Volume visualization on workstations. Image quality and efficiency of different techniques

Scientific Visualization gives researchers the opportunity to explore their data with the aid of computer graphics. Volume rendering is the only method, that preserves the entire data set and thus allows a detailed exploration of the volume. The described volume rendering techniques are suitable to be carried out on mid-priced workstations which are of greater availability in hospitals or research labs in Europe than superworkstations. The main emphasis in this paper is put on accelerating volume rendering techniques. A fast volume rotation algorithm is described in detail. The advantages and disadvantages of different volume visualization techniques concerning image quality and efficiency are discussed. These techniques have been applied to various data sources, i.e. CT, MR, ultrasound and FE data