ENGINEERING TRIPOS PART IIA – 2012/2013

Module 3G4 - Medical Imaging and
3-D Computer Graphics

Leader: Dr AH Gee (ahg@eng)

Timing: Michaelmas term
Prerequisites: None
Structure: 16L
Assessment: Material / Format / Timing / Marks
Lecture Syllabus / Written exam (1.5 hours) / Start of Easter Term / 100 %

AIMS

This module aims to introduce state-of-the-art techniques for the acquisition, representation and visualisation of structured 3D data. The main application area considered in the module is diagnostic medical imaging: 3D data is acquired using one of the popular imaging modalities (e.g. CT), represented as a voxel array or segmented into surfaces, then visualised using advanced computer graphic techniques. While medical imaging is the focus of the course, many of the techniques used to segment, represent and visualise the 3D data sets are generic and can equally be applied to other types of data, such as CAD models.

Further details and online resources

LECTURE SYLLABUS

Medical Image Acquisition (5L, Dr A. h. Gee)

• X-rays and the Radon transform;
• Tomographic reconstruction algorithms in both the spatial and frequency domains;
• Emission computed tomography:
• SPECT and PET;
• Iterative reconstruction algorithms;
• 2D and 3D ultrasound;
• Introduction to Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Extracting information from 3D data (6L, Dr G.M. Treece)

Polygonal representations and efficient storage:

• Parametric curves and surfaces
• Subdivision and display of parametric surfaces

Surfaces from sampled data

• Thresholding, morphological operators and contours
• Surface extraction - marching cubes

Interpolating sampled data

• Interpolation of isotropic data
• Distance transforms and interpolation of non-isotropic data
• Unstructured data - RBFs and Delaunay triangulation

Direct surface capture

• Laser stripe scanners
• Space encoding: the cubicscope

3D Graphical Rendering (5L, Dr A. H. Gee)

• Viewing systems: viewpoints and projection;
• Reflection and illumination models: the Phong reflection model;
• Surface rendering: incremental shading techniques, hidden surface removal using Z-buffers;
• Shadows and textures;
• Ray tracing;
• Volume rendering;
• Computer graphics hardware.

OBJECTIVES

On completion of the module, students should:

• Be able to explain the principles of operation of CT, nuclear medicine and diagnostic ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging;
• Be aware of the advantages and risks associated with these techniques and understand the types of diagnostic problems that each can address;
• Be aware of other types of data to which segmentation and visualisation algorithms can be applied (eg. CAD models);
• Understand the different ways to represent 3D data and appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of each technique;
• Know how to extract surfaces from volumetric data;
• Be aware of the range of computer graphics algorithms and hardware used to visualise 3D data;
• Understand how surfaces can be rendered using suitable illumination and reflection models;
• Know how to visualise voxel arrays directly using volume rendering techniques.

REFERENCES

Please see the Booklist for Group G Courses for references to this module.

Last updated: July 2012