Interactive virtual angioscopy

Abstract

Virtual angioscopy is a non invasive medical procedure for exploring parts of the human vascular system. We have developed an interactive tool that takes as input data acquired with standard medical imaging modalities and regards it as a virtual environment to be interactively inspected. The system supports real-time navigation with stereoscopic direct volume rendering and dynamic endoscopic camera control, interactive tissue classification, and interactive point picking for morphological feature measurement. In this paper, we provide an overview of the system, discuss the techniques used in our prototype, and present experimental results on human data sets. The accompanying video-tape illustrates our approach with interactive sequences showing the examination of a human carotid artery.