Effect of Multiple Iso-surfaces in Depth Perception in Transparent Stereoscopic Visualizations

Abstract

With the development of imaging technologies, it has become easier to obtain three-dimensional data of the internal human body by Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Visualizing these data helps us to understand the complicated internal structure of the human body. Transparent stereoscopic visualization is a good way to visualize the internal body structure with depth information. However, the position and depth information often become unclear when three-dimensional data are rendered transparently. In this study, we examined how depth perception changes by overlaying multiple iso-surfaces on transparently rendered images for structural understanding and correct depth perception in transparent stereoscopic visualization. We tested two types of figures: rectangular and medical data. The experimental results showed that multiple iso-surfaces improved the accuracy of perceived depth. For both figures, it was effective when the opacity of the inner iso-surface was high and the distance between the inner iso-surface and the outer iso-surface was large. In addition, the effect was particularly high when the distance between the inner and the outer iso-surface was large and the size of the inner iso-surface was small.