Interactive visualization of large scalar voxel fields
Georgios Sakas, Jochen Hartig · IEEE Visualization · 1992
We present a technique allowing interactive visualization of large, scalar, discrete fields as semi-transparent clouds on the fly, i.e., without preprocessing. Interactivity is not restricted to geometric transformations, but includes all possible methods of processing the data (thresholds, filtering, clipping, illumination, etc.). Our system flexibly trades-off quality for performance at any desirable level. In particular, by using a scanline based method and a DDA-based traversing scheme instead of ray-tracing we achieve real-time processing during previewing. By means of the pyramidal volume traversing technique we achieve highquality, constant-time filtering independent of the data resolution. Several filters help to detect fuzzy, obscured hot spots, even within noisy data. Our visualization pipeline allows the application of filters at four different stages, maximizing thereby flexibility. Four different illumination models have been implemented. Our method can be used in numerous areas, including 3-D medical imaging, geologic, technical, and environmental applications.