In this paper, we propose a novel vessel tracking method, called active vessel tracking (AVT). The proposed method retains the major advantages that most 2D segmentation methods have demonstrated for 3D tracking while overcoming the drawbacks of previous 3D vessel tracking methods. Under the assumption that the vessel is cylindrical, thereby making its cross-section elliptical, the AVT finds a plane perpendicular to the vessel axis while tracking the vessel along its length. Also, We propose a method for vessel branch detection to automatically track complete vascular networks from a single starting point, whereas the previously proposed solutions have usually been limited in handling vessel bifurcations precisely on 3D or have required considerable user interaction. Our results show that the method is robust and accurate in both synthetic and clinical cases. In an experiment on synthetic data sets, the proposed method achieved a tracking accuracy of 96.1±0.5, detecting 99.1% of the branches. In an experiment on abdominal CTA data sets, it achieved a tracking accuracy of 98.4±0.5 for six target vessels, detecting 98.3% of the branches. These results show that the proposed method can outperform previous methods for vessel tracking.
Virtual Reality makes a virtual environment more realistic and, furthermore, it provides a variety of experiences which we cannot have in reality. A drastic growth of GPU performance and increase of computing capability make virtual environment more realistic than ever. One important element of constructing virtual environment is to animate 3D characters. Many researchers have been studying 3D characters animating and a myriad of methods have been proposed to make them more realistic. In this paper, we discuss the technologies and characteristics of 3D character animation. We believe that realistic characters in Virtual Reality will be applied to various fields: education, film and game industry, business and, particularly, medical area such as telemedicine, virtual surgery, etc.Key WordsZZ3D character animation ㆍBlend shape ㆍSkinning.
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