Surface Guided Cropping for Selective Volume Rendering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current volume rendering techniques, such as those using clipping planes or simple bounding boxes, fail to provide highly selective rendering of 3D volumetric data, especially when occluding objects with intervening surfaces, leading to incomplete or obstructed views in medical imaging applications like dentistry.
Innovation Solution
The method involves obtaining 3D volumetric data sets for anatomical structures, creating a digital 3D representation of the selected structure's topography, and defining a clipping surface or bounding volume that accounts for the shape of the structure to exclude data from intervening structures, allowing for precise volume rendering of the selected anatomical structure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If clipping planes or simple bounding boxes are used to exclude data from other anatomical structures, then the rendering process can exclude portions of 3D volumetric data, but the selection of 3D volumetric data relating to the selected body part is not sufficiently detailed, especially for occluding objects with intervening portions
Solution Approach 1:
The clipping surface is segmented into multiple portions, where each portion corresponds to a different anatomical structure. This allows the complex clipping surface to be divided into manageable segments that can be individually defined and adjusted, enabling precise selection of volumetric data for the selected body part while excluding data from other structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from simple 2D clipping planes to a 3D clipping surface that conforms to the topography of the selected anatomical structure. This dimensional change allows the clipping surface to accurately follow the contours and interfaces between different anatomical structures, providing detailed selection capability even for occluding objects with intervening portions.
2Measurement precision
If clipping planes are arranged to fully separate data from selected body part, then selective rendering is improved, but some portions of the selected body part must be omitted or further portions relating to other body parts are included
Solution Approach 1:
The clipping surface is designed with local quality variations, where different portions of the clipping surface are tailored to match the local topography of the selected anatomical structure. This allows the clipping surface to accurately follow the contours of the selected body part in different regions, ensuring that no portions of the selected structure are omitted while still effectively excluding data from other anatomical structures.
3Ease of operation
If a simple bounding box is applied to exclude data from other anatomical structures, then the rendering process is simplified, but the generated 2D projection includes obstructing objects with intervening portions that block the view
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces the simple 2D bounding box with a 3D clipping surface that conforms to the topography of the selected anatomical structure. This dimensional change allows the clipping surface to accurately follow the contours of the selected body part, enabling the exclusion of intervening portions that would otherwise block the view in the generated 2D projection, while maintaining ease of operation through automated surface generation.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A~2C
Figure 2D~3
AI summary
Disclosed is surface guided cropping in volume rendering of 3D volumetric data from intervening anatomical structures in the patient's body. A digital 3D representation expressing the topography of a first anatomical structure is used to define a clipping surface or a bounding volume which then is used in the volume rendering to exclude data from an intervening structure when generating a 2D projection of the first anatomical structure.