Speeding-Up Re-Sampled Algorithm In Ray Casting Volume Rendering Of Medical Images

Ray casting algorithm can obtain a better quality image in volume rendering, however, it exists some problems, such as powerful computing capacity and slow rendering speed. How to improve the re-sampled speed is a key to speed up the ray casting algorithm. An algorithm is introduced to reduce matrix computation by matrix transformation characteristics of re-sampling points in a two coordinate system. The projection of 3-D datasets on image plane is adopted to reduce the number of rays. Utilizing boundary box technique avoids the sampling in empty voxel. By extending the Bresenham algorithm to three dimensions, each re-sampling point is calculated. Experimental results show that a two to three-fold improvement in rendering speed using the optimized algorithm, and the similar image quality to traditional algorithm can be achieved. The optimized algorithm can produce the required quality images, thus reducing the total operations and speeding up the volume rendering.