An Interactive Virtual Endoscopy System Based on Consumer Level GPUs

Rendering performance plays an important role in virtual endoscopy systems. A fast GPU based ray casting algorithm, which is accelerated by iterative linear estimation of intersection, is used for virtual endoscopic viewing. An iterative estimation approach is used to approximate the intersection between a ray and iso-surfaces, in order to greatly reduce artifacts and improve the rendering performance. Visualization of multiple iso-surfaces at the same time can reveal detailed structural information within human organs. The system is also capable of visualizing multiple iso-surfaces. Several experiments were performed to evaluate the system on a standard PC with a GeForce FX7300 graphics card. Experimental results show the system can produce high quality images at interactive frame rates on the modern consumer level PCs.