Interactive volume rendering and deformation for surgery simulation

In the past few years, interest in volumetric graphics techniques for many applications has increased. Until recently, computers were not powerful enough to support applications using volumetric data. Advances in computer hardware and new volumetric algorithms have made volumetric approaches attractive for many applications. Medical applications and scientific visualization are two areas that commonly use volumetric data because data is more naturally represented in these applications using volumes and volumes supports features that are not adequately handled by surface representations.; This dissertation extends the fields of volume rendering and deformation to provide a framework for surgical simulation. A volumetric rendering algorithm that overcomes the depth sorting problem of irregular grids and takes advantage of polygon rendering hardware to produce images faster than existing algorithms is presented. A physically-based simulation method is presented that uses volumetric data to avoid the problems caused by surface representations. The method is fast, numerically stable, and supports varying material properties. The renderer and simulation are integrated to provide a system for surgical simulation. As the processing power of computers continues to increase, the methods presented in this dissertation along with haptic feedback devices will provide usable surgery simulators within ten years.