Representation of Coherent Structures from Volume Data Using Quality-oriented Features and Genetic optimization

Representing relevant information from volume data sets is a problem often faced in visualization. Generating meaningful images from highly-complex volume data sets is a challenging, tedious task requiring specialized knowledge of the distribution and properties of the data. Traditionally, this task has been carried out manually via specialized user interfaces. We propose a volume visualization pipeline which facilitates the automatic generation of high-quality images from volume data sets. Our method involves a direct volume renderer which generates images from volume data based on visual mappings provided by a transfer function. Central to our approach is a quality-focused descriptor which exploits the properties of the distribution of gradient orientations of an alpha-bounded surface within the volume. This feature is useful for determining transfer functions that result in the rendering of corresponding images depicting various details from the volume. We show that by using this feature as an optimization objective, the generation of high quality images can be automated. Using simple genetic algorithms, we can automatically generate sets of images illustrating coherent, easily-distinguishable and high-quality surfaces of relevant structures from volume data.