Design of a parallel VLSI engine for real-time visualization of 3D medical images

Mark J. Bentum; Jaap Smit

doi:10.1117/12.174020

1 May 1994 Design of a parallel VLSI engine for real-time visualization of 3D medical images

Mark J. Bentum, Jaap Smit

Proceedings Volume 2164, Medical Imaging 1994: Image Capture, Formatting, and Display; (1994) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.174020
Event: Medical Imaging 1994, 1994, Newport Beach, CA, United States

Abstract

Three dimensional medical scanners are widely available in today's hospitals to acquire a dataset of the human body without the need for surgery. The usefulness of this diagnostic information is limited by the lack of techniques to visualize the datasets. With the increasing computer power of today's workstations it is possible to make a transparent view of the 3D dataset. An interactive mode is necessary, however, to fully explore the 3D dataset. If both a high resolution and a high interactive speed is required, the necessary computational power is enormous. Therefore it is necessary to map the algorithms for volume visualization in a rather specific way onto (dedicated) chips to overcome the performance gap. This paper discusses a high-performance special-purpose low-power system, the Real-Time Volume Rendering Engine (RT-VRE), capable of rendering a 3D dataset of 256³ voxels onto a display of 750² pixels with an interaction rate of 25 images per second. The RT-VRE allows biomedical engineers to interactively visualize and investigate their data.

Citation Download Citation

Mark J. Bentum and Jaap Smit "Design of a parallel VLSI engine for real-time visualization of 3D medical images", Proc. SPIE 2164, Medical Imaging 1994: Image Capture, Formatting, and Display, (1 May 1994); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.174020

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