Program Information
3D Image Acquisition and Reconstruction Explained with Online Animations
A Kesner*,
Presentations
MO-DE-BRA-6 (Monday, August 1, 2016) 1:45 PM - 3:45 PM Room: Ballroom A
Purpose: Understanding the principles of 3D imaging and image reconstruction is fundamental to the field of medical imaging. Clinicians, technologists, physicists, patients, students, and inquisitive minds all stand to benefit from greater comprehension of the supporting technologies. To help explain the basic principles of 3D imaging, we developed multi-frame animations that convey the concepts of tomographic imaging. The series of free (gif) animations are accessible online, and provide a multimedia introduction to the main concepts of image reconstruction.
Methods: Text and animations were created to convey the principles of analytic tomography in CT, PET, and SPECT. Specific topics covered included: principles of sinograms/image data storage, forward projection, principles of PET acquisitions, and filtered backprojection. A total of 8 animations were created and presented for CT, PET, and digital phantom formats. In addition, a free executable is also provided to allow users to create their own tomographic animations – providing an opportunity for interaction and personalization to help foster user interest.
Results: Tutorial text and animations have been posted online, freely available to view or download. The animations are in first position in a google search of “image reconstruction animations”. The website currently receives approximately 200 hits/month, from all over the world, and the usage is growing. Positive feedback has been collected from users.
Conclusion: We identified a need for improved teaching tools to help visualize the (temporally variant) concepts of image reconstruction, and have shown that animations can be a useful tool for this aspect of education. Furthermore, posting animations freely on the web has shown to be a good way to maximize their impact in the community. In future endeavors, we hope to expand this animated content, to cover principles of iterative reconstruction, as well as other phenomena relating to imaging.
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