Long Due Blog Update - Rendering Ultrasound Images based on Kinect Input

Rendering based on Unmodified Kinect Input, discarding normal and up vectors for probe

Rendering Based on Stabilized Kinect Input, discarding Up and Normal Vectors from Kinect

Rendering Based on Stabilized Kinect Input, using Up and Normal Vectors from Kinect

Due to a number of reasons, I could not get a chance to update my blog. This was my progress as of August 3, 2012, just before SIGGRAPH conference.

I had completed integration of rendering module with the Kinect Tracking module.

The first video shows rendering based on data obtained from Kinect without any modifications; as you can see, the output shakes a lot which is not desirable.

To remove the shaking, I followed the simple approach recommended by Dr. Norman Badler, which was to just ignore some of the data given by Kinect. The second video and third video show outputs obtained using this approach. To improve the quality of the output Dr. Badler had suggested using B-Spline to interpolate between frames. I will do it in the future.

The second video discards the Up vector and Normal vector of the slice plane obtained using Kinect, which adds to the stability; but this method will prevent the doctors from being able to orient the probe along oblique directions. So this method cannot be used.

The third video shows the result of the integrated Tracking and Rendering module, without the needle.