Time-Dynamic Volume Visualization of Multimodally Tagged Body Cells

Time-Dynamic Volume Visualization of Multimodally Tagged Body Cells
Peter Salz, Gerd Reis
Proc. 8th IASTED Int. Conf. Visualization, Imaging, and Image Processing IASTED International Conference on Visualization Imaging and Image Processing (VIIP-2008), Eighth, September 1-3, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Abstract:

Many researchers are interested in the visualization of time-varying 3D biological cell data. This paper presents a volume rendering software that visualizes the development of the zebrafish's eye using a time-dependent scalar field. In particular the software takes advantage of modern graphics hardware's shader capacity. The paper focuses on the design of an appropriate transfer function. Piecewise linear transfer functions, opacity mapping using the gradient and temporal coherence of the spatial data will be analyzed and implemented. A combination of the gradient length and the angle between the viewing direction and normal vector defines an opacity map. The coefficient of variation of the scalar data's temporal behavior is used as a lighting parameter in per-pixel shading. By integrating surfaces in the volume rendering software which were extracted from the data, further insights into the structure of the eye membrane can be gathered.