Coherent View-Dependent Streamlines for Understanding Blood Flow

Abstract

The expressive visualization of (time-dependent) 3D blood flow along with the vessel wall is essential for understandingvascular diseases. However, the high complexity of the underlying flow data makes the explorationchallenging. For the biomedical research, it is necessary to provide methods that allow for rapid flow comprehension,ideally by emphasizing relevant flow characteristics. Therefore, we present a fast approach that visualizesstreamlines in a view-dependent way, while taking relevant flow features into consideration. For this, we adapt awell-established non-photorealistic rendering technique - suggestive contours - for surface meshes to streamlineillustrations. The advantages of our approach are confirmed in an informal user feedback with domain experts,who were able to comprehend the overall flow behavior faster.