Improved ray-casting algorithm for volume visualization

Shi-Nine Yang; Tian-Sheng Wu

doi:10.1117/12.458800

12 March 2002 Improved ray-casting algorithm for volume visualization

Shi-Nine Yang, Tian-Sheng Wu

Proceedings Volume 4665, Visualization and Data Analysis 2002; (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.458800
Event: Electronic Imaging, 2002, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

Applications in scientific visualization often involve extensive data sets, which represent scalar or vector valued functions resulting from experimental measurements. Ray Casting (RC) is a well-known approach for visualizing a multi-dimensional volume data. It casts a large number of rays from the viewer into the volume and then computes the progressive attenuation along each ray in the volume. It is known that the ray-casting algorithm requires extensive computation time. In this study, we propose two techniques to speed up the ray-casting process. First, we derive an estimation of ray step sizes during its progressive re-sampling without invocating viewing transformation operations. Hence lengthy computations of trigonometric functions and matrix multiplications can be avoided. Furthermore, by exploring the ray coherence property, we propose a scan-line algorithm so that ray/volume intersections can be found efficiently. The proposed algorithm is implemented and compared with the conventional RC algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm performs three to four times faster than the conventional RC algorithm.

Citation Download Citation

Shi-Nine Yang and Tian-Sheng Wu "Improved ray-casting algorithm for volume visualization", Proc. SPIE 4665, Visualization and Data Analysis 2002, (12 March 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.458800

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