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Abstract #2393

Fast Volume Visualization using Pre-computed Volume Radiance Transfer

Peterson B, Hao X, Xu D
Columbia University, New York State Psychiatric Institute

Visualization of 3D medical datasets is an effective way for us to understand the structure and functional relationships in the data, such as human brain and body. Indirect (surface-based) and direct volume (volume-based) display have their relative advantages as well as disadvantages. Indirect volume rendering is fast, whereas direct volume rendering can generate high quality images with subsurface details. Here we propose a novel volume visualization algorithm which combines the advantages of direct- and indirect-volume rendering. Our method can interactively render high-quality images with subsurface details without using expensive special-purpose graphics hardware. We achieve interactivity by pre-computing the volume radiance transfer and storing it with points on a desired isosurface.