title: Visualization of boundaries in volumetric data sets through a what material you pick is what boundary you see approach.
abstract: Transfer function design is a key issue in direct volume rendering. Many sophisticated transfer functions have been proposed to visualize boundaries in volumetric data sets such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. However, it is still conventionally challenging to reliably detect boundaries. Meanwhile, the interactive strategy is complicated for new users or even experts. In this paper, we first propose the human-centric boundary extraction criteria and our boundary model. Based on the model we present a boundary visualization method through a what material you pick is what boundary you see approach. Users can pick out the material of interest to directly convey semantics. In addition, the 3-D canny edge detection is utilized to ensure the good localization of boundaries. Furthermore, we establish a point-to-material distance measure to guarantee the accuracy and integrity of boundaries. The proposed boundary visualization is intuitive and flexible for the exploration of volumetric data.
authors.affiliation: Electronic Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui, China. Electronic address: lilu630@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Medical Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Anhui, China. Electronic address: hpeng@ustc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Hu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: School of Medical Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Anhui, China. Electronic address: xun.chen@hfut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Medical Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Anhui, China. Electronic address: chengjuan@hfut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Bioengineering University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 USA. Electronic address: dayong@u.washington.edu.
authors.forename: Dayong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gao
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D003196:Computer Graphics; D006257:Head / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D015233:Models, Statistical; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014584:User-Computer Interface
keywords: 3-D edge detection; Boundary visualization; Direct volume rendering; Transfer function