SCIRun/BioPSE/Fusion
1.24 Release Highlights

(1.24.2 update 9/13/05)

Contents

New Projects in Version 1.24
Documentation
Network Editor Enhancements
Module Enhancements
Power App Enhancements
GUI Enhancements

New Projects in Version 1.24

• New BioImage PowerApp and tutorial. BioImage is a PowerApp for visualizing regular, three dimensional scalar volumes, such as MRI and CT datasets. BioImage supports input datasets in DICOM, Analyze, NRRD, VFF, PICT, VOL, and SCIRun (Field) formats. BioImage offers combined 2D and 3D visualization options. The 2D views are axis-aligned (axial, sagittal, coronal), and support setting the window/level, color-mapping, pan/zoom, and three display modes: slice, maximum intensity projection (MIP), and slab. The 3D visualization support includes direct volume rendering, a technique for seeing specific features of interest within a volume. Users can paint colored brush strokes over features of interest in the 2D views, and the corresponding volume features will be interactively updated and displayed in the 3D view.

  For more information on BioImage, please see -- the BioImages tutorial.

• High-performance Direct Volume Rendering. We have dramatically improved our volume rendering algorithms in SCIRun. With this release, we now offer support for interactive visualization of high-resolution volumes (up to 512 x 512 x 512), using the latest graphics card technology. Our volume rendering algorithms support normal-based shading, as well as depth cueing, and user-specified sampling rates (for controlling the level of accuracy and interactivity in the rendering). Our volume rendering algorithm also supports multi-dimensional transfer functions, which gives the user increased specificity when identifying features of interest (especially boundaries).
• New ViewSlicer 2D rendering module. This module supports the interactive rendering of slices from a 3D volume. As described above, axis-aligned planes can be interactively selected, windowed/leveled, color-mapped, and rendered. This module provides the 2D viewing window of the BioImage PowerApp.
• Added support for 64 bit linux builds. We have run preliminary tests of SCIRun on 64 bit Altix and Gentoo linux.
• [1.24.1] Upgraded SCIRun to work with new Teem version, 1.8.0.
• [1.24.1] Upgraded RPMs and OSX binary to use new ITK version, 2.0.0.
• [1.24.1] Created a NrrdSetupTexture module for more efficiently building volume rendering data.
• [1.24.1] Added a Math/MatrixInfo module.
• [1.24.1] Interpolation modules were replaced with Mapping modules. BuildInterpolant, ApplyInterpolant, DirectInterpolate, Interp2TransferMatrix, BuildInterpMatrix, and ApplyInterpMatrix are replaced with BuildMappingMatrix, ApplyMappingMatrix, and DirectMapping.
• [1.24.1] SparseRowMatrix support was added to the LinAlgUnary and LinAlgBinary modules. In addition support was added for Sparse-Sparse multiplies and various matrix bugs were fixed.
• [1.24.1] Added painting of transfer function directly in EditColorMap2D module.
• [1.24.2] SCIRun now compiles and runs on Macintosh OS X 10.4 (Tiger).
• [1.24.2] Fixed compile on Macintosh OS X 10.3.9.

Documentation

• Platform specific installation guides
• Tutorial for BioImage PowerApp
• Tutorial for FusionViewer PowerApp

Network Editor Enhancements

• Added an experimental SCIRUN_NO_PORT_CACHING environment variable. This should allow SCIRun to work on larger data sets.
• Added Bundle support. Allows multiple data pipes to be combined into a single pipe. (Can help de-clutter canvas.)

Module Enhancements

[1.24.2] (Insight Modules)

• [1.24.2] ImageToField, ImageToNrrd, FieldToImage, NrrdToImage (Converters) - Fix converter modules to take the minimum point into consideration when creating the mesh.

Power App Enhancements

• [1.24.1] BioImage (GUI) - Eye radio button is now between filters to better represent data.
• [1.24.1] BioImage (Teem) - Optmized underlying network to make volume rendering much faster and use less memory.
• [1.24.1] BioImage (EditColorMap2D) - Optimized selection and moving of widgets to be much faster when volume rendering is on.
• [1.24.1] BioImage (ViewSlices) - Added size, on/off, and color controls for text in 2D windows.
• [1.24.1] BioImage (ViewSlices) - Color Lookup Table window width and window level can now handle floating point datasets.
• [1.24.2] BioImage - Fixed crash while volume rendering some arbitrarily sized datasets.

GUI Enhancements

• [1.24.1] Cleaned up and simplified the 'Component Wizard' (for new module creation).

For complete details see SCIRun/BioPSE/Fusion 1.24 Release Notes
Please send feedback/improvements specific to the rpm to scirun-users@sci.utah.edu.

SCIRun/BioPSE/Fusion 1.24.2 Release Notes

Acknowledgment

SCIRun, BioPSE, map3d, and the datasets provided on this web site are Open Source software projects that are principally funded through the SCI Institute's NIH/NCRR Center. For us to secure the funding that allows us to continue providing this software, we must have evidence of its utility. Thus we ask users of our software and data to acknowledge us in their publications and inform us of these publications. Please use the following acknowledgment text and citations and send us references to any publications, presentations, or successful funding applications that make use of what we provide:

"This work was made possible in part by software from the NIH/NCRR Center for Integrative Biomedical Computing, 5P41-RR12553-07."

[bibtex citation] [Endnote citation]