Case Study: Observing a Volume Rendered Fetus within a Pregnant Patient
Andrei State, David Chen, Chris Tector, Andrew Gerhart Brandt, Hong Chen, Ryutarou Ohbuchi, Mike Bajura, Henry Fuchs · 1994
Augmented reality systems with see-through headmounted displays have been used primarily for applications that are possible with today's computational capabilities. We explore possibilities for a particular application—in-place, real-time 3D ultrasound visualization—without concern for such limitations. The question is not “How well could we currently visualize the fetus in real time, ” but “How well could we see the fetus if we had sufficient compute power?” Our video sequence shows a 3D fetus within a pregnant woman's abdomen—the way this would look to a HMD user. Technical problems in making the sequence are discussed. This experience exposed limitations of current augmented reality systems; it may help define the capabilities of future systems needed for applications as demanding as real-time medical visualization. 1