Virtual reality in advanced medical immersive imaging: a workflow for introducing virtual reality as a supporting tool in medical imaging
Type
ArticleAuthors
Knodel, Markus M.
Lemke, Babett
Lampe, Michael
Hoffer, Michael
Gillmann, Clarissa
Uder, Michael
Hillengaß, Jens
Wittum, Gabriel
Bäuerle, Tobias
KAUST Department
Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering (CEMSE) DivisionApplied Mathematics and Computational Science Program
Extreme Computing Research Center
Date
2018-02-27Online Publication Date
2018-02-27Print Publication Date
2018-03Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/627286
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
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.Citation
Knodel MM, Lemke B, Lampe M, Hoffer M, Gillmann C, et al. (2018) Virtual reality in advanced medical immersive imaging: a workflow for introducing virtual reality as a supporting tool in medical imaging. Computing and Visualization in Science. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00791-018-0292-3.Sponsors
We thank M. Aumüller, HLRS Stutttgart, for excellent and friendly support for the CAVE system installation and upgrade, and J. Pieper, GCSC, and A. Chizhov, Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, RAS, St. Petersburg, for their support when performing the photos at the CAVE. MMK thanks Elisa Ficarra (Politecnico di Torino) for a stimulating discussion about the subject. The authors acknowledge the Goethe Universität Frankfurt for general support and computational resources and the University Erlangen-Nuremberg as well as the Politecnico di Torino for general support. This work has been supported in part by the “Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino” (Italy), through the “La Ricerca dei Talenti” (HR Excellence in Research) programme and in major part by the Institute of Radiology of the University Medical Center Erlangen. The Authors wish to express their sincere thanks to the anonymous Referees for their thorough and critical reviews of our work.Publisher
Springer NatureAdditional Links
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00791-018-0292-3ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1007/s00791-018-0292-3