SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR MULTI-DIMENSIONAL RENDERING AND DISPLAY OF FULL VOLUMETRIC DATA SETS

• US 20080055305A1
• Filed: 08/30/2007
• Published: 03/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kent State University
• Original Assignee: Kent State University
• Inventors: Clements, Robert, Blank, James
• Granted Patent: US 8,743,109 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/419
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/08 Volume rendering

Abstract

A stand-alone platform and a method for the multi-dimensional rendering, display, manipulation, and analysis of full high resolution volumetric data sets. The systems and methods provide the ability to volumetrically render images with extremely high resolution in applications such as medical imaging procedures, digital microscopy such as in use of a confocal microscope, and other areas where extremely large data sets are produced from the imaging process. Certain embodiments of the system and methods produce left and right eye images of the rendered data, for viewing in parallax via a synchronized headset, and the ability to manipulate the data and display of image data easily and in real time.

Claims

1. A stand-alone platform providing real time high resolution image processing, said stand-alone platform comprising:

a first processing unit adapted to automatically read a plurality of volumetric data sets corresponding to a plurality of multi-modal or multi-channel volumetric data formats derived from at least one volumetric data source and extract fully acquired volumetric data from said data sets;

a system bus operationally connected to said first processing unit;

a graphics processing unit memory operationally connected to said system bus and adapted to receive said fully acquired volumetric data from said first processing unit via said system bus;

at least one graphics processing unit operationally connected to said graphics processing unit memory and adapted to render multi-dimensional image data from said fully acquired volumetric data in real time; and

a frame compositing and buffering device operationally connected to said at least one graphics processing unit and adapted to buffer frames of said rendered multi-dimensional image data and output said buffered frames for display in real time.

2. The stand-alone platform of claim 1 wherein said first processing unit is further adapted to co-register multi-modal fully acquired volumetric data to a common spatial coordinate system before passing said multi-modal fully acquired volumetric data to said graphics processing unit memory.

3. The stand-alone platform of claim 1 further comprising a network interface operationally connected to said system bus and adapted to communicatively interface with a remote storage device and a remote display subsystem.

4. The stand-alone platform of claim 1 further comprising a first memory operationally connected to said first processing unit via said system bus.

5. The stand-alone platform of claim 1 further comprising a local storage device operationally connected to said system bus and adapted to load in said plurality of volumetric data sets from said at least one volumetric data source.

6. The stand-alone platform of claim 1 wherein said rendered multi-dimensional image data comprises stereoscopic three-dimensional (3D) image data.

7. A system providing multi-dimensional rendering, display, and manipulation of full high resolution volumetric data sets, said system comprising:

a stand-alone platform adapted to render multi-dimensional image data in real time from a plurality of fully acquired volumetric data sets corresponding to a plurality of multi-modal or multi-channel volumetric data formats derived from at least one volumetric data source;

at least one display subsystem operationally connected to said stand-alone platform and adapted to display said rendered multi-dimensional image data in real time; and

at least one human interface device (HID) operationally connected to said stand-alone platform and adapted to provide interactive real time manipulation and modification of said rendered multi-dimensional image data.

8. The system of claim 7 further comprising active stereoscopic eyewear wirelessly connected to and synchronized with said display subsystem and adapted to provide active stereoscopic viewing of said displayed rendered multi-dimensional image data in real time to a user wearing said stereoscopic eyewear.

9. The system of claim 7 further comprising passive stereoscopic eyewear adapted to provide passive stereoscopic viewing of said displayed rendered multi-dimensional image data in real time to a user wearing said passive stereoscopic eyewear.

10. The system of claim 7 wherein said HID is further adapted to provide access to perform interactive real time quantitative analysis of said rendered multi-dimensional image data.

