Virtual endoscopy (VE) is a new diagnostic method using 3D visualizations of 3D image datasets (such as CT or MRI scans) to provide simulated views of patient specific organs similar or equivalent to those produced by standard optical endoscopic procedures.

As we know, traditional endoscopy is invasive and often uncomfortable for patients. It sometimes has serious side effects such as perforation, infection and hemorrhage. So it is necessary that sedation and some prepare procedure are performed. But VE visualization technique avoids these risks and can minimize difficulties and decrease morbidity. In addition, there are many body regions which are not compatible with real endoscopy that but can be explored with VE.

However, there are a lot of issues to be solved when VE systems are actually applied in clinic, specially based on low cost Personal Computer. Most of all is the speed of volume rendering on a PC. High quality rendered images, for routine clinical uses, are required, thus ray casting technique which belongs to image-based volume rendering algorithms is adopted in our system. In principle, we do not make trade-offs between rendering speed and imaging quality. So we have presented a few of acceleration algorithms, for more detailed information, please click below: