Novel True 3D Display Tools for Effective 3D Visualization in Biomedical Research

我们周围的物理世界是三维的(3D)，然而大多数现有的显示系统都有平板屏幕，并且只能处理缺乏三维(深度)信息的二维(2D)图像。这种根本性的限制极大地限制了人类感知和理解现实世界物体的复杂性的能力。人体和内脏都是3D形状。许多医学成像方式本质上是真正的3D。3D成像和4D实时成像已被证明在癌症诊断和治疗中特别有用，例如图像引导放射治疗(IGRT)。然而，当收集3D图像数据时，现有的图像显示、解释和评估方法通常是2D的，这导致可能的减慢、误解和不太理想的临床决策，用于诊断、IGRT和其他3D可视化任务。西根有限责任公司最近取得了一项技术突破，开发了一种基于新的单投影仪多视(SPM)技术的新型大屏幕自动立体3D显示概念。拟议的SPM 3D显示技术可实现可伸缩的大屏幕(高达几米)、无玻璃的交互式3D可视化体验，并可通过提供立体视差、运动视差和表面纹理来缓解现有3D显示技术的关键缺陷，并将整体系统成本降低到与2D显示同行相当的范围。仅使用一台投影仪即可显著降低校准和维护的复杂性、成本和负担，从而实现低成本、高质量、可批量生产的商业产品。真三维显示在生物医学研究中的应用将导致对高维细胞结构、分子、基因组医学和图像数据的高效、有效和准确的可视化和交互。将真三维显示应用于临床，如图像引导放射治疗(IGRT)，可以消除诊断、规划和干预过程中的方向性偏差。据我们所知，提出的SPM 3D显示概念是史无前例的，代表着真3D显示技术的重大突破。此第一阶段SBIR工作的主要目标是证明 通过开发SPM系统的关键组件，构建功能原型，并展示其在临床环境中各种3D/4D可视化应用的应用潜力，重点是图像引导放射治疗(IGRT)，提出了一种新的SPM技术。该项目将使新的真3D显示技术更接近市场，成为生物医学研究和癌症诊断/治疗的高级3D可视化的通用工具。True 3D Display是一种全新的技术平台，可以促进生物医学研究和临床应用中广泛的3D/4D可视化应用。由于SBIR提出了高性能和低成本的解决方案，真3D显示技术可以作为一种可行的工具，提供新的真实感水平，并为可用于生物医学研究和临床实践的可视化工具增加新的维度(字面上和形象上)。它对医疗实践的各个方面都有广泛的影响，从3D/4D图像可视化、图像引导干预、远程医疗、手术回放、显微镜/内窥镜可视化、教育、培训等。

The physical world around us is three-dimensional (3D), yet most existing display systems have flat screens and can handle only two-dimensional (2D) images that lack the third dimension (depth) information. This fundamental restriction greatly limits the capability of human being in perceiving and understanding the complexity of real world objects. Human body and internal organs are of 3D shapes. Many medical imaging modalities are true 3D in nature. 3D imaging and 4D real-time imaging modalities have proven especially useful in cancer diagnosis and treatments, such as image guided radiation therapy (IGRT). However, when 3D image data are collected, existing methods of image display, interpretation and evaluation are often 2D, leading to possible slowdown, misinterpretation and less desirable clinical decisions for diagnosis, IGRT and other 3D visualization tasks. Xigen LLC has recently made a technology breakthrough and developed a novel large screen autostereoscopic 3D display concept based on the novel Single Projector Multiview (SPM) technology. The proposed SPM 3D display technology enables scalable large screen (up to a few meters), glass-free, interactive 3D visualization experience, and could alleviate key drawbacks of existing 3D display technologies by providing stereo parallax, motion parallax and surface textures, and reducing overall system cost to the range comparable with 2D display counterparts. Using only one projector significantly reduces the complexity, cost, and burdens for calibration and maintenance, resulting in a low-cost, high quality, mass-produciable commercial product. Uses of true 3D display in biomedical research would lead to efficient, effective and accurate visualization and interaction on high dimensional cell structure, molecular, genomic medicine, and image data. Uses of true 3D display to clinical applications, such as image guided radiation therapy (IGRT), could eliminate the directional bias during the diagnosis, planning and interventions. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed SPM 3D display concept is unprecedented and represents a significant breakthrough in true 3D display technology. The primary objective of this Phase I SBIR effort is to demonstrate the feasibility of a novel SPM technology by developing critical components for the SPM system, building a functional prototype, and demonstrating its application potential to various 3D/4D visualization applications in clinical settings with a focus on image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT). This project would bring the novel true 3D display technology one important step closer to marketplace as a generic tool for advanced 3D visualization for biomedical research and cancer diagnosis/treatments. The true 3D display is a fundamentally new technology platform that can facilitate a broad range 3D/4D visualization applications in biomedical research and clinical applications. With the high performance and low-cost solution proposed in this SBIR, the true 3D display technology could serve as a viable tools to provide a new level of realism and add a new dimension (literally and figuratively) to the visualization tools available for biomedical research and clinical practices. It has broad impact on various aspects of healthcare practices, ranging from 3D/4D image visualization, image guided intervention, telemedicine, surgical replays, microscope/endoscope visualization, education, training, etc.