Physically exploring volume data using hand-held mobile hardware

Abstract

Volume data is widely used in many different domains including medical imaging. The primary platform to visualize volume data is usually desktop hardware, while the use of hand-held mobile devices to browse volume data is widely ignored. In this thesis, we present an approach for visualizing volume datasets using standard mobile hardware by implementing a novel interface that turns the mobile device into an exploration tool. The key idea of our approach is that we place a virtual representation of the volume data into the user's environment. The user can physically move the mobile device through their environment to interactively slice through the virtual volume. The slice of the virtual volume that is displayed to the user is based on the position of the mobile device inside the virtual volume. Our presented approach enables users to access volume data using mobile hardware as well as it introduces a novel interface to browse the three dimensional volume data. We conclude this work with an explorative study investigating the usability and utility of our interface.