CRII: ACI: 4D Dynamic Anisotropic Meshing and Applications

Wayne State University, Detroit MI

Investigators

Abstract

There is an emerging need in healthcare, transportation, and simulation areas to realistically reconstruct, visualize, and capture space-time (4D) models/images (dynamic objects) from a complicated scenario in real-time. For example, high-fidelity dynamically modeling and visualizing 4D deformable shapes and variations of organs and their surrounding tissues in real-time become important for building an effective 4D model planning/capturing for radiation therapy (e.g., 4D-Doctor system). It requires dynamic anisotropic modeling and multi-modality imaging techniques for accurate registration, segmentation, and visualization. The goal of this project is to develop a tool for efficiently computing high-quality 4D dynamic anisotropic meshing models for complicated 4D objects with features and details in the large-scale volume image data. This project involves several disciplines, such as geometric modeling, computer graphics, and medical image processing, and has a potential to provide a high-quality platform for both interdisciplinary research and education integration. This project will aim to enrich the computer science and engineering curriculum at Wayne State University in both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Therefore, this research aligns with the NSF mission to promote the progress of science and to advance the national health, prosperity and welfare. A theoretical and computational framework for 4D dynamic anisotropic meshing with high quality and efficiency is essential for tackling challenges in efficiently representing and capturing the 4D data. The key strength of this project focuses on the transformative research ideas and approaches in particle-based approach for Riemannian metric mesh modeling, serving as a foundation for geometry-guided 3D/4D imaging informatics. The proposed exploratory research activities will address the following major themes and objectives: (1) to develop a novel particle-based method for high-quality 3D and 4D anisotropic tetrahedral meshing; (2) to evaluate the mesh quality and apply the proposed theoretical meshing approaches in applications to medical imaging, and develop a testbed system to evaluate its capability and potential in 4D-Doctor system, including 4D image registration and segmentation. The unified theoretical particle-based meshing framework, integrating Gaussian energy, dynamic Riemannian metrics, and high-dimensional embedding theory, can enable efficient generation of dynamic anisotropic meshes from a brand new perspective. This research initiative is innovative as it will establish a novel geometric modeling framework supporting 3D/4D imaging informatics.