| [ Summary ] |
Virtual endoscopy is a kind of a viewer system that can display 3-dimensional (3D) reconstructed image of the living body structure by real-time imaging. Putting the view point within the 3D structure, it displays with the view corner close to an actual endoscopy. Thus, it made the diagnosis close to the clinical experience.
However, if necessary, it may have a new observational method with computer graphics that shows 3D structures of patients' body, and that is not made in an actual endoscopy. In this paper, the function that has the possibility for us to have in the future, and the advantage and shortcomings of the technology of such a present virtual endoscopy are summarized. This manuscript also touches about the possibility of the research and development such as method that obtains a 3D data set without using contrast medium and gas infusion, technology that even color information is able to display by using patient data, and endoscopic image that is able to do the conformation of the minute structure of pathology, and the simulation system that can correspond to the deformation of the soft tissue at the digestive tract. |