This lecture covers the visualization of medical volume data, such as Computed Tomography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Nuclear Medicine. Medical visualization techniques include surface and volume rendering as well as interaction techniques to adjust these visualizations, e.g. with appropriate transfer functions. Advanced topics include vessel visualization, virtual endoscopy (animated visualizations with viewpoints inside the human body, mimicking, e.g. colonoscopy) and multimodal medical visualization. Other topics are related to higher dimensional data, in particular to simulated and measured blood flow. All techniques are motivated by urgent tasks in medical diagnosis and treatment including vascular diseases and cancer. Thus, a strong interest in medical applications is essential but medical knowledge is not a prerequisite. As a lecture primarily designed for the Master Course “Computational Visualistics” with the application subject “Medicine”, computer graphics and visualization are prerequisites and also medical imaging technology is not treated but at least a basic knowledge is expected.
