Illustrative and Perception-based Medical Visualization

3D visualization techniques have a great potential to convey the anatomy of a particular patient, to show pathologic structures naturally and reveal their spatial relations to adjacent risk structures. However, it is difficult to decide which techniques should be used for particular applications, how they should be combined and how parameters should be adjusted. In this project, we investigate the perceptual effectiveness of medical visualization techniques and parameterization. Besides widespread medical visualization techniques, we consider more advanced so-called illustrative and smart visibility techniques, since they allow emphasizing relevant objects and regions. We design and conduct controlled perceptual experiments with static rendered images, dynamic series of images as well as interactive 3D visualizations of patient-individual datasets. Therefore, we try to adapt common psychophysical guidelines and experiments to complex 3D visualizations and use common therapeutic questions to evaluate various visualization techniques. Besides designing a few isolated experiments considering various technique parameters, we aim at creating a framework for related experiments and at guidelines for preparing, conducting and analyzing such experiments.