Interactive 3D visualization of carotid arteries

We have developed an experimental medical volume visualization system supporting head-tracked stereoscopic viewing registered with direct 3D-interaction. We aim to assess the suitability of these techiniques for surgical planning tasks in real medical settings. We are interested in visualizing carotid arteries in depth by using interactive volume visualization, motion parallax and stereoscopic cues. Our display when positioned as a surgical table provides the impression of looking down at the patient in a naturalistic way. With simple head motion good positions to observe the pathology are quickly estabilished. A six degree-of-freedom head tracker measures head motion then appropriate stereoscopic images are dymically generated for shutter-glass 3D viewing. Co-registrating physical and virtual spaces beforhand means volume appear at fixed physical positions and permits directly interaction via a 3D pointing device. The system was tested on a SGI Infinite Reality, with CristalEyes shutter-glasses and Logitech 3D trackers. This permits interactive work with an operative data set.

@Article{PZGT97b,
  author       = {Pili, P. and Zorcolo, A. and Gobbetti, E. and Tuveri, M.},
  title        = {Interactive 3D visualization of carotid arteries},
  journal      = {International Angiology},
  number       = {3},
  volume       = {16},
  pages        = {153},
  month        = {september},
  year         = {1997},
  publisher    = {Minerva Medica},
  note         = {idxproject: VIVA},
  keywords     = {Medical Volume Visualization, Head-tracked Stereoscopic Viewing, 3D Interaction, Interactive Visualization},
  url          = {https://publications.crs4.it/pubdocs/1997/PZGT97b},
}