Abstract: Methods, apparatuses, and systems are provided for live capturing of light map image sequences for image-based lighting of medical data. Patient volume scan data for a target area is received over time by a processor. Lighting environment data for the target area is captured over time by a camera. The camera transmits the lighting environment data to the processor over time. The processor lights the patient volume scan data with the lighting environment data into lighted volume data over time. The processor renders an image of the lighted volume data over time.

Abstract: A method for visualizing flow data from computation fluid dynamics (CFD) applications in 2-dimensions (2D) includes receiving a 3-dimensional (3D) image volume from a CFD simulation of fluids flowing through vessels in a patient that is a snapshot of a fluid flow in the vessels at a certain time, subdividing the 3D image volume into 3D data blocks, minimizing a sum over a matrix of energy interactions defined for each pair of data blocks in the 3D image volume, where the minimization preserves a local shape of the vessels, where minimizing the sum over the matrix of energy interactions is performed on a graphics processing unit (GPU), and using the minimized energy interaction matrix to display on a monitor a 2D sketch of the 3D image volume, where the 2D sketch is displayed in real-time with respect to the time scale of the CFD simulation.

Abstract: The present embodiments relate to cinematic volume renderings and volumetric Monte-Carlo path tracing. The present embodiments include systems and methods for integrating semantic information into cinematic volume renderings. Scan data of a volume is captured by a scanner and transmitted to a server or workstation for rendering. The scan data is received by a server or workstation. The server or workstation extracts semantic information and/or applies semantic processing to the scan data. A cinematic volume rendering is generated from the scan data and the extracted semantic information.

Abstract: For interactive viewing in medical imaging, pre-rendering is used to provide greater quality of the rendered images with a given computational power. For interactivity in viewing direction, two or more views are rendered for each location and provided as video to the viewer. The viewer selects a viewing direction interactively, and an image at the selected view direction is formed from the previously rendered images of the videos for the two or more views. In an alternative or additional approach, a video graph is created with videos of different segments of the graph. The videos are sequences of images representing change in location, camera parameters (e.g., zooming), and/or rendering settings. Once provided to the user, interactivity is provided by selection of the appropriate node of the video graph. The user may interactively select different locations and/or rendering settings available in the video graph, allowing interaction while benefiting from quality provided by pre-rendered video.

Abstract: Apparatuses and methods for rendering and compositing two-dimensional images for remote visualization using a multi-pass rendering technique are provided. A server computer renders a three-dimensional volume separately from one or more three-dimensional graphical objects to be embedded in the rendered image of the volume. The server compresses and transmits the separately rendered images to a client computer. The client computer decompresses the rendered images and generates a composite image using the rendered images. If a user manipulates, adds or deletes an embedded object, the client computer generates a new composite image using the previously rendered volume image. In the case of a new or manipulated embedded graphical object, the server only renders the manipulated or new object.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for streaming-optimized volume rendering of a 3D medical volume is disclosed. View parameters for a 2D projection of the 3D medical volume are set based on a received user input. Respective optimal rendering parameters are determined for each of a plurality of rendering stages including an interaction stage, a visual quality refinement stage, and a final assessment stage. In each rendering stage, output 2D projection images corresponding to the view parameters are generated using rendering contexts that perform one or more rendering passes of a progressive volume rendering algorithm on the 3D volume and a display context that composites rendered images generated by the rendering contexts. In each rendering stage, the rendering contexts and the display context are configured using the respective optimal rendering parameters determined for that stage.

Abstract: Generating anatomically specific movie driven medical image review is provided. Scan data is received representing an anatomy of a patient. A movie generation preset selection associated with the scan data is received. Anatomical landmarks within the scan data are detected. A movie of the patient is generated based on the scan data, the movie generation preset, and the anatomical landmarks.

Abstract: Interior scan and exterior photos are jointly visualized in medical imaging. One or more cameras are mounted to the internal medical scanner, allowing a photograph to be taken while or in temporal proximity to when the internal region of the patient is scanned. An image associating the exterior photographs with the interior region of the patient is presented to assist in diagnosis. Due to the spatial and temporal proximity, the image may be a visualization formed by combining the photograph and interior scan data.

Abstract: Efficient path planning of a medical device for insertion into a patient using medical imaging is provided. An image rendered from different transfer functions is used. One transfer function provides context, such as rendering to show a skin surface or other patient anatomical system. Another transfer function indicates local vessel, fluid, or other information for selecting points along the path. The user may select the transfer function used at different locations as well as the depth of a clipping plane at the different locations to allow unambiguous selection of a path point in the three-dimensional rendering.

Abstract: Multiple users are supported with an ultrasound server. Tiling of images may be used to limit transmission and/or bandwidth. By transmitting parts of images that change and avoiding transmission of other parts, wireless and processing bandwidth may be optimized. On the server side, separate instances are used for scanning each patient or for each of the multiple transducer probes being used. Dynamic assignment of shared resources based on use of the transducer probes may provide further optimization. From an overall perspective, the server may beamform from data received by a transducer probe based on controls routed from a separate tablet used as a display and user input.

