Multi-scale morphological volume segmentation and visualization

Abstract

This paper presents a multi-scale morphology approach to the volume segmentation and visualization problem. The basis of the approach is applying morphological operations with spherical structuring elements at various sizes to create a representation of the volume data that encodes structural information at multiple scales. Through an interactive user interface, the user can effectively segment and visualize a specific feature of interest using a fast, region growing method with this multi-scale data representation. A graph representing the segmented feature is created to facilitate interactive visual inspection and refinement of the feature. We have introduced a new volume data visualization technique based on interactive segmentation rather than the traditional transfer-function based classification approach. This new technique offers the user greater power in isolating and examining volumetric features of interest.