Fast software-based volume rendering using multimedia instructions on PC platforms and its application to virtual endoscopy

Kensaku Mori; Yasuhito Suenaga; Jun-ichiro Toriwaki

doi:10.1117/12.480417

2 May 2003 Fast software-based volume rendering using multimedia instructions on PC platforms and its application to virtual endoscopy

Kensaku Mori, Yasuhito Suenaga, Jun-ichiro Toriwaki

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 5031, Medical Imaging 2003: Physiology and Function: Methods, Systems, and Applications; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.480417
Event: Medical Imaging 2003, 2003, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

This paper describes a software-based fast volume rendering (VolR) method on a PC platform by using multimedia instructions, such as SIMD instructions, which are currently available in PCs' CPUs. This method achieves fast rendering speed through highly optimizing software rather than an improved rendering algorithm. In volume rendering using a ray casting method, the system requires fast execution of the following processes: (a) interpolation of voxel or color values at sample points, (b) computation of normal vectors (gray-level gradient vectors), (c) calculation of shaded values obtained by dot-products of normal vectors and light source direction vectors, (d) memory access to a huge area, and (e) efficient ray skipping at translucent regions. The proposed software implements these fundamental processes in volume rending by using special instruction sets for multimedia processing. The proposed software can generate virtual endoscopic images of a 3-D volume of 512x512x489 voxel size by volume rendering with perspective projection, specular reflection, and on-the-fly normal vector computation on a conventional PC without any special hardware at thirteen frames per second. Semi-translucent display is also possible.

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Kensaku Mori, Yasuhito Suenaga, and Jun-ichiro Toriwaki "Fast software-based volume rendering using multimedia instructions on PC platforms and its application to virtual endoscopy", Proc. SPIE 5031, Medical Imaging 2003: Physiology and Function: Methods, Systems, and Applications, (2 May 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.480417

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