,构建人脸体数据,实现人脸体数据坐标系统的转换以及人脸三维图像的合成,从人脸三维图像中采集人脸特征,利用相似性模型对人脸关键特征同数据库已有的特征进行匹配分析,完成人脸身份识别。实验结果说明,所提算法对于不同表情和不同光照条件下的人脸图像,都具有较高的识别率和鲁棒性。     

Statistical models of partial volume effect

Statistical models of partial volume effect for systems with various types of noise or pixel value distributions are developed and probability density functions are derived. The models assume either Gaussian system sampling noise or intrinsic material variances with Gaussian or Poisson statistics. In particular, a material can be viewed as having a distinct value that has been corrupted by additive noise either before or after partial volume mixing, or the material could have nondistinct values with a Poisson distribution as might be the case in nuclear medicine images. General forms of the probability density functions are presented for the N material cases and particular forms for two- and three-material cases are derived. These models are incorporated into finite mixture densities in order to more accurately model the distribution of image pixel values. Examples are presented using simulated histograms to demonstrate the efficacy of the models for quantification. Modeling of partial volume effect is shown to be useful when one of the materials is present in images mainly as a pixel component.     

A nonlinear spatially variant object-dependent system model forprediction of partial volume effects and scatter in PET

Accurate quantitation of small lesions with positron emission tomography (PET) requires correction for the partial volume effect. Traditional methods that use Gaussian models of the PET system were found to be insufficient. A new approach that models the non-Gaussian object-dependent scatter was developed. The model consists of eight simple functions with a total of 24 parameters. Images of line and disk sources in circular and elliptical cylinders, and an anthropomorphic chest phantom were used to determine the parameter values. Empirical rules to determine these parameter values for various objects based on those for a reference object, a 21.5-cm circular cylinder, were also proposed. For seven spheroids and a 3.4-cm cylinder, pixel values predicted by the model were compared with the measured values. The model-to-measurement-ratio was 1.03±0.07 near the center of the spheroids and 0.99±0.03 near the center of the 3.4-cm cylinder. In comparison, the standard single Gaussian model had corresponding ratios of 1.27±0.09 and 1.24±0.03, respectively, and the corresponding ratios for a double Gaussian model were 1.13±0.09 and 1.05±0.01. Scatter fraction (28.5%) for a line source in the 21.5-cm cylinder was correctly estimated by our model. Because of scatter. The authors found that errors in the measurement of activity in spheroids with diameters from 0.6 to 3.4 cm were more significant than previously appreciated     

Volume rendering of 3D medical ultrasound data using direct feature mapping

The authors explore the application of volume rendering in medical ultrasonic imaging. Several volume rendering methods have been developed for X-ray computed tomography (X-CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET). Limited research has been done on applications of volume rendering techniques in medical ultrasound imaging because of a general lack of adequate equipment for 3D acquisitions. Severe noise sources and other limitations in the imaging system make volume rendering of ultrasonic data a challenge compared to rendering of MRI and X-CT data. Rendering algorithms that rely on an initial classification of the data into different tissue categories have been developed for high quality X-CT and MR-data. So far, there is a lack of general and reliable methods for tissue classification in ultrasonic imaging. The authors focus on volume rendering methods which are not dependent on any classification into different tissue categories. Instead, features are extracted from the original 3D data-set, and projected onto the view plane. The authors found that some of these methods may give clinically useful information which is very difficult to get from ordinary 2D ultrasonic images, and in some cases renderings with very fine structural details. The authors have applied the methods to 3D ultrasound images from fetal examinations. The methods are now in use as clinical tools at the National Center of Fetal Medicine in Trondheim, Norway.     

