IEEE VIS 2024 Content: Text-based transfer function design for semantic volume rendering

Text-based transfer function design for semantic volume rendering

Sangwon Jeong - Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States

Jixian Li - University of Utah, Salt Lake City, United States

Shusen Liu - Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , Livermore, United States

Chris R. Johnson - University of Utah, Salt Lake City, United States

Matthew Berger - Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States

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Room: Bayshore VI

2024-10-16T16:45:00ZGMT-0600Change your timezone on the schedule page
2024-10-16T16:45:00Z
Exemplar figure, described by caption below
A gallery of volume renderings found using Text-2-Transfer Function method. Our method can produce transfer functions focusing on various visual properties such as color, material, or abstract concepts such as “cinematic.”
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Keywords

Transfer function design, vision-language model

Abstract

Transfer function design is crucial in volume rendering, as it directly influences the visual representation and interpretation of volumetric data. However, creating effective transfer functions that align with users' visual objectives is often challenging due to the complex parameter space and the semantic gap between transfer function values and features of interest within the volume. In this work, we propose a novel approach that leverages recent advancements in language-vision models to bridge this semantic gap. By employing a fully differentiable rendering pipeline and an image-based loss function guided by language descriptions, our method generates transfer functions that yield volume-rendered images closely matching the user's intent. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in creating meaningful transfer functions from simple descriptions, empowering users to intuitively express their desired visual outcomes with minimal effort. This advancement streamlines the transfer function design process and makes volume rendering more accessible to a wider range of users.