Holographic video display of time-series volumetric medical data

Abstract

We describe an animated electro-holographic visualization of brain lesions due to the progression of multiple sclerosis. A research case study is used which documents the expression of visible brain lesions in a series of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) volumes collected over the interval of one year. Some of the salient information resident within this data is described, and the motivation for using a dynamic spatial display to explore its spatial and temporal characteristics is stated. We provide a brief overview of spatial displays in medical imaging applications, and then describe our experimental visualization pipeline, from the processing of MRI datasets, through model construction, computer graphic rendering, and hologram encoding. The utility, strengths and shortcomings of the electro-holographic visualization are described and future improvements are suggested.