Real-time resampling of medical images based on deformed tetrahedral structures for needle insertion VR-Simulation

Abstract

To provide real-time visualization of deformed volumetric image data for virtual surgery simulation, a resampling algorithm based on deformed tetrahedral structures has been developed. Deformations of the tetrahedral mesh are computed by a soft-tissue simulation. The major advantage of this approach is the possibility to use the resampled image data in different rendering methods such as ray casting, simulated ultrasound or simulated X-ray imaging. To achieve real-time capability, the algorithm was parallelized on the GPU using Nvidia Cuda. Performance measurements have been done on different mesh resolutions. For a subset of 1688 tetrahedrons, short resamplings times of around 2.3 ms are measured on an Nvidia GTX 680, endorsing the algorithm for real-time application.