ABSTRACT
Th rough our collaborations, we have developed systems that allow for the emphasis/de-emphasis of visual features to facilitate visual communication through interactive volume rendering (Svakhine, 2005). Th ese renderings involve the 3D reconstruction of typical medical datasets acquired through discrete spatial sampling including, but not exclusive to, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR), and serial microscopy. Th rough various representational techniques used to emphasize and deemphasize features, a single data acquisition can be employed not only to represent both a myriad of contexts (e.g., anatomical atlas, surgical simulation), but also can be titrated to provide a representation commensurate with the profi ciency of the user (e.g., schematic to complex) (Stredney, 2005). We present our parallel eff orts that include creating illustrative renderings of volume reconstructions as well as interactive sessions for procedural surgical training. Although our focus here is to utilize these volume renderings to teach regional anatomy and procedural techniques such as surgery, these developments are extensible to the tasks of pre-operative assessment and pre-surgical and treatment planning.
