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Shape-enhanced maximum intensity projection

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Abstract

Maximum intensity projection (MIP) displays the voxel with the maximum intensity along the viewing ray, and this offers simplicity in usage, as it does not require a complex transfer function, the specification of which is a highly challenging and time-consuming process in direct volume rendering (DVR). However, MIP also has its inherent limitation, the loss of spatial context and shape information. This paper proposes a novel technique, shape-enhanced maximum intensity projection (SEMIP), to resolve this limitation. Inspired by lighting in DVR to emphasize surface structures, SEMIP searches a valid gradient for the maximum intensity of each viewing ray, and applies gradient-based shading to improve shape and depth perception of structures. As SEMIP may result in the pixel values over the maximum intensity of the display device, a tone reduction technique is introduced to compress the intensity range of the rendered image while preserving the original local contrast. In addition, depth-based color cues are employed to enhance the visual perception of internal structures, and a focus and context interaction is used to highlight structures of interest. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed SEMIP with several volume data sets, especially from the medical field.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Lab of CAD&CG, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Zhiguang Zhou, Yubo Tao & Hai Lin

  2. University of Bedfordshire, Luton, UK

    Yubo Tao, Feng Dong & Gordon Clapworthy

Authors
  1. Zhiguang Zhou
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  2. Yubo Tao
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  3. Hai Lin
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  4. Feng Dong
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  5. Gordon Clapworthy
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Correspondence to Yubo Tao or Hai Lin.

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Zhou, Z., Tao, Y., Lin, H. et al. Shape-enhanced maximum intensity projection. Vis Comput 27, 677–686 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-011-0570-2

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