Abstract: Virtual endoscopy is a new development of diagnostic imaging,
covering a wide range of potential clinical applications. This paper introduced
a system framework for virtual endoscopy. Our research efforts concentrated on
mesh smoothing, automated centerline extraction and view-dependent
level-of-detail rendering techniques. First, the fairing surface was obtained
by smoothing the normal vectors of the reconstructed model. Then, the modified
reliable path method was used to generate the accurate skeleton. After that,
the view-dependent level-of-detail rendering techniques, including mesh
simplification, mesh parameterization and mesh subdivision, were used to
achieve the purpose of real time rendering. Experimental results for the images
of cerebral blood vessels, knees, and trachea using our solution were
given.
