Il­lu­mi­na­ti­on Tech­ni­ques in a Da­ta ow-ba­sed Vo­lume Ren­de­ring Pipe­line

Masterarbeit von Oliver Schwede

Betreuung: Sabrina Heppner M.Sc.

Figure 1: Volume Rendering of CT data of a heart, using local Phong shading. Bild vergrößern
Figure 2: Additionally, shadows caused by a light source located above the volume are rendered using single scattering illumination. Bild vergrößern

Visualization of volumetric data (e.g. CT data) is a broad field of research. Recently there have been impressing results in the field of visualizing comuter tomographic data.

Illumination techniques, which are part of the visualization, play an important role for making the images look realistic. More advanced techniques aim on mimicking the interaction of light with the volume and enable effects like shadows, ambient occlusion or light scattering. By making use those effects, the visual quality can often be improved and the images appear to be more realistic.

The software VolumeStudio follows a dataflow-based approach to display volume data, where the data processing can be specified using graphs elements. Although VolumeStudio already provides basic illumination techniques, the idea is to improve the visual appearance by using a new illumination technique.

This thesis gives an overview on recent illumination techniques in the area of volume rendering. One of those techniques is implemented in VolumeStudio (see difference between Figure 1 and Figure 2), aiming for rendering of more realistic images.