Part I: Evaluation of illustrative techniques in a medical context
Many illustrative techniques for visualizing medical volume data and derived segmentation information have been developed and refined. However, it is difficult to decide which techniques should be used for particular applications and how they should be combined. This project covers different controlled evaluations of illustrative visualization techniques applied to a medical context e.g. neck visualizations or cerebral aneurysms with embedded flow visualization. Therapeutic questions are used to evaluation techniques quantitatively and qualitatively e.g. lymphnode or blood flow assessment. In detail, we analyze the techniques ability to facilitate and support anatomy and pathological characteristics. The techniques are evaluated with respect to the participants accuracy, response time and their personal preferences according to the individual study. We generated the stimuli using 3D models of clinical datasets.
Part II: Perception-based evaluation of input and output devices
Besides the evaluation of illustrative techniques and parameter combinations, we investigate input and output devices e.g. autostereoscopic display, space pilot or haptic devices. Several projects compare 2D and autostereoscopic displays and analyze the perceptual benefit for medical visualizations. Participants have to answer therapeutic questions e.g. implant positioning or blood flow characterization (e.g. simple and complex vortex structures).
Publications
2015 |
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 | Illustrative Multi-volume Rendering for PET/CT Scans Inproceedings Eurographics Workshop on Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine (VCBM), pp. 103–112, Chester, UK, 2015. |
 | Statistical Analysis of a Qualitative Evaluation on Feature Lines Inproceedings Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin (BVM), pp. 71–76, Springer Verlag, Lübeck, 2015. |
 | Illustrative Visualization of Vascular Models for Static 2D Representations Inproceedings International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI), pp. 399–406, München, 2015. |
2014 |
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 | Comparative Evaluation of Feature Line Techniques for Shape Depiction Inproceedings Proc. of Vision, Modeling and Visualization, pp. 31–38, Darmstadt, 2014. |
2013 |
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 | Qualitative Evaluation of Feature Lines on Anatomical Surfaces Inproceedings Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin (BVM), pp. 187–192, 2013. |
2011 |
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 | Perceptual Evaluation of Ghosted View Techniques for the Exploration of Vascular Structures and Embedded Flow Journal Article Computer Graphics Forum (EuroVis), 30(3) , pp. 811–820, 2011. |
2009 |
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 | Perception-based Evaluation of Emphasis Techniques Used in 3D Medical Visualization Inproceedings Vision, Modeling, and Visualization Workshop (VMV), pp. 295–304, Braunschweig, 2009. |
Images
3D Aneurysm Models and Visualization Techniques Five patient-individual 3D aneurysm models visualized with semitransparency (S), ghosting (G), and ghosting with depth enhancement (GD). 
Participants were asked to define the average blood flow color in the pink rectangles. Button row stimuli are used for gold standard