11. A system providing multi-dimensional rendering, display, and manipulation of full high resolution volumetric data sets, said system comprising:

a stand-alone platform adapted to render multi-dimensional image data in real time from a plurality of fully acquired volumetric data sets corresponding to a plurality of multi-modal or multi-channel volumetric data formats derived from at least one volumetric data source;

at least one remote thin client viewer operationally connected to said stand-alone platform and adapted to receive said rendered multi-dimensional image data from said stand-alone platform in real time using a remote frame buffer (RFB) protocol, and adapted to stereoscopically display said rendered multi-dimensional image data in real time; and

at least one human interface device (HID) operationally connected to said remote thin client viewer and adapted to initiate interactive real time manipulation and modification of said rendered multi-dimensional image data upon activation of said HID by a user, wherein said manipulation and modification is accomplished when said remote thin client viewer sends an event command to said stand-alone platform in real time in response to said HID activation, said rendered multi-dimensional image data is updated by said stand-alone platform in real time in response to said event command, said stand-alone platform sends said updated rendered multi-dimensional image data to said remote thin client viewer in real time using said RFB protocol, and said updated rendered multi-dimensional image data is stereoscopically displayed by said remote thin client viewer in real time.

12. The system of claim 11 further comprising stereoscopic eyewear wirelessly connected to an synchronized with said remote thin client viewer and adapted to provide stereoscopic viewing of said displayed rendered multi-dimensional image data in real time to a user wearing said stereoscopic eyewear.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein said HID is further adapted to initiate interactive real time quantitative analysis of said rendered multi-dimensional image data upon further activation of said HID by a user, wherein said quantitative analysis is accomplished when said remote thin client viewer sends an further event command to said stand-alone platform in real time in response to said further activation of said HID, said quantitative analysis is performed by said stand-alone platform in real time in response to said further event command to generate quantitative metrics, said stand-alone platform sends said quantitative metrics to said remote thin client viewer in real time using said RFB protocol, and said quantitative metrics is displayed by said remote thin client viewer along with said rendered multi-dimensional image data in real time.

14. A method for the multi-dimensional rendering, display, manipulation, and analysis of full high resolution volumetric data sets, said method comprising:

automatically loading a plurality of fully acquired volumetric data sets corresponding to a plurality of multi-modal or multi-channel volumetric data formats derived from at least one volumetric data source into a stand-alone platform;

processing said plurality of fully acquired volumetric data sets within said stand-alone platform to extract fully acquired volumetric data from said data sets and to generate at least one rendered volume image in real time from said extracted data;

displaying said at least one rendered volume image on a display subsystem in real time;

modifying at least one display parameter of said displayed rendered volume image using at least one human interface device (HID) operationally connected to said stand-alone platform;

updating said at least one rendered volume image within said stand-alone platform in real time in response to said at least one modified display parameter; and

displaying said updated at least one rendered volume image on said display subsystem in real time.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein said at least one rendered volume image comprises a stereoscopic pair of volumetric images.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein said modifying at least one display parameter results in at least one of:

an orientation change of said at least one rendered volume image;

a color transfer function change of said at least one rendered volume image;

an opacity transfer function change of said at least one rendered volume image;

a segmentation parameter of said at least one rendered volume image; and

an iso-surface generation parameter.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein said processing includes registering said extracted fully acquired volumetric data to a common spatial coordinate system.

18. The method of claim 14 further comprising selecting and displaying an iso-surface of said at least one rendered volume image in real time.

19. The method of claim 14 further comprising performing real time interactive quantitative analysis of said rendered volume image.

20. The method of claim 14 further comprising segmenting a portion of said rendered volume image in real time.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising computing a volume of said segmented portion in real time.

22. The method of claim 20 further comprising computing a surface area of said segmented portion in real time.

23. A stand-alone platform providing real time high resolution image processing, said stand-alone platform comprising:

means for automatically reading a plurality of volumetric data sets corresponding to a plurality of multi-modal or multi-channel volumetric data formats derived from at least one volumetric data source and extracting fully acquired volumetric data from said data sets;

means for rendering multi-dimensional image data from said fully acquired volumetric data in real time; and

means for buffering frames of said rendered multi-dimensional image data and outputting said buffered frames for display in real time.

24. The stand-alone platform of claim 23 further comprising means for pre-processing said extracted fully acquired volumetric data before performing said rendering.

25. The stand-alone platform of claim 24 wherein said pre-processing includes at least one of data clipping, data segmenting, data deconvolution, data resampling, data normalizing, and data converting.