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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.
Regional hyperthermia, a clinical cancer therapy, is the main topic of the Sonderforschungsbereich Hyperthermia: Scientific Methods and Clinical Applications'' at Berlin. In recent years, technological improvements towards a better concentration of heat to the desired target region have been achieved. These include a rather sophisticated integrated software environment for therapy planning and a new hyperthermia applicator. In a next step, a detailed closed loop monitoring of the actual treatment is to be developed. For this purpose the hyperthermia applicator is combined with an MRI system, which will allow to check the positioning of the patients and to measure individual blood perfusion as well as the 3D temperature distribution. The measurements will then be employed for an on-line control of the whole treatment. In this intended setting, new fast feedback control algorithms will come into play.
This report contains paper abstracts of the workshop "Visualization and Mathematics" held in Berlin-Dahlem in September 1997. The meeting serves as a forum for an international community of researchers and practitioners on the application of visualization techniques in mathematics and on mathematical concepts in visualization. It is the second symposium in a series of workshops bringing together mathematicians and experts from scientific visualization. The themes of the workshop include: \begin{itemize} \item - applications in differential geometry and partial differential equations \item - algorithmic aspects of adaptive and hierarchical techniques in space and time \item - time control of animated objects and corresponding algorithms \item - algorithmic representation of objects for display, storage and exchange \item - new visualization techniques for mathematical structures \item - integration of visualization with symbolic and numerical computation. \end{itemize}
The increasing demand for distributed solutions in computing technology does not stop when it comes to visualization techniques. However, the capabilities of todays applications to perform remote rendering are limited by historical design legacys. Especially the popular X11 protokoll, which has been proven to be extremely flexible and usefull for remote 2D graphics applications, breaks down for the case of remote 3D rendering. In this white paper, we give a short overview of generic remote rendering technologies available today, and compare their performance to the recently released vizserver by SGI: a network extension to the SGI OpenGL rendering engines.
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.
The Monte Carlo simulation of the dynamics of complex molecules produces trajectories with a large number of different configurations to sample configuration space. It is expected that these configurations can be classified into a small number of conformations representing essential changes in the shape of the molecule. We present a method to visualize these conformations by point sets in the plane based on a geometrical distance measure between individual configurations. It turns out that different conformations appear as well-separated point sets. The method is further improved by performing a cluster analysis of the data set. The point-cluster representation is used to control a three-dimensional molecule viewer application to show individual configurations and conformational changes. The extraction of essential coordinates and visualization of molecular shape is discussed.
The FORTRAN preprocessor fpp in the newly introduced Autotasking System of CRAY Research allows automatic vectorization and parallelization on basis of a data dependence analysis. An introduction into data dependence analysis is given, showing how data dependence graphs unveil opportunities for program transformations like vectorization and concurrentization. The report contains a complete description of the preprocessors functionality, its options and directives for increasing the effectiveness of the dependence analyzer and steering the code transformations. Finally, some advice is given for the practical use of fpp on CRAY computers.
Efficient implementations of irregular problems on vector and parallel architectures are generally hard to realize. An important class of problems are Gauß-Seidel iteration schemes applied to irregular data sets. The unstructured data dependences arising there prevent restructuring compilers from generating efficient code for vector or parallel machines. It is shown, how to structure the data dependences by decomposing the underlying data set using graph coloring techniques and by specifying a particular execution order already on the algorithm level. Methods to master the irregularities originating from different types of tasks are proposed. An application is given and some open issues and future developments are discussed.
Dieser Bericht beschreibt die Ergebnisse eines Anwendungsprojektes, das parallel zum Aufbau des Berliner Hochgeschwindigkeitsdatennetzes (Berlin Regional Testbed) am ZIB durchgeführt wurde. Es werden allgemeine Werkzeuge und anwendungsspezifische Arbeitsumgebungen zur netzverteilten Visualisierung und Simulation vorgestellt. Die allgemeinen Werkzeuge unterstützen folgende Aufgaben: Kopplung von Simulationen auf (Hochleistungs-)Rechnern an lokale Grafikarbeitsplätze, objektorientierte und verteilte Visualisierung, Remote-Videoaufzeichnung, Bilddatenkompression und digitaler Filmschnitt. Die spezifischen Arbeitsumgebungen wurden für Aufgaben aus den Bereichen Numerische Mathematik, Astrophysik, Strukturforschung, Chemie, Polymerphysik und Strömungsmechanik entwickelt.
