M. Wieczorek, A. Aichert, O. Kutter, C. Bichlmeier, J. Landes, S.M. Heining, E. Euler, N. Navab GPU-accelerated Rendering for Medical Augmented Reality in Minimally-Invasive Procedures Proceedings of Bildverarbeitung fuer die Medizin (BVM 2010), Aachen, Germany, March 14-16 2010 (bib)
	Recent advances in GPU programmability and performance have enabled development of real-time high quality volume visualization algorithms. Medical augmented reality systems can benefit from these developments. Task-specific visualization aids physicians in better understanding the patient's anatomy and supports navigation of medical instruments in absence of a direct line of sight in minimally-invasive procedures. In this paper we present our results of integration of a hardware accelerated volume renderer into a medical augmented reality framework using a video see-through head mounted display (HMD). The performance of the system is evaluated in an experiment for two human CT datasets. Compared to the literature, our approach allows direct real-time stereo visualization of volumetric medical data on a HMD without prior time consuming pre-processing or segmentation. To further improve the visual perception and interaction of real and virtual objects, the renderer implements a virtual mirror and occlusion handling with the physicians hands and tracked medical instruments.
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