Related Concept Videos
Factorial Design
Group Design
Constant Volume Calorimetry
Volume of Distribution
Problem Solving: Volume
Respiratory Volumes
Tidal Volume (TV) Tidal volume (TV) is the air inhaled or exhaled in a...
You might also read
Related Articles
Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.
Cardiovascular risk and hippocampal-cognitive coupling in Alzheimer's disease.
A digital twin methodology using retrospective patient data for sample size reduction in Alzheimer's disease clinical trials.
Ventricular enlargement is associated with early Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology.
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 13, 2026

Author Spotlight: Characterizing Porous Materials for Aiding the Development of Robust Metal-Organic Frameworks with Adsorption Behavior
Published on: March 8, 2024
PRISM: An open source framework for the interactive design of GPU volume rendering shaders.
Simon Drouin1, D Louis Collins1
1McConnell Brain Imaging Center, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital McGill University, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The new Programmable Ray Integration Shading Model (PRISM) offers an open-source, flexible framework for direct volume rendering in medical imaging. It simplifies creating advanced visualizations for better anatomical exploration and clinical collaboration.
Area of Science:
- Medical Imaging
- Computer Graphics
- Scientific Visualization
Background:
- Direct volume rendering is crucial for 3D medical image analysis but faces challenges in visualization quality and complexity.
- Existing solutions often lack generality, limiting their application across diverse medical visualization use cases.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce the Programmable Ray Integration Shading Model (PRISM), an open-source framework for GPU ray-casting.
- To enable flexible and simplified creation of novel volume rendering effects for medical imaging.
Main Methods:
- Developed PRISM, a GPU ray-casting framework allowing customizable ray integration algorithms.
- Integrated a graphical user interface for easy experimentation with rendering effects and real-time code editing.
- Evaluated PRISM's default performance against established methods (VTK) and its flexibility in implementing new techniques.
Main Results:
- PRISM achieves comparable frame rates to widely-used direct volume rendering implementations.
- Demonstrated the framework's flexibility by implementing various volume rendering techniques with minimal code.
- A usability study confirmed the system's simplicity for medical imaging experts with limited rendering experience.
Conclusions:
- PRISM provides a flexible, user-friendly, and open-source solution for direct volume rendering in medical applications.
- The framework accelerates development by promoting code sharing, faster iterations, and enhanced collaboration.
- PRISM has the potential to significantly advance medical visualization capabilities.

