Virtual reality in advanced medical immersive imaging: a workflow for introducing virtual reality as a supporting tool in medical imaging

Markus M. Knodel*, Babett Lemke, Michael Lampe, Michael Hoffer, Clarissa Gillmann, Michael Uder, Jens Hillengaß, Gabriel Wittum, Tobias Bäuerle

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Radiologic evaluation of images from computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging for diagnostic purposes is based on the analysis of single slices, occasionally supplementing this information with 3D reconstructions as well as surface or volume rendered images. However, due to the complexity of anatomical or pathological structures in biomedical imaging, innovative visualization techniques are required to display morphological characteristics three dimensionally. Virtual reality is a modern tool of representing visual data, The observer has the impression of being “inside” a virtual surrounding, which is referred to as immersive imaging. Such techniques are currently being used in technical applications, e.g. in the automobile industry. Our aim is to introduce a workflow realized within one simple program which processes common image stacks from CT, produces 3D volume and surface reconstruction and rendering, and finally includes the data into a virtual reality device equipped with a motion head tracking cave automatic virtual environment system. Such techniques have the potential to augment the possibilities in non-invasive medical imaging, e.g. for surgical planning or educational purposes to add another dimension for advanced understanding of complex anatomical and pathological structures. To this end, the reconstructions are based on advanced mathematical techniques and the corresponding grids which we can export are intended to form the basis for simulations of mathematical models of the pathogenesis of different diseases.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)203-212
Number of pages10
JournalComputing and Visualization in Science
Volume18
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1 2018

Keywords

  • Cave automatic virtual environment
  • Imaging
  • Postprocessing
  • Surface reconstruction
  • Surface rendering
  • Virtual reality
  • Volume rendering

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • General Engineering
  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Computational Theory and Mathematics
  • Modeling and Simulation

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