Techniques and software architectures for medical visualisation and image processing

A simple though accurate definition of scientific visualisation can be found in [73]: Scientific visualisation is the art of turning raw data into pretty pictures. Creating pretty pictures from raw data enables us to make use of the highly developed human visual system and its cognitive back-end to explore data, to find patterns, to test hypotheses and to discover new phenomena. In other words, scientific visualisation is a way of turning raw data into knowledge, or to gain insight from numbers. This is a pleasing realisation, as it reminds us of the famous quote by Richard Hamming: The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers. The road leading from raw data to visual representations is often described as being a pipeline consisting of three stages, namely filtering , mapping and rendering [27]. Raw data flows through this visualisation pipeline and is successively transformed until a suitable visual representation results. The filtering stage processes the data to prepare it for visualisation. Examples of filtering operations are interpolation, smoothing, segmentation and feature extraction. The mapping stage converts the filtered data into geometry that can be rendered. Examples of mapping operations are iso-surface extraction, particle advection, creating graphs and colour-coding. The rendering stage refers to the actual process of rasterising geometry to create images. Continuous interaction and feedback greatly improve the effectivity of any visualisation effort. Throughout the visualisation process, the user adjusts filtering, mapping and rendering parameters whilst monitoring the visual results of these changes.

@PhdThesis { BO05a,
  author       = "Botha, Charl P.",
  title        = "Techniques and software architectures for medical visualisation and image processing",
  school       = "Delft University of Technology",
  year         = "2005",
  note         = "90-8559-094-9",
  type         = "phdthesis",
  url          = "http://graphics.tudelft.nl/Publications-new/2005/BO05a"
}