Die von der DMV-Fachgruppe Scientific Computing in Kooperation mit dem gleichnamigen GAMM-Fachausschuss organisierte Tagung \glqq Scientific Computing in der Theoretischen Physik\grqq~fand vom 16. - 18. März 1994 am Fachbereich Mathematik und Informatik der Freien Universität Berlin statt. Ziel des Workshops war, die Kontakte zwischen den Fachleuten der Gebiete {\em Computational Physics} und {\em Scientific Computing} zu intensivieren. Schwerpunkte des Workshops waren numerische Simulation von Transportmodellen der Astrophysik und Halbleiterphysik, Multilevel-Methoden für partielle Differentialgleichungen sowie Monte-Carlo-Methoden und molekulardynamische Verfahren für Probleme der Statistischen Physik und Quantenfeldtheorie. Der Workshop fand ein äusserst positives Echo und führte über 70 Teilnehmer der verschiedenen Teilgebiete der Theoretischen Physik und ca. 50 Teilnehmer aus dem Bereich der Numerischen Mathematik zusammen. \originalTeX
In this paper various algorithms for rendering gaseous phenomena are reviewed. In computer graphics such algorithms are used to model natural scenes containing clouds, fog, flames and so on. On the other hand it has become an important technique in scientific visualization to display three dimensional scalar datasets as cloudy objects. Our emphasis is on this latter subject of so-called {\em direct volume rendering}. All algorithms will be discussed within the framework of linear transport theory. The equation of transfer is derived. This equation is suitable to describe the radiation field in a participating medium where absorption, emission, and scattering of light can occur. Almost all volume rendering algorithms can be shown to solve special cases of the equation of transfer. Related problems like the mapping from data values to model parameters or possible parallelization strategies will be discussed as well.
We present a new technique for generating surface meshes from a uniform set of discrete samples. Our method extends the well-known marching cubes algorithm used for computing polygonal isosurfaces. While in marching cubes each vertex of a cubic grid cell is binary classified as lying above or below an isosurface, in our approach an arbitrary number of vertex classes can be specified. Consequently the resulting surfaces consist of patches separating volumes of two different classes each. Similar to the marching cubes algorithm all grid cells are traversed and classified according to the number of different vertex classes involved and their arrangement. The solution for each configuration is computed based on a model that assigns probabilities to the vertices and interpolates them. We introduce an automatic method to find a triangulation which approximates the boundary surfaces - implicitly given by our model - in a topological correct way. Look-up tables guarantee a high performance of the algorithm. In medical applications our method can be used to extract surfaces from a 3D segmentation of tomographic images into multiple tissue types. The resulting surfaces are well suited for subsequent volumetric mesh generation, which is needed for simulation as well as visualization tasks. The proposed algorithm provides a robust and unique solution, avoiding ambiguities occuring in other methods. The method is of great significance in modeling and animation too, where it can be used for polygonalization of non-manifold implicit surfaces.
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.
After a short summary on therapy planning and the underlying technologies we discuss quantitative medicine by giving a short overview on medical image data, summarizing some applications of computer based treatment planning, and outlining requirements on medical planning systems. Then we continue with a description of our medical planning system {\sf HyperPlan}. It supports typical working steps in therapy planning, like data aquisition, segmentation, grid generation, numerical simulation and optimization, accompanying these with powerful visualization and interaction techniques.
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.
We describe an extension of the line integral convolution method (LIC) for imaging of vector fields on arbitrary surfaces in 3D space. Previous approaches were limited to curvilinear surfaces, i.e.~surfaces which can be parametrized globally using 2D-coordinates. By contrast our method also handles the case of general, possibly multiply connected surfaces. The method works by tesselating a given surface with triangles. For each triangle local euclidean coordinates are defined and a local LIC texture is computed. No scaling or distortion is involved when mapping the texture onto the surface. The characteristic length of the texture remains constant. In order to exploit the texture hardware of modern graphics computers we have developed a tiling strategy for arranging a large number of triangular texture pieces within a single rectangular texture image. In this way texture memory is utilized optimally and even large textured surfaces can be explored interactively.
Hyperthermia Treatment Planning in Clinical Cancer Therapy: Modelling, Simulation and Visualization
(1997)
\noindent The speaker and his co-workers in Scientific Computing and Visualization have established a close cooperation with medical doctors at the Rudolf--Virchow--Klinikum of the Humboldt University in Berlin on the topic of regional hyperthermia. In order to permit a patient--specific treatment planning, a special software system ({\sf\small HyperPlan}) has been developed. \noindent A mathematical model of the clinical system ({\it radio frequency applicator with 8 antennas, water bolus, individual patient body}) involves Maxwell's equations in inhomogeneous media and a so--called bio--heat transfer PDE describing the temperature distribution in the human body. The electromagnetic field and the thermal phenomena need to be computed at a speed suitable for the clinical environment. An individual geometric patient model is generated as a quite complicated tetrahedral ``coarse'' grid (several thousands of nodes). Both Maxwell's equations and the bio--heat transfer equation are solved on that 3D--grid by means of {\em adaptive} multilevel finite element methods, which automatically refine the grid where necessary in view of the required accuracy. Finally optimal antenna parameters for the applicator are determined . \noindent All steps of the planning process are supported by powerful visualization methods. Medical images, contours, grids, simulated electromagnetic fields and temperature distributions can be displayed in combination. A number of new algorithms and techniques had to be developed and implemented. Special emphasis has been put on advanced 3D interaction methods and user interface issues.