Automatic extraction of inferior alveolar nerve canal using feature-enhancing panoramic volume rendering

Dental implant surgery, which involves the surgical insertion of a dental implant into the jawbone as an artificial root, has become one of the most successful applications of computed tomography (CT) in dental implantology. For successful implant surgery, it is essential to identify vital anatomic structures such as the inferior alveolar nerve (IAN), which should be avoided during the surgical procedure. Due to the ambiguity of its structure, the IAN is very elusive to extract in dental CT images. As a result, the IAN canal is typically identified in most previous studies. This paper presents a novel method of automatically extracting the IAN canal. Mental and mandibular foramens, which are regarded as the ends of the IAN canal in the mandible, are detected automatically using 3-D panoramic volume rendering (VR) and texture analysis techniques. In the 3-D panoramic VR, novel color shading and compositing methods are proposed to emphasize the foramens and isolate them from other fine structures. Subsequently, the path of the IAN canal is computed using a line-tracking algorithm. Finally, the IAN canal is extracted by expanding the region of the path using a fast marching method with a new speed function exploiting the anatomical information about the canal radius. In experimental results using ten clinical datasets, the proposed method identified the IAN canal accurately, demonstrating that this approach assists dentists substantially during dental implant surgery.     

Bi-directional 2-D mesh representation for video object rendering,editing and superresolution in the presence of occlusion

In this paper, we propose a new bi-directional 2-D mesh representation of video objects, which utilizes forward and backward reference frames (keyframes). This framework extends the previous uni-directional mesh representation to enable efficient rendering, editing, and superresolution of video objects in the presence of occlusion by allowing bi-directional texture mapping as in MPEG B-frames. The video object of interest is tracked between two successive keyframes (which can be automatically or interactively selected) both in forward and backward directions. Keyframes provide the texture of the video object, whereas its motion is modeled by forward and backward 2-D meshes. In addition, we employ “validity maps”, associated with each 2-D mesh, which allow selective texture mapping from the keyframes. Experimental results for efficient video object editing and object-based video resolution enhancement in the presence of self-occlusion are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed representation.     

Volume rendering of multimodal images: application to MRI and PET imaging of the human brain

A procedure for combining and visualizing complementary structural and functional information from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) is described. MR and PET images of the human brain were obtained and correlated to form three-dimensional volumes of image data. Volume rendering and solid-texturing concepts were combined to develop a new volume imaging technique for ;volume texture-mapping' brain glucose metabolism (from PET) onto brain anatomy (from MRI). The technique was used to produce sequences of three-dimensional views: these sequences were dynamically displayed in a ;cine-loop' to better visualize the three-dimensional relationship between brain structure and function. The techniques provide a means of presenting vast amounts of multidimensional data in a form that is easily understood, and the resulting images are essential to an understanding of the normal and pathologic states of the human brain.     

基于GPU的工业CT数据场三维纹理映射体绘制算法

本文提出的基于GPU的三维纹理映射算法通过编写顶点程序和片段程序,将传统的基于纹理面片的体绘制算法在GPU中实现.首先将体数据映射为三维纹理并将其载入到显存,接着通过对顶点着色程序和像素着色程序的编写将光线进入点、离开点的计算以及图像的合成运算移入GPU中,最后根据不同的采样点颜色混合公式实现不同的绘制效果.与传统的三...     

音频及部分频带干扰下多音调制直接序列扩频的抗干扰性能

多音调制直接序列扩频(multi-tone DSSS)中非正交子载波的频谱重叠会导致窄带干扰,同时对每个子载波产生不同程度影响,而并非若干相同单载波情形的叠加.通过对单用户及异步多用户MT系统在音频及部分频带干扰下相关检测判决统计量及平均误码率的理论计算,完成了干扰机理的定量分析,并通过数值仿真对结果进行验证.结果表明,与单载波直接序列扩频(SC-DSSS)、正交多载波直接序列扩频(正交MC-DSSS)相比,MT系统在同等接收机复杂度及相同频带利用率下具有更高的处理增益,可有效抑制内部子载波串扰,并对外部窄带干扰及多址干扰具有良好的抗干扰性能,是一种低复杂度、高可靠性宽带扩频体制.     

