4D ultrasound imaging extends the real-time capability of ultrasound to display a real-time volume, which
can then be explored by the sonographer. Surface Rendering
is one of the common modes used to display the 3D datasets.
Surface shading is required to visualize the surface and enhances the surface contrast. Here, we show a surface rendering implementation based on three passes. In the first pass,
ray casting is used with edge detection algorithm and then
the edges are stored to viewing plan distance in the z-buffer
of the 2D rendered image. In the second pass, filtration of
the z-buffer is performed. This stage is so critical because the
fuzzy nature of the ultrasound dataset then shade the 2D
rendered image using image space shading. Finally, the third
pass applies additional image processing mainly image
smoothing on the rendered 2D image. The new method is
applied to render volumes acquired on a research system
and quality and computation time results show potential for
clinical utility.