Anisotropic 3D texture synthesis with application to volume rendering

We present a novel approach to improving volume rendering by using synthesized textures in combination with a custom transfer function. First, we use existing knowledge to synthesize anisotropic solid textures to fit our volumetric data. As input to the synthesis method, we acquire high quality images using a 12.1 megapixel camera. Next, we extend the volume rendering pipeline by creating a transfer function which yields not only color and opacity from the input intensity, but also texture coordinates for our synthesized 3D texture. Thus, we add texture to the volume rendered images. This method is applied to a high quality visualization of a pig carcass, where samples of meat, bone, and fat have been used to produce the anisotropic 3D textures.