Program Valvazor/Alis - Computational Geometry and its Application in Medical Visualisation

Visualisation of medical data deals with a huge amount of data obtained from different medical devices. This data has normally been presented to radiologists as two-dimensional “slices”. Nowadays, the data contained in the slices are frequently synthesised with the aid of computer graphics, so that the anatomical structures can be displayed in three-dimensional form. This use of computer graphics enables the three-dimensional relationships between various organs and their pathologies to be displayed, providing much greater awareness of the spatial features of the organs displayed. Developed in computational geometry is also needed besides the algorithms from computer graphic techniques. For example, Voronoi diagrams can be used to locate rapidly the nearest healthy cells when regarding those cells infected by some illness. It is anticipated that the expertise of the Slovene group in geometric modelling will enable even more economical algorithms to be developed to enhance the current work of the UK group. In return, the Slovene group will gain expertise in medical visualisation and will instigate work in this area, which currently, is not widely undertaken in Slovenia. This project will be concluded in 2002.