Abstract: A method for visualizing flow data from computation fluid dynamics (CFD) applications in 2-dimensions (2D) includes receiving a 3-dimensional (3D) image volume from a CFD simulation of fluids flowing through vessels in a patient that is a snapshot of a fluid flow in the vessels at a certain time, subdividing the 3D image volume into 3D data blocks, minimizing a sum over a matrix of energy interactions defined for each pair of data blocks in the 3D image volume, where the minimization preserves a local shape of the vessels, where minimizing the sum over the matrix of energy interactions is performed on a graphics processing unit (GPU), and using the minimized energy interaction matrix to display on a monitor a 2D sketch of the 3D image volume, where the 2D sketch is displayed in real-time with respect to the time scale of the CFD simulation.

Abstract: A method for tracing a plurality of virtual particles through a flow filed includes receiving a flow field. A flow domain is divided into cells. Virtual particles are defined within the flow domain and values are collected for flow properties at each cell. A histogram is generated for each cell representing the collected flow properties for that corresponding cell. The histogram includes, for each of the one or more flow properties, a plurality of bins defining ranges of property values and a count of virtual particles within that cell that exhibit those properties. The histograms for the plurality of cells are advected with respect to the flow field over time. A graphical representation of the plurality of particles within the flow domain is rendered based on the advected histograms for the plurality of cells using a graphics processor.

Abstract: A method (100) of computing and displaying flow information of vascular blood flow patterns, especially in the form of quantitative data plots.

Abstract: Artifact quantification is provided in volume rendering. Since the visual conspicuity of rendering artifacts strongly influences subjective assessments of image quality, quantitative metrics that accurately correlate with human visual perception may provide consistent values over a range of imaging conditions.

Abstract: A method for rendering a deformable object. The method includes: obtaining a 3D volumetric voxel dataset of a region, such region having therein an object to be rendered; building a tree hierarchical structure for the obtained volumetric dataset, such tree structure blocks as the nodes of a primary tree hierarchy and bricks being those blocks stored as textures in a video memory; augmenting the primary tree hierarchical structure with maximum and minimum values of the data contained within a block; creating a neighborhood tree hierarchy having for each leaf block of the neighborhood tree hierarchy a reference to the neighboring leaf blocks in the neighborhood tree hierarchy as well as references to neighboring bricks in the neighborhood tree hierarchy; updating the information about minimum and maximum in the primary tree hierarchy by saving for each block the minimum and maximum of the neighboring blocks; and rendering the leaf blocks in visibility order.

Abstract: The rendering pipeline is divided into multiple components or modules in a scene graph based visual programming environment. Different stages of the rendering pipeline, such as data conversion, transform function, shading, and rendering, are grouped into independent conceptual modules, and each module is implemented by separate nodes in a scene graph. The user may select different nodes belonging to different modules for inclusion into the scene graph to program the rendering pipeline. The visual program is implicitly compiled and run using an application programming interface for hardware acceleration.

Abstract: A method (100) of computing and displaying flow information of vascular blood flow patterns, especially in the form of quantitative data plots.

Abstract: A method for tracing a plurality of virtual particles through a flow filed includes receiving a flow field. A flow domain is divided into cells. Virtual particles are defined within the flow domain and values are collected for flow properties at each cell. A histogram is generated for each cell representing the collected flow properties for that corresponding cell. The histogram includes, for each of the one or more flow properties, a plurality of bins defining ranges of property values and a count of virtual particles within that cell that exhibit those properties. The histograms for the plurality of cells are advected with respect to the flow field over time. A graphical representation of the plurality of particles within the flow domain is rendered based on the advected histograms for the plurality of cells using a graphics processor.

Abstract: A recognition pipeline automatically partitions a 3D image of the human body into regions of interest (head, rib cage, pelvis, and legs) and correctly labels each region. The 3D image is projected onto a 2D image using volume rendering. The 3D image may contain the whole body region or any subset. In a learning phase, training datasets are manually partitioned and labeled, and a training database is computed. In a recognition phase, images are partitioned and labeled based on the knowledge from the training database. The recognition phase is computationally efficient and may operate under 2 seconds in current conventional computer systems. The recognition is robust to image variations, and does not require the user to provide any knowledge about the contained regions of interest within the image.

Abstract: A region-based push-relabel formulation is disclosed that removes the requirement that the entire graph should fit into the computer memory and yields an implementation that can reduce the required size and redundancy of accesses to the data memory, thus improving speed performance, while allowing for an efficient parallel processing implementation. The algorithm assigns all vertices that are not part of the sources or sinks with a value of 1. Sinks are assigned with zeros and sources are assigned a label equal to the number of their vertices. The preflow is then pushed from the sources to their neighbors, if any. When the preflow has all reached the boundaries, an adjacent region of the neighboring set is selected and preflow is pushed within this region. When the values of the preflow have been exhausted, region relabeling is done to update the label values. This is repeated within the region until all preflow has exited to the boundary of this region.