Interactive Transfer Function Design Based on Editing Direct Volume Rendered Images

• Published in: IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics Vol. 13; no. 5; pp. 1027 - 1040
• Main Authors: Wu, Yingcai, Qu, Huamin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.09.2007; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Algorithms; Animation; Biomedical imaging; Blends; Computational fluid dynamics; Computer Graphics; Data visualization; Direct volume rendering; Editing; focus + context; Focusing; Fuses; Graphics; image editing; Image Enhancement - methods; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - methods; Imaging, Three-Dimensional - methods; Information Storage and Retrieval - methods; Interactive; intuitive user interface; morphing; Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted; Rendering (computer graphics); Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; transfer function design; Transfer functions; User interfaces; User-Computer Interface; Visualization; Word Processing - methods
• ISSN: 1077-2626; 1941-0506
• DOI: 10.1109/TVCG.2007.1051

Direct volume rendered images (DVRIs) have been widely used to reveal structures in volumetric data. However, DVRIs generated by many volume visualization techniques can only partially satisfy users' demands. In this paper, we propose a framework for editing DVRIs, which can also be used for interactive transfer function (TF) design. Our approach allows users to fuse multiple features in distinct DVRIs into a comprehensive one, to blend two DVRIs, and/or to delete features in a DVRI. We further present how these editing operations can generate smooth animations for focus + context visualization. Experimental results on some real volumetric data demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.