Volumetric quantification of atherosclerotic plaque in CT considering partial volume effect

Coronary artery calcification (CAC) is quantified based on a computed tomography (CT) scan image. A calcified region is identified. Modified expectation maximization (MEM) of a statistical model for the calcified and background material is used to estimate the partial calcium content of the voxels. The algorithm limits the region over which MEM is performed. By using MEM, the statistical properties of the model are iteratively updated based on the calculated resultant calcium distribution from the previous iteration. The estimated statistical properties are used to generate a map of the partial calcium content in the calcified region. The volume of calcium in the calcified region is determined based on the map. The experimental results on a cardiac phantom, scanned 90 times using 15 different protocols, demonstrate that the proposed method is less sensitive to partial volume effect and noise, with average error of 9.5% (standard deviation (SD) of 5-7mm(3)) compared with 67% (SD of 3-20mm(3)) for conventional techniques. The high reproducibility of the proposed method for 35 patients, scanned twice using the same protocol at a minimum interval of 10 min, shows that the method provides 2-3 times lower interscan variation than conventional techniques.     

Accurate and efficient GPU ray‐casting algorithm for volume rendering of unstructured grid data

We present a novel GPU‐based ray‐casting algorithm for volume rendering of unstructured grid data. Our volume rendering system uses a ray‐casting method that guarantees accurate rendering results. We also employ the per‐pixel intersection list concept in the Bunyk algorithm to guarantee an accurate result for non‐convex meshes. For efficient memory access for the lists on the GPU, we represent the intersection lists for all faces as an array with our novel construction algorithm. With the intersection lists, we perform ray‐casting on a GPU, and a GPU thread handles each ray. To increase ray‐coherency in a thread block and improve memory access efficiency, we extend a prior image‐tile‐based work distribution method to fit modern GPU architectures. We also show that a prior approach using a per‐thread local buffer to reduce redundant computation is not appropriate for modern GPU architectures. Instead, we take an on‐demand calculation strategy that achieves better performance even though it allows duplicate computations. We applied our method to three unstructured grid datasets with different characteristics. With a GPU, our method achieved up to 36.5 times higher performance for the ray‐casting process and 19.7 times higher performance for the whole volume rendering process compared with the Bunyk algorithm using a CPU core. Also, our approach showed up to 8.2 times higher performance than a GPU‐based cell projection method while generating more accurate rendering results. These results demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of our method.     

Improved regional activity quantitation in nuclear medicine using a new approach to correct for tissue partial volume and spillover effects

We have developed a new method of compensating for effects of partial volume and spillover in dual-modality imaging. The approach requires segmentation of just a few tissue types within a small volume-of-interest (VOI) surrounding a lesion; the algorithm estimates simultaneously, from projection data, the activity concentration within each segmented tissue inside the VOI. Measured emission projections were fitted to the sum of resolution-blurred projections of each such tissue, scaled by its unknown activity concentration, plus a global background contribution obtained by reprojection through the reconstructed image volume outside the VOI. The method was evaluated using multiple-pinhole μSPECT data simulated for the MOBY mouse phantom containing two spherical lung tumors and one liver tumor, as well as using multiple-bead phantom data acquired on μSPECT and μCT scanners. Each VOI in the simulation study was 4.8 mm (12 voxels) cubed and, depending on location, contained up to four tissues (tumor, liver, heart, lung) with different values of relative (99m)Tc concentration. All tumor activity estimates achieved bias after ～ 15 ordered-subsets expectation maximization (OSEM) iterations (×10 subsets) , with better than 8% precision ( ≤ 25% greater than the Cramer-Rao lower bound). The projection-based fitting approach also outperformed three standardized uptake value (SUV)-like metrics, one of which was corrected for count spillover. In the bead phantom experiment, the mean ± standard deviation of the bias of VOI estimates of bead concentration were 0.9±9.5%, comparable to those of a perturbation geometric transfer matrix (pGTM) approach (-5.4±8.6%); however, VOI estimates were more stable with increasing iteration number than pGTM estimates, even in the presence of substantial axial misalignment between μCT and μSPECT image volumes.     

