Research of On-line 3-Dimensional Volume Visualization from Ultrasound Echogram

本课题的研究目的是将三维体绘制技术与超声成像设备相结合，开发一个在线三维可视化系统，用于医学诊断。虽然三维体绘制技术已经研究了很多年，但成像设备和体绘制引擎的直接连接还没有报道。该研究开发的系统是首批可用于实际医疗诊断的系统之一。超声成像设备产生的图像质量低于MRI成像设备，但它具有产生实时图像的潜力。该系统通过高速计算机网络将成像设备和渲染计算机连接起来，可以近实时地重建动画图像。为了提高体绘制的性能，我们还开发了高速并行体绘制算法。

The objective of the research is to develop an on-line 3-D visualization system by combining 3-D volume rendering technique and ultrasound imaging device, The system can be applied for medical diagnosis. While 3-D volume rendering technique has been investigated many years, direct connection of imaging devices and volume rendering engine has not been reported. The system developed in the research is one of the first one that can be used for practical medical diagnosis. Ultrasound imaging devices produce lower quality images than MRI imaging devices, but it has potentiality to produce real-time images. The system can reconstruct nearly real-time animation images by connecting imaging devices and rendering computer using high speed computer network. We also developed high speed parallel volume rendering algorithm to achieve higher rendering performance.