Line integral convolution (LIC) has become a well-known and popular method for visualizing vector fields. The method works by convolving a random input texture along the integral curves of the vector field. In order to accelerate image synthesis significantly, an efficient algorithm has been proposed that utilizes pixel coherence in field line direction. This algorithm, called ``fast LIC'', originally was restricted to simple box-type filter kernels. Here we describe a generalization of fast LIC for piecewise polynomial filter kernels. Expanding the filter kernels in terms of truncated power functions allows us to exploit a certain convolution theorem. The convolution integral is expressed as a linear combination of repeated integrals (or repeated sums in the discrete case). Compared to the original algorithm the additional expense for using higher order filter kernels, e.g.\ of B-spline type, is very low. Such filter kernels produce smoother, less noisier results than a box filter. This is evident from visual investigation, as well as from analysis of pixel correlations. Thus, our method represents a useful extension of the fast LIC algorithm for the creation of high-quality LIC images.
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.
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.
Large scale simulations running in metacomputing environments face the problem of efficient file I/O. For efficiency it is desirable to write data locally, distributed across the computing environment, and then to minimize data transfer, i.e.\ reduce remote file access. Both aspects require I/O approaches which differ from existing paradigms. For the data output of distributed simulations, one wants to use fast local parallel I/O for all participating nodes, producing a single distributed logical file, while keeping changes to the simulation code as small as possible. For reading the data file as in postprocessing and file based visualization, one wants to have efficient partial access to remote and distributed files, using a global naming scheme and efficient data caching, and again keeping the changes to the postprocessing code small. However, all available software solutions require the entire data to be staged locally (involving possible data recombination and conversion), or suffer from the performance problems of remote or distributed file systems. In this paper we show how to interface the HDF5 I/O library via its flexible Virtual File Driver layer to the Globus Data Grid. We show, that combining these two toolkits in a suitable way provides us with a new I/O framework, which allows efficient, secure, distributed and parallel file I/O in a metacomputing environment.
We present visualizations of recent supercomputer simulations from numerical relativity, exploiting the progress in visualization techniques and numerical methods also from an artistic point of view. The sequences have been compiled into a video tape, showing colliding black holes, orbiting and merging neutron stars as well as collapsing gravitational waves. In this paper we give some background information and provide a glance at the presented sequences.
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.
\noindent The size of data sets produced on remote supercomputer facilities frequently exceeds the processing capabilities of local visualization workstations. This phenomenon increasingly limits scientists when analyzing results of large-scale scientific simulations. That problem gets even more prominent in scientific collaborations, spanning large virtual organizations, working on common shared sets of data distributed in Grid environments. In the visualization community, this problem is addressed by distributing the visualization pipeline. In particular, early stages of the pipeline are executed on resources closer to the initial (remote) locations of the data sets. \noindent This paper presents an efficient technique for placing the first two stages of the visualization pipeline (data access and data filter) onto remote resources. This is realized by exploiting the ``extended retrieve'' feature of GridFTP for flexible, high performance access to very large HDF5 files. We reduce the number of network transactions for filtering operations by utilizing a server side data processing plugin, and hence reduce latency overhead compared to GridFTP partial file access. The paper further describes the application of hierarchical rendering techniques on remote uniform data sets, which make use of the remote data filtering stage.
Analysis of phenomena that simultaneously occur on quite different spatial and temporal scales require adaptive, hierarchical schemes to reduce computational and storage demands. For data represented as grid functions, the key are adaptive, hierarchical, time-dependent grids that resolve spatio-temporal details without too much redundancy. Here, so-called AMR grids gain increasing popularity. For visualization and feature identification/tracking, the underlying continuous function has to be faithfully reconstructed by spatial and temporal interpolation. Well designed interpolation methods yield better results and help to reduce the amount of data to be stored. We address the problem of temporal interpolation of AMR grid data, e.g.\ for creation of smooth animations or feature tracking. Intermediate grid hierarchies are generated by merging the cells on all refinement levels that are present in the key frames considered. Utilizing a clustering algorithm a structure of nested grids is induced on the resulting collection of cells. The grid functions are mapped to the intermediate hierarchy, thus allowing application of appropriate interpolation techniques.
Tensor Splats
(2003)
An improved general-purpose technique for the visualization of symmetric positive definite tensor fields of rank two is described. It is based on a splatting technique that is built from tiny transparent glyph primitives which are capable to incorporate the full directional information content of a tensor. The result is an information-rich image that allows to read off the preferred directions in a tensor field at each point of a three-dimensional volume or two-dimensional surface. It is useful for analyzing slices or volumes of a three-dimensional tensor field and can be overlayed with standard volume rendering or color mapping. The application of the rendering technique is demonstrated on general relativistic data and the diffusion tensor field of a human brain.
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.
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.
Die Autoren schreiben dieses Papier aus der eingeschränkten Sicht der Mathematik und der Informationstechnik. Um den speziellen Beitrag dieser Disziplinen überhaupt diskutieren zu können, sehen wir uns jedoch gezwungen, einen Rahmen abzustecken, den wir für das Jahr 2020 vorhersehen -- nach Wahrscheinlichkeit und aus unserem engeren fachlichen Blickwinkel. Vorab bitten wir schon einmal bei den medizinischen Fachleuten um Nachsicht, wenn wir uns in ihrem Revier allzu dillettantisch bewegen. Vielleicht fördert aber auch unser eingeschränkter Blickwinkel ansonsten unbedachte Aspekte zutage -- das hoffen wir zumindest.