Visualizing Dissections of the Heart in a Dataflow-based Shader Framework for Volume Rendering

Abstract

Dissections in anatomic heart illustrations are an effective visualization technique and support a variety of applications in exploration and communication. In this paper we implemented a set of volume deformations imitating dissections found in anatomy atlases of the human heart based on individual patient data. This allows physicians and surgeons to compare, explore, and discuss volume data in view of atlas illustrations. The main challenge for these illustrations is the flexible real-time combination of various (geometric) deformations and shadows (influenced by the deformations) to depict shapes and structures. The proposed technical solution to these volume visualizations is a novel GPU-based processing technique for dataflow-based shading graphs. Hence, any deformations can easily be combined in our system with immediate influence on shadows and shading. We show the effectiveness and applicability of our approach by imitating illustrations of heart dissections taken from an anatomy atlas using the patient's individual volume data.