2001 Volume 21 Issue 5 Pages 325-332
This paper describes the presentation of a three dimensional (3D) ultrasound heart image on an immersive projection system (IPS). A 3D image was reconstructed from B-mode images that were acquired with transesophageal echocardiography. After the B-mode image acquisition, the following image processings were applied; masking, segmentation using gradient relaxation method, coordinate transformation and surface rendering using marching cube method. The reconstructed 3D image was presented on the IPS, which consists of large screens with the size of 3×2.4 m. The screen surround an observer and the observer can see a stereoscopic image on the central screen and hear the heart beat sound in the environment. The immersive environment could present large field of view, interactive browsing and free movement of an eye position. Therefore, our developed system has the potential to be the visual interface for the future robot surgery.
