Real-time rendering of volumetric tomography data for the integration into a surgical simulator

Over the last fifteen years volume rendering have become an important part of examining, exploring and evaluating volume data. Huge medical datasets generated by Computed Tomography (CT) or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) have with volume rendering been made possible to explore in 3D. Even interaction with the data is today possible and it has been shown that this is of great value when diagnosing, practicing and/or learning. In order to make interactive volume rendering possible a range of sophisticated methods have been developed. Often high-end graphic hardware are applied when developing applications for 3D volume rendering. This is an obstacle when it comes to integrating the techniques into the normal hospital environment. It would be preferable if the applications are general enough to run on standard computers. In this thesis a volume renderer for standard computers with good visual result and a relatively high update rate, sufficient for interaction, is developed. The last years tremendous development of graphic hardware have made it possible to write programs, so called shaders, directly communicating with the graphic pipeline. The developed renderer employs the use of such shaders because of its superiority in speed to normal software rendering. One purpose for the renderer is that it will be used for exploring medical data as a part of a project between Fraunhofer Institut and the Hospital of Mainz.