Nonlinear virtual colon unfolding

• Published in: Proceedings of the conference on Visualization '01 pp. 411 - 420
• Main Authors: Bartrolí, Anna Vilanova, Wegenkittl, Rainer, König, Andreas, Gröller, Eduard
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC, USA IEEE Computer Society 21.10.2001
• Series: ACM Conferences
• Subjects: Applied computing > Life and medical sciences > Computational biology; Applied computing > Life and medical sciences > Genetics; Applied computing > Life and medical sciences > Systems biology; Computing methodologies > Artificial intelligence > Computer vision > Image and video acquisition; Computing methodologies > Computer graphics > Graphics systems and interfaces > Virtual reality; Computing methodologies > Computer graphics > Shape modeling; Computing methodologies > Computer graphics > Shape modeling > Parametric curve and surface models; Computing methodologies > Computer graphics > Shape modeling > Volumetric models; Human-centered computing > Human computer interaction (HCI) > Interaction paradigms > Mixed > augmented reality; Human-centered computing > Human computer interaction (HCI) > Interaction paradigms > Virtual reality; virtual endoscopy; volume rendering
• ISBN: 078037200X; 9780780372009
• DOI: 10.5555/601671.601736

The majority of virtual endoscopy techniques tries to simulate a real endoscopy. A real endoscopy does not always give the optimal information due to the physical limitations it is subject to. In this paper, we deal with the unfolding of the surface of the colon as a possible visualization technique for diagnosis and polyp detection. A new two-step technique is presented which deals with the problems of double appearance of polyps and nonuniform sampling that other colon unfolding techniques suffer from. In the first step, a distance map from a central path induces nonlinear rays for unambiguous parameterization of the surface. The second step compensates for locally varying distortions of the unfolded surface. A technique similar to magnification fields in information visualization is hereby applied. The technique produces a single view of a complete, virtually dissected colon.