Real-time volume rendering visualization of dual-modality PET/CT images with interactive fuzzy thresholding segmentation.

Three-dimensional (3-D) visualization has become an essential part for imaging applications, including image-guided surgery, radiotherapy planning, and computer-aided diagnosis. In the visualization of dual-modality positron emission tomography and computed tomography (PET/CT), 3-D volume rendering is often limited to rendering of a single image volume and by high computational demand. Furthermore, incorporation of segmentation in volume rendering is usually restricted to visualizing the presegmented volumes of interest. In this paper, we investigated the integration of interactive segmentation into real-time volume rendering of dual-modality PET/CT images. We present and validate a fuzzy thresholding segmentation technique based on fuzzy cluster analysis, which allows interactive and real-time optimization of the segmentation results. This technique is then incorporated into a real-time multi-volume rendering of PET/CT images. Our method allows a real-time fusion and interchangeability of segmentation volume with PET or CT volumes, as well as the usual fusion of PET/CT volumes. Volume manipulations such as window level adjustments and lookup table can be applied to individual volumes, which are then fused together in real time as adjustments are made. We demonstrate the benefit of our method in integrating segmentation with volume rendering in its application to PET/CT images. Responsive frame rates are achieved by utilizing a texture-based volume rendering algorithm and the rapid transfer capability of the high-memory bandwidth available in low-cost graphic hardware.     

Volume rendering quantification algorithm for reconstruction of CT volume-rendered structures: Part I. Cerebral arteriovenous malformations

Volume rendering is a visualization technique that has important applications in diagnostic radiology and in radiotherapy but has not achieved widespread use due, in part, to the lack of volumetric analysis tools for comparison of volume rendering to conventional visualization techniques. The volume rendering quantification algorithm (VRQA), a technique for three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction of a structure identified on six principal volume-rendered views, is introduced and described. VRQA involves three major steps: 1) preprocessing of the partial surfaces constructed from each of six volume-rendered images; 2) merging these processed partial surfaces to define the boundaries of a volume; and 3) computation of the volume of the structure from this boundary information. After testing on phantoms, VRQA was applied to CT data of patients with cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVM's). Because volumetric visualization of the cerebral AVM is relatively insensitive to operator dependencies, such as the choice of opacity transfer function, and because precise volumetric definition of the AVM is necessary for radiosurgical treatment planning, it is representative of a class of structures that is ideal for testing and calibration of VRQA. AVM volumes obtained using VRQA are intermediate to those obtained using axial contouring and those obtained using CT-correlated biplanar angiography (two routinely used visualization techniques for treatment planning for AVM's). Applications and potential expansions of VRQA are discussed.     

Volume decorrelation effects in polarimetric SAR interferometry

Volume decorrelation is an aspect of synthetic aperture radar interferometry that is currently at stake. It stems from the distribution in height of the backscattering cross section in a imaged scene, and it widely affects interferometric coherence images, e.g., in the presence of forests or buildings. The interest in its reduction lies on the fact that "resolving" volume decorrelation and fixing the exact position of the scattering centers in a resolution cell may lead to an estimation of the height of the observed distributed scatterers. Indeed, the determination of the volume scattering contribution is determinant in digital elevation model generation as well as in biomass estimation. However, volume decorrelation itself may be a source of information on the mechanisms that originate it. In this paper, a distinction is made between the behavior of volume decorrelation due to random volumes and stationary distributed targets. The two cases are then studied by means of polarimetry: the response of such targets to different polarizations is considered by applying a series of decompositions of the scattering matrix, and a systematic analysis of the interferometric coherence characteristics is reported.