title: MITK-ToF--range data within MITK.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The time-of-flight (ToF) technique is an emerging technique for rapidly acquiring distance information and is becoming increasingly popular for intra-operative surface acquisition. Using the ToF technique as an intra-operative imaging modality requires seamless integration into the clinical workflow. We thus aim to integrate ToF support in an existing framework for medical image processing.
  
  
  METHODS
  MITK-ToF was implemented as an extension of the open-source C++ Medical Imaging Interaction Toolkit (MITK) and provides the basic functionality needed for rapid prototyping and development of image-guided therapy (IGT) applications that utilize range data for intra-operative surface acquisition. This framework was designed with a module-based architecture separating the hardware-dependent image acquisition task from the processing of the range data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The first version of MITK-ToF has been released as an open-source toolkit and supports several ToF cameras and basic processing algorithms. The toolkit, a sample application, and a tutorial are available from http://mitk.org.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With the increased popularity of time-of-flight cameras for intra-operative surface acquisition, integration of range data supports into medical image processing toolkits such as MITK is a necessary step. Handling acquisition of range data from different cameras and processing of the data requires the establishment and use of software design principles that emphasize flexibility, extendibility, robustness, performance, and portability. The open-source toolkit MITK-ToF satisfies these requirements for the image-guided therapy community and was already used in several research projects.
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical and Biological Informatics (E130), German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany. a.seitel@dkfz-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Seitel
authors.forename: Kwong
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yung
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mersmann
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kilgus
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Groch
authors.forename: Thiago R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: dos Santos
authors.forename: Alfred M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Franz
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nolden
authors.forename: Hans-Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Meinzer
authors.forename: Lena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Maier-Hein
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods; D012984:Software; D012985:Software Design; D014584:User-Computer Interface