Visualization and Interaction with Medical Data in Immersive Environments

Abstract

Immersive visualization techniques are just starting to see limited adoption in medical applications. The Visualization Group at the University of Bergen wish to expand its research efforts into such immersive visualization techniques. A new immersive environment installed at the University is meant to be utilized for this purpose. This thesis presents a solution which enables the use of VolumeShop in the immersive environments for presentation of volumetric data and for combination of 2D and 3D medical imaging modalities. VolumeShop is a rapid prototyping environment for visualization techniques, which is often used by our visualization group. For general use of the immersive environment, motion tracking support needs to be added to VolumeShop. This motion tracking support can then be utilized to realize the immersive visualization pipeline. This pipeline computes correct perspective projection based on the user's position. Additionally it implements intuitive gesture based interaction with the data using a handheld interaction device. A multimodal visualization pipeline is described and implemented, which enables the visualization of 2D+time ultrasound images combined with MRI volumes. To realize this pipeline, components for motion tracking of the ultrasound probe, for synchronization of the time offset between the motion tracking and the ultrasound series, picking landmarks in the ultrasound slice and MRI cross-section, and computation of the registration transformation which spatially unifies the two of the modalities. The result of this thesis is a general purpose motion tracking component as well as the two described pipelines.