Perception-based artifact quantification for volume rendering

• US 8,711,144 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2007
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Johnson, Jeffrey P., Collins, John Patrick, Nadar, Mariappan S., Nafziger, John S., Stingl, Thomas, Yu, Daphne
• Primary Examiner(s): Chauhan, Ulka
• Assistant Examiner(s): BADER, ROBERT N.
• Application Number:
  US11/881,944
• Publication Number:
  US 20080129732A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,465 Days
• Field of Search: 345/419, 345/424, 345/428, 345/617, 382/254, 382/275
• US Class Current: 345/424
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/08 Volume rendering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30168 Image quality inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0002 Inspection of images, e.g. flaw detection

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.

Claims

1. A system for artifact quantification in volume rendering, the system comprising:

a memory operable to store a dataset representing a three-dimensional volume;

a processor configured to volume render a two-dimensional representation of the three-dimensional volume from the dataset, configured to determine a quantity representing a rendering artifact from the volume rendering of the three-dimensional volume and in the single two-dimensional representation, the determining of the quantity being as a function of a perception-based visual quality metric, the quantity determined to represent one or more of gradient-based shading noise having a first pattern, edge non-smoothness having a second pattern, or opacity inconsistency due to size variation in anisotropic data having a third pattern, as the rendering artifact in the two-dimensional representation, and configured to identify the one or more of the rendering artifact as the gradient-based shading noise by the first pattern, as the edge non-smoothness by the second pattern, or as the opacity inconsistency by the third pattern; and

a display operable to display the two-dimensional representation of the volume, the quantity, or both;

wherein the determining of the quantity comprises correlating responses from a plurality of perception-based visual quality metrics to the types of rendering artifacts;

wherein volume rendering comprises volume rendering a spherical phantom at a first viewing direction, further comprising volume rendering the spherical phantom at a second, different viewing direction;

wherein correlating comprises identifying a greater response of one or more of the metrics at the first viewing direction than the second viewing direction; and

wherein identifying the one or more of the rendering artifact comprises identifying opacity inconsistency by the third pattern, as a function of the correlation, as the rendering artifact.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the perception-based visual quality metric is a function of vertical features, horizontal features, angle features, contrast sensitivity, luminance sensitivity, psychophysical masking, or combinations thereof.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is operable to alter at least one rendering parameter as a function of the quantity, the at least one rendering parameter comprising sample size, sampling rate, classification, sampling variation, volume size, rendering method, or combinations thereof.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the artifact comprises shading noise having the first pattern, and wherein the perception-based visual quality metric comprises higher spatial frequency response of the two-dimensional representation, the processor configured to identify an amount of the shading noise by the first pattern using the higher spatial frequency response.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the artifact comprises edge non-smoothness having the second pattern, and wherein the perception-based visual quality metric comprises orientation responses at a respective plurality of orientations relative to the two-dimensional representation, the processor configured to identify an amount of the edge non-smoothness by the second pattern using the orientation responses.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the artifact comprises opacity inconsistency having the third pattern and wherein the perception-based visual quality metric comprises a plurality of measures of differences between the two-dimensional representation and another two-dimensional representation of the volume rendered from a different perspective, the processor configured to identify an amount of the opacity inconsistency by the third pattern using the differences.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the perception-based visual quality metric is a function of vertical features, horizontal features, angle features, contrast sensitivity, luminance sensitivity, psychophysical masking, or combinations thereof;

and

wherein the processor is operable to identify the one or more of, within the two-dimensional representation, shading noise by the first pattern, edge non-smoothness by the second pattern, and opacity inconsistency by the third pattern.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is operable to mask the dataset as a function of at least the perception-based visual quality metric.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the quantity is a function of a histogram of the perception-based visual quality metric from different sub-regions of the two-dimensional representation.

10. A method for artifact quantification in volume rendering, the method comprising:

volume rendering a volume rendered image from a dataset, the volume rendered image being a two-dimensional representation of the three-dimensional volume from the dataset;

quantifying, by a processor, a quantity representing visibility to a user of an undesirable rendering feature in the volume rendered image, the quantity representing a rendering artifact from the volume rendering of the three-dimensional volume and in the single two-dimensional representation, the determining of the quantity being as a function of a perception-based visual quality metric; and

identifying, by the processor, a type of rendering artifact from among a plurality of different types including one or more of gradient-based shading noise having a first pattern, edge non-smoothness having a second pattern, or opacity inconsistency due to size variation in anisotropic data having a third pattern, the identifying being as a function of the quantifying;

wherein quantifying comprises correlating responses from a plurality of perception-based visual quality metrics to the types of rendering artifacts;

wherein volume rendering comprises volume rendering a spherical phantom at a first viewing direction, further comprising volume rendering the spherical phantom at a second, different viewing direction;

wherein correlating comprises identifying a greater response of one or more of the metrics at the first viewing direction than the second viewing direction; and

wherein identifying comprises identifying opacity inconsistency by the third pattern, as a function of the correlation, as the rendering artifact.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein quantifying comprises calculating a perception-based visual quality metric as a function of vertical features, horizontal features, orientation features, contrast sensitivity, luminance sensitivity, psychophysical masking, or combinations thereof.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein correlating comprises identifying a greater response for higher spatial frequency of two or more of the metrics than lower spatial frequency;

and

wherein identifying comprises identifying shading noise by the first pattern, as a function of the correlation, as the rendering artifact.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein correlating comprises identifying a greater response for orientation metrics than other of the perception-based visual quality metrics;

and

wherein identifying comprises identifying edge non-smoothness by the second pattern, as a function of the correlation, as the rendering artifact.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein quantifying comprises calculating a just noticeable difference level of visibility of the undesirable rendering feature.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein the quantified visibility is a function of a histogram of one or more perception-based visual quality metrics from different sub-regions of the volume rendered image.

16. In a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for artifact quantification in volume rendering, the storage medium comprising instructions for:

volume rendering a two-dimensional image representation of a three-dimensional volume from a data set representing the three-dimensional volume;

calculating a first quantity with a human visual model from the two-dimensional image representation; and

identifying a type of a rendering artifact in the two-dimensional image representation from among a plurality of different types including one or more of gradient-based shading noise having a first pattern, edge non-smoothness having a second pattern, or opacity inconsistency due to size variation in anisotropic data having a third pattern, the identifying being as a function of the first quantity;

wherein calculating a first quantity comprises correlating responses from a plurality of perception-based visual quality metrics to the types of rendering artifacts;

wherein volume rendering comprises volume rendering a spherical phantom at a first viewing direction, further comprising volume rendering the spherical phantom at a second, different viewing direction;

wherein correlating comprises identifying a greater response of one or more of the metrics at the first viewing direction than the second viewing direction; and

wherein identifying a type of rendering artifact comprises identifying opacity inconsistency by the third pattern, as a function of the correlation, as the rendering artifact.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein calculating comprises calculating as a function of two or more perception-based visual quality metrics each corresponding to one of vertical features, horizontal features, angle features, contrast sensitivity, luminance sensitivity, psychophysical masking, or combinations thereof;

and

wherein identifying comprises identifying the one or more of, within the two-dimensional image representation, shading noise by the first pattern, edge non-smoothness by the second pattern, and opacity inconsistency by the third pattern.