3d Virtual Colonoscopy
Arie E. Kaufman Ph.D. SUNY Stonybrook

Center for Computer Visualization, Stonybrook

Many patients prefer this non-invasive proceedure, pioneered at Stonybrook. Other projects in the works include heart imaging and tests for the prostate gland. Special thanks to Research Assistant Kaloian Petkov who made our video imagery of the 3d Colonoscopy possible.

This project employs advanced visualization techniques to achieve virtual imaging and exploration of the human colon. The data sets that have been successfully applied in our experiments include the Visible Human, a simulated plastic pipe, and patient data (provided by the University Hospital at Stony Brook).
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In our system, a helical CT scanner is used to obtain a sequence of 2D slices of the human abdomen. These CT slices are then reconstructed into a 3D volume and, subsequently, the human colon is visualized with various visualization techniques implemented in VolVis, which is a comprehensive volume visualization system intended for scientists and engineers as well as visualization developers. This noninvasive procedure is employed as an alternative method to existing procedures of imaging the mucosal surface of the colon.

Our current implementation allows the user to achieve both planned and guided navigations inside the colon. Please contact Prof. Arie Kaufman

This is a joint project between the Departments of Computer Science and Radiology. The research activities have been carried out in the Visualization Lab of the Computer Science Department and the Lab for Imaging Research and Informatics (IRIS) of the Radiology Department.