Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- ZIB-Report (31)
Has Fulltext
- yes (31)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (31)
Keywords
- 3D texture mapping (2)
- visualization (2)
- volume rendering (2)
- AMR (1)
- AMR hierarchies (1)
- AMR tree (1)
- Amira (1)
- CCTK (1)
- Cactus (1)
- Cluster Analysis (1)
Institute
- ZIB Allgemein (31) (remove)
We describe a novel method for continuously transforming two triangulated models of arbitrary topology into each other. Equal global topology for both objects is assumed, extensions for genus changes during metamorphosis are provided. The proposed method addresses the major challenge in 3D metamorphosis, namely specifying the morphing process intuitively, with minimal user interaction and sufficient detail. Corresponding regions and point features are interactively identified. These regions are parametrized automatically and consistently, providing a basis for smooth interpolation. Utilizing suitable 3D interaction techniques a simple and intuitive control over the whole morphing process is offered.
By combining techniques of preparation, histology, confocal microscopy, data visualization and data processing, we have created and recently published a standard brain model for drosophila and honey bee brains. This report describes the algorithms and implementation of the corresponding software modules. At the same time it serves as a user's guide for scientist who want to reproduce the results for differerent species or mutants.
Segmentation tools in medical imaging are either based on editing geometric curves or on the assignment of region labels to image voxels. While the first approach is well suited to describe smooth contours at subvoxel accuracy, the second approach is conceptually more simple and guarantees a unique classification of image areas. However, contours extracted from labeled images typically exhibit strong staircase artifacts and are not well suited to represent smooth tissue boundaries. In this paper we describe how this drawback can be circumvented by supplementing region labels with additional weights. We integrated our approach into an interactive segmentation system providing a well-defined set of manual and semi-automatic editing tools. All tools update both region labels as well as the corresponding weights simultaneously, thus allowing one to define segmentation results at high resolution. We applied our techniques to generate 3D polygonal models of anatomical structures.
A new technique for interactive vector field visualization using large numbers of properly illuminated field lines is presented. Taking into account ambient, diffuse, and specular reflection terms as well as transparency and depth cueing, we employ a realistic shading model which significantly increases quality and realism of the resulting images. While many graphics workstations offer hardware support for illuminating surface primitives, usually no means for an accurate shading of line primitives are provided. However, we show that proper illumination of lines can be implemented by exploiting the texture mapping capabilities of modern graphics hardware. In this way high rendering performance with interactive frame rates can be achieved. We apply the technique to render large numbers of integral curves of a vector field. The impression of the resulting images can be further improved by a number of visual enhancements, like transparency and depth-cueing. We also describe methods for controlling the distribution of field lines in space. These methods enable us to use illuminated field lines for interactive exploration of vector fields.
HyperPlan is a software system for performing 3D-simulations and treatment planning in regional hyperthermia. It allows the user to understand the complex effects of electromagnetic wave propagation and heat transport inside a patient's body. Optimized power amplitudes and phase settings can be calculated for the BSD radiowave applicators Sigma 60 and Sigma 2000 (eye-applicator). HyperPlan is built on top of the modular, object-oriented visualization system Amira. This system already contains powerful algorithms for image processing, geometric modelling and 3D graphics display. HyperPlan provides a number of hyperthermia-specific modules, allowing the user to create 3D tetrahedral patient models suitable for treatment planning. In addition, all numerical simulation modules required for hyperthermia simulation are part of HyperPlan. This guide provides a step-by-step introduction to hyperthermia planning using HyperPlan. It also describes the usage of the underlying visualization system Amira.
Line Integral Convolution (LIC) is a powerful technique for generating striking images and animations from vector data. Introduced in 1993, the method has rapidly found many application areas, ranging from computer arts to scientific visualization. Based upon locally filtering an input texture along a curved stream line segment in a vector field, it is able to depict directional information at high spatial resolutions. We present a new method for computing LIC images, which minimizes the total number of stream lines to be computed and thereby reduces computational costs by an order of magnitude compared to the original algorithm. Our methods utilizes fast, error-controlled numerical integrators. Decoupling the characteristic lengths in vector field grid, input texture and output image, it allows to compute filtered images at arbitrary resolution. This feature is of great significance in computer animation as well as in scientific visualization, where it can be used to explore vector data by smoothly enlarging structure of details. We also present methods for improved texture animation, employing constant filter kernels only. To obtain an optimal motion effect, spatial decay of correlation between intensities of distant pixels in the output image has to be controlled. This is achieved by blending different phase shifted box filter animations and by adaptively rescaling the contrast of the output frames.
We propose an approach for transforming the sampling of a molecular conformation distribution into an analytical model based on Hidden Markov Models. The model describes the sampled shape density as a mixture of multivariate unimodal densities. Thus, it delivers an interpretation of the sampled density as a set of typical shapes that appear with different probabilities and are characterized by their geometry, their variability and transition probabilities between the shapes. The gained model is used to identify atom groups of constant shape that are connected by metastable torsion angles. Based on this description an alignment for the original sampling is computed. As it takes into account the different shapes contained in the sampled set, this alignment allows to compute reasonable average shapes and meaningful shape density plots. Furthermore, it enables us to visualize typical conformations.
In this paper we discuss several ways to visualize stationary and non-stationary quantum mechanical systems. We demonstrate an approach for the quantitative interpretation of probability density isovalues which yields a reasonable correlation between isosurfaces for different timesteps. As an intuitive quantity for visualizing the momentum of a quantum system we propose the probability flow density which can be treated by vector field visualization techniques. Finally, we discuss the visualization of non-stationary systems by a sequence of single timestep images.
Fast Volume Rendering of Sparse High-Resolution Datasets Using Adaptive Mesh Refinement Hierarchies
(2001)
In this paper we present an algorithm that accelerates 3D texture-based volume rendering of large and sparse data sets. A hierarchical data structure (known as AMR tree) consisting of nested uniform grids is employed in order to efficiently encode regions of interest. The hierarchies resulting from this kind of space partitioning yield a good balance between the amount of volume to render and the number of texture bricks -- a prerequisite for fast rendering. Comparing our approach to an octree based algorithm we show that our algorithm increases rendering performance significantly for sparse data. A further advantage is that less parameter tuning is necessary.
Many phenomena in nature and engineering happen simultaneously on rather diverse spatial and temporal scales, i.e.\ exhibit a multi-scale character. Therefore various hierarchical data structures and numerical schemes have been devised to represent quantitatively such phenomena. A special numerical multilevel technique, associated with a particular hierarchical data structure, is so-called Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR). This scheme achieves locally very high spatial and temporal resolutions. Due to its popularity, many scientists are in need of interactive visualization tools for AMR data. In this article we present a 3D texture-based volume rendering algorithm for AMR data, that directly utilizes the hierarchical structure. Thereby interactive rendering even for large data sets is achieved. In particular the problems of interpolation artifacts, opacity corrections, and texture memory limitations are addressed. The algorithm's value in practice is demonstrated with simulation and image data.