Generalized temporal focus + context framework for improved medical data exploration.

Physicians use slices and 3D volume visualizations to place a diagnosis, establish a treatment plan and as a guide during surgical procedures. There is an observed difference in 2D and 3D visualization objectives of the various groups of specialists. We describe a generalized temporal focus + context framework that unifies different widely used and novel visualization methods. The framework is used to classify already existing common techniques and to define new techniques that can be used in medical volume visualization. The new techniques explore the time-dependent position of the framework focus region to combine 2D and 3D rendering inside the focus and to provide a new focus-driven context region that gives explicit spatial perception cues between the current and past regions of interest. An arbitrary-shaped focus region and no context rendering are two novel framework-based techniques that support improved planning of procedures that involve drilling or endoscopic exploration. The new techniques are quantitatively compared to already existing techniques by means of a user study.